Dr Paul Allen

The apostles were convinced that they were living in the last days. In the Old Testament, the expression “the last days” refers to the future time of God’s final intervention in Israel’s history and in the history of the world. The earliest Christians dated the beginning of the end times to the coming of Jesus, particularly his death and resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit, a complex of events that constitutes the fulfillment of God’s promises of Israel’s restoration and humanity’s salvation. T he End Times Have Begun with Jesus’ Coming: Acts 2:16–21 One important passage in the New Testament teaching that the end times began with Jesus’ coming is found in Peter’s speech given on the day of Pentecost. After clarifying for the Jews who had gathered from around the world that the speaking in unlearned languages by Jesus’ followers is not the result of drunkenness (Acts 2:15), Peter asserts that the audiovisual phenomena of the sound from heaven, the tongues of fi...

Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 13:13, the three greatest spiritual virtues : faith , hope, and love. Actually faith and hope are encompassed by love, which “believes all things,” and “hopes all things” (v. 7). Because faith and hope will have no purpose in heaven, where everything true will be known and everything good will be possessed, they are not equal to love. Love is the greatest of these not only because it is eternal, but because, even in this temporal life, where we now live, love is supreme. Love already is the greatest, not only because it will outlast the other virtues, beautiful and necessary as they are, but because it is inherently greater by being the most God–like. God does not have faith or hope, but “God is love” ( 1 John 4:8). Gifts, ministries, faith, hope, patience, all one day will cease to exist because they will cease to have purpose or meaning.  But in that perfect day, when we see our Lord “face to face,” love will for us be just beginning. But...

1 Corinthians 12:9,28 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit. ...And God has placed in the churchf first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. The significant thing about this text is that both “gift” and “healing” are plural and lack the definite article, hence the translation: “gifts of healings”. Evidently Paul did not envision that a person would be endowed with one healing gift operative at all times for all diseases. His language suggests either many different gifts or powers of healing, each appropriate to and effective for its related illness, or each occurrence of healing constituting a distinct gift in its own right. One of the principal obstacles to a proper understanding of healing is the erroneous assumption that if anyone could ever heal, he could always heal. But in view of the lingering illness of Epaphro...

PRAYING FOR PEOPLE Establishing an accurate definition of what constitutes a miracle is difficult in view of the prevailing influence of Deism among Christians. God is continually and directly in control of everything that occurs! In light of this, several inadequate definitions of miracles need to be rejected. E.g., Some define a miracle as a direct intervention of God into the world. But “intervention … into” implies that God is outside the world and only occasionally intrudes. Some define a miracle as God working in the world apart from means to bring about the desired result. But God often uses “means” or “instruments” in performing the miraculous, as in the case of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000. Others define a miracle as God acting contrary to natural law. But this implies there are forces (“ natural laws ”) which operate independently of God, forces or laws that God must violate or override to perform a miracle. God is the author and providential Lord over all nat...

English: The Flight of the Prisoners, c. 1896-1902 , gouache on board, 8 15/16 x 11 5/8 in. (22.7 x 29.7 cm), Jewish Museum, New York, NY. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) One of the most divisive issues in the early church was whether non-Jews could become Christians, and if so, to what extent they had to adopt Jewish practices. The church began, of course, among Jews. Since the earliest Christians shared much of the same religious, ethnic, and cultural background, there was little conflict over inclusiveness. But as the gospel spread to other groups, such as the Hellenists (Jews born outside of Palestine who spoke Greek), or the Jews’ despised cousins the Samaritans, or Gentiles, tensions rose and conflicts broke out (for example, Acts 6:1; 11:1–2; 15:1–2). In the case of Gentiles, some Jewish believers stridently opposed their inclusion. The only way that Gentiles could be acceptable to God, they argued, was by satisfying a precondition: they would have to be circumcised according ...

The Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) This coming Sunday morning April 5th at Hope Church Australia , we will gather together as the people of the risen King who delight to bring Him praise, and will celebrate the triumphant victory of King Jesus, who died for our sins according to the Scriptures, who was buried in a borrowed tomb, and who three days later rose from the grave, triumphant and victorious over sin and death. But the heights of our praise will not exceed the depth of our theology. Our praise to Christ can only soar as high as our understanding of His glorious person and work is rooted in the rich soil of God ’s Word. Our worship of Christ for His resurrection will not rise higher than our understanding of His resurrection. And so to enflame our worship of the risen Lord Jesus Christ as we anticipate this Easter Resurrection Sunday, I want us to think on the biblical and theological significance of the resurrection of Christ . Today I want to focus pa...

When it comes to the Holy Spirit , most evangelicals fall into one of two extremes. Some seem obsessed with him, relating to him in strange, mystical ways. Their experiences with the Spirit always seem to coincide with an emotionally ecstatic moment — triggered by a musical crescendo, the wail of the electric guitars, or that point at the end of a sermon when their pastor goes on an alliterated roll. Other Christians react to that perceived excess by neglecting his ministry altogether. They believe inthe Holy Spirit, but they relate to him the same way they relate to their pituitary gland: grateful it’s in there; know it’s essential for something; don’t pay much attention to it. There certainly isn’t a sense of the presence of God with them, or a living, moving, dynamic Person. I was like that for many years. For me, the Holy Trinity consisted of the Father, Son, and Holy Bible. Yet Scripture indicates that God has always desired a close and personal presence with his people. He w...

Portrait of Martin Luther as an Augustinian Monk (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Faith is not what some people think it is. Their human dream is a delusion. Because they observe that faith is not followed by good works or a better life, they fall into error, even though they speak and hear much about faith. "Faith is not enough," they say, "You must do good works, you must be pious to be saved." They think that, when you hear the gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, "I believe." That is what they think true faith is. But, because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart never learns anything from it, so it does nothing and reform doesn't come from this `faith,' either. Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace , so certain of God ’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it Instead, faith is God's work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God. (John 1:13). ...

The answer to this question is yes. Not only is it possible, but it happened in time and space.  Neo-orthodox theologians (twentieth-century thinkers strongly influenced by Karl Barth ) have said that the question is logically unanswerable because faith is an illogical paradox and can be seen only through the eyes of faith.  In recent years liberal theologians have denied the reality of the incarnation on the grounds that it is a myth and not true in any objective sense. In the nineteenth century advocates of kenotic Christology (emphasizing the “emptying” of Christ in keeping with Php 2:7) argued that in the incarnation the divine Logos (Word) suspended the characteristics of deity because they were in principle incompatible with human attributes, thus making nonsense of the claim that Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man (as both the Bible and historic Christian confessions have claimed). Historical, Bible-based theology has argued that God is omniscient (all ...

Moses with the tablets of the Ten Commandments, painting by Rembrandt (1659) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew 8:1 –4 “ Jesus said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them’” (v. 4). The first evangelist has shown our Savior to be a new Moses in his gospel. Like Moses, Jesus was in mortal danger shortly after His birth ( Ex. 1:8–2:10; Matt. 2:16–18). Christ, the new covenant mediator, delivered God’s word on a mountain just as Moses received the Torah (the Law) on Sinai (Ex. 19:20–23:33; Matt. 5–7). However, Jesus comes not as Moses’ equal, but as his superior. Unlike Moses, our Lord explains the Law by His own authority (7:28–29). Moreover, Jesus comes down from the mountain to cleanse His people after declaring His Father’s will (8:1–4). Christ is better than Moses, who came down with commands that could only pronounce them “unclean” ...