Dr Paul Allen

Perhaps one of the most painful and unhelpful things we can say to someone who is sick is to suggest that their sickness is directly caused by their sin. The whole of the book of Job is designed to show how unhelpful that approach is. In the end, God rebukes Job’s friends for saying just this (see Job 42).  The simple fact is, at some point in their life, sickness comes to every single person in this world, no matter whether they are a scandalous sinner or not. Jesus was asked about the role of sin in causing sickness and he again strongly stated that, at least in the case of this blind man, a specific sin had not led to his sickness: As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Jesus answered,  “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but  that the works of God might be displayed in him. In a similar vein, Jesus was also asked ab...

The value of Scripture in the life of the believer lies in its source and its function. In his exhortation to Timothy , Paul commended Scripture to Timothy by saying, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God , and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16). When I was a little boy, there was a fellow in our community who was a couple of years older than me, and he was something of a bully. He made fun of me and called me names, which hurt my feelings. Sometimes I came home crying to my mother and told her what the other boy had said to upset me. My mother had a favorite response to this. As she wiped away my tears, she said, "When people talk like that about you, son, consider the source." That little bit of sage advice from my mother was a principle that I learned to a much more intense degree in the academic world. One of the rules of scholarship is to track down in your research the sources f...

How can I know God ’s will? (Rom. 12:2) The best way to know God’s will is to be familiar with the Bible. That is because virtually everything you need to know concerning the will of God is in the Bible. If you get to know God’s Word and understand it clearly, you can know the will of God (Ps. 119:6, 7, 9, 105). Another way you can know the will of God is through prayer, when you commune with God and learn what pleases Him. The Bible says, "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts" (Col. 3:15). This means that the peace of God is like a regulator, so that when you violate the will of God, His peace leaves you and you have inner turmoil, immediately discovering you are going against God’s will. Knowing God’s Word and knowing the peace that comes about through a continuous relationship with Him are the best ways of knowing God’s will (John 15:4). It is also true, however, that God will show us His will through a number of other means. He will show us His will through ...

A 1581 edition of the Geneva Bible. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In 1553, Queen Mary ascended the British throne, which began a period of intense persecution of Protestants in England . More than 700 people fled England to escape persecution and settled in and around Geneva, Switzerland , in 1555. The refugees included Miles Coverdale , John Knox, and William Whittingham. Geneva in the 1550s was the center of Reformed Protestantism . And because of the presence of Theodore Beza , it was also a growing center of biblical scholarship. While there, the exiles began to see the need for a new translation of the Bible in their own language. The New Testament was finished in 1557, and the complete Bible—along with a revised New Testament—was finished in 1560. The Geneva Bible became the Bible of the common people The exiles began returning to England in 1558 when Elizabeth I ascended the throne, and they brought their Bible with them. The Geneva Bible soon became the prominent Bibl...

Slave . What is it about this word that merits a whole book? Sometimes one word can make an enormous difference. For example, the Latin Vulgate ’s translation of  metanoia  (repentance) as  paenitentia  (penance) in places like Acts 2:38 led to all sorts of problems in the Roman Catholic Church . The  slave  concept is a major theme in Scripture. In fact, believers are referred to as “slaves” hundreds of times throughout the Old and New Testaments . Yet, the American church is blind to this critical theme because most English versions translate the word as “ servant ” instead. While it is true that the duties of  slave  and  servant  may overlap to some degree, there is a key distinction between the two: servants are  hired ; slaves are  owned . Servants have an element of freedom in choosing whom they work for and what they do. The idea of servanthood maintains some level of self-autonomy and personal ri...