Dr Paul Allen

At the very heart of the controversy in the sixteenth century was the question of the ground by which God declares anyone righteous in His sight. The psalmist asked, "If you, O Lord , should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" (Ps. 130:3). In other words, if we have to stand before God and face His perfect justice and perfect judgment of our performance, none of us would be able to pass review. We all would fall, because as Paul reiterates, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). So, the pressing question of justification is how can an unjust person ever be justified in the presence of a righteous and holy God ? The Roman Catholic view is known as analytical justification. This means that God will declare a person just only when, under His perfect analysis, He finds that he is just, that righteousness is inherent in him. The person cannot have that righteousness without faith, without grace, and without the assistance of Christ . Nevertheless...

Role of the Holy Spirit : Self-Authenticating Witness May I suggest that, fundamentally, the way we know Christianity to be true is by the self-authenticating witness of God’s Holy Spirit? Now what do I mean by that?  I mean that the experience of the Holy Spirit is veridical and unmistakable (though not necessarily irresistible or indubitable) for him who has it; that such a person does not need supplementary arguments or evidence in order to know and to know with confidence that he is in fact experiencing the Spirit of God; that such experience does not function in this case as a premiss in any argument from religious experience to God, but rather is the immediate experiencing of God himself; that in certain contexts the experience of the Holy Spirit will imply the apprehension of certain truths of the Christian religion , such as “God exists,” “I am condemned by God,” “I am reconciled to God,” “Christ lives in me,” and so forth; that such an experience provides one not onl...

The Third Station (1024x768) (Photo credit: jdwarrick ) John 17 “ Holy Father , keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one” ( v. 11b ). John 17 , which records the longest prayer in the New Testament , provides some of the most important teaching on the church. As we can see in this chapter, Jesus is concerned with the unity of His people, praying for His disciples and all those who come after them to be one in purpose and mission even as He and His Father are one ( vv. 11b , 22–23 ). It is therefore regrettable that the church of Jesus Christ in our day evidences little visible unity. There are hundreds of different Protestant denominations , including dozens of varieties each of Presbyterians , Baptists, Lutherans , and so on. Faced with this scandalous reality, there has been a tendency in the twentieth century and now, in the twenty-first century, to try and correct this problem. As a result of the ecumenical movement, many new ...

Below is an analysis and commentary on the SBC membership and baptism trends. LifeWay just released the data and sent my commentary out, so I thought I would post it here. I'd ask the patience of my friends from other (or no) denominations, but since this is national news, it is worth the time to share here. Southern Baptist are the largest Protestant denomination in America and its future impacts all of evangelicalism, even globally. The article talks a lot about trends-- and one in particular. It's called a membership change trend-- and you really need to get to know this trend if you want to understand the future. It's a long and consistent trend. I give more details about it here and have been expressing concern about it for quite some time . We've been talking about this trend for several years. Here is 2008 , 2009 , and 2010 . A few years ago, some leaders wanted to argue about the reality of membership decline since it was small and just one year... then two...

Image via Wikipedia Australia is a good place to live. It is well ordered. The basic needs of most people are met. There is employment for most people. For those unable to work, there is a good range of social services. There are many opportunities for entertainment, sport and culture. The large cities are highly multicultural, and, for the most part, people of different backgrounds accept each other. Yet, close to one-fifth of young people and older people say that they are hurting deep inside and they are not satisfied with their lives. Often the immediate cause of this dissatisfaction is a breakdown in relationships. However, there are underlying problems in the nature of Australian culture itself. In the 1970s, young people turned away from the traditions of the past. They no longer felt bound by the patterns of marriage and family life, by the styles of music and art, or even by the particular drugs that had been prevalent in Australian life. Certainly, many people felt that ...