Dr Paul Allen

Temple Mount and Western Wall during Shabbat (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) On Wednesday, December 6th, 2017, there was a significant spiritual shift in the universe as the US President Donald Trump reaffirmed and formally declared that the US will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This is the first and most necessary step toward another major milestone, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. While it has been the practice of some to insist on international determination over this topic, it is Israel’s right to decide the location of her capital as was spiritually declared by King David and then legally documented in 1950 when the Israeli Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law, and declared Jerusalem to be the eternal, undivided capital of the State of Israel . Declaring Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital would not itself mark a change in American law. In 1995, Democrat President Bill Clinton signed a statute declaring, “Since 1950, the city of Jerusalem has been the capital...

T he book of Joshua presents most readers with a troubling question: how can a God of love command his followers to destroy an entire nation of people? The Canaanites had lived in their land for centuries before Joshua and his people came to claim it for themselves. While some in Canaan fought against God’s people and were destroyed as a result (cf. the battle of Ai , 8:14ff), others did not attempt armed aggression against Israel . The people of Jericho, for instance, retreated inside their city walls and mounted no attack against the Jews. Nonetheless, following divine orders, the Israeli soldiers “destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys” (6:21). The God of Joshua also required a similar kind of wrathful judgment against his own people when they sinned. Following the battle of Jericho , a soldier named Achan took in plunder “a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold...

Norwegian Nobel Committee (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Swedish industrialist, Alfred Nobel , rocketed to fame and fortune by inventing dynamite. He envisioned its use as a boon for mining and construction, not as a gruesome weapon of war. Nevertheless, it was his military clientele that made him incredibly rich, a serendipity which he serenely accepted. But in 1888 Alfred Nobel had an experience that would change his life. Thumbing through a French newspaper he came across his own obituary. It was the day after his brother had died, and the journalist had evidently been a sloppy fact-checker. The obituary declared: ‘Le marchand de la mort est mort’ (The merchant of death is dead). It went on to state coldly: ‘Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.’ You can imagine the mix of emotion Nobel must have felt—distress that the world viewed him this way, but relief that he was still alive to change how his real obituar...

English: Asa destroys the idols and forbids worship in local shrines (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Indeed you are nothing, and your work is nothing he who chooses you is an abomination” (Isa. 41:24). The passage before us condemns those who are foolish enough to worship idols. It exposes the futility of putting something in the place of God , for if we think rationally about it, nothing created can be the cause of our existence. Nothing created can know itself perfectly from beginning to end. Nothing created has any power over itself, much less power over those things it does not understand. Isaiah knew that when the Jews were taken into exile they would be mocked by the Babylonians and Persians for their devotion to Jehovah . They would be ridiculed as being simple-minded and naive. To help prepare the Jews, Isaiah reminded them through this prophecy that those who worship idols are the foolish ones. Did idols foretell the fall of the Assyrians?  Did idols foretell th...

Foster Bible Pictures 0060-1 Moses Sees a Fire Burning in a Bush (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In Exodus 24:9-11 we read:  Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu , and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel . Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank. Question: Moses and others saw God with their own eyes? But later, Moses was not allowed to see God's face. Exodus 33:18-23. If Moses already saw the face of God , then who's face was he not allowed to see? Answer: In the first use God is said to speak to Moses 'face to face' that is not from some distant position as in a dream, or vision but speaking audibly to him while under some visible form. In other words, God spoke to Moses like a person does who is having a conversation. God spoke out of a burning bush, out of a pillar of cloud, e...

Zechariah's vision of the four horsemen (Zechariah 6:1-8), engraving by Gustave Doré. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white.” ( Zechariah 1:8 ) The Lord divulges ten visions to Zechariah in one night. All of them are among myrtle trees in the “bottom” of a dark, mysterious, and somewhat eerie ravine near Jerusalem . The first vision reveals a man on a red horse responding to questions from the “ angel of the LORD ” and “the LORD of hosts ” ( Zechariah 1:8-17 ). It is likely that the angel of the Lord is a pre-incarnate form of Christ speaking to the First Person of the Godhead. Two other horsemen are cited, which ties these heavenly envoys to the four horsemen of Revelation and to the horsemen driving the four chariots revealed in Zechariah 6 . When Zechariah asks, “ What are these? ” (8:9), he is told ...