Dr Paul Allen

The annunciation is Gabriel’s prophetic announcement to Mary that she would give birth to the Son of God. However, in the past, some critics believed the idea of the Messiah as Son of God was a Graeco-Roman concept that Christians picked up after Easter. They thought Christians encountered the Graeco-Roman myth of the divine man or the son of God and then secondarily applied it to Jesus, redefining messiahship. Was the idea of Messiah as Son of God already circulating in the first century Israel? Or did it come later? One of the very noticeable features about the Gospel of Luke is it’s a very well-developed infancy narrative—or even narratives because we’re really talking about the infancy of John the Baptist, as well as the infancy of Jesus, and even a story from his early childhood. I want to focus on the Son of God theme, also on the canticles, or songs of Israel, that are embedded in the infancy narrative, as well as another interesting theme that develops that often is overlooked,

Sandro Botticelli's Annunciation, painted from 1489-1490, is an example of Quattrocento art. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew needs only one verse (1:18) to announce the fact of Christ ’s virgin birth . Such a concise statement, though it doesn’t all by itself prove the point, strongly suggests that the notion of our Lord and Savior’s virgin birth was not simply a man-made story. A human author, writing strictly on his own initiative, would characteristically tend to describe such a momentous and amazing event in an expansive, detailed, and elaborate manner. But not the apostle Matthew. He does relate additional circumstances surrounding the virgin birth, but the basic fact is stated in one simple sentence: “After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit .” Matthew devotes the previous seventeen verses to Jesus’ human genealogy but just this part of one verse to His divine genealogy. As the Son of God ,

Gabriel making the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. Painting by El Greco, 1575 (Museo del Prado, Madrid). (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) An angel comes to a Jewish teenager and assures her that she is richly blessed. He does not mean that she will be happy, healthy, and rich, nor does the girl seem to expect that. We have no record of her ever complaining or protesting her lot as she wended her painful way through all the experiences mentioned above. What, then? If God ’s blessing and favor don’t guarantee happiness and peace, what do they give? What does the angel (and later Elizabeth ) mean by calling Mary blessed?  God has planned for Mary a chance to serve. He has designed for her an enormous role in His plan to redeem a people for Himself. He is about to give the Savior He has been promising since the Garden of Eden , and Mary is part of His plan. “Do not be afraid, Mary,” the angel tells her. “You have found favor with God” ( Luke 1:30 NASB ). She is to be an instrument in

English: Jesus and Mary Magdalene (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Following Jesus ’s forty days in the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan to prove himself to be the Son of God , he returned to the Galilee where he taught in that region’s synagogues (Luke 4:14–15). On one Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue in Nazareth in which they followed an order that included a public reading from the Prophets. When it came time for that reading, Jesus stood up and was handed a scroll of the book of Isaiah from which he was expected to read (Luke 4:17). Unrolling the scroll to the verses of Isaiah 61 that announce the coming of the Messiah , Jesus read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18; see Isa. 61:1). Then Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. It was the custom of the day for the reader to also give a sermon and for rabbis to sit when they taught, and Jesus did exactly that.13 Perhaps

Miniature of Muhammad re-dedicating the Black Stone at the Kaaba. From Jami Al-Tawarikh, c. 1315 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8). Before we begin our comparisons of the specific doctrines of Islam and Christianity, it will be helpful for us to trace the origins of the Islamic religion . We will do this by offering a brief survey of the life of Mohammed , the founder of Islam. Mohammed was born in 570 A.D. in the city of Mecca, which is located in modern day Saudi Arabia . The culture into which he was born was largely polytheistic, although Jews and marginally Christian sects were also present in Arabia. Mohammed early on grew dissastisfied with the polytheism of his surroundings but remained religious, traveling into the hills surrounding Mecca to pray. At age 40, while on one of these retreats, Mohammed claimed to have been visited by the ange

English: Quba Mosque (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Muhammad was born around 570 in Mecca in what is now the nation of Saudi Arabia . This was an area where there were significant populations of both Christians and Jews, so there was access to the Scriptures and the teachings of both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Muslims claim that Muhammad was a direct descendent of Ishmael, and thus of Abraham, though the only evidence to support this comes through oral tradition. Muhammad’s father died before he was born and his mother sent him as an infant to live in the desert with Bedouins in order to become acquainted with Arab traditions. While in the desert he is said to have encountered two angels who opened his chest and cleansed his heart with snow, symbolic of Islam’s teaching that he was purified and protected from all sin. Muhammad returned to Mecca sometime soon after. His mother passed away when he was 6 and he came under the immediate care of his grandfather and t

English: Zechariah, the Biblical prophet, watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah , but his mother spoke up and said “No! He is to be called John.” [Luke 1:59–60] Everyone was so excited that the aged Zechariah and Elizabeth had finally had a child that they fully expected to honor this son by calling him after his father. Gabriel, however, had told Zechariah that his son’s name was to be John, and Elizabeth knew it as well. Zechariah still could not speak, so Elizabeth spoke for him. Relatives and friends objected that the name John was not in their lineage, and they went to Zechariah to find out what he thought they ought to call the baby. We read that “he asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, ‘His name is John’” (1:63). Just as an act of doubt had caused Zechariah to be struck dumb nine months earlier, so

An angel comforting Jesus before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Daniel 12:1 “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people” ( v. 1a ). Central to the biblical description of God is the doctrine of divine providence . Scripture is clear that the Lord did not make the world and then leave it alone to run its course. Rather, He continues to uphold and sustain His creation ( Heb. 1:1–4 ). God’s continuing involvement with creation is according to His design as He works out “all things according to the counsel of his will” ( Eph. 1:11 ). What is often forgotten when considering divine providence is that the angels are some of the many secondary agents through which the primary agent — God Himself — works out His plan. Angels themselves are not divine; they are creatures who, along with everything else the Almighty has made ( Rev.4:11 ), have an origin in space and time. That the Lord uses angels to govern His creat

English: Our beloved Lady Saint Mary with Her Son, Our God and The Creator,Our Savior Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) You don’t have to know much about the “birds and the bees” to know that virgins don’t have children by remaining virgins. Human reproduction requires that a female’s ovum (egg) be fertilized by a male’s gamete (sperm) to achieve human conception. There simply is no other option short of a miracle. So what proof is there that Jesus was miraculously born of a virgin? Those who don’t believe in miracles of course dismiss the virgin birth. In fact, Mary, Jesus’ mother, questioned the whole concept herself when the angel Gabriel announced it to her. “Mary asked the angel, ‘But how can this happen? I am a virgin’ ” (Luke 1:34). The angel explained that the conception would happen by the Holy Spirit , “so the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God ” (Luke 1:35). The angel acknowledged that all this was miraculous and added, “Nothing is

Gabriel making the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. Painting by El Greco, 1575 (Museo del Prado, Madrid). (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The angel Gabriel is one of the prominent characters in the Nativity narrative. He’s remembered as the angel who told Mary she would give birth to the Son of God . But what else can we know about him from the Bible ? Gabriel is mentioned in the Old and New Testaments . Only three angels are mentioned by name in the Bible: Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer (who became Satan). What does the Bible tell us about Gabriel? God used Gabriel to explain end-time prophecies to Daniel. He’s known for bearing good news of Jesus’ coming birth, but his first biblical appearance was in  Daniel 8:16 , when he is told to explain a vision to the prophet. The Jehovah Witnesses use this verse to somehow say that not only is Jesus not God but Jesus is the Gabriel.  "And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, who called, and said, 'Gabriel, ma