Dr Paul Allen

What does this Prophecy mean today? One of the most well-known prophecies about the birth of Christ is Isaiah 9:6, which says,  “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  We read this on Christmas cards and holiday signs, but what does it mean? The original context of this promise in Isaiah helps us. Isaiah answers three questions about this child who will be born. What He Brings First, what will he bring? Along with the arrival of this child, Isaiah promises that God will bring three gifts. The first is joy.  Isaiah 9:1 says, “But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.”  These are the northern parts...

“Wars will continue to flare up between sinful human beings as long as they live in this fallen world, in which Satan is at work…. Christ himself declared there would continue to be ‘wars and rumours of war’ [Matthew 24:6]…. Only when he returns in glory to bring this world to its end and fully subjugate Satan will war cease.” So says The Lutheran Study Bible, “Divine Warfare,” p. 376. That doesn’t mean we have to like it. We must acknowledge that we’re stuck with warfare, hoping and praying to keep it manageable. But that’s a tall order at the moment, considering that nine countries now hold a total of 12,000 nuclear weapons. The Current Top 10 Most Deadly Conflicts Granted, Russia and the U.S. hold more than 90 per cent of those 12,000 weapons. But as tensions escalate around the globe, that’s hardly reassuring. Here are the most violent conflicts currently being waged around the planet, with their minimum estimated fatalities over the last two years: Russia vs. Ukraine: 98,000 Israe...

  The word “Babel” means “gateway to a god” and sounds like the Hebrew word balal, which means “confusion” (Gen. 10:8–10; 11:1–9). In Scripture, Babylon symbolizes the world system man has built in defiance of God. Jerusalem and Babylon are contrasting cities: One is the chosen city of God, the other the wicked city of man. The city of God will last forever, but the rebellious city of man will ultimately be destroyed (Rev. 14:8; 16:19; 17–18). God musters His army (Isa. 13:1–5, 17–18). God is sovereign. He is able to call any army He desires, to accomplish any task He assigns. He can summon them with a whistle (7:18), or by using leaders to raise a banner, shout, and beckon to the soldiers (13:2). In this case, God is mustering the army of the Medes (v. 17; 21:2); and He calls them “My sanctified ones.” Even though they did not believe in Jehovah God, the Medes were set apart by God to do His holy work. God punishes His enemies (Isa. 13:6–22). The city of Babylon was completely des...

In 1 Corinthians 14:34 Paul says, “Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak but should be subordinate, as the law also says.” 1 Timothy 2:11–14 raises perhaps more problems: “Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.” These two passages constitute a genuine puzzle for modern readers, not least in light of the following four factors. First, Paul’s statements in 1 Corinthians 11:3–16 presuppose that women will take a full speaking part in public worship and prayer. This at once suggests that his hesitation in 14:34 cannot be understood to be a universal prohibition for women not to speak in public worship. (The one problem of these verses is that Paul does appear to invoke the argument that “man was not made from woman, but woman from man” in 11:9. We shall try to address this later.) Second, in Paul’s epistles, at least half a dozen women do have leadership posi...

In the new year, can I get a car loan? Is the buying power of my dollar going to erode further? Will the challenges with my kids get better or grow worse? Will I gain a new friendship, or will one of my friends stab me in the back? Will the political season stir deeper division in the church? There’s much I don’t know about the new year. But as I turn to the Word, there’s much I can know. The Bible—and Psalm 90 in particular—gives a set of constants on the horizon as the calendar flips from December to January. 1. God will still be my refuge. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. (Ps. 90:1–2) The great constant in my life year after year is the unending fact of the presence of God. He has been there, and he will be there. No matter where I find myself this year, God will be there. God will always be there for me, no matter how strong...

Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) once described a remarkable experience he had while preaching: He suddenly broke off from his [sermon] subject, and pointing in a certain direction, said, “Young man, those gloves you are wearing have not been paid for: you have stolen them from your employer.” At the close of the service, a young man, looking very pale and greatly agitated, came to the room which was used as a vestry and begged for a private interview with Spurgeon. On being admitted, he placed a pair of gloves upon the table, and tearfully said, “It’s the first time I have robbed my master, and I will never do it again. You won’t expose me, sir, will you? It would kill my mother if she heard that I had become a thief.” (Spurgeon, 60) What do you call Spurgeon’s experience? Is there anything we can compare it within the New Testament? How about this: “If all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are ...

As David looked out to the battlefield, there stood Goliath of Gath, the Philistine giant, defying Israel’s God. In David’s hands were a few small stones. Did anyone believe this shepherd boy could stand against a warrior like Goliath? As David walked onto the battlefield, he responded to Goliath with words meant to reassure Israel that they had a better champion than the Philistines. Did anyone believe these words? And who was the identity of this champion? The Lord God of Israel. All the assembly today will know, David said, that “the battle is the Lord’s” (1 Sam. 17:47). Israel needed to learn a profound lesson. They were absolutely helpless before Goliath. The lesson was never to be missed: You can’t win this battle, so the Lord must fight and win for you. Sadly, many Christians still haven’t learned this lesson. The most common interpretation of this passage places the responsibility squarely on us to slay the Goliaths in our lives. Some of the best-selling Christian books today p...

Where evangelists can’t go, God’s Spirit can, but God is also reaching Muslims by dreams. Read about some of these accounts. Joel’s Prophecy One of the most well-known prophecies in the Bible is found in Joel 2, where Joel the Prophet wrote that “it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions” (Joel 2:28).  Of course, God has not yet poured out His “Spirit on all flesh” yet, but He is apparently drawing some to the Lord Jesus Christ by means of dreams. Many who are Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, and even Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses report that they’ve had dreams where they’ve encountered Jesus Christ.  There’s a place on one of our websites where people can click on “Contact Us,” and in the last couple of years, dozens and dozens of men and women have reached out to us to ask what their dreams might mean. Recently, many...

Roy Sullivan is either the world’s luckiest man or the world’s most unlucky man, depending on your perspective. Mr. Sullivan worked as a park ranger in Shenandoah National Park, and still holds the Guinness World Record for being the person struck by lightning the most times. About 270 people are struck each year in the US, and 10 percent of those are fatal strikes. The chances of being struck by lightning once are 15300:1 and being struck twice in your lifetime is exponentially more unlikely. From 1942 to 1977 Roy Sullivan was hit by lightning not twice, nor three times, but seven times! That sounds like he would be the unluckiest person on earth. But amazingly, he suffered no major injuries, besides a burn on his legs, a lost toenail, scorched eyebrows, and hair that caught on fire on five of the seven occasions. Sounds pretty lucky to me. Understandably, Roy developed a severe phobia of storms. After the fourth encounter, he began to avoid being in crowds, in order to keep others sa...