Dr Paul Allen

So when we read the Bible we have the sense that we are actually listening to the voice of God. He's speaking to us, and so we say as you remember Samuel was taught to say, "Speak Lord, because your servant is listening." In some ways, that's the most difficult thing in the world for us and it's becoming more difficult because we're living in a world where young people are educated to have opinions. I've noticed over the years that I've taught in Bible College there has been a tremendous shift in people's ability to write because they're not encouraged to write. They are encouraged to have opinions, and the more they are able to articulate themselves and have opinions, the more impressive they become. And hardly anybody notices that what that transformation in society is doing is producing a nation of people who talk but hardly ever listen and you see that in ordinary life, don't you? People want to talk to you, but if they say as t...

Antipathy toward God’s Word inherently resides in the hearts of all sinners. This antipathy may even be present in those within the church. If there is any doubt about this, it is worth asking why popular evangelicalism’s greatest fear is being out of sync with the culture. True biblical Christianity requires a denial of every worldly value and behaviour, and Christians must be willing to make a commitment to the Word of God, with a full understanding of the implications of doing so. Jesus plainly tells the disciples in John 15:19 that the world will hate them because they are not of this world. God has chosen believers out of the world, and the world hates them. In Luke 6:26, Jesus says, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.” Why is the world so fixed in its animosity toward the truth of God? Jesus says in John 7:7, “The world . . . hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” Contempt f...

There are at least two senses in Scripture in which Jesus is the word of God. Though related, one has to do with the idea of revelation, and the other with the Greek word logos. Jesus as God’s revelation One way to understand Jesus as God’s word is simply textual—Hebrews says God “speaks” to us by his Son: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Heb 1:1–3b) When God spoke through the prophets, the formula was consistent: “And the word of the Lord came to . . .” or, the prophet himself would say, “Thus says the Lord” (see 2 Kings 20:4; 2 Sam 7:4; Ezek 3:16). And then the prophet conveyed a message previously hidden. Revelation happened. So what this comparison says...

Those who trust in riches now will have their reward now, and those who trust in full bellies now will have their reward now. Those who trust in the coming kingdom will receive their reward — the greatest reward — when Christ returns. Some questions to ask as you read and study Luke 6:20–26: Why do you think God often mentions rewards when he calls for obedience? Does this make us selfish or selfless? Read Luke 6:34–36 and Hebrews 11:24–26. What role did reward have in Moses’s obedience? What role should reward have in ours? Read Luke 6:20–26. Identify the specific rewards God offers to those who follow him through hard things on earth. What would you say to someone who says it is wrong to follow God to gain a reward?

There had been an earlier pagan critic named Celsus. Celsus was an eminently thoughtful and philosophical man, and as a typical pagan, Celsus had said, “Those Christians, you know, if you wanted to gather just a group of thugs, you wouldn’t do any better than the local church. They’re stupid, they’re not well-educated, and for them to go around constantly saying that God is interested in them, they’re like a bunch of frogs croaking in a pond, trying to get attention to themselves.” And Origen took on this critique of Celsus, this elitist attitude on the part of Celsus, and answered it brilliantly. He said, “You know, Celsus is right. Christians aren’t much. And the glorious thing about Christianity is you don’t have to be much to come to Christ, because you don’t have to change yourself in order to come to Christ, but you come to Christ in order to be changed.”

Divine Miraculous Healing 1.      Direct healing that takes place when God heals directly by His sovereign power with no secondary agent used. There are 35 incidents in Scripture of direct healing. Gen. 17 and 21: Abraham and Sarah Isaiah 38:1–6: Hezekiah Luke 7:1–10: the centurion’s servant 2.      Indirect healing , which takes place when God heals through a secondary agent. The majority of the healings recorded in Scripture refer to secondary agents. 1 Kings 13:1–6: Jeroboam healed by the prayer of the man of God Acts 3:1–16: the lame man healed through the ministry of Peter and John Acts 28:8: Publius’ father healed through the prayer and laying on of hands James 5:14–16: Elders commanded to anoint with oil and pray for the sick 3.      Healing through prayer alone (five incidents in Scripture) 4.      Healing through prayer and laying on of hands (12 incidents in Scripture) 5.  ...

Historically speaking, both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have understood that there are degrees of sin . The Roman Catholic church makes a distinction between mortal and venial sin. The point of that distinction is that there are some sins so gross, heinous, and serious that the actual commission of those sins is mortal in the sense that it kills the grace of justification that resides in the soul of the believer.  In their theology, not every sin is devastating to that degree. There are some real sins that are venial sins. These are less serious sins in terms of their consequences, but they don't have the justification-killing capacity that mortal sins have. Many evangelical Protestants have rejected the idea of degrees of sin because they know that the Protestant Reformation rejected the Roman Catholic distinction between mortal and venial sins . As a result, they've jumped to the conclusion that there are no distinctions between sins in Protestantism. We should...

