Dr Paul Allen

John Newton's tomb - geograph.org.uk - 814703 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” ( Ecclesiastes 7:20 ) When the self-righteous men in the crowd surrounding the woman caught in the act of adultery were about to stone the woman (apparently indifferent to the man with whom she had been caught!), the Lord Jesus turned them all away with His suggestion that the privilege of casting the first stone should go to one who was without sin of his own ( John 8:7 ). They realized that He knew the condition of their sinful hearts, and “being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one” ( John 8:9 ). This incident is a perpetual reminder that “ the Father . . . hath committed all judgment unto the Son” ( John 5:22 ), not to any one of us. We are not qualified to judge others, since we ourselves are also sinners—saved sinners, perhaps, but sinners. One of the most certain doctrines of Scripture is the universalit...

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553): Adam and Eve. Beech wood, 1533. Bode-Museum, Berlin (Erworben 1830, Königliche Schlösser, Gemäldegalerie Kat. 567) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Desire is a tricky thing. It has the power to lead us either to a throne or a tomb, to slavery or freedom, to true joy or mirages of satisfaction. The war of faith and desire began in the Garden. In Genesis 3:5, Satan is ending his conversational attack on Eve’s faith by influencing her logic, causing her to question not only the commandment of God but the character of God. He uses his demonic craftiness to subtly lie to Eve, telling her that God will not do what he said, that he’s not as good as she thinks he is. Sinful Desires? When the character of God comes into question, the mind and the heart will begin to reroute its desires onto something else. After all, so the questions go, can God really be trusted? Eve started down this path, which then led her to see things in a tree that did not ex...

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...

Original Sin Michel Coxcie (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) It is commonplace to hear the statement, "people are basically good." Though it is admitted that no one is perfect, human wickedness is minimized. Yet if people are basically good, why is sin so universal? It is often suggested that everybody sins because society has such a negative influence upon us. The problem is seen with our environment, not with our nature. This explanation for the universality of sin begs the question, how did society become corrupt in the first place? If people are born good or innocent, we would expect at least a percentage of them to remain good and sinless. We should be able to find societies that are not corrupt, where the environment has been conditioned by sinlessness rather than sinfulness . Yet the most dedicated-to-righteousness communes we can find still have provisions for dealing with the guilt of sin. Since the fruit is universally corrupt we look for the root of the prob...

Michelangelo Bounarotti - The Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve - detail (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) " God sent him forth from the garden of Eden , to till the ground from whence he was taken." ( Genesis 3:23 ) What did God do at the Fall ? The answer may surprise you. First, God rested. After God completed His work of creating the universe, He ceased from creating ( Genesis 2:2-3 ). This rest continued throughout all of history, right up to this very day ( Hebrews 4:3 ).  Thus, when mankind fell into sin, God didn't start His creation work over, as if there was a flaw in His original purposes and designs. Rather, He knew the Fall would happen and responded by continuing His cessation from creating, fully knowledgeable of what was transpiring and fully in control. Second, God exercised perfect justice. The punishments at the Fall perfectly fit the crimes committed.  For example, the serpent sinned by exalting himself above his created place, and God p...

Adam and Eve Are Driven out of Eden by Gustave Dore. Picture portrayed over passage in Genesis. And he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life (Gen. 3:24). (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Adam and Eve by Peter Paul Rubens (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I think the New Testament does teach that the whole world is born into the consequences of a fallen nature because of the sin of Adam and Eve. The New Testament repeats this idea frequently—“that through the disobedience of one man, death comes into the world.” This has been an occasion for much theological protest. What kind of a God would punish all people with the consequences of one individual’s sin? In fact, it seems to go contrary to the teaching of the prophet Ezekiel . He rebuked the people of Israel when they said that the fathers had eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth were set on edge. The prophet said that God treats every person ac...

The Fall (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Adam and Eve by Peter Paul Rubens (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The New Testament does teach that the whole world is born into the consequences of a fallen nature because of the sin of Adam and Eve. The New Testament repeats this idea frequently—“that through the disobedience of one man, death comes into the world.” This has been an occasion for much theological protest. What kind of a God would punish all people with the consequences of one individual’s sin? In fact, it seems to go contrary to the teaching of the prophet Ezekiel .  He rebuked the people of Israel when they said that the fathers had eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth were set on edge. The prophet said that God treats every person according to his own sin. He doesn’t punish me for what my father did, nor does he punish my son for what I did, although the consequences may spill out into three or four generations. That the guilt is not transferred from one person to anot...

Michelangelo's painting of the sin of Adam and Eve (the Fall of Man) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Illuminated parchment, Spain, circa AD 950-955, depicting the Fall of Man, cause of original sin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) No. If it did change the essence of our created humanity, then it would be improper to call ourselves human anymore. There are vast differences of opinion among denominations and religious groups and theologians as to the extent of damage that original sin inflicted upon the human race . The debates rage over the extent of it. Most denominations, in spite of their differences regarding the degree of fallenness, make some kind of distinction between what we would call the image of God in which we were originally created in the wider sense and the image of God in the narrower sense. We were created in our humanness in the wider sense in that certain traits make us human beings: our ability to think, the fact that we have souls, etc. Even after the Fall we stil...

Illuminated parchment, Spain, circa AD 950-955, depicting the Fall of Man, cause of original sin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) No. If it did change the essence of our created humanity, then it would be improper to call ourselves human anymore. There are vast differences of opinion among denominations and religious groups and theologians as to the extent of damage that original sin inflicted upon the human race . The debates rage over the extent of it. Most denominations, in spite of their differences regarding the degree of fallenness, make some kind of distinction between what we would call the image of God in which we were originally created in the wider sense and the image of God in the narrower sense. We were created in our humanness in the wider sense in that certain traits make us human beings: our ability to think, the fact that we have souls, etc. Even after the Fall we still think, we still choose, we still have passions, we still walk, we still look and act like people—...

Image via Wikipedia “But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him” (Heb. 2:8). God ’s original destiny for man was restricted by man’s sin. God gave man dominion over all the earth, and the earth supplied his every need. All he had to do was accept and enjoy the earth as provided for him. But Adam sinned , and Satan usurped the crown. A new chain of command was born; the earth now rules man. To know how true that is, all you need to do is look at the amount of effort expended on restoring the ecological balance of the earth. Environmentalism is a popular watchword of our day. Yet with all our modern technology , we are still unable to gain control over the earth. Image via Wikipedia  Look what happened once Adam sinned. No longer could man easily harvest what the earth provided; now he had to toil by the sweat of his brow (Gen. 3:18). Women would experience pain in childbirth (3:16).  Murder soon followed in Adam’s family. God had to destroy virtually al...