Dr Paul Allen

Luke 9:18–22  “[Jesus] asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.’ Then he said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ And Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God’ ” (vv. 18–20). From the beginning of Luke’s gospel, it has been clear that Jesus is the Son of God and the promised Son of David sent to rule perfectly over the nations. Luke 1:26–38, for example, records the core truths about Jesus’ identity that the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary. But the disciples of Jesus did not hear these words of Gabriel; instead, they came to understand who Jesus is over time as they took part in His ministry. Today’s passage tells us about a key moment during Jesus’ earthly ministry when the disciples, through Peter, revealed who they understood Jesus to be. Luke gives his account of Peter’s confession right after Jesus’ miracle of feeding the five thousand. In so doing, commentator...

This is a tenfold summary of key biblical Christology. 1. The person or subject of the incarnation is the eternal, divine Son. John 1:14 states this well: “The Word became flesh.” In other words, it was not the divine nature but the divine Son from eternity (John 1:1) who became incarnate. The Son, who has always been in eternal relationship with the Father and the Spirit, and who shares the same, identical divine nature with them, freely chose to humble himself by assuming a human nature to redeem his people (Phil. 2:6–8) and to reverse all that Adam did by ushering in a new creation (Col. 1:18–20). 2. As the divine Son, the second person of the triune Godhead, he is the exact image and correspondence of the Father and is thus truly God. Along with the Father and Spirit, the Son fully and equally shares the one divine nature. As the image and exact correspondence of the Father (Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3), the Son is truly God. All of God’s perfections and attributes are his since our Lord i...

When Nietzsche famously declared, “God is dead,” we often assume the atheist philosopher said it triumphally. Yet Nietzsche didn’t pronounce the death of God—by which he meant the idea of God and religion had died following the triumph of reason and science—as a wholesale victory. While on the one hand, it was a triumph (as he understood it), on the other hand, Nietzsche saw the cost: “our entire European morality.” Nietzsche prophesied a dark time to follow, a process of crumbling and terror when there would be no reason to be “moral.” He predicted a post-God world would result in the loss of “Christian” morality, descent into meaninglessness, and the breakdown of a unified sense of self, identity, and purpose. In the post-Christian West, we’re seeing Nietzsche’s predictions play out. If there's any hope of navigable meaning, something else must take the place of God. God’s absence must be filled by some presence—and many candidates are vying to fill the void. In particular, we’ve...

  By TRENT HUNTER Why the name Christ Over All? The answer to that question begins with a prayer we find in the Bible, a prayer for a certain powerless and unimpressive church. When Christians walked down the street in those days, they did so on Roman roads. Rome’s roads made way for the gospel, but those roads also reminded Christians of the vast domain of the state who built them. Christians lived in the shadow of pagan culture-making institutions. Down the street from the church at Ephesus, the Temple of Diana offered sexual immorality as a religious rite. When they went to work each morning, Christians entered an economy hostile to their most precious beliefs. When taken seriously, their new Christian faith undermined the bottom line of the ancient world built as it was on idolatry and superstitions. These churches did not have impressive buildings. They did not have the respect of their communities. The temptation to syncretism or accommodation was real. As a people gathered ...

What is a deity? Now, that’s a good question. But it’s not one with a simple answer. In fact, there are several answers that we can give. POLYTHEISTIC DEITIES If your educational background is anything like mine, then at some point in your schooling you learned the basics of Greek mythology. The colorful stories of Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Poseidon, and the other gods worshiped in ancient Greece were some of my favorite things to read about.  And while the Greeks eventually learned that no divine beings lived on Mount Olympus, the stories of the Greek gods became a core element of Western culture. This continues today, with movies, television shows, and even comic books retelling, adapting, and using these stories in various ways. Though the Greek gods themselves are fictional, they fall under one of the definitions of the term deity. As Merriam-Webster tells us, one meaning of the word deity is “a god or goddess,” that is, a being who is worshiped—or in the case of the Greek gods, w...

The Son’s generation involves no priority or posteriority, and certainly no inferiority but designates order alone. If it did involve priority or posteriority of any kind, then the Son would be inferior to the Father. The Son is begotten by the Father, but unlike our human experience, Son’s generation is eternal (before all ages, timeless). And if eternal, then the generation of the Son is not the generation of a lesser being (made in time or before time) but the generation of a Son who is equal in deity to His Father. But the reason the Son is not inferior to the Father is that the one divine essence wholly subsists in the Son due to His generation from the Father’s nature or substance.  As the Son is true God from true God, there can be “no diminution of the Begetter’s substance” in the generation of the Son.1 The Father begets His Son, and the two are, to return to that key word from Nicaea, consubstantial, meaning they are to be identified by the self-same divine essence. Prior...

As the incarnate Word of God (John 1:14), Jesus Himself repeatedly affirmed His divinity. He often referred to Himself as the “Son of Man” (cf. Matt. 8:20; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:22; John 9:35–37), a messianic title derived from Daniel 7:13–14 (NKJV), where the “one like the Son of Man” appears as an equal with “the Ancient of Days” (Matt. 25:31; 26:64).  HE SAID WHO HE WAS He similarly described Himself as the “Son of God,” a title clearly indicating His divine nature and eternal union with God the Father. As He explained in Matthew 11:27, “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”  HE SPOKE WITH AUTHORITY In John 5:25–26, speaking of His divine authority, He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.  HE ...

 Jesus' description of himself "I am the Good Shepherd" (from the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 11). Wikipedia ) The New Testament—both the Gospels and Paul’s letters—clearly states that Jesus Christ is both divine and human. Soon the early Church would be drawn into a fierce and profound debate about the nature of Christ ’s personhood. Near the end of the first century the Docetists, who (as did the Greeks) identified sin with corporeality, taught that Christ only apparently assumed the human body. They further held that Christ’s earthly life, including his suffering and death, was almost an illusion.  The Ebionites, on the other hand, denied Christ’s divinity, claiming instead that Jesus was merely a human being who was invested with divine power at his baptism (Matt. 3:16–17). Thus, the early Church was faced with two opposing viewpoints which it was responsible to address. The debate intensified when Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria (fourth century A.D.),...

Dispute of Jesus and the Pharisees over tribute money (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Mark 3:1–6 . Although Jesus made many claims about his authority , how did he demonstrate to others that he believed he was God ? One episode that demonstrated his authority is recorded in Mark 3 . According to the Law of Moses , no work could be done on the Sabbath (see Exodus 20:8–11 ).  Jewish tradition dictated that aid could be given to the sick only if the person’s life was in danger, which clearly wasn’t the case here. The Pharisees who witnessed the healing of this man’s shriveled hand on the Sabbath became furious.  Not only were they angry that Jesus violated rabbinic tradition, but they also perceived that he claimed both the authority to interpret the Law of Moses and the ability to fulfill it (see Matthew 5:17 ).  The religious leaders, who felt threatened by Jesus, reacted by conspiring to kill him. Though tragic, their attitude and actions proved that Jesus...

The Baptism of Christ, 1474-1475, Verrocchio assisted by Leonardo da Vinci (Uffizi, Florence) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The Sovereignty of God . What do we mean by this expression? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the god-hood of God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of Heaven , and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him what doest Thou? (Dan. 4:35). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will (Psa. 115:3). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is “The Governor among the nations” (Psa. 22:28), setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleaseth Him best. To say that God is Sovereign is to...