Dr Paul Allen

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar” (Gen. 16:1). The real test of fidelity is not whether we will believe in but whether we will believe God. Anyone can confess that a higher power exists, and in fact, routine surveys indicate the vast majority of people do believe in the existence of a supreme being.  However, precious few believe the God of the Bible will actually do as He says. Too many people do not stake their entire lives on His Word even though He has never been anything other than true to His promises. Even those of us who do live for Him act as if we do not trust Him on occasion. If anyone should have had unwavering confidence in God, it was Abram. After all, the Lord provided for him in Egypt (12:10–20), enabled him to save Lot (14:13–16), and blessed him through Melchizedek (vv. 17–20). And as if this were not enough, Yahweh visibly swore an oath to keep His promise to Abram (chap. 15)....

It’s one of the clearest teachings in God’s word. No one has trouble understanding the details about hell taught by our Lord, just coming to terms with it all. Among other things, he often taught these things about hell. 1. Hell is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Our Lord mentions this in Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30, and Luke 13:28. Among other things, this means hell is a place of unspeakable grief and conscious pain. There is the grief of the place: I am in hell and no longer in my chosen place of earthly comforts. There is the grief of loss: I have forfeited my eternity and lost all that was previously dear to me. There is the grief at the duration of the place: forever means no end and no escape. And there is conscious pain: I am awake and sensing the pain that will never end. 2. Hell is a place of fire. The overwhelming testimony of Scripture is that hell is a place of fire (Matt. 3:10-12, 7:19, 13:42, 13:50, 18:8, 25:41; Mark 9:43; Luk...

I believe. These two words are among the most explosive words any human can utter. They open the door to eternal life and are the foundation of the Christian faith. Belief stands as the very centre of Christian faithfulness and is where Christianity begins for the Christian. We enter the faith and find eternal life in Christ by responding to the truth with trust—that is, with belief. But Christianity is not a belief in belief. It is a belief in a propositional truth: that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and saviour of sinners. We do not believe in a Christ of our imagination but in the Christ of Scripture—the Christ believed in by every generation of true Christians. Furthermore, beyond belief in Christ stands belief in everything Jesus taught his disciples. Matthew recorded that Jesus instructed his disciples to teach others to observe all that he had commanded them (Matt. 28:18–20). Therefore, there is no Christianity without belief, without teaching, and without obedience...

A shocked friend asked, “Have you heard that ...... is no longer a Christian?” What was so alarming to my friend was that person was an influential leader of our church. What would those who had been influenced by this person's witness to Christ say, or do? Would they be shaken to the core and now doubt their own Christian faith? After all, the person who had pointed them to Christ no longer trusted Him. On occasion, we wonder if an individual really has been converted. And sometimes we have an inexplicable, ill-defined sense that something is missing. But we cannot read the heart. Even so, we hear of friends—whose faith we never doubted—turning away from Christ. Apostasy is the old, vigorous word to describe this abandonment of Christ. The New Testament church was familiar with it. It was a major concern of the author of Hebrews. That is why he wrote the often-discussed words of Hebrews 6:4–6: Those once enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of...

Few people set out in life thinking, “Down the road, I plan to destroy my life and relationships by plunging myself into sexual sin.” It’s not that simple or sudden. Instead, sexual sin takes its victims through multi-faceted paths of deception and allurement. That’s what makes it so successful. As Solomon correctly observed, “Many are the victims she has cast down, and numerous are all her slain” (Prov. 7:26). Proverbs 7 is a sobering play-by-play of the slide into sexual sin. From it , we can make a few observations to prepare ourselves accordingly. Sexual temptation has many ruthless and clever tactics. We mustn’t think that sexual sin will dance in front of us like a pink elephant holding a sign which says, “Follow me into the predatory pit of sexual sin!” It’s more clever than that. Proverbs 7:10-21 play  out a scary scenario of the adulteress vs. the simpleton. She systematically tests his resolve. She is persistent, but not overbearing. She is evil but adv...

The book of Acts is a favorite of preachers, so you are likely familiar with the showdown in Acts 8:9–24 between Peter and Simon the Magician. Luke tells us that Simon had practiced his magic in a city in Samaria where he had been hailed as “God’s Great Power.” Simon heard the gospel preached by Philip and believed, but later, after Peter’s arrival, he tried to purchase the power of the Holy Spirit from Peter. His name consequently has not been remembered for any great deeds, but for the payment of money for church office (“simony”). But is that all there is to the story? Hardly. Don’t look away now or you’ll miss what’s behind the magic. Simon, God’s Great Power Let’s look at how a first-century audience would have comprehended the episode in its Samaritan setting. That Simon was referred to by the people of the Samaritan city as “God’s Great Power” is significant. That title comes from the Samaritan Targum—an Aramaic translation of the Samaritan Hebrew Bible, known as the Sama...

In the first century AD, when the apostle John was exiled to the rocky and treacherous island of Patmos, the Lord gave him the privilege of beholding one of the most beautiful visions of humanity ever revealed. He writes of his vision in the book of Revelation:  After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!” (Rev. 7:9–12) What an awe-inspiring vision it must have b...

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 1 JOHN 2:20 Why do Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God , sixty-six books forming a single book of instruction in which God reveals to us the reality of redemption through Jesus Christ the Savior ? The answer is that God himself has confirmed this through what is called the inward witness of the Holy Spirit . In the words of the Westminster Confession (1647): We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to esteem the Holy Scripture . And the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is, to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man’s salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God: yet notwithstanding, our full persu...

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. ROMAN 5:10 It is not repentance that saves me; repentance is the sign that I realise what God has done in Christ Jesus . The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause — “It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration.” Never! I am put right with God because prior to all, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God, and by the supernatural miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved. The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sac...

He hath made Him to be sin for us,…that we might be made the righteousness of God .… 2 CORINTHIANS 5:.21 The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy. The New Testament view is that He bore our sin not by sympathy, but by identification. He was made to be sin. Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the explanation of His death is His obedience to His Father , not His sympathy with us. We are acceptable with God not because we have obeyed, or because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ , and in no other way. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the Fatherhood of God, the loving-kindness of God; the New Testament says He came to bear away the sin of the world ( RV mg). The revelation of His Father is to those to whom He has been introduced as Saviour : Jesus Christ never spoke of Himself to the world as one Who revealed the Father, but as a stumbling block (see John 15:22-24). John 14:9 w...

Primary among those things God wills, according to His Word, is this promise from 2 Peter : “The Lord… is longsuffering… not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). You find that same thought in 1 Timothy where Paul says that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). Actually, salvation is where the will of God begins. Jesus makes this very clear in a brief passage in Mark . His mother and brothers arrive where He is teaching and begin asking for Him. The crowd tells Him: “Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You” (Mark 3:32). Jesus replies, “Who is my mother, or My brothers?” (Mark 3:33). Then, looking at those seated around Him listening to His Word, He answers His own question: “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother” (Mark 3:34). What Jesus was saying was this: “The will of God is that you be related...

“And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.” ( Revelation 22:5 )   The Bible reveals that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” ( 1 John 1:5 ), and also that, in the ages to come, there will be no more darkness. God promises twice that there shall be “no night there” ( Revelation  21:25 ; 22:5) in the very last references to night in the Bible.   Why, then, is there darkness, and where did it come from? God gives the answer: “I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness” ( Isaiah 45:6-7 ). Light was always in and with God, but the darkness had to be created! And, it has a purpose, serving as a contrast to the light.   Men and women were created to love and have fellowship with their Creator , not as robots but in freedom. Darkness thus served as the choice that could be made against God and ...