Dr Paul Allen

But with an over-whelming flood He will make an end of Nineveh ; He will pursue His foes into darkness ( Nahum 1:8). The prophecy of Nahum needs to be taken with that of Jonah . After Jonah’s ministry in Nineveh, the city was covenanted to the Lord. After a couple of generations, however, the Assyrians reverted to their old ways. When people have a knowledge of God and then rebel against Him, they become worse than they were before. The Assyrians became known throughout the ancient world for great cruelty in warfare. The Assyrian empire dominated the ancient Near East for a while, and both Israel and Judah were forced to recognize its superpower status and pay tribute. When Hoshea , the last king of Israel , conspired with Egypt and withheld the annual tribute, the Assyrians conquered and destroyed the nation. The larger reason Israel was destroyed was that they had provoked the Lord beyond the limits of His forbearance. About a century later, God raised up Nahum to predic

There is one tell-tale fruit , but it may take a long time for it to happen. And even then you likely won't see it. But here's the fruit nonetheless—if the sinner ends up in heaven, you will know they had truly repented . If not, they likely had not. I understand the desire to know the sincerity of another's repentance. I've been in countless pastoral situations wherein it seemed like the answer to that one question—is this person truly repentant—determined the answer to every other question about what should be done. Trouble is, God has not been pleased to give us the means to peer into the souls of others. So what do we do? Consider the case of adultery, perhaps the most common grievous sin we face. Suppose I am unfaithful to my wife. Suppose I claim to be repentant. What ought she to do? The Bible says that she is free to divorce me, but is not required to do so. Many times her decision is bound up in this question—is he repentant? But that's not really the

English: Jonah, as in Jonah 2:10, "And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.";watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah . And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” ( Jonah1:17 ) The Bible ’s most famous “fish story” has been the target of skeptics for hundreds of years, but it was confirmed by none other than the one who Himself had prepared the great fish: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and nights in the heart of the earth” ( Matthew 12:40 ). Jonah may actually have died and gone to “hell.” “Out of the belly of hell [Hebrew Sheol ] cried I,” said Jonah, “and thou heardest my voice” ( Jonah 2:2 ). The testimony of Jesus was similar: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [i.e., Sheol]; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” ( Psalm 16:10

English: Baptism of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) It all depends. If He has decreed a certain course of action or outcome, then He will not retract a statement or relent from a declared course of action. Verses stating or illustrating this truth must not be overextended, however.  Statements about God not changing His mind serve to mark specific declarations as decrees . They should not be used as proof texts of God’s immutability, nor should they be applied generally to every divine forward-looking statement. If God has not decreed a course of action, then He may very well retract an an nouncement of blessing or judgment. In these cases the human response to His announcement determines what He will do.  Passages declaring that God typically changes His mind as an expression of His love and mercy demonstrate that statements describing God as relenting should not be dismissed as anthropomorphic. At the same time such passages should not be overextended. God can

Christ the Saviour (Pantokrator), a 6th-century encaustic icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. NB - slightly cut down - for full size see here (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Worthwhile relationships are based on knowledge . When we meet someone for the first time, we do not consider that we really know that person until we have the opportunity to learn more about that person, such as his or her history, personality, likes, dislikes, and desires. As we come to know more about a new acquaintance, we better understand how to carry on a relationship with that person. In the same way, a vibrant relationship with the triune God must be rooted in a firm understanding of who He reveals Himself to be in His Word. Misconceptions about God abound. But they don't have to. God has revealed His character in Scripture, illuminating the attributes that define Him. When we talk about the attributes of God , we are affirming something true about God that has been revealed in cre

When we talk about the vicarious aspect of the atonement, two rather technical words come up again and again: expiation and propitiation. These words spark all kinds of arguments about which one should be used to translate a particular Greek word , and some versions of the Bible will use one of these words and some will use the other one.  What is the difference between propitiation and expiation? The difficulty is that even though these words are in the Bible, we don't use them as part of our day-to-day vocabulary, so we aren't sure exactly what they are communicating in Scripture. We lack reference points in relation to these words. Expiation and Propitiation Let's think about what these words mean, then, beginning with the word expiation. The prefix exmeans "out of" or "from," so expiation has to do with removing something or taking something away. In biblical terms, it has to do with taking away guilt through the payment of a penalty or th

The Reformed Church of France, Paris, France (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered; and you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you!  (Isa. 33:1a) When God destroys a nation, He is doing two things: He is exercising judgment on a sinful people and He is displaying His love for His church by showing that even the greatest nations cannot keep Him from caring for His people. In this first part of chapter 33, Isaiah is proclaiming judgment against the Assyrians and perhaps the Babylonians , for these were great nations that exercised power throughout the known world and were considered by many to be invincible. They believed their boundaries marked, their strongholds secure, and their prominence in the world eternal. But God had another plan. They would be brought down in a great display of God’s justice toward His enemies and mercy toward His most cherished people. Interpreters are not certain whethe

English: Head-piece to Nahum. Nahum 3:3. Vignette with a horseman raising his sword during combat with a fallen soldier in clouds; letterpress in two columns below and on verso. 1798. Inscriptions: Lettered below image with production detail: "P J de Loutherbourg invt.", "Js. Fittler sculpt" and publication line: "Publish'd Jany. 22 1798 by Thos Macklin Fleet Street". Print made by James Fittler. Dimensions: Height: 490 millimetres (sheet); width: 395 millimetres (sheet). (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings." ( Nahum 2:4 ) This strange prophecy, found in the midst of the small book of Nahum , could almost be seen as a description of twenty-first century freeway traffic! In context, however, the entire book of Nahum deals with the coming destruction of Assyria and, especially, its gre

Prophet Jonah, Russian Orthodox icon from first quarter of 18-th cen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." ( Acts 1:3 )   It is interesting how often the Scriptures refer to a fortyday period. There are nine different forty-day periods noted in Scripture (the phrase itself occurs seventeen times), and it may be noteworthy that forty days is 1/9 of the original (and prophetic) lunar/solar year of 360 days (note  Genesis 7:11 ;  8:3-4 ;  Revelation 11:2-3 ). Thus the total of the nine forty-day periods equals the ideal year.   The periods are as follows: the intense rainfall at the Flood ( Genesis 7:12, 17 ); the first giving of the law ( Exodus 24:18 ;  Deuteronomy 9:9, 11 ); the second giving of the law ( Exodus 34:28 ;  Deuteronomy 9:18, 25 ); the searching of Canaan by the fearful spies ( Numbers 13:25 ;  14:3

Image via Wikipedia Ever feel like your attempts to share the gospel are feeble and impotent?   God can do far more than we think, ask or imagine. In the book of Jonah , God not only uses Jonah’s eventual obedience to spare the great city of Ninevah , but chapter 1 shows how he uses Jonah’s disobedience to save a shipful of pagan sailors. First God commands Jonah to head 500 miles northeast by land to warn Ninevah of impending judgment on their sins.  But Jonah disobeys, flees the opposite direction, books passage on a ship and heads west on the Mediterranean .  So God hurls a storm on the ship. When the tempest first strikes, the sailors fear for their lives.  As it worsens, and they discover Jonah’s at the vortex, they begin to fear God when the prophet says: “I am a Hebrew , and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from