Dr Paul Allen

A while back on Church Leaders, N.T. Wright was interviewed on what he thinks about women preachers. Here’s what he said: “The usual idea that women were kept down in the ancient world and it’s only recently that feminism has brought them back up is quite wrong,” Wright argues.  The theologian, who recently published a book called The New Testament in Its World, said women who had some authority in the church and society were not anathema in the ancient world.  “There were many independent women in Paul’s world, and that was something Paul worked with.” In John 20, when Jesus is raised from the dead, the first person he meets is Mary Magdalene. “He does not say, Mary, I’ve got some essential news–I want you to go get Peter because I need to tell him so that he can then go and tell everybody else,” Wright explains.  Instead, “he says, ‘Mary, go and tell my brothers–those men who are hiding at home because they’re scared–go and tell them I am ascending to my father and your...

For a spot sacred to countless billions throughout history, Temple Mount in Jerusalem has been the site of a lot of bloodshed. When the site was first awarded sanctity cannot be known. Prehistoric peoples may have venerated pagan gods on the hilltop and the tradition continued, in changing forms. Or perhaps, it was made holy when the Jerusalem Temple was built by King Solomon, as the Bible says. We cannot even investigate when the site was first settled: Excavation is impossible both because of the holy sites now on the Mount, and the unrelenting political tensions. With material evidence scarce at best, two main camps have developed in biblical archaeology. One takes the bible literally and believes King Solomon constructed the First Temple there in the 10th century BCE. But based on what archaeological evidence there is, the second camp suspects that Jerusalem in Solomon's time was a small hilltop village, and that the site that would come to be known as Temple Mount wasn't e...

When we think of the book of Romans, we think first of all of the impact that it has had in the life of the church. We think, for example, of Augustine himself, who had already distinguished himself as an extraordinarily brilliant philosopher. But he had equally distinguished himself as a profligate soul who was living a wild and licentious life until, at the beckoning of children, he picked up a book and just let it fall open. And his eyes came upon a text. And as he read this text, his life was turned upside down as God the Holy Spirit used the words of that text to pierce his soul and transform him to the saint that he became. The book that God used to quicken the soul of Augustine was the book of Romans. We remember John Wesley giving his testimony to his powerful conversion experience, as he listened to a sermon at Alder’s Gate, where, during the sermon, he said he felt his heart strangely warmed. And the sermon that night was from the book of Romans. When we think of the agonizin...

October 31st is Reformation day. This year, we celebrate the 500th year of the reformation. As we consider the boldness of Luther, who was pretty much being asked to either recant his writings or be killed, it is tough to put ourselves in his shoes. As he said his famous words, “HERE I STAND, I CAN DO NO OTHER, SO HELP ME GOD. AMEN,” we can’t help but feel not only inspired by Luther but at the same time intimidated by the idea of being as bold as him. It is important for us, though, to understand that we are called to be bold in our lives as well. The declaration from the Reformation that should ring true in our hearts, as well, is that the Gospel is more important than anything in this life. The call of the Reformation for each of us in our lives is to live a life unashamed of the Gospel. When Paul declares that he is unashamed of the Gospel in Romans 1:16, he does so because he must know that it is a temptation for the people of Rome to be ashamed. You’d have to live in a cave no...

Women’s clothing in ancient Rome was not terribly varied: respectable women worn the  stolla  and  palla  and differentiated themselves from one another with variations of color and jewelry.  Adulteresses and prostitutes were most notably marked by the wearing of the  toga , or at times a  stolla  that was made of thin and revealing Coan silk. A woman’s moral character was indicated by her choice of clothing , and prostitutes were marked by either various degrees of nudity or the willful rejection of “female” dress. [1] The myth that says “the problem in 1 Tim. 2 and 1 Pet. 3 is one of women dressing immorally, as indicated by their prostitute-like hair.”  In recognizing that hair didn’t indicate that someone was immoral...but what did “ braided hair and gold or pearls” indicate? This is our topic: it’s hair. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HAIR Seeing that Roman culture provided far less variety of choice fo...

In Romans 13:11-12, Paul appeals to te Christians in the city of Rome to understand “the present time” and explains that “the hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (NIV). The “night” is the present evil age (see Gal. 1:4); “the day” is the day of the Lord. Paul’s assertion that “the day is almost here” (Rom. 13:12 NIV) means that the day when God will bring to an end human history as we know it is fast approaching. Paul is convinced that Jesus might return within a very short period of time. Paul does not seek to narrow down the time frame within which Jesus will return, nor does he base his exhortation on the assumption that Jesus’ return would take place very soon. But he clearly believes that Jesus’ return is the next event in God’s plan. And this means that he is convin...

In the OT, homosexuality is unequivocally condemned. Homosexual sex is prohibited in the law (Lv 18:22; 20:13) and called an abomination. However, of all the illicit sexual relations listed in Leviticus 18 , homosexuality is not singled out as being any different or any more worthy of condemnation than any other sexual sin. God’s attitude toward homosexuality is portrayed in the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (Gn 19). Ezekiel includes among the sins of Sodom “immoral acts,” using the same term as in Leviticus 18 to describe homosexual acts (Ezk 16:43; cp. Jd 7). The law condemns all homosexual sex and does not distinguish between perverted and wholesome homosexual relationships. The central NT passage that addresses homosexuality is Romans 1:24–27 (cp. 1 Co 6:9; 1 Tm 6:10). It is set in the context of the condemnation of those who reject God as revealed in creation, or through natural law . It is part of Paul’s broader argument for the universality of sin and judgment, setting the ...