Dr Paul Allen

Lyne Wallace In simple words, John gives us an important observation about the morning of the resurrection. “…It was still dark…” As always with John the words operate on two levels. Yes, it was before dawn so it was dark. John, however, was not referring to the limited number of lumens peering over the horizon. The time of day is only a servant to his greater point. The world was dark not because the sun had yet to peer over the horizon. John is not trying to describe the ordinary. The world was dark because the power of evil had if just for a moment, won the day or so it seemed. The Light of the World was extinguished, and, for all Mary Magdalene knew, that fact remained unchanged. She most likely suspected it to forever remain unchanged. Mary was beside herself in grief. Her eyes, swollen by hours of wailing, were unable to see clearly. Her wailing had drowned out both extraordinary and familiar voices. John 20 -  Mary and Jesus She watched in disbelieving horror as the soldiers...

John Oates This is a follow-up to a question about supposed contradictions in Mark 16 about Mary Magdalene and the resurrection accounts. I establish that all the gospels agree Mary Magdalene was the first to see that the resurrection had happened.) I agree that every account aside from the Mark account states that Mary M was one of the first, if not the first, to see the empty tomb. However, the scribe that writes the ending of Mark states that she was the first to see Jesus, whereas if you read the other gospels, it seems highly unlikely that she was the first to see Jesus. In John, she is one of the first women to see the empty tomb, so she runs to Peter and the rest of the disciples and tells them that the body is not there and she doesn’t know where it’s at.  Luke states that all the women, including Mary M, told the disciples that the tomb was empty. And in Matthew says that as the women were running back, they saw Jesus.  I assume that the women who were running back do...

The annunciation is Gabriel’s prophetic announcement to Mary that she would give birth to the Son of God. However, in the past, some critics believed the idea of the Messiah as Son of God was a Graeco-Roman concept that Christians picked up after Easter. They thought Christians encountered the Graeco-Roman myth of the divine man or the son of God and then secondarily applied it to Jesus, redefining messiahship. Was the idea of Messiah as Son of God already circulating in the first century Israel? Or did it come later? One of the very noticeable features about the Gospel of Luke is it’s a very well-developed infancy narrative—or even narratives because we’re really talking about the infancy of John the Baptist, as well as the infancy of Jesus, and even a story from his early childhood. I want to focus on the Son of God theme, also on the canticles, or songs of Israel, that are embedded in the infancy narrative, as well as another interesting theme that develops that often is overlooked,...

The doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary became the official teaching of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches at the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451. In the liturgies of these churches, Mary is referred to as 'aeiparthenos' “the ever-virgin” or “the perpetual virgin”; that is, she was a virgin before and after the birth of Jesus Christ. But is this view in keeping with Matthew 1:25a: “But he (Joseph) had no sexual relations with her (Mary) until she had given birth to a son”?  Does the word “until” imply that sexual relations began after birth? After establishing the Davidic ancestry of Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, by tracing the genealogy of Jesus (Matt 1:1–17), Matthew proceeds in 1:18–25 to describe the circumstances of Jesus’ birth. Verse 25a states the one qualification (introduced by “But”) to the statement “he took Mary home as his wife” (v. 24b): “But he did not know her.” “Know” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. There was an ...

Jesus was a perfect son. He never sinned, He always obeyed His mother. But then came His first public miracle and something clearly changed. In John chapter 2, we find ourselves at a wedding not too far from where Jesus grew up. Mary seems to have important responsibilities at this wedding. Mary is informed that the wine ran out and we know that this was a potential disaster for the groom. He was expected to take care of the whole wedding, and running out of wine was like saying to his new father-in-law that he will not be able to take care of his daughter. Jesus is there, though, and He will have compassion on this teenaged couple and perform a miracle for them. Obviously, the main point of this passage is to show the world that Jesus Christ is God, He is the creator of the universe, and He, only, has the power to save souls from hell. There is another lesson, though, that Jesus teaches in His interaction with His mother. While He was the most obedient child to ever walk o...

Jesus tells Mary, “Touch Me not” (John 20:17, KJV); but then later, speaking to Thomas, He says, “Reach hither thy finger and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side” (verse 27). The seeming incongruity of Jesus’ statements is resolved when we examine the language Jesus employed and consider the basic difference between the two situations. In John 20:17, the word translated “touch” is a Greek word which means “to cling to, to lay hold of.” This wasn’t just a touch; it was a grip. Obviously, when Mary recognized Jesus, she immediately clung to Him. Matthew 28:9 records the other women doing the same thing when they saw the resurrected Christ. Mary’s reaction was motivated, possibly, by several things. One is simply her loving devotion to the Lord. Mary is overwhelmed by the events of the morning, and as her grief turns to joy, she naturally embraces Jesus. Another motivation is Mary’s desire to restore the fellowship that death had broken. She h...

In his best-selling book God is Not Great, the late atheist Christopher Hitchens argues that a Virgin Birth is scientifically impossible: “In any case, parthenogenesis is not possible for human mammals.” According to many atheists, this point is enough to end the discussion. A virgin birth would violate science, and since science has more credibility than religion, we can simply dismiss the miraculous story. Case closed. And yet the case is not that simple. In one sense, this atheist criticism is correct: humans, like other mammals, are normally incapable of parthenogenesis (a word that derives from Greek words meaning “virgin” and “birth”). However, this normative observation in no way proves that God could not cause a woman to conceive a child in her womb without the involvement of a human father. A Modern Example In a 2013 peer-reviewed periodical, two scientists in India explain that parthenogenesis, which they define as the process where “growth and development of em...

