Dr Paul Allen

  Other than the gospels, what evidence is there for the existence of Jesus Christ? Dick Harfield's response:  Jewish historians who could have written about Jesus include Nicolaus of Damascus, Philo of Alexandria, Justus of Tiberias and Flavius Josephus. Certainly, Nicolaus, Philo and Justus never mentioned Jesus. A passage attributed to Josephus, the Testimonium Flavianum , mentions Jesus indirectly, but is widely acknowledged to be a late Christian interpolation, wholly or in part. As an interpolation, the Testimonium Flavianum probably demonstrates that the early Christians were embarrassed by the lack of evidence for Jesus Christ. Another, minor reference attributed to Josephus is in the form of “James, the brother of Jesus”, but “the brother of Jesus” is identifiably a gloss. First-century Pagan historians who could have written about Jesus include Marcus Velleius Paterculus, Marcus Servilius Nonianus, Pamphila of Epidaurus, Aufidius Bassus, Pliny the Elder, Cluvius Ruf...

Jesus considered the baptism in the Holy Spirit so important that He expressly forbade His disciples to begin their ministry until they had received it. He knew it was essential for them to have the power which baptism in the Holy Spirit provides. And while staying with them, He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for John baptised with water, but before many days you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”(Acts 1:4–5) There are many reasons why the baptism in the Holy Spirit is important. Rufus Moseley listed the following reasons in a little pamphlet entitled The Gift of the Holy Spirit. 1.It is only through this heavenly gift empowering us, guiding us, and transforming us that we have immediate union with the glorified Jesus and are given power to do His work and His will and to grow up into His likeness.  As blessed as was the ministry of Jesus in the flesh, and as glorious as was His redemp...

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (Deut. 30:19–20). Moses’s logic here is breathtaking. May the Lord help us feel and respond appropriately to these truths. First, spiritual life does not happen on its own (see John 3:36; Eph. 2:1–3). We must choose life. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus notes, “For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:13–14).  Impurity, dishonesty, selfishness, arrogance, laziness, rash responses, and the like— these characterise the...

 

  Jesus says God is Spirit, and we are also told the Holy Spirit is Spirit, so how do we define the Holy Spirit? We know his name, but we’re not so sure about what he looks like. He’s the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is difficult to define. As soon as we attempt to explain him, our language becomes less helpful than we may have hoped. Not only is our intellect too small to encompass him, but our language is also too limited to explain him. Metaphors that help us to tiptoe our way into an exploration of his character.  To describe him as an ‘entity’ or a ‘force’ sounds too impersonal; to refer to him as a ‘person’ suggests he’s human and circumscribed; to define him as a ‘member of the Godhead’ begs the question ‘what kind of member?’  To address him as an ‘individual’ sounds as if there are three gods. Even referring to the Spirit with a masculine pronoun is not necessarily the best. The Greek word (pneuma), often translated as ‘Spirit’ in the NT, is neuter wh...

This article examines the real intellectual friction between Gordon D. Fee and Craig S. Keener. Below is a PhD-level reconstruction of the kinds of questions each would likely press on the other, based on their published methodologies, emphases, and tensions.   1. Questions Gordon D. Fee Would Ask Craig S. Keener Fee’s questions would focus on theological coherence, canon, and control of experience.   1.1 On Normativity of Narrative “How do you prevent narrative from becoming normatively binding without clear criteria?” • Fee would press Keener to clarify:  o Which Lukan patterns are repeatable  o Which are historically contingent  Underlying concern:  Without controls, narrative theology risks becoming selective and subjective.   1.2 On Unity of the Spirit’s Work “If Luke presents varied sequences of Spirit reception, how do you maintain a unified theology of the Spirit?” • Fee would argue:  o Paul presents the Spirit as inseparable fro...

What was the ark of the covenant? You’ve heard of it. You’ve read of it. Maybe you even saw it in Raiders of the Lost  Ark,  but  what was it really? What did it look like? And why was it so important? In the desert, after the Exodus from Egypt, the Lord told Moses to make a ceremonial ark or aron – a wooden chest – as a sign of the covenant made at Mount Sinai.[1] The ark was made of acacia wood—a box within a box within a box—a metre long, and overlaid with gold.[2] On top was a solid-gold cover called the kapporet , where two golden keruvim or ‘cherubim’ faced each other, wing-tips touching. WHAT IS A KERUV? The keruv or cherub is a being whose general type is well known to us from ancient eastern iconography. It was not a winged man; much less a little flying putto or baby boy . Rather it was a being combining human characteristics with those of fierce animals and birds, and representing a solar or stellar deity. The best-known example is the great man-headed lion t...

We’ve answered the question, “ What was the ark of the covenant? ” The next question we must ask is “What happened to the ark of the covenant?” Specifically, what happened to it from the time it was made until the time it disappeared. As we have seen, from the day of its construction, the ark was the central object of Israel’s faith. The second commandment prohibited Israel from having images of the deity, as other nations had. Instead, Israel had the ark, the invisible deity’s footstool. But what was its story in Israel’s national life? And what happened to the ark of the covenant in the end? FROM TABERNACLE TO ZION TENT Where the ark went, the Lord went (Num. 10.34); its presence ensured his (1 Sam. 4.3). He spoke from between the keruvim on the ark, amidst a glowing cloud (Exod. 25.22; 30.6; 40.35). The honour due him was paid to the ark. When the ark appeared in public, sacrifices were offered before it, people bowed to it and cried on every side, Yehovah Ts’vaot! Yehovah Ts’vaot!...