Dr Paul Allen

Someday, we will be like Him. That's our hope. But it's not a hope that we put on the shelf, and it's not a hope that sends us into a cave. It's a hope that sends us into the world with confidence. We can be confident in God, confident in His Word, confident in Christ, confident in the gospel, and confident in hope. In the AD 90s, Domitian ruled as emperor over Rome. His cruelty rivalled that of Nero . He insisted that he be worshipped as a god. Christians, of course, could not participate in the rituals of this emperor cult. That left them vulnerable, and that vulnerability led to persecution. It is likely that John's exile to the island of Patmos directly resulted from Domitian's edicts. John refused to bow. John wrote Revelation during this time, many scholars believe. Also around this time, an early church figure named Clement, serving as bishop at Rome sent a letter to the church at Corinth. Clement opens his letter by referring to "the sudden ...

Emperor Nero. Plaster cast in Pushkin museum after original in British museum, London (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The death of James, the brother of Jesus , takes place in Jerusalem , Easter of 66, shortly before the outbreak of the Jewish War. Because of his public confession of Jesus , James is hurled from the top of the temple by fanatical Jews , stoned, and finally clubbed to death. Paul returns to Rome in the spring of 66 and is soon arrested. When he writes II Timothy in the summer of 66, he has been in prison in Rome for some time, no longer able to preach, and bound with chains like a criminal, his whereabouts hard to ascertain.  Where Timothy is at this time is not known. Only Onesiphorus and Luke ministered to Paul's needs during this final imprisonment. Onesiphorus showed great devotion and courage in searching for Paul until he found him. However, by the time of the writing of this letter he has died. Luke has remained with Paul the entire time. Tychicus is n...

There are still many people today who make the claim that Jesus never existed, that He was only a mythical character.  Bertrand Russell puts it this way, “I may say that one is not concerned with the historical question. Historically, it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know anything about Him, so I am not concerned with the historical question, which is a very difficult one. I am concerned with Christ as He appears in the Gospels” (Why I Am Not a Christian, p. 11, note 8).  However, those who make such an accusation are certainly not historians, but are surprisingly ignorant of the facts.  The New Testament contains twenty-seven separate documents which were written in the first century A.D. These writings contain the story of the life of Jesus and the beginnings of the Christian church from about 4 B.C. until the decade of the A.D. nineties.  The facts were recorded by eyewitnesses, who gave firsthand testimon...

English: Roman Triumphal arch panel copy from Beth Hatefutsoth, showing spoils of Jerusalem temple. עברית: העתק של שער הניצחון של טיטוס (מוצב במוזיאון התפוצות) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Gessius Florus loved money and hated Jews. As Roman procurator , he ruled Judea, caring little for their religious sensibilities. When tax revenues were low, he seized silver from the Temple. In 66, as the uproar against him grew, he sent troops into Jerursalem to crucify and massacre some of the Jews. Florus’s action sparked the explosion of a rebellion that had been sizzling for some time. For the previous century, Rome had not handled the Jews very well. First Rome had propped up the hated usurper Herod the Great. For all the beautiful public buildings he erected, Herod could not buy his way into the people’s hearts. Herod’s son and successor, Archelaus, was so bad that the people cried to Rome for relief. Rome obliged by sending a series of governors—Pontius Pilate, Felix, Festus, and Flo...

Without the Roman Empire , Christianity might never have spread so successfully. You could say the empire was a tinderbox awaiting the spark of Christian faith . The empire’s unifying elements aided in the expansion of the Gospel: Roman roads made travel easier than it had ever been before; throughout the realm, people spoke Greek; and the mighty Roman army kept peace. As a result of the increased mobility, pockets of migrant craftsmen settled for a time in a major city— Rome , Corinth, Athens, or Alexandria—then moved on to another. Christianity stepped into an open climate, religiously. In a sort of “new age” movement many people had begun to embrace eastern religions—the worship of Isis, Dionysus, Mithras, Cybele, and others. Worshipers searched for new beliefs, but some of these religions had been declared illegal, because they were suspected of offensive rituals. Other faiths were officially recognized—like Judaism, which had enjoyed a protected position since the days of J...

When Jesus answered the disciples’ question about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and his return and the end of the age, he prophesied events and developments that the disciples understood. The events of signs 1 through 8 and sign 10 (see question 3) describe realities in the first century as well as the history of the church from the first century until today. Sign 9, the siege and destruction of Jerusalem , happened in A.D. 70. That the reference of Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 24–25 (and Mark 13 / Luke 21 ) refers to the entire period between Jesus’ first coming in the first century and his second coming emerges from a consideration of (1) the structure of Jesus’ discourse on the end times, (2) Jesus’ warnings and exhortations, and (3) Jesus’ comments on the consequences of his prophecy for his followers. The Structure of Jesus’ Discourse on the End Times Jesus’ discourse on the end times follows his prediction of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and a...

Image via Wikipedia "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ , called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God." ( Romans 1:1 ) Paul identified himself as a "servant (literally, 'bondslave') of Jesus Christ" as he began several of his epistles; and it is significant that he began the epistle to the Romans in the same fashion. The parallel phrase "bondslave of the emperor" was commonly used in governmental and commercial circles of the day, and the readers in Rome would fully understand the meaning of the new term. The emperor of Rome not only was to be obeyed as a human slave owner and king, he also was to be worshiped as a god. Paul boldly proclaimed himself to be the bondslave of a different slave owner, the subject of a different King and the worshiper of a different God. Paul knew and expected to convince his readers that this new doctrine he was preaching would quickly replace the imperialism of Rome, and he fully realized that...