Dr Paul Allen

English: Ripe Meyer lemons, Citrus × meyeri. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Oftentimes problems with the fruit on a tree are not because of problems with the fruit on the tree. Below the soil’s surface, there is usually a sickness present. Things like fungus, poor nutrient content in the soil, insufficient watering, and pests can plague the roots and subsequently damage the tree. So goes the root, so goes the fruit. Neglect the root, neglect the fruit. Imagine an orchardist who addressed sickly trees by only addressing the fruit. He approaches the sickly lemon tree , puts up his ladder, and inspects the lemons. Some of the lemons are flaccid, some shrunken, and others cracked open and rotten. Then, imagine, that he breaks out a syringe with store-bought lemon juice and injects the emaciated lemons to fill them out a bit. To repair the sickly, split lemons, he breaks out some band-aids and closes up those holes. Finally, he notices some fruitless branches. So, he breaks out hi...

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope. ( Romans 8:20) Are you tired of fighting futility? Evil and disorder relentlessly throw wrenches into the gears of your life. ISIs, or ISIL, governments fighting. Marriage breakdown, shooting deaths, corrupt politicians and on and on. What’s the point? For God, the point is hope. Which is very strange. Futility and hope are not friends. The former tends to kill the latter. Humans can’t make them both be true at the same time. But God can. Futility means things fall apart . It means that what begins fresh and green and thrilling in the morning of life and love and new ventures fades and withers in its evening ( Psalm 90:5-6). People die, families disintegrate, churches split, love is betrayed, revivals dissipate into nominalism, revolutions devolve into corrupt establishments, and universities founded to preserve doctrinal orthodoxy decline into bastions of godlessness. We...

The Temptation of Christ, 1854 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell.” So wrote the agnostic British philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1967. The idea of eternal punishment for sin, he further notes, is “a doctrine that put cruelty in the world and gave the world generations of cruel torture.” His views are at least more consistent than religious philosopher John Hick , who refers to hell as a “grim fantasy” that is not only “morally revolting” but also “a serious perversion of the Christian Gospel .” Worse yet was theologian Clark Pinnock who, despite having regarded himself as an evangelical, dismissed hell with a rhetorical question: “How can one imagine for a moment that the God who gave His Son to die for sinners because of His great love for them would install a torture chamber somewhere in the new creation in order to subject those who reject Him to everlasting pain?” So, wh...

Image via Wikipedia L et's face it: Atheism is in. Not since Nietzsche have disbelievers enjoyed such a ready public reception to their godless message—and such near-miraculous royalties. But even that hasn't put them in a good mood. Snaps Christopher Hitchens , who wrote  God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything   (although not, presumably, the pronouncements of atheists), "Many of the teachings of Christianity are, as well as being incredible and mythical, immoral." A feuding Richard Dawkins suggests that believers "just shut up." Apparently, they didn't get the tolerance memo. Other authors—including Douglas Wilson and Francis Collins—have quite capably refuted the new atheist shtick. But remembering Bertrand Russell 's famous essay, "Why I Am Not a Christian," here is a  Reader's Digest  version of why I am. Creation:  The universe, far from being a howling wasteland indifferent to our existence, appears to be finely tune...

Image via Wikipedia L et's face it: Atheism is in. Not since Nietzsche have disbelievers enjoyed such a ready public reception to their godless message—and such near-miraculous royalties. But even that hasn't put them in a good mood. Snaps Christopher Hitchens , who wrote  God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything   (although not, presumably, the pronouncements of atheists), "Many of the teachings of Christianity are, as well as being incredible and mythical, immoral." A feuding Richard Dawkins suggests that believers "just shut up." Apparently, they didn't get the tolerance memo. Other authors—including Douglas Wilson and Francis Collins—have quite capably refuted the new atheist shtick. But remembering Bertrand Russell 's famous essay, "Why I Am Not a Christian," here is a  Reader's Digest  version of why I am. Creation:  The universe, far from being a howling wasteland indifferent to our existence, appears to be finely tune...