Dr Paul Allen

Fear is such a powerful force in our experience. Fear is designed by God and has a wonderful, protective benefit for us when it functions as God designed it. Instinctual fears are tremendous mercies, protecting us from danger before we even have time to think. Rational fears, the fears we have time to think about, when operating under the governance of faith, can protect us from all manner of foolish and sinful impulses and from external, deceptive evil. But for most of us, fear often does not function as it was designed. It is not under the governance of our trust in God and therefore wields an excessive, distorting influence over our thinking and behaviors. If fear is misplaced we think and act wrongly. Misplaced fear becomes a tyrant that imposes constrictive limits and leaves us debilitated in some or much of our lives. Under its rule we don’t do what we know we should because we are afraid. We all desire to be free of this tyrant. But is this possible? Can we really be...

The Christian concept of apocatastasis includes a restoration of the world to its original state, as in the Garden of Eden (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Ecclesiastes 2:1–11 “I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.’ But behold, this also was vanity” (v. 1). Hedonism is a non- Christian worldview  and can be traced back all the way to the garden of Eden . Genesis 3:6 says that Eve chose to eat the forbidden fruit partly because it was a “delight” to her eye. There was a certain amount of pleasure that the fruitgave her when she beheld it, and, no doubt, a degree of pleasure that she thought she would receive should she disobey God and take from the tree. In retrospect, however, Eve found only pain when she and Adam sinned (Gen.  :7, 16–19). As a worldview, hedonism is concerned with the maximizing of pleasure and the minimizing of pain. At various points in history it has expressed itself cra...

Cover of Think About These Things Our bodies follow our minds. This is the consistent witness of Scripture, which always places mind before body. Throughout his life, the Christian is to be renewing his mind by the Word of God , to take it into captivity and bring it into conformity. As he does this, his words and his deeds, and even his thoughts , will necessarily follow. If there is any area where we let our bodies dictate our thoughts and our actions, it is here in the context of sexual purity , in those times when the body seems to cry out in dissatisfaction. When we wallow in sexual sin, we fill our minds with what is impure, as if Philippians 4 commands us to think about whatever is false, whatever is deplorable, whatever is unfair, whatever is impure, whatever is ugly, whatever is critical, if there is any depravity, if there is anything worthy of rebuke, we think about these things . And, not surprisingly, our bodies follow our minds. It is so much better to heed and to...

Self-portrait as the Apostle Paul (by Rembrandt) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I would think it would be a more than safe bet to say that 99% of the people who are alive in the world, and even 99% of Christian people in the world today, think in terms of the universe's operating on a daily basis on the basis of its own power. The assumption of our modern worldview is somewhat mechanical. Namely, that there is such a thing as the laws of nature, which laws operate according to inherent power. That is, power within objects—forces within this world that have built-in power. So the one thing causes another thing, which causes another thing, which causes another thing. And that that power is real and active. Again, the theologian asks the question, "Well, does that mean the universe operates without any assistance from God other than His imparting the initial motion, or the initial power to his universe at the time of creation?" Again, that basic assumption that we make ev...

Image via Wikipedia Christians need to unapologetically think about thinking Most human beings never take the time to think about thinking. The Christian, however, is called to be different: we must perpetually and unapologetically think about thinking. This need is essential because how we think affects how we act. A Christian's faithfullness depends upon them thinking faithfully. In addition, Christians are called to understand not only how  they  think, but also the mind of the age. As we desperately seek to communicate the gospel to our age, we need to have an understanding of how they think. The knowledge crisis is ancient The crisis in how man thinks isn't new. Genesis 3 comes not only with cosmic consequences, but brought about a massive change in human thinking. Dr. Mohler read and spoke on Romans 1:18-32 and commented that all humans are involved in a "conspiracy," a conspiracy to suppress the truth. As Christians, we need to recognize that we are only s...

Image via Wikipedia 'Take no thought for the morrow,' means 'Do not be guilty of anxious thoughts about the morrow'. It does not mean that you do not take any thought at all, otherwise the farmer would not plough and harrow and sow.  He is looking to the future , but he does not spend the whole of his time wondering and worrying about the end results of his work. No, he takes reasonable thought and then he leaves it. PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING: WORRY ABOUT NOTHING Here again the whole question is where to draw the line. Thinking is right up to a point, but if you go beyond that point it becomes worry and anxiety and it paralyzes and cripples. In other words, although it is very right to think about the future, it is very wrong to be controlled by it. GOD AND YOUR FEARS The difficulty with people who are prey to these fears is that they are controlled by the future, they are dominated by thoughts of it, and there they are wringing their hands, doing nothing, depres...