What do we mean - the Bible has authority? The Christian principle of biblical authority means that God is the author of the Bible, and has given it to direct the belief and behavior of His people. Our ideas about God and our conduct should be measured, tested, and where necessary corrected and enlarged, by reference to the Bible. Authority is also the right to command. God's written Word in its truth and wisdom is the way God has chosen to exercise His rule over us, and Scripture is the instrument of Christ 's lordship over the church. The work of the Scripture in the church is illustrated by the seven letters of Revelation (Rev. 2; 3). The Roman Catholic view of the Bible has compromised its unique authority by combining it with the tradition of the church.   Roman Catholics accept the Bible as God-given truth, but insist that it is incomplete without the official interpretation of the church as it is led by the Spirit. In the past, giving the church authority ...

What does Jesus mean?  20:17 Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended. Mary was expressing a desire to hold on to His physical presence for fear that she would once again lose Him. Jesus’ reference to His ascension signifies that He would only be temporarily with them and though she desperately wanted Him to stay, He could not. Jesus was with them only for 40 more days and then He ascended (Acts 1:3–11). After He went to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit (“The Helper”) so that they would not feel abandoned ( see note on 14:18, 19 ).  Mary had known Jesus personally as a Man. She had seen miracles happen when He was bodily present. So she concluded that if He was not with her in a visible way, then she could have no hope of blessing. The Lord must correct her thinking. He said, “Do not cling to Me simply as a Man in the flesh. I have not yet ascended to My Father . When I do return to heaven, the Holy Spirit will be sent down to the earth. When He come...

The doctrine of the Incarnation means that two distinct natures (divine and human) are united in one person: Jesus. Jesus is not two people (God and man). He is one person: the God-man. Jesus is not schizophrenic. When the Word became flesh he did not cease to be the Word. The Word veiled, hid, and voluntarily restricted the use of certain divine powers and prerogatives. But God cannot cease to be God. In other words, when the Word became flesh he did not commit divine suicide. When the Word once became flesh he became flesh forever. After his earthly life, death, and resurrection, Jesus did not divest himself of the flesh or cease to be a man. He is a man even now at the right hand of God the Father. He is also God. He will always be the God-man. See 1 Cor. 15:28; Col. 2:9; 1 John 2:7 (note use of present tense). Thus, we might envision Jesus saying: “I am now what I always was: God (or Word). I am now what I once was not: man (or flesh). I am now and forever will be both: the...

English: Jesus and Mary Magdalene (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Following Jesus ’s forty days in the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan to prove himself to be the Son of God , he returned to the Galilee where he taught in that region’s synagogues (Luke 4:14–15). On one Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue in Nazareth in which they followed an order that included a public reading from the Prophets. When it came time for that reading, Jesus stood up and was handed a scroll of the book of Isaiah from which he was expected to read (Luke 4:17). Unrolling the scroll to the verses of Isaiah 61 that announce the coming of the Messiah , Jesus read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18; see Isa. 61:1). Then Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. It was the custom of the day for the reader to also give a sermon and for rabbis to sit when they taught, and Jesus did exactly that.13 Perhaps...

English: Fresco illustrating the Aocalypse (Book of Revelation) Osogovo Monastery, Macedonia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God , and to his throne.” ( Revelation 12:5 ) This remarkable scene was part of a great vision given to the apostle John as the Lord was revealing to him “the things which shall be hereafter” ( Revelation 1:19 ). He had seen an amazing “sign” in heaven—a woman “clothed with the sun . . . travailing in birth,” with “a great red dragon” awaiting the delivery and ready “to devour her child as soon as it was born” ( Revelation 12:1-4 ). Although the whole vision is richly symbolic, the figure of the man child clearly refers to Jesus Christ , because it is He alone who must eventually rule all nations “with a rod of iron” ( Revelation 19:15 ). Thus, the symbolic “woman” must suggest His human mother, Mary, but also Eve, the “mother of all living” ( Ge...

Dove representation in the Baptism of Christ by Pietro Perugino, circa 1498 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) LUKE 1:39–45 “When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb . And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit ” (v. 41). Typically, when we speak of something being immediate we are speaking of something that happens in time. In other words, the term immediate refers to something that happens instantly or suddenly. If we say that Sarah asked her husband to come into the kitchen and he immediately goes there, we mean that Sarah’s husband did not hesitate even for a moment to fulfill her request. However, we are not referring to time when we say that regeneration is immediate. Instead, we mean that the new birth is something that happens without means. God the Holy Spirit alone works upon the soul, He does not use any other agent to change the heart. Now, it is true that God ’s Spirit brings a person to salvation through the preaching of the Gospel , for s...

Lamentations1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’” Lamentations 3:24 It is not “The Lord is partly my portion,” nor “The Lord is in my portion.” But he himself makes up the sum total of my soul’s inheritance. Within the circumference of that circle lies all that we possess or desire. The Lord is my portion. Not his grace merely, nor his love, nor his covenant, but Jehovah himself. He has chosen us for his portion, and we have chosen him for ours. It is true that the Lord must first choose our inheritance for us, or else we shall never choose it for ourselves; but if we are really called according to the purpose of electing love, we can sing: “Loved of my God for him again With love intense I burn; Chosen of him ere time began, I choose him in return.” The Lord is our all-sufficient portion. God fills himself; and if God is all-sufficient in himself, he must be all-sufficient for us. It is not easy to satisfy man’s ...