Dr Paul Allen

“Without the Spirit we can neither love God, nor keep His commandments.”   The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is like any other mainline doctrine, both saturated with variety and overflowing with controversies. The Holy Spirit, being God, makes a rather unruly subject matter in that He is too incomprehensibly vast for us to tackle with full authority, especially in the brevity of this paper. As Clark Pinnock writes, In fact, of the themes of theology, the Spirit may be the most elusive of all. How does one speak at all of the power that enables us to know God? How can one put the Spirit-breath into a conceptual bottle? Yet, the graciously given presence of the Spirit is surely the most wonderful thing one experiences and that which brings God unspeakably close.  Yet scripture provides both a reasonable description of what the Holy Spirit’s interaction with His creation is, and what we might have as a standard expectation for our own understanding and teaching.  Regardin...

The Church at large is reeling from more and more exposure of sin in the lives of its leaders, whose greed, sexual immorality, abusive behaviour, and lust for attention have left many weary and wary. In the charismatic world, the list of problems includes failed “prophecies” from those claiming to speak for God. It’s no wonder that even many continuationists have become gun-shy about the supernatural. To be clear, by “continuationists” (more commonly, charismatics), I mean those who believe the Holy Spirit still distributes spiritual gifts today, including supernatural gifts like prophecy. People who believe the Holy Spirit ceased distributing spiritual gifts after the apostolic age are called cessationists. Scripture takes these issues seriously. Jesus warns of false prophets (Matt. 24:11, 24), as does John (1 John 4:1). Likewise, Peter and Paul warn of false teachers, prophets, and apostles (2 Cor. 11:13; 2 Pet. 2:1), and all their warnings are relevant for this moment. With that sai...

If I asked you to name a woman in the Bible, who would come to mind? How many could you name? Countless sermons have been preached about Esther and Ruth. We’ve scrutinized the woman at the well’s encounter with Jesus and celebrated Rahab’s strategic participation in the Israelites’ journey to the Promised Land.  Throughout Scripture, women have faithfully proclaimed the gospel, offered their time and expertise, ministered to the marginalized, and actively contributed to the life and growth of their communities and the church. What richness can we gain by studying the influence of women like Lydia and Priscilla, Miriam and Deborah, Anna and Phoebe? Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is an example of trusting through obedience -Luke 1:38 Mary, the mother of Jesus, plays an important role in God’s plan of redemption throughout the Gospels and is even depicted briefly in Acts during Pentecost (1:14). The Gospel writers consistently portray Mary as exemplifying faithful obedience and submission...

Dan Delzell Pastor Andy Stanley raised more than a few eyebrows 11 years ago when he shared a story about a couple in his church who got a divorce after the husband began a sexual relationship with another man. Dr. Albert Mohler Jr. described the incident this way: “Stanley clearly and repeatedly stressed the sin of adultery, but then left the reality of the homosexual relationship between the two men unaddressed as sin. To the contrary, he seemed to normalize their relationship.”  And then five years ago, lightning struck again when Andy argued that the Christian faith must be “unhitched” from the Old Testament. Sadly, those who downplay and dismiss the Word of God are terribly misguided and spiritually adrift. Andy continued his assault on Scripture last year when he said, “I know 1 Corinthians 6, and I know Leviticus, and I know Romans 1, so interesting to talk about all that stuff. But just, oh my goodness, a gay man or woman who wants to worship their Heavenly Father, who did ...