Dr Paul Allen

  A PERSON'S QUESTION: What happened to the people who were in Paul’s entourage? Did they also see Jesus, and did any of them go blind, or was Paul travelling alone on the Damascus Road? HARFIELD'S ANSWER: The author of Acts saw no reason to maintain consistency across the three accounts of Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus so, although substantially similar, there are some interesting differences. In each account in Acts, there was a blinding light: Paul saw the light in in the version at Acts 9:3-8, but Paul’s men did not. The whole entourage heard Jesus’ voice. At Acts 22:6-11, Paul’s men saw the light but did not hear Jesus’ voice. Paul’s men probably saw the light at Acts 26:13-19, as they fell down; we are not told if they heard Jesus’ voice. In the account of Paul's conversion, Jesus is supposed to have remarked to Paul as he lay on the ground, "It hurts you to kick against the goad [or 'pricks']" (Acts 9:5, 26:14). This should give a good...

What is cremation? Cremation is a process that uses intense heat (1400–1800 °F) to incinerate a body. After the body is vaporised and reduced to bone fragments, these fragments are pulverised into a sand-like powder. The final step involves placing the “cremains” in a container and returning them to the surviving family. The word “cremate” is actually a sanitised version of the crass “burning a corpse.” What is the history of cremation? Early Christianity While there were a few exceptions (notably the Hebrews), cremation was a common practice in the ancient world. That rapidly changed, however, with the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire. As Francis Schaeffer explains, “Gradually Christianity came to Roman Avenches. We know this by studying the cemetery of that time—the Romans burned their dead, the Christians buried theirs.” 1 In some respects, the care with which early Christians disposed of their dead through the burial process would not have gone unnoticed in the pagan wo...

If you find yourself dismissing parts of Scripture to protect a preferred belief or lifestyle, take that as a serious warning sign. You are allowing satan to deceive you. Many Christians are in danger of being misled… Not because God’s truth is unclear, but because it’s possible to resist it when it challenges our desires or requires us to change. Scripture warns that when people prefer what’s false over what’s true, they can become increasingly vulnerable to deception. As 2 Corinthians 4:4 explains, “the god of this age” works to blind minds to keep people from seeing the light of the gospel. That’s why the Bible also cautions us to take truth seriously and respond to it with humility and obedience. When a person repeatedly rejects what God has made plain, God may allow them to experience the consequences of that refusal. LOOKING CLOSER AT 2 CORINTHIANS 4:4 Paul explains the (Satanic) source of the hard-hearted, veiled state of those who have rejected his apostolic message. The full e...

QUESTION TO DICK HARFIELD: Who is the prophet referred to in Matthew? DICK HARFIELD'S RESPONSE: Matthew 2:23 refers to a prophet whose identity has long puzzled scholars because there is nothing in the Old Testament or even the Apocrypha that mentions a Nazarene. One popular suggestion is from Judges 13:5, where it says of Samson, "the child shall be a Nazirite." However, Matthew does not say ‘Nazirite ’, and the word has no known link to the town of Nazareth; moreover, Jesus was not a Nazirite and is never described as one. Some believe Isaiah 60:21-22 was the prophecy of which Matthew wrote, because the Hebrew for a small twig is netzer — presumably close enough to be a prophecy that Jesus would be called a Nazarene, but not very plausible. I believe the real reason is closer to home, as you can read in The Mystery of the Nazarenes. We now know that Matthew’s Gospel was substantially based on Mark’s Gospel, the Greek manuscripts of which always refer to Jesus the Nazar...

When we think about rewards, we often think of getting what we deserve. We work in such a way to get a reward that corresponds to our effort. But the reward Jesus is referring to is not meritorious. Fasting does not put God in our debt. It is not a technique that puts us in good standing with God. God offers, as a gift, the satisfaction of our desires—desires that are ultimately for him. David explains this reward further in Psalm 63. He begins the psalm by saying to the Lord,          O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;             my soul thirsts for you;          my flesh faints for you,             as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (v. 1) David has developed a hunger, an appetite for God. He goes on,          So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,             beholding your power and glory...

