Dr Paul Allen

Holy Week is an anticipation of the Lord’s paschal mystery.  Pascha   is an ancient way to speak of the events of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. It is a Greek word corresponding to the Hebrew   pesah , which means “pass over.” In the Jewish tradition, this word refers to the angel of death   passing over   the homes in Egypt marked with the blood of a spotless lamb and also to God’s people   passing through   the Red Sea to escape Pharaoh’s army. Both meanings are present in Holy Week: Christ is the Lamb of God who causes death to  pass over  those marked with his blood, and he  passes through  the “Red Sea” (i.e., the grave) to deliver us from death, thereby defeating death by death. We celebrate Easter on the Sunday after the Jewish Passover. Holy Week: A journey through the Passion Narrative Each day of Holy Week is significant. The Four Gospels, taken together, cover about three decades. However, most of the text in ...

“And there appeared unto them Elijah and Moses : and they were talking with Jesus ” (Mark 9:4). Jesus was standing in the full blaze and glory of His pre-Incarnate glory while the two representatives of the Old Covenant talked with Him about the issue which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem .  Then He turned His back upon that glory, and came down from the Mount to be identified with fallen humanity, symbolised by the demon-possessed boy. Had He gone back into the glory which was His before the Incarnation having only reached the Mount of Transfiguration , He would have left the human race exactly where it was; His life would only have been a sublime ideal.  There are many who look at the life of Jesus Christ as an ideal and nothing more—‘His teachings are so fine, we do not need to have anything to do with the Atonement, or with those crude doctrines of the apostle Paul ’s about the Cross and personal apprehension; it is quite enough for us to have the Sermo...

The doctrine of definite atonement states that in the death of Jesus Christ , the triune God intended to achieve the redemption of every person given to the Son by the Father in eternity past, and to apply the accomplishments of His sacrifice to each of them by the Spirit. In a nutshell: the death of Christ was intended to win the salvation of God’s people alone, and not only was it intended to do so, but it actually achieved it as well. Jesus will be true to His name: “He will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). The doctrine is theologically rich, but it is also immensely practical, especially in relation to the church. Two pictures in the New Testament dramatize Christ’s love for the church. There is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep and the Bridegroom who sacrifices Himself for His bride (John 10:15; Eph. 5:23-25). The first picture has implications for Christian pastors; the second has implications for Christian people. IMPLICATIONS FOR P...

The book of Hebrews focuses squarely on Jesus Christ . Theologically speaking, the book is Christocentric . The reason is obvious. The gospel ultimately boils down to three questions: Who is Jesus Christ? What has he done? What is the significance for us? Similar to the way Paul begins his epistle to the Colossians (Col 1:15-20), the author of Hebrews begins by introducing his readers to the person of Christ before teaching them about the work of Christ. These two categories—person and work— help us theologically navigate the richness of the Bible’s Christology.  While it is impossible to divorce Christ’s identity from his actions, dividing Christ’s person and work into individual theological categories helps us better articulate a comprehensive picture of what Scripture teaches us about Jesus. One of the problems Christians have when we talk about Christ is that we often jump straight to the work of Christ before talking about the person of Christ. This is part...

There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they’re preaching the gospel to you when they tell you, ‘you can have a purpose to your life’, or that ‘you can have meaning to your life’, or that ‘you can have a personal relationship with Jesus .’ All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the gospel. The gospel is called the ‘ good news ’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings , and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God , and I’ll be judged.  And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness –or lack of it–or the righteousness of another. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obed...

Icon depicting the First Council of Nicaea. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Here are a three reasons you should give up Lent for Lent:  History —the idea of giving up something for Lent comes from a few factors—the growth of infant baptism, the increase of Roman Catholic traditions, and silliness of the Catholic approach to meat. Allowing for some oversimplification, for the first few hundred years of church history baptism was generally practiced on what we now call Easter  Sunday . Candidates for baptism would spend a period of preparation where they would fast, not shave, and in some cases not even bathe. While the exact length of this time varied (some say it was a few days, while other sources say 40 days), it would end at baptism, when the believer would be baptized, thus ending his fast. In some churches, the entire congregation would join the fast (but not the no bathing part), as a form of spiritual preparation for baptism  Sunday . With the legaliza...

Does prayer make any difference? Absolutely! And prayer makes a difference because the living God , the Holy Spirit , lives inside the one praying. Further, when God’s people get together and pray as a community, amazing things happen! I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of those before-and-after photos advertising the latest weight loss and fitness program. The Bible gives us a pretty neat before-and-after picture of the early church. Before the Holy Spirit empowered the church at Pentecost , the apostles are waiting, hiding, and hoping. And they’re praying. Then Pentecost occurs. The fire falls. The Spirit empowers. And things begin to happen. Thousands are saved and added to the church. Miracles occur. Healing takes place. The impact is so tangible that the church leaders start getting in trouble for bringing attention to the crime of the unfair crucifixion of Jesus. Peter and John heal a crippled man at one of the Temple gates and it lands them in jail where they take a beating and...