Dr Paul Allen

December 25 could not have been Jesus’ birth date. Early Christians did not even celebrate Jesus’ birth. And certainly did not celebrate Christmas on December 25 until long after the pagans had created a December 25 festival. Christmas is the cultural appropriation of the pagan “Birth of the Unconquered Sun.” The Persian cult of Mithras is also celebrated on December 25. The Gospels make no mention of any commemorations of Jesus’ birth. Nothing in the Book of Acts or the rest of the New Testament. And the first generations of Christianity did not celebrate Christ’s birth. In fact, such a thing was frowned upon. The Hebrew tradition from which Christianity came celebrated the passing of Jewish heroes. Not birthdays. Encyclopedia Judaica puts it bluntly. “The celebration of birthdays is unknown in traditional Jewish ritual. … The only reference to a birthday in the bible is that celebrated by Pharaoh.” (Gen 40:20) In fact, early church leader Origen of Alexandria openly mocked birthday c...

People assume (as I once did) that since Martin Luther (1483–1546) first protested the abuse of indulgences, in 1517, Rome must have been shamed into ending the practice. She was not. The sale of indulgences continues. In section 1471, the Catechism of the Catholic Church uses revealing language. The benefit of indulgences is available “under certain conditions through the action of the church.” It cites Paul VI’s Indulgentarium Doctrina (1967). Notably, the catechism criticizes past abuses but does not forbid their sale. This is because canon 28 of the Council of Constance (1414–18) set the conditions for the sale of indulgences: Can. 27. And whether he believes that by reason of this sort of grant those who visit the church and those contribute to them can gain indulgences of this kind. Can. 28 Likewise, whether he believes that, for a just and holy reason, the pope can grant indulgences for the remission of sins to all Christians who are truly contrite and have confessed, especially...

The gospel of Jesus Christ is always at risk of distortion. It became distorted in the centuries leading up to the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. It became distorted at innumerable other points of church history, and it is often distorted today. This is why Martin Luther said the gospel must be defended in every generation. It is the centre point of attack by the forces of evil. They know that if they can get rid of the gospel, they can get rid of Christianity. There are two sides to the gospel, the good news of the New Testament: an objective side and a subjective side. The objective content of the gospel is the person and work of Jesus—who He is and what He accomplished in His life. The subjective side is the question of how the benefits of Christ’s work are appropriated to the believer. There the doctrine of justification comes to the fore. any issues were involved in the Reformation, but the core matter, the material issue of the Reformation, was the gospel, espec...

Someday, we will be like Him. That's our hope. But it's not a hope that we put on the shelf, and it's not a hope that sends us into a cave. It's a hope that sends us into the world with confidence. We can be confident in God, confident in His Word, confident in Christ, confident in the gospel, and confident in hope. In the AD 90s, Domitian ruled as emperor over Rome. His cruelty rivalled that of Nero . He insisted that he be worshipped as a god. Christians, of course, could not participate in the rituals of this emperor cult. That left them vulnerable, and that vulnerability led to persecution. It is likely that John's exile to the island of Patmos directly resulted from Domitian's edicts. John refused to bow. John wrote Revelation during this time, many scholars believe. Also around this time, an early church figure named Clement, serving as bishop at Rome sent a letter to the church at Corinth. Clement opens his letter by referring to "the sudden ...

It is true that from fairly early on bishops of Rome began to argue that they had a special place in the life of the church. And that argument resonated with many Christians. After all, Rome was the capital city of the empire. It’s where the emperor was, and therefore, Rome was particularly important, and therefore it made sense that the bishop of Rome would be particularly important.  And so, for the first time probably in the middle of the third century, often in the study of the ancient church, you have to say probably because we don’t know as much as we’d like to know. The historical record particularly of the second and third century is really pretty sketchy. We have evidence, but we’re never quite sure how full that evidence is. But in the middle of the third century, about 250, as far as we can tell for the first time a bishop of Rome quoted the words of Jesus to Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this Rock, I will build my church.”  And it was Pope Stephen about 2...

Romans carry spoils from the Temple in Jerusalem, including a Menorah, sacred trumpets and the showbread table. Thereby pointing to the prohecy of Jesus. In the Gospel of Mark 13 -it contains Jesus' predictions of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and disaster for Judea, as well as his eschatological discourse. The picture directly above and below show the Arch of Titus with the imagery of stolen vessels from Jerusalem.  After his teachings in the previous chapter, all set in the Temple courts, Jesus finishes his teaching in the Temple for the day and leaves. On his way out of the Temple, an unnamed disciple remarks how extensive the Temple (Herod's Temple) is. The buildings might have reached up to 150 feet (45.72 m) in height and they were adorned with gold, silver, and other precious items. In Mark, the scale of the Temple is emphasized in Luke's gospel, the beauty of the stonework is highlighted. "Do you see all these great buildings?...

