Dr Paul Allen

“Excuse me, can you repeat what you just said?” I was certain I heard him wrong. “ . . . ” “So you’re saying that if we are struggling consistently with sexual sin, we should wean ourselves off of it by sinning in moderation? If we do said sin six times a week, you’re telling us to limit it to five per week for a time, then to four, three, two, until zero?” The leader of a highly recommended program for male Christian purity reiterated the sentiment as everyone around me nodded at the sage’s words. After all, we just heard Jimmy’s video testimony about how he went from sinning several times a day to only sinning, well, several times a month. The strategy must work. The friend who brought me braced himself. “With all due respect, you can’t be serious.  Do you know what sin is? ” As he continued to talk, it was evident that he did not. To him, making provision for the flesh several times a week was, in the end,  beneficial  to our holiness. To him,...

“But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” ( Matthew 5:22 ) There are a number of Scriptures that, taken alone, would indicate that a Christian should never get angry about anything. For example, note Ephesians 4:31 : “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger . . . be put away from you.” Yet, Jesus indicated only that anger “without a cause” was wrong and invited judgment. Many modern translations omit the phrase “without a cause” in this verse, but the phrase does occur in over 99.5 percent of all the Greek manuscripts and thus clearly should be retained. If anger were never permitted for a believer, it would contradict even the occasional example of Jesus Himself. “And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts” ( Mark 3:5 ). He was angered here by certain hypocrites among the Pharisees who were ready to condemn Him for healing a disabled man on the...

To some, the concepts of love and law contradict one another. While love conjures images of warmth and family, law conjures images of coldness and isolation. In our contemporary culture, loving others and believing in objective moral standards are often seen as mutually exclusive commitments. But love and law are not opposed to one another. In fact, according to the Bible , love and law fit together by faith. Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘ You shall not commit adultery , You shall not murder , You shall not steal , You shall not covet ,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day...

Joseph with the Infant Jesus (c. 1635), at the Hermitage, in St. Petersburg. Oil on canvas, 126 x 101 cm. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) A little over a year ago a Pastor in preached a sermon called “ It Works Both Ways .”  In short he paints a picture of a parent who finds his child with a severe head injury after having fallen off of the monkey bars. The parent scoops the child up and heads for the car. As he begins driving, he doesn’t even notice the speed limits and even if he did he wouldn’t obey them, because of his love for his child. Similarly, the pastor says “ God broke the law for love.” God after giving us the law, displayed his love by breaking it. In essence he loved us more than His own love. DID JESUS BREAK HIS FATHERS LAW? There are many problems with this theologically and philosophically but it is not my purpose in this post to detail them. Even a simple reading of a single chapter in the Gospel of Luke would show how meticulous Mary , Joseph and Jesus were...

John Piper (theologian) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Cage-stage Calvinists are identifiable by their insistence on turning every discussion into an argument for limited atonement or for making it their personal mission to ensure everyone they know hears—often quite loudly—the truths of divine election . Now, having a zeal for the truth is always commendable. But a zeal for the truth that manifests itself in obnoxiousness won't convince anyone of the biblical truth of Reformed theology. As many of us can attest from personal experience, it will actually push them away. Roger Nicole , the late Swiss Reformed theologian once remarked that all human beings are by nature semi-Pelagian , believing that they are not born as slaves to sin. In this country, particularly, we have been indoctrinated into a humanistic understanding of anthropology, especially with respect to our understanding of human freedom. We don't want to believe that we are burdened by negative inclinations an...

English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) John 10:22-39 22 At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem ; 23 it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon . 24 The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ , tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. 26 But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father ’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” 31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.32 Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; ...