Dr Paul Allen

The sick love of controversy — or the “unhealthy craving for controversy,” as Paul calls it in 1 Timothy 6:4 . The question is from a podcast listener named Brett. “Pastor John, hello! We live in an age of controversy. And that controversy-loving spirit has come into the church.  The Apostle Paul clearly warns us against people in the church who have a ‘diseased’ (nosōn) or ‘unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.’ That’s 1 Timothy 6:4–5 . I wonder if you can lay out principles for what this ‘diseased craving for controversy’ looks like in the church today.” I’ll try to do that in just a moment — namely, lay out some principles to try to avoid what Paul’s denouncing in these verses. But first, let me say a word about what Brett calls our “age of controversy.” He’s right, ...

A blood feud raged in 1863-1891 between the Hatfields of West Virginia on one side of the Tug Fork River and the McCoys of Kentucky on the other side. The catalyst was a pig that Randolph McCoy accused Floyd Hatfield of stealing. After four decades of feuding, a dozen lives were lost, and the matter was finally curtailed by the governors of Kentucky and West Virginia, and the US Supreme Court itself. Over the course of the following century, the tension between the families became something of American folklore, the stuff of legends, though it took on a less sinister hue. Today both families make money off the tourist route that commemorates their feud. There are monuments raised in places where Hatfields or McCoys lost their lives, complete with commentary available on audio CD for a self-directed driving tour. But it wasn’t until 1979 that the two families faced off again. This time it was all in good-natured fun. The TV game show called Family Feud features two teams each week who c...

Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated ” (Romans 9:13). The Bible says that God hates some people . Romans 9:13 says that God hated Esau before Esau was even born, because Esau had inherited Adam’s hatred of God, and God was not pleased (in His mysterious decision) to elect Esau to salvation. Psalm 5:5 says, “The arrogant cannot stand in Your presence; You hate all who do wrong.” Notice that is it not some abstract “sin” or “wickedness” that God hates in this verse; it is people whom He hates. Psalm 139:21–22 tells us that we should join God in His holy hatred of these people: “Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord …? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.” The New Testament says the same in Revelation 2:6. How are we to understand this ? In some cases, hate simply means “love less.” In Luke 14:26 we find Jesus saying that we must hate the members of our own families if we want to follow Him, while in the parallel passage in Matthew 10:37, Jesu...

On  June 17 , Dylan Roof murdered nine people who had gathered for prayer at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The Supreme Court legalized so-called same-sex marriage nationwide on  June 26 . Finally, July 14 saw the release of disturbing undercover footage of a Planned Parenthood director discussing the sale of tissue and organs from aborted babies. A second video — no less unsettling — emerged last week, with more likely to come. In the face of these developments, we shouldn’t fall into alarmism or fear-mongering. Jesus has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church (Matthew  16:18 ). Nor should we exaggerate the plight of the American church, as though our sufferings were on a par with what believers elsewhere have experienced under Boko Haram or ISIS or Kim Jong-un. Things may seem bad in America, yes. But not as bad as they could be. And yet, we can’t deny that the American church faces opposition...

Jesus is considered by scholars such as Weber to be an example of a charismatic religious leader. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Author: Ric Thomas. You raise a good and thoughtful question about a phrase that has been tossed around Christianity for a long time. It is one of those bumper sticker statements or fiery pulpit lines that sounds good in the moment, but lacks depth and needs more explanation and nuance, which is the point of your question. If we “hate the sin and love the sinner,” but never practicalize what God’s love fully means as it relates to the sinner, then we are missing something that is of paramount importance. Though the intent of the statement is good, the danger is that it can lead us into the pluralistic relativism we so despise in our culture today. Hate the sin, but love the sinner is a forced juxtaposition of biblical thought that can abuse the word love, while obscuring God’s plenary character and attributes. Whenever we take two thoughts like this–ha...

Agape feast 04 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “… Showing forbearance to one another in love.” EPHESIANS 4:2 In order to walk worthy, we must forgive our enemies and love them. The term forbearance is not often used today and is therefore unfamiliar to many of us. The Greek word translated “showing forbearance” means “suppressing with silence.” It carries the idea of throwing a blanket over sin. First Peter 4:8 says, “Love covers a multitude of sins,” and Proverbs 10:12 declares, “ Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions.” A forbearing person doesn’t trumpet other people’s sins but rather forgives them. Forbearance has room for the failures of others. A forbearing person also loves people in spite of the wrongs they might have done to him. Agape , the word used for “love” in this verse, is the love that gives but never takes. It’s the kind of love that seeks the highest good for another, no matter what the cost. God showed His agape by giving us His onl...

Sinner (Dekker novel) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Repent or Perish”  forces people to ponder seriously the popular slogan, “ God hates the sin and loves the sinner.” Is a necessary repentance consistent with “God loves the sinner?” If God loves the sinner while he is alive, it is strange that God sends him to hell as soon as he dies. God loves the sinner to death ? Loves him to everlasting torment? There is something wrong here. Either God loves the sinner and will not send him into the furnace of His eternal wrath; or He sends him into His eternal wrath and does not love him. Either “you are going to hell unless” because God hates you , as you are. Or, God loves you and “you are going to hell unless” is false. What leads almost everyone to believe that God loves the sinner is that God does the sinner so much good.  He bestows so many favors including letting him continue to live. How can God let the sinner live and give him so many blessings, unless He loves...

Jesus said to love our enemies. Does that include ISIS? What does jesus mean?  That is what he said, as Matthew recounts his words from the Sermon on the Mount : “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’” (Matthew5:43–44, emphasis added) And when Jesus said “love,” we should be clear that he didn’t mean hollow good will, or some bland benevolence, or a flakey niceness that hopes our enemies stop being so cruel. Jesus never talks about love that way. A category for love like that — the anything-goes, pat-on-the-head, can’t-we-all-just-get-along kind of love — is a phenomenon peculiar to our own day. When Jesus says to love our enemies, he means that we love them with a lay-your-life-down type of love — the type that comes from the heart and desires the other’s good, and sacrifices for it, when no one else but God is watching. And it’s the type of ...

English: An image of Psalm 23 (King James' Version), frontispiece to the 1880 omnibus printing of The Sunday at Home. Scanned at 800 dpi. Français : Illustration du Psaume 23 (version autorisée par le roi Jacques), en frontispice de l'édition omnibus du Sunday at home. Version numérisée à 800 dpi. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) It seems a contradiction that a God who is love can also hate. We are created with the capacity to both love and hate; it is part of our being created in the image of God. The fact that we are all tainted with sin does not negate the fact that the ability to love and hate is part of the image of God that was created within us all. Therefore, if it is no contradiction for a human being to be able to love and hate, then much more so would it not be a contradiction for God to be able to love and hate. When the Bible does speak of God hating, the object of God’s hatred is usually sin and wickedness. Among the things God hates are idolatry ( Deuteronom...