Dr Paul Allen

Q: What are God’s attributes and why have I never heard of them before? A: The attributes of God are the characteristics that describe what he is like. The word is used by theologians but is not often heard outside the classroom, so most people are unfamiliar with it. But that does not mean that we are unaware of what the divine attributes are. Everybody knows that God is invisible, immortal, and all-powerful (omnipotent). Invisibility, immortality, and omnipotence are his attributes, and they remain the same because God’s nature does not change. One reason that we do not often talk about them is that we usually agree about them already. Nobody is going to argue that God is visible, so the attribute of invisibility is seldom if ever discussed. Then too, if God could be seen, he could be described; but because he is invisible, it is impossible to say what he is like. He is not tall or short, black or white, fat or thin—these descriptions simply do not fit with what he is. But because we

God’s Aseity I first heard the word aseity while sitting in a seminary class at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School with Dr D. A. Carson. He was my advisor during my seminary years, and I heard Dr Carson say many times: “I’ve learned over the years that my students don’t remember everything I teach them . . . but they do tend to remember what I am most excited about!” God’s aseity was a doctrine that I still remember Dr Carson being excited to teach! God’s aseity refers to God being eternally and completely “of himself.” The word comes from the Latin. It’s a compound word made up of two smaller words: “a” (from) and “-se” (self). To talk about the aseity of God, then, is to say that God is from and of himself. He is completely self-originating and dependent on nothing other than himself. When we’re talking about God’s aseity, we are referring to the way that God has existed from eternity past completely independently of anything else—completely “of himself”—and therefore satisfied and

In a recent segment, Tucker Carlson, someone who needs no qualifying remarks, made some statements about the relationship between Transgenderism and Christianity. Carlson’s comments came in the aftermath of the shooting of six people, three adults and three 9-year old students, at a private Christian school in Nashville, TN. The shooter, someone called “Audrey Hale,” was a transgender person. As far as I have been able to discern from media coverage, Hale was a biological women who identified as a man. This would make the shooting an extreme rarity since less than 1% of mass shootings in American have been carried out by women. However, to the point about Carlson’s commentary on the incident (which the reader should watch prior to continuing), there are important insights to glean from the Fox host’s broadcast. Carlson makes some initial points of interest in the commentary that I believe are fairly accurate. These provide an appropriate cultural context to the story. It is a context w

Our doctrine of Scripture as the word of God depends on our view of who God is and what he does. Here the temptation to focus on a single mode of God’s nature must be resisted.  God is both creator (implying his presence among his people and his fellowship with humans) and king (implying God’s authority over history and human dependence), both transcendent Lord (implying God’s omniscience and omnipotence and human finiteness) and ever active Father (implying God’s love for his children and his acceptance of humans in virtue of his own nature), both perfect (implying God’s total integrity and humanity’s call to holiness) and merciful (implying God’s forgiveness of wrongdoing and humanity’s confidence of being accepted).  A biblical doctrine of Scripture needs to take all these elements into account. A fundamental description of the nature of God as related to the nature of Scripture includes the following: 1. God is a person, i.e. he communicates, he speaks, he wills. When he reveals h

There can be no eternal relations of authority and submission ad intra, (at the interior) within the life of the Trinity from eternity, because:   (1) submission is the subjection of one will to another and therefore it requires multiple faculties of will; because  (2) will is a property of nature, not person, and thus two wills require two natures; and  (3) there is only one nature in the Godhead.  There can be no submission or subjection within the Godhead ad intra without there being a distinction of nature. The reason the incarnate Son can submit to the Father (which, of course, everyone grants is the case) is that He has added a human nature (and thus a human will) to His divine nature, which He possesses in perpetuity (Col 2:9; 1 Cor 15:28). Before He assumed a human nature in the incarnation, there is no subjection of the Son’s will to the Father. God is one God; each person of the Trinity fully subsists in the single, simple, undivided divine essence. 

Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglican Church http://www.stjohnsashfield.org.au, Ashfield, New South Wales. Illustrates Jesus' description of himself "I am the Good Shepherd" (from the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 11). This version of the image shows the detail of his face. The memorial window is also captioned: "To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of William Wright. Died 6th November, 1932. Aged 70 Yrs." (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) There is an undercurrent of irrationalism in modern scientific writing. Despite scientific advances, "chance" is put forth as the cosmic power behind creation. As such, it's tempting to believe science is the enemy of faith. I've met University students who, raised in the church , believe that the church is hostile to science. Countless students abandon the faith when they face "scientific" challenges to Christianity for which they aren't prepared. How should we respond t

On display at Lausanne Natural History Museum in Rumin palace Homo habilis (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Researchers leading a study into fossilized human remains in Kenya claim to have found that there were at least three distinct species of humans living in Africa two million years ago, providing a twist to the theory of evolution . The findings were published in the journal Nature and detail the exact measurements of the face, jawbones and teeth of the human species that researchers say roamed Africa around 1.78 to 1.95 million years ago. "Our past was a diverse past," said Dr. Meave Leakey of the Turkana Basin Institute in Nairobi, who led the research, "our species was evolving in the same way that other species of animals evolved. There was nothing unique about us until we began to make sophisticated stone tools." Previously held theories of evolution suggested that humans evolved directly from a common primate ancestor, which stands in opposition to tr

Image via Wikipedia It was Bonaventure who offered the thought: “In order that we may be able to extol and glorify God , and in order that we may advance to the knowledge of God, we must transfer to the divine that which pertains to the creature . . . nearly all creatures possess certain noble characteristics which furnish a source for our understanding of God, e.g., the lion possesses fortitude; the lamb, meekness; the rock, solidity; the serpent, prudence—hence it is necessary that many names be transferred to God.” John Calvin agreed with these sentiments. “There is not an atom of the universe in which you cannot see some brilliant sparks at least of His glory.” The earth, nature that surrounds us, the world—everything is full of God. Nature is a glorious theater, a spectacular sound-and-light show of the beauty of God. But nature is not God. To worship the whole or any part of nature is idolatry. To confuse God and nature is to fall into pantheism, an intolerable monism that o

Image via Wikipedia It was Bonaventure who offered the thought: “In order that we may be able to extol and glorify God , and in order that we may advance to the knowledge of God, we must transfer to the divine that which pertains to the creature . . . nearly all creatures possess certain noble characteristics which furnish a source for our understanding of God, e.g., the lion possesses fortitude; the lamb, meekness; the rock, solidity; the serpent, prudence—hence it is necessary that many names be transferred to God.” John Calvin agreed with these sentiments. “There is not an atom of the universe in which you cannot see some brilliant sparks at least of His glory.” The earth, nature that surrounds us, the world—everything is full of God. Nature is a glorious theater, a spectacular sound-and-light show of the beauty of God. But nature is not God. To worship the whole or any part of nature is idolatry. To confuse God and nature is to fall into pantheism, an intolerable monism that o

Image via Wikipedia For most people,  good leadership practices do not come natural . Even for those who are naturally gifted leaders, relying on talent alone is insufficient. God designed our minds to work a certain way, there is a lot of psychology in leadership. It turns out, there are principles, rules of thumb & biological facts that can help you lead more effectively and successfully - and you wouldn't necessarily know these things just by thinking about it. That's why we recommend all younger leaders need to  learn from older, more experienced leaders . One way you can do that is by reading. Our friend  Daniel Decker  sent us this survey:  What are the top 5 leadership books every young influencer should read?  If you can, take a minute (literally 60 seconds) to answer this one question. Here's our answer to this question, focusing mainly on leadership books that we've found helpful. At the top of the list is the Bible, of course, because Christian le