Dr Paul Allen

The Scriptures give us a robust revelation about all that Jesus accomplished on the cross. As we go about seeking to categorize all of the various dimensions of the cross, we discover that there are both vertical and horizontal dimensions to Jesus’ work. The vertical dimensions are foundational; the horizontal is consequential.  The vertical dimensions include Jesus’ defeat of Satan (Gen. 3:15; John 12:31; Col. 2:15), His propitiating the wrath of God (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 2:7; 1 John 2:2; 4:10), His atoning for our sin (Heb. 1:3; Rom. 4:7–8), His breaking the power of sin (Rom. 6:9–14), His securing the new heavens and new earth (Heb. 2:5–11), and His overcoming the world (John 12:31; 16:33). The horizontal dimensions include His becoming the example of self-sacrificial living (Rom. 15:2–3; 1 Peter 2:21) and His reconciling men to one another, thereby making peace for those who formerly lived in hostility with one another (Eph. 2:14). When men pervert or deny the biblical teaching conc...

Regulations For Chinese Ministry New government measures, which will include a database of church leaders, look set to introduce even more state control over Christian ministry in China. It was confirmed this week that the Measures for the Administration of Religious Personnel issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), first announced in November 2020, will come into effect on 1 May 2021. New government measures require all church leaders to “support the leadership of the Communist Party of China … [and] practice the core values of socialism” Key among the new measures, according to Article 33 of the document, is the creation by SARA of “a database of religious personnel” listing all those authorised by the state to perform religious ministry. Church leaders not registered in this database will not be permitted to undertake ministry. In order to be registered church leaders must, according to Article 3, be those who  “love the motherland, support the leadershi...

Dr. Wellum sidestepped taking a firm position on the reality of degrees of rewards in heaven. In the same video, he equivocated on the issue of degrees of punishment in Hell . He said: “ When we think of punishments there is this sense of greater and lesser. How that works out in terms of Hell and judgment, Hell is Hell, yet Scripture seems to say that even though Hell is Hell there is somehow a greater accountability, maybe a greater experience that ‘I knew much more.’ Yet Scripture is very clear, we have to be very careful on this point as well that anybody that is receiving final judgment it is because they are accountable for their actions, there is no one innocent, that they have turned from  truth . Those who turn from more truth, it could very well be that there is a greater sense of punishment or judgment. We are not told, we have hints of that. How that all works out is not easy to understand yet that seems to be the parameters we have to work through… ” Once ...

This article is about two views of punishment in Hell.  ANNIHILATIONISM (CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY) VS UNENDING CONSCIOUS TORMENT IN HELL (TRADITIONALIST DOCTRINE) Pinnock argues his case below:  The principles of justice also pose a serious problem for the traditional doctrine of the nature of hell because it depicts God acting unjustly. Like morality, it raises questions about God’s character and offends our sense of natural justice.  Hell as annihilation, on the other hand, does not.   W hat lifestyle, what set of actions, would deserve the ultimate of penalties—everlasting conscious punishment? It is easy to accept that annihilation might be deserved by those whose lives turned in a definitive No to God, but it is hard to accept hell as everlasting conscious torment with no hope of escape or remittance as a just punishment for anything.  It is too heavy a sentence and cannot be successfully defended as a just action on God’s part. Sending the wic...

"There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ's moral character, and that is that He believed in hell." So wrote the agnostic British philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1967. The idea of eternal punishment for sin, he further notes, is "a doctrine that put cruelty in the world and gave the world generations of cruel torture." His views are at least more consistent than religious philosopher John Hick, who refers to hell as a "grim fantasy" that is not only "morally revolting" but also "a serious perversion of the Christian Gospel." Worse yet was theologian Clark Pinnock who, despite having regarded himself as an evangelical, dismissed hell with a rhetorical question: "How can one imagine for a moment that the God who gave His Son to die for sinners because of His great love for them would install a torture chamber somewhere in the new creation in order to subject those who reject Him to everlasting pain?" So, wh...

Image via Wikipedia The doctrine of hell has recently come under vicious attack, both from secularists and even from some evangelicals. In many ways, the assault has been a covert one.  Like a slowly encroaching tide, a whole complex of interrelated cultural , theological, and philosophical changes have conspired to undermine the traditional understanding of hell.  A second issue that has contributed to the modern denial of hell is a changed view of justice. Retributive justice has been the hallmark of human law since premodern times. This concept assumes that punishment is a natural and necessary component of justice. Nevertheless, retributive justice has been under assault for many years in western cultures, and this has led to modifications in the doctrine of hell. The utilitarian philosophers, such as John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham argued that retribution is an unacceptable form of justice. Rejecting clear and absolute moral norms, they argued that justice dema...