Dr Paul Allen

The apostle John explains to his readers how to tell the difference between the Spirit of God and the spirit of antichrist: 1 John 4:6 “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” This means that if you want to know Jesus and if you want to know the truth, then you must listen to His apostolic witnesses. If you refuse to listen to and to believe in the apostolic portrait of Jesus, you are listening to the spirit of antichrist (1 John 4:3). This is John’s expansion of what Jesus himself said in the upper room discourse. Jesus told his apostles that he would uniquely reveal himself to his apostles and would enable them to faithfully communicate his revelation to the world: John 14:25 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you [apostles] all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” John 16:13 “B

Oil painting of a young John Calvin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) G.K. Chesterton once asserted that our world is simultaneously an ogre’s castle that must be stormed and a cottage where one might return after a long day’s labor. Life in this poor fallen world, he said, is both a battle and a refuge; it is at the same time a dangerous enterprise and a restful repose. In other words, he recognized that the world we live in, work in, and serve in is fraught with paradox—which of course, is a supremely biblical idea. We know, for instance, that the world is only a temporary dwelling place. It is “passing away” ( 1 John 2:17 ), and we are here but for a little while as aliens and sojourners ( Acts 7:6 ). Because we are a part “of the household of God ” ( Eph. 2:19 ), our true “citizenship is in heaven” ( Phil. 3:20 ). Our affections are naturally “set … on things that are above” ( Col. 3:2 ). In addition, the world is filled with dangers, toils, and snares ( Jer. 18:22 ). In tandem with

Dove of the Holy Spirit (ca. 1660, alabaster, Throne of St. Peter, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." ( 1 Corinthians 2:12 ) How is it that some people can read a biblical passage and find it either tedious, confusing, or even foolish, whereas others will receive great understanding and blessing from the very same passage? The answer is that the first group are animated only by the spirit of the world, "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" ( Ephesians 2:2 ), whereas the others are indwelled by the Spirit of God, having received the Holy Spirit when they trusted Christ for forgiveness and salvation. It was, after all, the Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures to begin with. "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" ( 2 Peter 1:21

John the Baptist baptizing Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "How much more shall the blood of Christ , who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God , purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" ( Hebrews 9:14 ) There are a number of significant references to the work of all three Persons of the Trinity in the great work of salvation. Note the implicit reference to the Trinity in our text: "The blood of Christ . . . through the eternal Spirit offered . . . to God." There is also a beautiful Trinitarian implication in Ephesians 2:18 : "For through |Christ| we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father ." The promise of Christ to send the Holy Spirit is a high point of the Gospel of John . "I will pray the Father," said the Lord Jesus, "and he shall give you another Comforter" (Greek parakletos, meaning "one called alongside"), "that he may abide with you for ever" ( Joh

Image via Wikipedia ‘What is the difference between an epistle and an apostle?’  ‘We have the Epistles, so we do not need Apostles .’ The argument is that one of the prime reasons for Christ appointing the apostles was so that the New Testament could be written, and once it was complete there was no further need for apostolic ministry.  Obviously it is true that the final truths of Scripture were committed to the first-generation church and have been preserved for us in what we know as the New Testament. Jesus said to his twelve apostles, ‘When he, the Spirit of truth , comes, he will guide you into all truth.’1  While that Scripture by extension means that we can all know the help of the Holy Spirit to understand the truths of Scripture, nevertheless its primary meaning was that the Holy Spirit would lead those original apostles into all truth – all the truth we need now for our instruction, correction and training, and which is contained in the New Testament.  Howeve