Dr Paul Allen

The theological divide between Christianity and Islam centers on several foundational doctrines that shape how each faith understands God, humanity, and salvation. God’s Nature and Identity Christians express God’s oneness as a divine threeness, while Muslims insist upon a consistent monotheism 1 . Islam presents a God who is “ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us” 2 —a conception fundamentally at odds with Christian theology. Additionally, while both traditions affirm God’s mercy, the Bible emphasizes his grace and love in ways that make salvation as a divine gift incomprehensible within an Islamic framework 3 . Christ’s Identity and Redemptive Work The person and work of Jesus represent the sharpest theological divergence. For Christians, Jesus embodies the incarnation of God, the second member of the Trinity, and the sacrificial atonement for humanity’s sins, whereas Muslims regard trinitarianism as blasphemy and interpret “son...

On August 15, 718, Constantinople hurled back the greatest assault the forces of Islam had ever mustered — and in so doing, preserved Western civilization. The irony of this date runs deep: The Muslims’ siege of that great city had begun on the same date a year earlier. And deeper still is the bitter fate that Constantinople — once the shield of Christendom — went on to suffer. The story is worth retelling in full. For All the Marbles After several failed sieges of Constantinople, in 715 the Umayyad Caliphate decided that enough was enough. This time it would vomit forth everything it had in a single, all-consuming effort to bring down the ancient Christian capital. Caliph Suleiman summoned his younger brother Maslama, commanding him to lead Islam’s combined might to Constantinople and “stay there until you conquer it or I recall you.” The young emir accepted the task as a sacred honour; he vowed, “I [will] enter this city knowing that it is the capital of Christianity and its glory; m...

By Cripplegate Christ’s resurrection is the most important and joyous event in history. While millions of people celebrate this event around the world each year, there is also a recognition that a problem exists within humanity—though most individuals may struggle to identify the underlying issue affecting their eternal futures.   In a word, our problem is sin, which ultimately leads to death. John, in his Gospel account of the resurrection, emphasizes that the solution to this problem can only be found in Jesus Christ (John 20:31). John's purpose, much like that of Jesus in His mission, is not to exacerbate our condition of sin and death or to condemn us in God's sight. Instead, he brings the message of salvation so that we might experience eternal life. The message conveyed through John's account of Christ’s resurrection is one of salvation and life; however, we must each believe in Jesus and His resurrection to attain this life.   There are four pieces of evidence in Joh...

The entire world has seen how powerful the LGBT movement is. They’ve managed to insert their victim status into every aspect of life and turn it into a glittery display of “diversity and inclusion.” In a parade of French historical moments of liberation, the finale of the Paris Olympics tableaux made one thunderous political statement: “They’re here. They’re queer. And we’re supposed to cheer.” Billions of people didn’t feel that way. The Olympics are supposed to be uniting, but this year’s host country decided to divide, dismiss and denigrate. It started with men dressed up as caricatures of women being given the Olympic torch. It continued with its dismissal of heterosexual love as it frolicked through scenes with a (more than suggested) bisexual threesome, to which the official Olympic X account said: “The freedom to love is no less sacred than the freedom to think.” What if someone’s thinking about paedophilia? What if someone’s thinking about incest? Not everyone’s version of “lov...

In a secular age, when the transcendent and eternal have drifted out of centre view, immanent things like human cultures take on central, hallowed significance.  Preserving the tangible customs and traditions of indigenous cultures in this life, therefore, becomes a far greater good than evangelizing indigenous people to preserve their souls for an intangible afterlife.  Indeed, the latter is seen as a threat to the former.  For sceptics prone to seeing the Christian mission in a “more harm than good” way, it was confirmed when I read two PhDs (Alice Springs Library) regarding ministry in the Outback that confirm this bias.

Everybody’s been talking about Aaron Renn’s “Three Worlds of Evangelicalism” thesis as well as the various uses to which it’s been put by folks like James Wood and others.  The nutshell is that in the pre-1994 U.S., we lived in a “positive world” where being a Christian was a net social positive; post-94-2015ish, it was a “neutral world” where it was, well, a social status neutral. Now, post-2015, we live in a “negative world” where, again, obviously, it’s a social negative. I won’t rehash everything because if you’re reading this, I’m going to assume you’re up on things. In a perhaps predictable “third way” fashion, I’ve been of a both/and, or “this side has a point, but also so do they over here” mindset about it. For someone who has had the opportunity to revisit his own progressive university 16 years after having left it as a student to minister to its students as a pastor, it’s obvious that something has changed.  Whether that is simply the furtherance of a trajectory lo...

In the Cultural Marxist account of history that has been growing in popularity and influence since the 1960s, Christianity is the villain. This is actually a new phenomenon, and because it is an anti-establishment narrative that has arisen from within the academic establishment, people have yet to come to terms with just how radical it is.  It is a product of the Sexual Revolution and the moral transvaluation of all values in the sexual realm. To be sure, Christianity has had its critics within the West for generations.  Enlightenment historian Edward Gibbon argued that because Christianity was intolerant of paganism, believed in miracles, saw earthly improvement in terms of virtue rather than in material goods, and, above all, comforted itself in a belief in a better life after death, it was the bygone relic of another era and belonged on the ash heap of history. In more recent days, the New Atheists have argued similarly.    Christians irrationally believe in the s...

It’s Debunking Season. Every year, twice a year, in the weeks before Christmas and Easter, someone comes along telling Christians it’s time to pack it in. “Jesus is a myth, He’s always been a myth, and unless you want to keep on believing in fairy tales, you need to give up pretending He’s real.” The ABC in Australia promotes Ramadan and other Muslim events, ANZAC Day but posts NOTHING about Easter even Christmas. When they do, they are so lazy they grab a Getty picture and say people went to church. As far as the ABC is concerned Jesus has been debunked, is irrelevant, and is of no interest to anybody. None of these debunkings ever work, but they do raise a fair question: What would it take to disprove Jesus’ resurrection? What kind of evidence would do the job? Here’s one answer I hear Christians give : “If someone brings me the bones of Jesus, that’s when I’ll believe He didn’t rise from the dead.”  It’s a fair answer in theory, but I’m afraid I don’t think much of it. Everyone ...

Are the origins of Easter pagan?  If so, why do Christians celebrate this day while others don’t? The Word Easter The Old English word Easter originates from the word “Ēastrun” and also “Ēastru” which comes from a pagan image called “Eastre” who is the mythological goddess of spring celebrated by Northern European Saxons. This celebration was to honor her and was always held during the spring equinox.  Some of the associated symbols used today are steeped in paganism.  The bunny represents fertility while the eggs picture a period of new birth.   Today, Easter is completely commercialized over much of the world by celebrating with painted Easter eggs and the Easter bunny, neither of which has any connection with Christianity.   In some Christian circles, this celebration is often called Pascha and is connected to the Hebrew “Pesach” and is related to the word Passover which commemorates the Exodus of Israel and the Passover feast.  The timing of t...