  The flesh from which believers have been set free has the nasty habit of resurrecting itself. Believers have the authority to remind it and themselves that it has no right to be alive; rather, they are encouraged to reckon it as dead (Rom. 6:11), and if it refuses to listen, it must be forcibly laid to rest again and again and again.  Throughout the process, the Spirit promises to provide the courage, confidence and inner strength to succeed in this activity (8:13). At the same time, the Spirit reminds believers that however loudly the flesh claims to be their lord and master, and to be in control of their lives, it is trespassing on ground claimed by God and inhabited by the Spirit. The Spirit of life has energy and vitality to vanquish all that is associated with death (Rom. 8:2). He has enabled believers to be what the law could not achieve—that is, justified (8:4). He enables believers to do what they could not achieve—that is, be sanctified ( put to death the misdeeds o...

  The complete relocation of believers is clearly expressed in Romans 8:9, where Paul describes them as being in the Spirit while also referring to the fact that the Spirit of God lives in them. These apparently contradictory phrases are to be appreciated for what they are—descriptions that emphasise the integrated involvement of the Spirit with the believer (1 Cor. 6:17).  The intimate association of the Spirit with the believer is heightened in that the Spirit is described as being of God (this, in 8:9, is the first occasion in Romans where Paul refers thus to the Spirit). It is none other than God who resides within the believer.  Not only that, but he lives in them (8:9), indicating a tangible experience of God, not merely an intellectual acknowledgement of divine truths. Intimacy of relationship, not merely a rational response, is the ideal expected by Paul when he refers to the Spirit dwelling in the believer. The sense of privilege but also of challenge for believe...

In Romans, Paul uses the Greek term sarx (translated variously as ‘flesh’, ‘sinful nature’ or ‘human nature’) on several occasions but in different ways, the difference in use being particularly notable in chapter 8. Sometimes, it refers to the characteristic of being human (Rom. 1:3; 4:1; 8:3; 9:5, 8), and human effort (Gal. 3:3).  However, on other occasions, it is clear that he is using flesh , not to refer to the physical body and mortality, but to describe something much more malevolent and malignant that militates against God in a way that makes it inseparable from sin; indeed, the term ‘sin’ is often synonymous with ‘the flesh’ (8:4–9, 12–13; 13:14).  In this respect, to live a life dominated by sin is equivalent to living a life controlled by the flesh. It is as if flesh and sin gang up on the believer and make it difficult to live as a follower of Jesus—so difficult that one wonders how it can be achieved.  It is in this context that the Spirit, who was mentione...

One of the things that has continuously shocked me throughout my life is the relentless attack against God’s Word – especially from professing Christians. Sometimes, these attacks are subtle, implying the Word of God is insufficient because it is too difficult to understand. Other times, the attacks are blatant, like the promotion of an evolutionary theory as an alternative to biblical creation. In the study of 1 Corinthians, this reality was essentially happening in Corinth, where those believers sought after worldly wisdom. They lived as if the Bible was insufficient for their needs or that Scripture was inferior to the latest philosophies or psychologies. They also judged men’s wisdom to be superior to God’s, which undermined and attacked the truth of His holy Word. Paul addressed this problem in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, reminding the Corinthians that Christians have the mind of Christ, which is infinitely superior to worldly wisdom.  The mind of Christ is described as eternal, hid...

Give us this day our daily bread. (Matt. 6:11) These words draw our focus to a particular time—this day. It is recurring, a petition to be made again with each sunrise. These words would have reminded Jesus’ hearers of the Exodus, a period in Israel’s history when God provided just enough manna daily for the people to survive (see Ex. 16). They were wandering in a wilderness on their way to a promised land where God would be their king. They would have loved a grand stockpile of food. But God taught them to trust him afresh each morning as they awakened to find new manna on the ground. Trusting God for basic necessities would form the foundation for trust in greater matters. Similarly, Jesus prepares his followers to trust God for what they need as they await the new kingdom that God is establishing through him. What was difficult for a first-century peasant may also be difficult for us, albeit for different reasons. Reliance requires that we see our position in the world clearly. We a...