Dr Paul Allen

This side of heaven, we Christians are pilgrims — but not aimless ones. As runaway slaves looked to the night sky and followed the drinking gourd, so we look to Jesus , our true north, and travel toward him on our journey home. And this is vital, though often overlooked, in our war against sin. The idea of  fleeing  immorality is certainly a biblical one. Joseph fled the advances of another man’s wife, and the apostle encouraged his protégé, “Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart” ( 2 Timothy 2:22). But as Christians, our retreating from sin is  not  a retreating from war. Our flight from sin is as purposeful as it is active — like Tolkien’s depiction of Helm’s Deep in  The Two Towers . An impregnable fortress stood in a large valley in the northwest of the White Mountains . It became salvation for the army of Rohan and all who would dwell within its walls. ...

As Christians, we are all a combination of saint, sinner and sufferer (CrossTalk, Mike Emlet). This is not to say that there are portions of us that are saved and portions that are unsaved. There are parts of us that emphasize one aspect of our identity, but all three are necessary for a balanced Christian walk. Too Much A Saint? We know that those who trust in Jesus Christ and him alone for salvation are described as saints (Ephesians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:2, 6:11) and are called to act like saints (1 Peter 1:15–16). It is the saintly aspect of our Christian identity that finds joy and peace in the holiness of our God and strives to be more like him in our words, thoughts and deeds. It reminds us of the inexhaustible riches of God’s word and the safety of abiding in his law. Yet when this aspect is over emphasized, we lose sight of our need for grace or the fact that we are still sinners who hurt those around us with our sins. We forget the need of repentance both to the Lord and t...

c. 880 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "Forget not all His benefits." Psalm 103:2 It is a delightful and profitable occupation to mark the hand of God in the lives of ancient saints , and to observe his goodness in delivering them, his mercy in pardoning them, and his faithfulness in keeping his covenant with them. But would it not be even more interesting and profitable for us to remark the hand of God in our own lives?  Ought we not to look upon our own history as being at least as full of God, as full of his goodness and of his truth, as much a proof of his faithfulness and veracity, as the lives of any of the saints who have gone before? We do our Lord an injustice when we suppose that he wrought all his mighty acts, and showed himself strong for those in the early time, but doth not perform wonders or lay bare his arm for the saints who are now upon the earth.  Let us review our own lives. Surely in these we may discover some happy incidents, refreshing to ourselv...

Oil painting of a young John Calvin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) John Calvin answers that question directly. In his work, A Treatise on Relics , Calvin utilizes his extensive knowledge of church history to demonstrate that prayers to the saints, prayers for the dead, the veneration of relics, the lighting of candles (in homage to the saints), and the veneration of icons are all rooted in Roman paganism . Such practices infiltrated the Christian church after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century. Here is an excerpt from Calvin’s work that summarizes his thesis: Hero-worship is innate to human nature, and it is founded on some of our noblest feelings, — gratitude, love, and admiration, — but which, like all other feelings, when uncontrolled by principle and reason, may easily degenerate into the wildest exaggerations, and lead to most dangerous consequences. It was by such an exaggeration of these noble feelings that [Roman] Paganism f...