Dr Paul Allen

Martin Luther, commemorated on February 18 Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Minneapolis: Fortress Press (2006), 15. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) A single event on a single day changed the world. It was October 31, 1517. Brother Martin, a monk and a scholar, had struggled for years with his church, the church in Rome. He had been greatly disturbed by an unprecedented indulgence sale. The story has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster . Let’s meet the cast. First, there is the young bishop—too young by church laws— Albert of Mainz . Not only was he bishop over two bishoprics, he desired an additional archbishopric over Mainz. This too was against church laws. So Albert appealed to the Pope in Rome, Leo X. From the De Medici family , Leo X greedily allowed his tastes to exceed his financial resources. Enter the artists and sculptors, Raphael and Michelangelo. When Albert of Mainz appealed for a papal dispensation, Leo X was ready to deal. Albert, with the papal blessing, would sell...

Martin Luther, author of the text of Christ lag in Todes Banden, and who, with Johann Walter, also wrote the melody (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Have you ever wondered why people call themselves “Reformed”? The word “reformed” generally means “improved”—as in, desperate parents may send an incorrigible adolescent to a reformatory school to get them back in line; politicians promise economic reforms to undo the damage of their predecessors.  In theological circles, the word is written with a capital, and acts as a self-designation for those who consider themselves to be direct doctrinal descendants of the progenitors of the Reformation, namely Martin Luther , Jean Calvin ,  et al . For example, plain vanilla Baptists get upgraded to “Reformed Baptists” if they embrace not only the tenets of Baptists, but also the doctrines for which the Reformers risked life and limb. Exactly 499 years to the day (October 31, 1517) the Catholic priest, Martin Luther, nailed, to ...

Martin Luther, author of the text of Christ lag in Todes Banden, and who, with Johann Walter, also wrote the melody (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) 499 years ago this upcoming  Monday , on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther famously nailed his 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany , kick-starting the Protestant Reformation . Nearly 500 years later, God ’s people reserve this day to celebrate the rescue of His Word from the shackles of Roman Catholic tyranny, corruption, and heresy. The glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed in the sufficient Scriptures had been recovered, and it’s been doing its saving work ever since. Romans  1:16 –17 stands at the heart of the Reformation, especially because of  how central it was in Luther’s conversion . Luther speaks of how he had  hated  the phrase, “the righteousness of God,” because he understood it to be speaking only of God’s standard of righteousness by which He would judge unrighte...

Of the 47 statements included in The State of Theology study for 2016, undertaken in partnership with LifeWay Research , the responses to one statement stood out. Most of the responses tended to even out over the spectrum. Each statement tended to garner slight majorities. The results show slight majorities either getting a belief right or, in most cases, getting a belief wrong. But not statement 17, "Even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation ." This one sparked a reaction. Glancing at the graph of the data shows this response not to be a simple majority , but rather a whopping majority. 61% strongly disagree. Another 12% disagree somewhat and 7% are not sure. That leaves only 21% agreeing with this statement. We need to interpret this data. Eight out of ten Americans have an incorrect view of sin. As an implication, we could say that eight out of ten Americans do not know the biblical God. More on that later. The responses on this particular statement get even mor...

Reviewed version of Eastern Orthodoxy in Europe (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The author, Daniel Clendenin, writes to introduce Western Christians to the mysterious world of Eastern Orthodoxy . He describes his approach as “not uncritical, but … nonpolemical.” Translation? He takes a rather friendly view of Eastern Orthodoxy, lumping it together with Protestantism and Roman Catholicism as “three siblings of the same family.” Given that foundational caution, however, the book can be a helpful introduction to Eastern Orthodoxy. The first two chapters list reasons why Western Christians ought to study the Eastern church and provide a brief sketch of Eastern church history. The next four chapters are the heart of the book, each one focusing on a main area of Eastern theology and tradition that Western Christians often find to be strange. The first is the apophatic approach to knowing God , which derides logic and rational analysis and exalts unknowable mystery. The second is icons, ...

A rendition of Huldrych Zwingli from the 1906 edition of the ''Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The training of Zwingli for his life-work differs considerably from that of Luther . This difference affected their future work, and accounts in part for their collision when they met as antagonists in writing, and on one occasion (at Marburg) face to face, in a debate on the real presence. Comparisons are odious when partisan or sectarian feeling is involved, but necessary and useful if impartial. Both Reformers were of humble origin, but with this difference: Luther descended from the peasantry, and had a hard and rough schooling, which left its impress upon his style of polemics, and enhanced his power over the common people; while Zwingli was the son of a magistrate, the nephew of a dean and an abbot, and educated under the influence of the humanists, who favored urbanity of manners. Both were brought up by pious parents and teachers in the Catholic f...

English: Jesus and Mary Magdalene (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) There is an appropriate tension in the relationship between Christians and the world. We serve a Lord who came to bring life abundant (John 10:10), who has overcome the world (John 16:33), who is bringing all things under subjection (Ephesians 1:22), who will see every knee bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, to the glory of the Father (Philippians 2:10). Jesus is the second Adam succeeding where the first Adam failed, not only in obeying God 's law perfectly, not only atoning for our failure to keep the law, but in fulfilling the dominion mandate. The church, which is the second Eve, or bride of the second Adam, is a help suitable to Jesus in fulfilling that calling. We are in union with Him, bone of His bone . We are to be about the business of pressing the crown rights of King Jesus . Trouble is, we, like the disciples before us, are often zealous more for our own success, our own power, our own glory...

Image via Wikipedia Each day, two of Geneva 's ministers came to check on Theodore Beza . The old reformer was dearly loved and they were concerned for his failing health. On this day, Sunday, October 13, 1605, the sick man felt well enough to dress. Theodore asked his visitors, "Is the city in full safety and quiet?" He was assured that all was well. Moments later, he lost all strength and collapsed to the floor. Friends gathered and prayed at his bedside as he passed peacefully away within a few minutes. The last of the great reformers was dead. His had been a life of much sorrow, hard work and grueling adventure. Theodore Beza was born in Burgundy in 1519, the son of a county bailiff. His father had marked out one course for him, but it seemed God had another. At nine years of age he was sent to study with a famous Greek scholar Melchior Wolmar . Wolmar's sympathy with the Lutherans rubbed off on his pupil. What fruit this would bear was not yet apparent. Bez...