Dr Paul Allen

Students of philosophy are well aware of the watershed significance of Immanuel Kant’s epochal work, The Critique of Pure Reason. In this volume Kant gave a comprehensive critique of the traditional arguments for the existence of God, wreaking havoc on natural theology and classical apologetics. Kant ended in agnosticism with respect to God, arguing that God cannot be known either by rational deduction or by empirical investigation.   He assigned God to the “noumenal world,” a realm impenetrable by reason or by sense perception. The impact on apologetics and metaphysical speculation of Kant’s work has been keenly felt. What is often overlooked, however, even among philosophers, is the profound impact Kant’s critique had on our understanding of the soul. Kant placed three concepts or entities in his noumenal realm, a realm above and beyond the phenomenal realm. The triad includes God, the self, and the thing-in-itself, or essences.  If God resides in this extra phenomenal realm...

English: Immanuel Kant Deutsch: Immanuel Kant (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Pluralism has found a home among the people of God. While pluralism—the acceptance of nonbiblical ideas and practices as compatible with biblical faith and life—is not a new phenomenon, its persistence in church history and the pervasiveness of its influence today is a matter of deep concern for believers. What differentiates old from new pluralisms is how pluralism was opposed in the Bible and early church but enthusiastically embraced by the church in recent eras. Evidences of pluralism appeared early in Israel ’s life. Idolatry existed alongside traditional worship in the temple in Jerusalem. Israelites worshiped the god Baal through grossly immoral acts and engaged in child sacrifice to the Ammonite god Molech while maintaining a semblance of traditional worship in yearly festivals and sacrifices in the temple (see Jer. 7:8–10). Prophets repeatedly castigated Israel for engaging in magical practices forbi...

From a painting of Immanuel Kant (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) 1 Chronicles 29:11 “Yours, O Lord , is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty…. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all” (v. 11). Theological controversy did not end at the Council of Nicea , and in the following centuries the church had to deal with errors regarding the humanity of Christ , the authority of Scripture, justification, and others. Despite the various positions taken on these issues, however, most theologians still insisted on the transcendence of God . That all changed in the nineteenth century. Our Creator ’s transcendence is affirmed throughout Scripture and is reflected in the passage of 1 Chronicles 29:11. When we say God is transcendent, we mean that He is separate from His creation and not dependent on the created order in any way.  The Almighty made the universe and He is therefore its sovereign ruler (Gen...

English: Immanuel Kant Deutsch: Immanuel Kant (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) 1 Chronicles 29:11 “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty…. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all” ( v. 11 ). Theological controversy did not end at the Council of Nicea , and in the following centuries the church had to deal with errors regarding the humanity of Christ, the authority of Scripture, justification, and others. Despite the various positions taken on these issues, however, most theologians still insisted on the transcendence of God . That all changed in the nineteenth century. Our Creator’s transcendence is affirmed throughout Scripture and is reflected in today’s passage. When we say God is transcendent, we mean that He is separate from His creation and not dependent on the created order in any way. The Almighty made the universe and He is therefore its sovereign ruler ( Gen. 1:1 ). A biblical view of transc...

From a painting of Immanuel Kant (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Why do we attend church on Sundays ? Fundamentally, we come to church starved for God . Coming with our need, we seek God in our worship and in hearing the word faithfully preached. We arrive at church with a God-sized appetite for spiritual pleasures that only the Living God can fill. But is it honorable to find our motivation to get to church in seeking blessing from God? Or is that a selfishness that spoils the whole morning and embarrases God? Isn’t it more honorable to arrive at church with disinterested motives? Pastor John says no. Here’s why. Immanuel Kant , the German philosopher who died in 1804, was the most powerful exponent of the notion that the moral value of an act decreases as we aim to derive any benefit from it. Acts are good if the doer is "disinterested." We should do the good because it is good. Any motivation to seek joy or reward corrupts the act. Piper goes on to explain what’s on the...

The Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) If there is no resurrection of the dead , then not even Christ has been raised ( 1 Corinthians 15 :13). Death is the last enemy (v. 26). It is not our friend. It is hard, frightening, and absurd. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus and shrank from death on the Mount of Olives . Because death is so fearful, it is difficult to retain faith in the face of it, but thankfully the Holy Spirit enables us to. Philosophers such as Plato and Immanuel Kant have wrestled with the problem of death, but they cannot give us any assurance of a life to come. It is only in the Gospel that we find the facts that enable us to die in faith. Primary among those facts is the resurrection of Jesus Christ . His resurrection in a glorious body proves that there is a new life in glory for believers. Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15 that the resurrected Christ appeared “to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than 500 of the...

Image via Wikipedia The question, “What is sin?” is raised in the Westminster Shorter Catechism . The answer provided to this catechetical question is simply this: “ Sin is any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of  God .” Let us examine some of the elements of this catechetical response. In the first instance, sin is identified as some kind of want or lack. In the middle ages, Christian theologians tried to define evil or sin in terms of privation ( privatio ) or negation ( negatio ). In these terms, evil or sin was defined by its lack of conformity to goodness. The negative terminology associated with sin may be seen in biblical words such as  dis obedience ,  god less ness , or  im morality . In all of these terms, we see the negative being stressed. Further illustrations would include words such as  dishonor ,  antichrist , and others. However, to gain a complete view of sin, we have to see that it involves more than a negation of...