Dr Paul Allen

Modalism (also called Sabellianism or Modalistic Monarchianism) teaches that God is one Person who reveals himself in different modes or roles. It strictly affirms one God but completely denies three distinct Persons. A Modalist believes the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the exact same Person, only wearing different masks. According to this ancient heresy, the Father, Son, and Spirit are not three co-existing divine Persons, but a single God with no threeness, only oneness. In contrast, Trinitarianism says God eternally co-exists as three Persons of one nature. Modalism holds that God is a single being who sometimes appears as the Father, the Son, or the Spirit. The big distinction here is that Modalism rejects three Persons. In Modalism, there’s one God, one essence, one Person. These three manifestations of God are not co-eternal or co-existing. According to Modalism, God reveals Himself in the Old Testament as the Father. God in the Old Testament does not reveal himself as the So...

Did Paul Silence Women? The Greeks say it’s More Complicated Than That.  What If Paul Never Said What We Think He Said About Women? Before you stop reading, let me be clear: This is not an attack on Scripture. Or even another denomination.  This is not an attack on the King James Version.  And this is not an attempt to make the Bible fit modern culture.  This is a challenge to do what faithful Christians have always been called to do: Go back to the text. Go back to the languages. Go back to the context. Some refuse to do so.  The Reformers called it ad fontes—“back to the sources.”  Ironically, some of the same Christians who celebrate the Reformation’s return to the original languages become uncomfortable when those original languages challenge long-held assumptions. Yet returning to the Greek and Hebrew is not liberalism.  It is Reformation Christianity at its best.  Translation matters. Not because Scripture changes. But our understanding of S...

 

 

 

 

 

The baptism and subsequent temptation of Jesus not only stand at the outset of Jesus’s public ministry but, as a pair of events, also seem to set the terms for it. In his baptism, Jesus is anointed for his mission, even as his subsequent temptation in the wilderness seeks to draw him away from it. Together, these events help us to understand all that follows, revealing Jesus’s relationship to the Father and the devil’s place as his primary antagonist. The Synoptic Gospels record three distinct accounts of Jesus’s temptation (Matt 4:1–11; Mark 1:12–13; Luke 4:1–13). All three bear witness that after his baptism by John in the Jordan, Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days. Matthew and Luke note that he spent this period fasting. Towards the end of the period, he was tempted by the devil (named Satan in Mark’s account), after which he was ministered to by angels (in Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts). But what exactly was at stake in each of these temptations, and what do they reveal ...

Across generations, believers have asked an important question: Does God still speak through dreams and visions? For many Christians, the answer is yes, and many believe we are presently witnessing an increased outpouring of dreams and visions in this generation. Scripture reminds us that God is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8) and that He does not change (Malachi 3:6). Throughout the Bible, God spoke to people such as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Solomon, Peter, Paul, Ananias, Joseph (the husband of Mary), and many more through dreams and visions. Since Scripture teaches that God does not change, it is reasonable to believe that He still speaks to His people in the same way today. Yet many in the Western, intellectually sophisticated world (including some in the church) dismiss dreams entirely as either psychosomatic phenomena or eating bad pizza before going to sleep. But that is not a biblical paradigm, as Scripture presupposes a supernatural worldview, of which dr...

Speaking in tongues, or glossolalia, represents a gift of the Holy Spirit connected to baptism in the Spirit.1 The phenomenon takes two main forms: glossolalia refers to unintelligible speech patterns unfamiliar to speakers, while xenolalia involves the miraculous use of known languages not learned through conventional means.2 In the New Testament, tongues appear as a sign accompanying Spirit-empowerment. At Pentecost, believers filled with the Holy Spirit spoke in other tongues, with each listener hearing their own native language. (Acts 2:1–11)  The gift also manifested among Gentile converts and those receiving Paul’s ministry. (Acts 10:44–46; 19:6) However, Paul distinguishes between public and private use. When someone speaks in a tongue, they address God rather than people, uttering mysteries that remain unintelligible to listeners. (1 Cor 14) While tongue-speaking edifies the individual, prophecy builds up the church. (1 Cor 14) Paul establishes clear boundaries for congrega...

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...

Elijah’s flight to Mount Horeb begins in desperation—threatened by Jezebel, he abandons his servant and ventures into the wilderness, eventually collapsing beneath a broom bush where he begs God to end his life. (1 Kings 19:1–21) An angel sustains him with food and water twice, strengthening him for a forty-day journey to the mountain of God. (1 Kings 19:1–21) At Horeb, God confronts Elijah with a question about his presence there, and Elijah responds with a litany of grievances—the covenant abandoned, altars destroyed, prophets murdered, and himself alone and hunted. (1 Kings 19:9–13)  Rather than dismissing these complaints, God instructs Elijah to stand on the mountain as the divine presence passes by, beginning with a violent wind that tears mountains and shatters rocks. (1 Kings 19:9–13) Yet the Lord inhabits none of these displays—not the earthquake that follows, not the fire, but instead a gentle whisper. (1 Kings 19:9–13) The sequence carries profound theological weight. El...

Throughout Scripture, signs and wonders represent God’s power unleashed first against Egypt during Israel’s deliverance and later through Jesus Christ to inaugurate salvation history.1 These phenomena carry consistent theological weight across both testaments, functioning as more than mere spectacle. A sign fundamentally directs people toward God 2, while a wonder—derived from a Greek word related to “terror”—denotes something extraordinary that provokes amazement in observers. 2 Where signs appeal to understanding, wonders engage the imagination. 2 Though signs seek to generate belief, they don’t compel it. 2 In the Old Testament, God’s saving actions in delivering Israel from Egypt became the focal point for divine self-revelation.1 The plagues against Egypt revealed God’s identity to the Egyptians themselves, establishing God’s reputation among the nations, not merely before Israel.1 These historical events carried implications extending far beyond their moment, shaping Israel’s ong...

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 ...

The fundamental distinction between Christian and Islamic theology centres on how God’s nature is understood. The God revealed progressively through Scripture—Yahweh in the Old Testament and continuing through Christ and the apostles—differs fundamentally from Allah as presented in Islamic teaching. 1 The most significant theological divergence involves the Trinity. Christians affirm God as triune—one in essence yet three in person—where the distinctions between Father, Son, and Spirit do not create three separate deities. 1  While both faiths claim monotheism, Islam understands “one” to mean Allah is a singular spiritual being without internal plurality, and Muslims explicitly deny the Trinity as implying polytheism.2 The Qur’an categorically rejects any notion of threeness in God, treating the Trinitarian confession as blasphemy. 3 This doctrinal disagreement extends to Christology and redemption. Islam denies both the incarnation of a second person of the Trinity who accomplishe...

In traditional Christian understanding, demons are typically identified as fallen angels, though ancient Judaism and the early church held varying perspectives—some viewing demons as the spirits of the Nephilim, the hybrid offspring of angels and human women mentioned in Genesis 61. From this perspective, Satan and other fallen angels were originally created by God as good beings but chose rebellion and self-assertion. Demons function as personal spiritual beings actively working to advance evil throughout creation.  While fundamentally morally ambivalent in broader religious traditions, demons in Christian theology belong primarily to the sphere of evil and exert harmful influence on humans, animals, and nature. The biblical record portrays demons as intelligent agents capable of recognizing Jesus and resisting his authority. In one account, a demon-possessed man lived among tombs, could not be restrained by chains, and would cry out and harm himself (Mark 5:1–20).  When conf...