Dr Paul Allen

“You who answer prayer,  to you all people will come. ” ( Psalm 65:2 ) There come times in each life when loneliness overshadows like a cloud, and no one is there to listen and provide counsel. Or perhaps there is some problem so personal and intimate that it seems unfitting or too embarrassing to share with anyone else. But God will listen! No need is so small, no place too remote, no burden too heavy that He who is the “God of all grace” and “the God of all comfort” ( 1 Peter 5:10 ; 2 Corinthians 1:3 ) will not listen and care. “The LORD will hear when I call unto him” ( Psalm 4:3 ). Young people sometimes complain that their parents won’t listen to them; wives may say their husbands don’t listen; sometimes it seems that no one will listen to our questions or ideas about anything. But “the LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth” ( Psalm 145:18 ). Therefore, “pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah” ( Psalm 62...

The dark night of the soul . This phenomenon describes a malady that the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time. It was the malady that provoked David to soak his pillow with tears. It was the malady that earned for Jeremiah the sobriquet, "The Weeping Prophet." It was the malady that so afflicted Martin Luther that his melancholy threatened to destroy him. This is no ordinary fit of depression, but it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to a feeling of abandonment by Him. Spiritual depression is real and can be acute. We ask how a person of faith could experience such spiritual lows, but whatever provokes it does not take away from its reality. Our faith is not a constant action. It is mobile. It vacillates. We move from faith to faith, and in between we may have periods of doubt when we cry, "Lord, I believe, help Thou my unbelief." We may also think that the...

The Bible is the Word of God . Yet, within the conservative school there is a divergence of opinion regarding what is involved in inspiration. Thus there are the following conservative theories of inspiration: a) The Verbal Dictation Theory. This theory states that every word, even the punctuation, is dictated by God , much as a business executive would dictate a letter to his secretary. This is often called “mechanical inspiration” or “verbal dictation.” Fundamentalists are often accused of subscribing to this method of inspiration, but only a small percentage of them actually do. The great weakness of this theory is that it eliminates any possibility of a personal style in the writings of the divinely chosen author—a phenomenon which is clearly observable. b) The Inspired Concept Theory. In an endeavor to compensate for the dangers of the Verbal Dictation Theory, some conservatives have adopted the idea that God gave the thoughts to the men chosen, and left them to ...

Titlepage of the New Testament section of a German Luther Bible, printed in 1769. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) What does this word “ inspiration ” really mean as it is applied to the Bible ? Unfortunately, not all churchmen are agreed. Therefore, we have various theories of inspiration: 1. Liberal views of inspiration. The liberal theologian ’s view is expressed particularly in the statement: “The Bible contains the Word of God .” This suggests that it also contains a varied admixture of the words of men. Their position may be stated as follows: From place to place within the Book are to be found revelations which God at times gave to pious men, much as He illumines men’s minds today with insights into Divine truth. The Bible is a sort of religious scrap book in which are recorded stories, legends, geneologies, and love poems, classified, arranged and rearranged without any regard to chronological or literary perfection. The dangerous part of this view is that it places into th...

Bible Study 2 (Photo credit: DrGBB ) “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” ( Matthew5:18 ) Here is the commentary of the Lord Jesus on the doctrine of plenary verbal inspiration . Not only were the words of the Bible divinely inspired, but even the very letters! The “jot” was the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet (yod, the tenth letter). The “tittle” was a small horn-like appendage which transformed one Hebrew letter into another. Thus, a stronger statement of absolute verbal inspiration than this could hardly be imagined. Further, the phrase “in no wise” is actually a double negative in Greek. In New Testament Greek it was used for strong emphasis. According to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, every word—even every letter—of the “law” must be fulfilled. This certainly includes the books of the Pentateuch —including even the often-maligned and distorted openin...

Paul the Apostle, Russian icon from first quarter of 18th cen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Many people believe that theological study holds little value. They say, "I don't need theology; I just need to know Jesus." Yet theology is unavoidable for every Christian . It is our attempt to understand the truth that God has revealed to us—something every Christian does. So it is not a question of whether we are going to engage in theology; it is a question of whether our theology is sound or unsound. It is important to study and learn because God has taken great pains to reveal Himself to His people. He gave us a book, one that is not meant to sit on a shelf pressing dried flowers, but to be read, searched, digested, studied, and chiefly to be understood. Theology is unavoidable for every Christian An important text in the writings of the Apostle Paul is found in his second letter to Timothy : "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for re...

By Rembrandt. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Illumination is best defined by distinguishing it from two related theological terms: revelation and inspiration. “Revelation” refers to the act by which God makes known what is otherwise unknowable. Theologians sometimes call it “ special revelation .” “ Natural revelation”—what may be observed in nature and experience regarding the existence and power of God (Rom. 1:20)—is not specific or full enough to bring redemption, so God gave clear, unmistakable “special revelation” in Scripture . That gift was a free act motivated by love and grace through which God disclosed the fullness of His truth to man. The Holy Spirit was the agent of that revelation. In 1 Cor. 2:10, Paul affirmed that “God revealed [His Word] through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” The Holy Spirit alone is competent to reveal God’s truth, for only He can search the “depths” of God. Since He Himself is God, He is omniscient and knows...

Image via Wikipedia Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God ” ( Matthew 22:29 ). Three words that are used to describe the Christian doctrine of the Bible are inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy. The doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible means that the human beings who wrote it were directed by God the Holy Spirit , so that the end product was the Word of God. The doctrine of inspiration does not mean that God dictated the Bible to the human authors (except for those parts of the Old Testament which God dictated to Moses and other writers). Nor does the doctrine of inspiration mean that the human authors became mere automata while God made their hands move as He wished. In fact, quite the reverse is the case. Just as we experience a great self-awareness in God’s presence and a blossoming of our talents as we encounter Him, so the personalities of the human authors came to life in their writings. When we say that the B...

Image via Wikipedia "All scripture is given by inspiration of God , and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." ( 2 Timothy 3:16 )   Among the many evidences for verbal inspiration , both within and without Scripture, is the frequent interchange of God recognized as the author of a particular passage with the human author who actually penned it.  This can be true only if the very words recorded by the various authors are "God breathed" (the meaning of "inspiration").   For example, the early Christians exclaimed, "Lord, thou art God , which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?" ( Acts 4:24-25 ), thereby recognizing that God spoke through David, who wrote God's words in  Psalm 2:1-2 .   Likewise, Paul, in his masterful dissertation on God's sover...