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The Roman Pontiff , by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ , and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered” (882). Further reinforcing his power and authority, the catechism claims, “The Pope enjoys, by divine institution, supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls” (937). The catechism presents the papacy as a divinely appointed institution that presides over the life of the church and exercises its rule over God’s flock. Where do these massive claims come from? Roman Catholics trace the pope’s origin to the apostle Peter . But history tells a different story. On What Rock? Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was the Roman Catholic papacy. It was a long process that led to the setting up of this millennia-old office that combines spiritual and political claims. The pope claims to hold an office origi...

Jesus transforms lives. One of the most radical transformations in the Bible was that of the apostle Paul , who went from an enemy of the faith to its great defender. This transformation intrigued New Testament scholar Con Campbell so much that he decided to trace Paul’s life and missionary journeys from Jerusalem across the Mediterranean world to Rome . In this seven-part series, Con searches for answers to help him better understand Paul’s personality and passion. Join Con on this travelogue-style adventure so you can better know Paul and the profound effect he had on Christianity . To order the DVD of "In Pursuit of Paul" visit: https://dhp.org/catalog/product/view/...

Last year, Pope Francis announced that after five hundred years, Protestants and Catholics now “have the opportunity to mend a critical moment of our history by moving beyond the controversies and disagreements that have often prevented us from understanding one another.” From that, it sounds as if the Reformation was an unfortunate and unnecessary squabble over trifles, a childish outburst that we can all put behind us now that we have grown up. But tell that to Martin Luther , who felt such liberation and joy at his rediscovery of justification by faith alone that he wrote, “I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.” Tell that to William Tyndale , who found it such “merry, glad and joyful tidings” that it made him “sing, dance, and leap for joy.” Tell it to Thomas Bilney , who found it gave him “a marvellous comfort and quietness, insomuch that my bruised bones leaped for joy.” Clearly, those first Reformers didn’t think they we...

Jesus ’ first direct conflict with the Pharisees as recorded in the Gospels comes about because of a party. At first, this conflict doesn’t make any sense, because there’s a good reason for this party to take place.  A first-century man named Matthew (also known as Levi) was far from God. Matthew would go on to write down his experiences with Jesus into a book we now know as the New Testament book of Matthew. He was wealthy and successful, but he was looking for something more. And then Jesus comes along and changes everything. Look how the book of Luke records it: “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi [Matthew] got up, left everything and followed him.  Luke 5:27-28 Isn’t that amazing? Matthew had money and success but was willing to leave behind a lucrative business all to follow Jesus. That should have been a cause for celebration, and it was. A short while later, Matthew held a large banquet at his house and invited his friends and former co-worke...

By the end of the first century or early in the second century, all of the texts that now make up the New Testament had been written. As early as AD 95 or 96, Clement of Rome alludes to multiple passages in the New Testament, though he does not name them as scripture yet (that is a title still reserved for the Old Testament at this point).  In the mid-second century, St. Justin Martyr refers to the gospels as the “memoirs of the apostles” in his First Apology , and in the famous text Against Heresies of St. Irenaeus (c. 180), the saint firmly proclaims the authority of the four gospels. At the same time, a number of other texts were circulated amongst the nascent Christian community. There are really two categories of texts outside of the canon of Scripture . First, texts whose teachings were accepted in whole or in part as edifying for the Christian community but ultimately deemed outside of the core texts which became the New Testament, and second, texts that were cons...

It was October, 312. A young general who had the allegiance of all the Roman troops from Britain and Gaul was marching toward Rome to challenge Maxentius, another claimant to the imperial throne. As the story goes, General Constantine looked up and saw a cross of light in the sky. An inscription read, “In this conquer.” The superstitious soldier was already beginning to reject the Roman deities in favor of a single god. His father had worshiped a supreme sun-god. Could this be a favorable omen from that god on the eve of battle? Later, Christ appeared to Constantine in a dream , bearing the same sign, a cross with the top bent over, resembling the Greek letters chi and rho, the first two letters of Christos. The general was instructed to mark this sign on his soldiers’ shields. He did. As promised, Constantine won the battle. It was one of several decisive moments in a quarter century of violent change. If you had left Rome in A.D. 305, to spend twenty years in the desert...