Dr Paul Allen

Christianity is a treasure capable of guiding and enriching our public life. Christianity teaches that the only way to properly situate oneself in the world (not to mention the world to come) is to locate one’s life squarely in Christ because he is himself abundant in life. Life apart from him is detached from reality. Still, one need not embrace Christianity to glean from its wisdom. The secular social psychologist Jonathan Haidt drew upon the biblical tradition to diagnose what he calls our “uniquely stupid” age. Focusing on the influence of social media, Haidt considers the Babel story the best metaphor for understanding our profound social and political divisions because the story, at its heart, is about fragmentation. I believe Haidt is correct: we live in a uniquely stupid time. The smartphone doesn’t help. These devices (like towers) aren’t inherently evil, and as tools, they can be helpful. Nevertheless, the Babel narrative provides a road map away from stupidity toward spiritu...

Belief in an old earth creates enormous theological problems for Christians. There is an obvious tension with a straightforward reading of Genesis, as well as the problem of animal death and suffering before Adam’s sin. Nevertheless, Christians who advocate an old earth might argue that these difficulties, though serious, are tolerable as long as one affirms that human death, at least, began with Adam ( Romans 5:12-21 ). This is because logically Christ’s death on the cross can only pay for our sins if human death really is the penalty for sin. And since a just God would not impose the penalty for sin before a sin had actually been committed, human death could not have occurred before Adam’s fall. This may seem obvious since one would naturally conclude this from Genesis, but it is a logical necessity for the Christian faith to be true. Thus, human death as the penalty for sin is a nonnegotiable Christian doctrine. If human death did not originate with Adam, then the gospel itself...

Christoper Columbus arrives in America ( Wikipedia ) "So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city." ( Genesis 11:8 ) The verse above is a summary statement of God ’s judgment at Babel , at which time God confused the languages of the people there and dispersed them throughout the earth. These original nations--all descended from Noah and his three sons--are listed in what is called the " Table of Nations " in Genesis 10 .  As time went on, the people proliferated into still more nations and languages and migrated still farther from Babel until finally, as the verse says, they were scattered "upon the face of all the earth." Christopher Columbus was a brave explorer and skilled navigator, as well as a diligent Bible student and convinced Christian. However, he did not "discover America," as he is said to have done on October 12 in 1492. Neither did Leif Ericsson or a...

Tower of Babel by Lucas van Valckenborch in 1594 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name." ( Genesis 11:4 ) The Bible has one Author ( 2 Timothy 3:16 ), and it is one Book. Therefore, it should be read as one book, from beginning to end, to understand its full meaning. The Tower of Babel incident ( Genesis 11:1-9 ) illustrates how truth can be gleaned by reading the Bible as a unified whole. Why did God include Genesis 11:1-9 as part of Scripture? First, consider the passage itself and the stated purpose for the Tower: "Let us make us a name". Second, consider the surrounding chapters. Chapter 10 ends with the genealogy of Shem (whose name means "name"), and the rest of Chapter 11 (after verses 1-9) traces Shem's genealogy down to Abraham , to whom God promised, "I will . . . make thy name [Hebrew shem] great" ( 12:2 ). Clearly, thes...

Landscape with Noah's Thank Offering (painting circa 1803 by Joseph Anton Koch) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word." ( Acts 8:4 ) God has given two great commissions to His people, both of which would require worldwide effort to accomplish. Both, however, were so resisted that God Himself had to step in and force His people to be obedient. Immediately after the great Flood , God gave the following command: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" ( Genesis 9:1 ). This was an extension of the Edenic mandate given to Adam in the beginning, a commission to fill the earth and exercise dominion over it, under God ( 1:28 ). Noah 's descendants, however, decided to stay in Babel and "make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." As a result of this rebellion, "the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from...

Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing." ( Isaiah 40:15 )   God has a divine purpose for nations, as shown by the fact that there will even be "nations of them which are saved" ( Revelation 21:24 ) in the new earth, outside the New Jerusalem . Nations were evidently first established after the dispersion at Babel when God forced the original post-Flood families to separate and to establish their own distinctive communities by confusing their languages ( Genesis 11:9 ).   It thus has been natural and useful (in God's economy) for each nation to develop a sense of national pride and patriotic loyalty.  However, this has often been corrupted into militant expansionism or ethnic idolatry, and God has eventually had to put them down.  Nations need to remember that they are really "a very little thing" i...

Image via Wikipedia "They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man." ( Job 12:25 )   The godly patriarch Job lived in the early centuries after the Flood , and he frequently makes passing reference to the events of those difficult times. The twelfth chapter of Job is especially intriguing in this regard.   For example,  verse 12  may refer indirectly to Shem , who lived 502 years after the Flood ( Genesis 11:10-11 ). "With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days is understanding." The coming of the Flood is suggested in  verse 14 : "Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening." The latter clause could even refer to God 's shutting the door of Noah's Ark ( Genesis 7:16 ), thereby shutting off forever the ancient wicked world to him and his descendants. The next verse describes the Flood itself. "He sendeth them out, and they overturn the...