Dr Paul Allen

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - The Flagellation of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1880) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) James 2:1 “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ , the Lord of glory” ( v. 1 ). We turn today to the first verse of the second chapter of James, wherein the apostle refers to Jesus as “the Lord of glory.” Even though this is an acceptable translation of the original Greek text, it is not necessarily the most accurate way to render the verse in English.  It is also possible to translate “the Lord of glory” as simply “the glory.” However, to say Jesus is “the glory” is a good way to encapsulate a portion of the New Testament ’s description of the majesty of Christ . As someone from a Jewish background, James undoubtedly had the Hebrew term kabod in mind when he penned his epistle. “Glory,” or kabod in the original text, usually deals with weightiness or substance. When the Old Testament declares that God ’s name is “gl...

Christ Pantocrator study (Photo credit: DUCKMARX ) “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” ( John 14:2-3 ) The world has not seen the last of Jesus Christ ! He was in the world once, but the world would not have Him, even though He had created it ( John 1:10 ). While He was on Earth , He made it clear that He would be returning some day to judge the world. But here in the upper room, just before His arrest and crucifixion, He told His disciples, for the very first time, that He would be coming for them personally, not to judge them with the world, but to “receive you unto myself.” In the first epistle written by the apostle Paul , this wonderful promise was repeated and amplified: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. . . . and the dead in Christ shall rise first: T...

English: Jerusalem, Dome of the rock, in the background the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Deutsch: Jerusalem, Felsendom, im Hintergrund die Grabeskirche (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In the apostle John’s account of the new earth in Revelation 21-22, prominent attention is given to the New Jerusalem , the capital of the eternal heaven. Nearly half of Revelation 21 is devoted to describing the physical properties of the magnificent metropolis. Its glorious splendor will be the heart of the new earth, for it is here that God Himself dwells. Christians rarely think of heaven as a city, and yet that is precisely how God describes it (Heb. 11:16; cf. John 14:2). Cities have buildings, streets, houses, and citizens. They are places of political power, economic industry, higher learning, refined culture, and impressive architecture. These characteristics are true of the heavenly city as well, though the New Jerusalem will far outshine any of earthly city in both its magnificence and its mig...

English: Jesus Christ - detail from Deesis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Heaven is only heaven because it is the place where God dwells. To “go to heaven” is to be ushered into the presence of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:8). In the same way that eternal life is more about a quality of fellowship than a quantity of lifespan (John 17:3), so heaven centers around a Person more than a place. Jonathan Edwards aptly summarized that truth in these words: The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows, but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean. Above all else, it is God’s personal presence that makes heaven what it is. It is not heaven because it is ...

Jesus christ(coptic) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "Ye shall give three cities on this side Jordan, and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan , which shall be cities of refuge ." ( Numbers 35:14 ) When the Israelites entered the promised land, God told Joshua to provide six "cities of refuge" into which those who had slain someone could flee for refuge until a trial could ascertain the facts and render a proper verdict. As such, these cities are a type of Christ , through whom "we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us" ( Hebrews 6:18 ). The names of the six cities are given in Joshua 20:7-8 as Kedesh , Shechem , Hebron, Bezer , Ramoth , and Golan. The meanings of these names seem planned especially to foreshadow this spiritual application. Kedesh means "holy place," and Christ in the New Jerusalem is the ultimate refuge, for "the Lamb |is| the temple of it" (...

"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God , the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding." ( Isaiah 40:28 ) Everyone gets weary, and everyone must rest. Even in Eden before sin came into the world there was a weekly day of rest, and each day of work in the Garden was followed by a night of rest in sleep. The Lord Jesus Christ , in the days of His sinless human flesh, occasionally became "wearied with his journey" ( John 4:6 ) and had to rest. On one occasion, He was so weary that during a violent storm on the Sea of Galilee He was "asleep on a pillow" ( Mark 4:38 ), while the disciples tried to keep their ship from destruction. He once advised these fretful and busy disciples to "come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while" ( Mark 6:31 ). We sometimes need to come apart before we fall apart! In the New Jerusalem , with...

English: Detail of the St. John's Roman Catholic Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the statue of Jesus and the tower to the rear. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Hebrews 12:18–24 “You have come to…the city of the living God , the heavenly Jerusalem , and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn” ( vv. 22–23 ). Many Protestants wonder why they profess belief in the “holy catholic church” when they recite the Nicene Creed . Is this a confession of allegiance to the pope? If a church is not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church , why would it affirm this part of the creed? The answer, of course, is that the “holy catholic church” and the “Roman Catholic Church” are not identical. The term catholicsimply means “universal,” and in the creeds of the church it refers to the reality that the one church of Jesus Christ is not limited to any particular geographical region, ethnicity, economic class, age group, historical era, or sex. Whe...

Our Lord Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) James 2:1 “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ , the Lord of glory” ( v. 1 ). We turn today to the first verse of the second chapter of James, wherein the apostle refers to Jesus as “the Lord of glory.” Even though this is an acceptable translation of the original Greek text, it is not necessarily the most accurate way to render the verse in English. As the note in the Reformation Study Bibleindicates, it is also possible to translate “the Lord of glory” as simply “the glory.” In reality, it does not really matter which one we choose because the two translations are synonymous. However, to say Jesus is “the glory” is a good way to encapsulate a portion of the New Testament ’s description of the majesty of Christ . As someone from a Jewish background, James undoubtedly had the Hebrew term kabod in mind when he penned his epistle. “Glory,” or kabod in the original text, usually deals with w...

Shaded relief map of the Sinai Peninsula, 1992, produced by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Jesus is considered by scholars such as Weber to be an example of a charismatic religious leader. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.”  And this expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. (12:25–29) After giv...