Dr Paul Allen

First of all, how much importance should we place on whether or not a religious practice is currently “normative”? Christianity is not the normative religion of the world today, but this does not keep Christians from proclaiming Jesus Christ as the Light of the world and believing that it is God’s will for all men to come to a saving knowledge of Him.  While the baptism in the Holy Spirit may not yet be normative in the church of our day, nevertheless, it is growing by leaps and bounds. It was much more normative in the early church than is generally understood. A study of Scripture shows that Christians in Caesarea, Samaria, Ephesus, Rome, Corinth, and Jerusalem received the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, since either direct or indirect references point to the fact. We know that the 120 in the upper room at Pentecost spoke in tongues, as did the apostle Paul. From this group emerged almost the entire leadership of the early church.  O bviously, as they ministered in th...

Jesus considered the baptism in the Holy Spirit so important that He expressly forbade His disciples to begin their ministry until they had received it. He knew it was essential for them to have the power which baptism in the Holy Spirit provides. And while staying with them, He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for John baptised with water, but before many days you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”(Acts 1:4–5) There are many reasons why the baptism in the Holy Spirit is important. Rufus Moseley listed the following reasons in a little pamphlet entitled The Gift of the Holy Spirit. 1.It is only through this heavenly gift empowering us, guiding us, and transforming us that we have immediate union with the glorified Jesus and are given power to do His work and His will and to grow up into His likeness.  As blessed as was the ministry of Jesus in the flesh, and as glorious as was His redemp...

  “Now I Paul myself beseech you”, v. 1, has a peculiar emphasis, indicating that Paul is not only the grammatical subject of the verse, but the subject under discussion. The chapter is full of references to the accusations made against him, and forms part of the apostle’s vindication which continues into chapter 13.  Some said he was “base”, fainthearted, when with them and “bold” when not, v. 1. They claimed he “walked according to the flesh”, vv. 2, 3, was prone to self-exaltation, v. 8, and used his letters to terrify them, v. 9. Some made fun of his undistinguished personal appearance, v. 10, and the lack of majesty in his manner.  How does Paul address himself to the task of rebutting these accusations?  Does he do it with justifiable indignation?  No, he beseeches them by “the meekness and gentleness of Christ”. These qualities were of great price in his eyes, though not in theirs. He remembers the Lord Jesus. He remembers how far He was from violence and...

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (Ps. 8:3–4) The big question is not, does God care for me? The Bible declares he does over and over again. It tells us that God’s eyes are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers (Ps. 34:15). It says that he is with us wherever we go (Gen. 28:15). The Bible welcomes us to bring our cares to God because he cares for us (1 Pet. 5:7). It tells us that he will never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5).  The message is clear and consistent—God cares for his own. If you are God’s child, you are never outside the scope of his constant care. The Bible is also clear and consistent when it talks of the unshakability of God’s love. His love is eternal. From the verse-by-verse refrain of Psalm 136, “for his steadfast love endures forever,” to Paul’s declaration in Romans ...

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. — Romans 6:1–4 Paul knows his audience, as he’s been proclaiming the gospel to communities like the Romans for a long time. He skillfully anticipates the objections in the hearts of his hearers. When they heard in Romans 5:2 that we stand in God’s grace, they may have thought—as you and I may sometimes think—that if there’s more grace when I sin, and grace is good, why not sin more? He replies emphatically, as he has a few other times so far, “By no means!” May we never rationalise our sin as a way to display more of God’s grace. To do so is to misunderstand God’s grace, at best, and ex...

Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matt. 11:28–30) When we come to Christ, we are startled by the beauty of his welcoming heart. The surprise is itself what draws us in. Have we considered the loveliness of the heart of Christ? Perhaps beauty is not a category that comes naturally to mind when we think about Christ. Maybe we think of God and Christ in terms of truth, not beauty. But the whole reason we care about sound doctrine is for the sake of preserving God’s beauty, just as the whole reason we care about effective focal lenses on a camera is to capture with precision the beauty we photograph. Let Jesus draw you in through the loveliness of his heart. This is a heart that upbraids the impenitent with all the appropriate harshness, yet embraces the penitent with more openness than we...