The perfections of God are not like a pie, as if we sliced up the pie into different pieces, lovebeing 10 percent, holiness 15 percent, omnipotence 7 percent, and so on.  Unfortunately, this is how many Christians talk about God today, as if love, holiness, and omnipotence are all different parts of God, God being evenly divided among His various attributes. Some even go further, believing some attributes to be more important than others. This happens most with divine love, which some say is the most important attribute, what they might call the biggest piece of the pie. But such an approach is deeply problematic, as it turns God into a collection of attributes. It even sounds as if God were one thing and His attributes another, something added to Him, attached to who He is. Not only does this approach divide up the essence of God, but it potentially risks setting one part of God against another. (For example, might His love ever oppose His justice?) Sometimes this error is u...

Few people understand the extent of sin and the doctrine of total depravity. Paul summarizes our sinful condition by combining several Old Testament texts: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom. 3:10–18) This is what it looks like to be “dead” in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). All sin is rooted in failing to glorify God as “the true God and our God” (Westminster Shorter Catechism 47). It is bad to be sinners before a holy God, but it is even worse to be unaware of who we are and why we need Christ to save us. However, the Bible no...

Why did God create? Certainly not because He needed someone to love. Throughout all eternity past, God enjoyed perfect love and intimate communion within His own being. The three persons of the Godhead—Father, Son, and Spirit—enjoyed perfect relationships and completely fulfilled one another. Thus, God was not inwardly lonely or personally empty; He was entirely self-satisfied, self-content, and self-contained.  So God did not create because of some limitation within Himself. Instead, He created everything out of nothing in order to put His glory on display for the delight of His created beings and that they might declare His greatness. The book of Genesis records God’s extraordinary display of sovereignty in speaking creation into being—and in saving it. In Genesis, Moses first recorded the stunning demonstration of God’s sovereignty in creation. God did not look down the tunnel of time and see the universe evolve out of nothing. He did not foresee a big bang and the...

The Old Testament tells us that no person can see the face of God and live (Exod 33:20). The New Testament echoes this prohibition (John 1:18). The prophet Hosea, however, seems to disagree. In Hosea 12:3–4, the prophet revisits the story of Jacob as told in Genesis:     In the womb he [Jacob] deceived his brother,       and in his manhood he struggled with God.       He struggled with the angel and prevailed;          he pleaded for his mercy.       He met him at Bethel,          and there he spoke with him. (LEB) If we turn back to Genesis, we find that Jacob “struggled” (sarah) with “a man” in a physical scuffle (Gen 32:24 LEB). The same Hebrew word is also used in Hosea 12:3 for Jacob’s struggle with God, thereby linking these two passages. As Jacob wrestled the stranger, he came to realize he was struggling with God (elohim) in human form (Gen 32:28). He named th...

The spectacular fall of Jericho’s walls in Joshua 6 ranks as one of the most memorable stories in the Old Testament. It stands alongside epic tales like the parting of the Red Sea and the battle between David and Goliath. But many consider the description of events in the book of Joshua a litmus test for the Bible’s historical fallibility. The modern debate over Jericho’s historicity has raged for decades. It’s a complex battleground with strategic assaults from multiple perspectives. Archaeology and chronology are on the controversy’s frontlines. The Biblical Account To understand the conflict, we need a clear picture of the chronology of events as recorded in the Bible. Following the exodus from Egypt, Joshua replaced Moses as Israel’s leader (Num 27:18–23; Deut 317–8). He led the conquest of Jericho. According to 1 Kings 6:1, the fourth year of King Solomon’s reign marked 480 years since the exodus. Solomon’s fourth year is commonly dated to 966 BC, which places the Ex...

“I am that I am”—God’s response when Moses asks for his name is famous for both its simplicity and its mystery (Exod 3:14 LEB). What exactly does it mean? In Hebrew, God says ehyeh asher ehyeh (“I am that I am”). The verb form for “I am” is ehyeh. If you’ve studied a language, you know that verbs—action words—have grammatical person and number. With most languages, “number” refers to singular or plural; “person” refers to the subject of the verb. When I taught biblical languages, I would explain it this way: I am number one (first person). You are second fiddle (second person). Everyone else (he, she, or they) is a third party (third person). In this sentence, the name of God, ehyeh, is a first-person, singular form of the verb “to be” (hayah). It’s a statement of self-existence—and, therefore, a denial of being created by any higher power or force. Yet, the consonants used in ehyeh are not exactly the same as those found in the name of God in thousands of other places in the...