Dr Paul Allen

The Jesuits have a history of subverting Scripture to promote propaganda. To discredit the clarity of Scripture in counter-Reformation polemics, Jesuit luminaries like St. Robert Bellarmine and Fr. Diogo de Payva de Andrada resorted to the subterfuge of disparaging the Bible as obscure, even on matters of salvation. When Pope Sixtus V published his edition of the Latin Vulgate, into which he had introduced at least two thousand errors, Bellarmine, who bombastically designated the pontiff as “vice-God,” hushed up the scandal and falsely blamed the errors on the typesetters. Bellarmine sneered at the Hebrew manuscripts when they contradicted mistranslated Vulgate texts. He upheld, for example, the copyist’s error from the proto-evangelium of Genesis 3:15, which read: ” she [Mary] shall crush your head” instead of “he [Jesus] shall crush your head”—an error finally corrected by the Vatican in the Nova Vulgata of 1979. The iconic Jesuit even defended fornicating priests over against clergy...

Genesis 19:5 – And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” Since the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is the most graphic account of God’s response to sexual sin in general, and homosexual sin in particular, we need to consider the reasons why the sin judged in Sodom was homosexual sex.  The sexual sin of Sodom and Gomorrah has long been held to be homosexuality, as our English word sodomy indicates Earlier, in Genesis 13:12-13, when Lot chose to live in Sodom, God warned Abram about its wickedness in the days preceding the visit of the two angels saying, “Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.” Genesis 18:20-21 records God’s account of the great sin saying, “Then the LORD said, ‘The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I w...

It is true that God is a righteous Judge who will one day pour out His wrath on a rebellious world. But the overwhelming emphasis of Scripture is not on the wrath of God but rather on His mercy. As the psalmist proclaimed, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” (Psalm 103:8) Can you imagine if God’s character was the opposite of this? If He was slow to mercy and abounding in anger? We would have been wiped out many millennia ago. As the psalmist continued, in Psalm 103:9‑14, He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers t...

A group of archeologists and other scientists say they have discovered strong evidence that the region of the “Middle Ghor,” where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are believed to have existed, were in fact destroyed by a meteor that exploded in the sky above, raining down superheated matter and raising temperatures to thousands of degrees, a theory that matches the account of the cities’ destruction contained in the Old Testament Book of Genesis. According to the theory , the meteor exploded at low altitude with the force of a ten megaton atomic bomb at an altitude of about one kilometer over the northeast corner of the Dead Sea, and obliterated all of civilization in the 25-kilometer-wide circular plain that constitutes the “Middle Ghor.” The researchers presented preliminary findings on the subject at this year’s annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in November, and have been developing the theory since at least 2015. They state that the evidence from radioc...

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 ...

English: Sara was the wife of Abraham and the mother of Ishmaelas described in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) 2 Samuel 4:4 Generations of scribes, working for the most part in anonymity, have faithfully rendered the Bible as the best preserved work of the ancient world. Although each pen stroke was the result of a scribe’s action, there are in fact very few places where a scribe appears to have  intentionally altered the “received” text. Such changes in the Hebrew Bible are identified by the scribal tradition as tiqqune sopherim (“emendations of the scribes”). Various rabbinic lists enumerate specific emendations, ranging in total from seven to eighteen. Most of these early scribal emendations were introduced based on religious motives in an effort to preserve the sanctity and dignity of the Biblical  text. For example, Genesis 18:22 reports that “the men turned away and went toward Sodom , but Abraham remaine...

English: This is a map of first century Iudaea Province that I created using Illustrator CS2. I traced this image for the general geographic features. I then manually input data from maps found in a couple of sources. Robert W. Funk and the Jesus Seminar. The Acts of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco: 1998. p. xxiv. Michael Grant. Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels. Charles Scribner's Sons: 1977. p. 65-67. John P. Meier. A Marginal Jew. Doubleday: 1991. p. 1:434. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew 11:20–24 “I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you” (v. 24). Matthew 11 focuses on the rising opposition to Jesus ’ mission. Although John the Baptist’s question about the Lord’s true identity is not intended to oppose Him (because he does not go past doubt to unbelief, vv. 1–15), note that such doubting, if not handled properly, is the first step toward apostasy. Many religious leaders in Jesus’ day go farther do...

Christ the Saviour (Pantokrator), a 6th-century encaustic icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. NB - slightly cut down - for full size see here (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God ’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom. 2:5). Some of those who object to the doctrine of hell hold that it denies God’s love and goodness. Some suggest that if the Lord is really loving and good, then He would not subject anyone to eternal punishment . Assumptions that the Creator loves all people equally and that nothing exceeds His love for human beings lay behind this protest. However, these definitions of love are not biblical. First, Isaiah tells us the Lord is jealous for His own glory. “My glory I will not give to another,” says Yahweh (48:11). His creation and salvation of His people are not primarily for our good, but for His glory (43:1–7). Note how God’s wrath and rig...

The Destruction Of Sodom And Gomorrah, a painting by John Martin (painter), died 1854, thus 100 years. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha , and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication , and going after strange flesh , are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” ( Jude 1:7 ) These cities provide two stern examples of God ’s judgmental wrath. Their sin had reached such an intensity and had become so widespread that the entire region suffered the “vengeance of eternal fire.” Just like the awful misuse of human sexual potential distorted by the angelic beings cited in the previous verse, these cities had become so perverted that God’s longsuffering and mercy had ended. “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly” ( Genesis 13:13 ). Whatever they were involved with had become so heinous and so completely a distortion of everything God created man for that God appea...

English: Mount Sodom, Israel, showing the so-called "Lot's Wife" pillar. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Sodom was destroyed not because of a lack of hospitality, as liberals claim; nor because of perversions, as conservatives claim; but because God did not find ten righteous men in the city. We change the world by being the church.  Ours is an ethically confused world. Materialist scientists tell us that since all is matter, there is no ultimate basis for judgments of "good" and "evil." Relativists claim that what is "good" for one person or culture may not be "good" for another person or culture. Some Christians have largely absorbed the secularist worldview to the point that their lives are virtually indistinguishable from the lives of nonbelievers.   Related articles Can the worldview of atheism rationally ground moral judgements? (winteryknight.wordpress.com) The seven fatal flaws of moral relativism (winteryknight.w...

Molnár József: Ábrahám kiköltözése (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." ( Psalm 1:1 )   One of the most tragic figures in all of Scripture is that of compromising Lot, Abraham 's nephew, who renounced the land of promise for the sinful society of Sodom , ultimately to lose everything of importance.   His slide into apostasy, as traced in  Genesis 12-19 , seems to parallel the progression described in today's text of not becoming a godly believer.   Lot is first mentioned as traveling with Abram and Sarai from their homeland to Canaan in obedience to God 's command ( Genesis 12:4-5 ; 13:5 ). A petty problem arises which surely could have been resolved ( 13:6-10 ), but Lot chose ( v. 11 ) to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly" ( v. 13...