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright. (Ps. 20:7–8) Don’t fear your weaknesses—God supplies all the strength you need. Be afraid of those moments when you think you’re independently strong. Admit it, you don’t like being weak. It’s not fun being the last one chosen to play on the team. It’s embarrassing to be asked a question you can’t answer. It’s frustrating not to be able to figure out the directions for assembling the furniture you just bought.  It’s mortifying to forget that important appointment or the name of a good friend. It’s humbling to fail at a task, to drop the ball, or to make a promise and not be able to keep it.  We don’t like getting lost or forgetting a phone number. We all hate those moments when we feel unqualified or unprepared. We don’t like being confused or not knowing. We covet the muscles and the brains of others.  We all hate being afraid an...

 

The Holy Spirit Enlightening the Mind BY JAMES BUCHANAN Having considered the general design of the gift of the Spirit, in reference both to the world and the Church, and described the course or process by which a soul is translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, I propose to illustrate separately the various parts of the Spirit’s work, or his successive operations on the soul, from the time when it is first taken under his teaching, till it is made ‘meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.’ One of his most necessary operations is that by which he conveys spiritual light into the understanding; and to this part of his work, which is indeed so important, that it is often put for the whole, the apostle refers, when, speaking of the Holy Ghost as ‘the Spirit of wisdom and revelation,’ he prays that by the Spirit ‘the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened’ (Eph. i. 17, 18), and when he describes true converts as having had their eyes opened,...

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. (Heb. 10:12) Where is Jesus now? The question of Jesus’s present location is a valid one because of what we have already learned about his humanity (Jesus has a risen and glorified human body that he will keep forever). So Jesus is literally in a place right now; in his physical human body, he exists somewhere. But where? The Bible is clear that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God the Father in heaven (Heb. 10:12; 12:2). Heaven is indeed a place, even though it is invisible to us. The Hebrews 10 passage makes clear that this is where Jesus is even now. What is Jesus doing now? As Jesus sits in heaven at God’s right hand, what is his current role? First, Jesus is mediating for us before the throne of God. The Bible tells us that Jesus is a mediator. He was a mediator when he died on the cross to bridge the gap between sinners and the holy God. But he continues to be a media...

What happened to the ark of the covenant? There are theories galore. Here’s a quick rundown.  Let’s start with Egypt. After Solomon died, his son Rehoboam became king, and Pharaoh Shishak invaded Jerusalem. He carried off treasures from the temple (1 Kings 14). That theory, of course, lies behind Raiders of the Lost Ark. Others think that when King Jehoash from the northern kingdom invaded Jerusalem and plundered the temple treasury, he took the ark as spoils of war (2 Kings 14). Both theories run into a snag. There is evidence that the ark was restored to (or still present in) Jerusalem generations later during the reign of Josiah ( 2 Chronicles 35:3). That brings us to the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Nebuchadnezzar razed the temple and carried many sacred objects away to Babylon. Some think the ark was destroyed then or taken into exile. Here’s the problem: Jeremiah 52, which we read today in Bible in One Year, gives a long inventory of temple items taken by th...

Sinful acts always have their origin in some form of unbelief. Behind every sin is a lie. The root of all our behaviour and emotions is the heart—what it trusts and what it treasures. And people are given over to sinful desires because “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (Rom. 1:24–25):  Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (Eph. 4:17–19)  Humanity’s problem is futile thinking, darkened understanding, and ignorant hearts. We sin because we believe the lie that we are better off without God—that his rule is oppressive, we will be free without him, and sin offers more than God. This is true of every sin.  We can often identify...

Satan emerges throughout Scripture as a multifaceted adversary whose nature and activities shape Christian understanding of evil. He is portrayed as a high angelic creature who rebelled against the Creator before humanity’s creation and became the chief antagonist of God and humanity. 1  He has been sinning from the beginning, holding no truth, and when he lies, he speaks his native language as the father of lies. (John 8:44) Biblical accounts depict Satan engaging in several destructive activities. He leads the whole world astray (Rev 12:9–10), while he accuses believers before God day and night. (Rev 12:9–10) He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Pet 5:8)  He masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14), and he blinds the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the gospel’s light. (2 Cor 4:4) In the Old Testament, he roams throughout the earth seeking to do injury, opposes God’s people and incites disobedience, and accuses the elect before ...