Dr Paul Allen

But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” [Rom. 9:20] The Bible tells us that humanity is a creation. How ironic, then, that we humans so fervently deny and resist the idea of being creatures. Satan tempted Adam and Eve in the garden by deceiving them into rejecting the limitations of creaturehood. They thought they could be gods. The atheistic German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said that lust for power differentiates humans from all other creatures. People cannot stand the fact that they are creatures. Do you have trouble with authority? With humility? We have these problems because we want to be gods. We do not want to concede our dependence on anything or anyone else, and we do not want to be subordinate. Jesus Christ saves us from sin and makes us new creations, but he does not make us gods; even if he did make us gods we would be created gods, thus still creatures. There is a massive qua...

Inner left panel of the triptych of the Garden of Eartly Delights. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron , where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples." ( John 18:1 ) As Jesus, after the last supper with His disciples, walked out with them, they soon crossed over a small brook and entered the little garden called Gethsemane . Eventually, He left the disciples and went farther into the garden alone for a time of solitary prayer. Perhaps He remembered how, long ago, He had walked in His first garden with Adam and Eve in beautiful fellowship. But then they had rebelled against His Word, and had to be expelled from the Garden of Eden , leaving Him alone there also ( Genesis 3:8 ). As He prayed in Gethsemane, He knew that it would be only a few hours before He would be buried in still another garden, one "wherein was never man yet laid" ( John 19:41 ). He would...