Dr Paul Allen

Rich Gregory  As the war in Israel ramped up over the past week, social media accounts across the Christian  spectrum exploded with quotations from Psalm 122:8, which commands, “Pray for the peace of  Jerusalem!” That statement raises some critical questions: should we be praying for the  peace of Jerusalem? Or even, Why do we pray for the peace of Jerusalem? I want to answer those questions by covering  1) What is happening in Israel,  2) What it  means, and  3) How we should think about it as followers of Jesus Christ. What is Happening? These following paragraphs represent a rather grotesque oversimplification, but understanding how to think requires a basic understanding of some broad brush strokes in the geopolitical context.  On May 14, 1948, the modern state of Israel was formed. The Jewish people – fresh off the horror of the holocaust – began returning to the land of their forefathers from a multi-millennial exile. While this return ...

“Where is God when things go wrong?” I am asked to speak on this subject more often than on all the other options combined. People are puzzled, skeptical, or simply angry that a sovereign, loving God could allow atrocities, wickedness, injustice, and hideous evil to take place on His watch. It is impossible in a few sentences even to summarize how I answer these concerns, but I often begin by positing the case if there were no God. This would reduce 9/11 to a spectacular, noisy, colorful rearrangement of atoms of molecules; it would turn solemn services of mourning for national tragedies into pointless pantomimes; it would make it futile for anyone who is suffering from physical, mental, or psychological pain, or trauma of any kind to seek supernatural help. Most people have never thought this through, and when I sense that this is the case, I point them to a loving Creator, the violation of whose law is the root cause (though obviously not always the immediate cause) of all suff...

When I suffer, I become certain of two things: 1. God exists, and 2. he is a traitor. I didn’t always believe that. I accumulated experiences with God. In every unpleasant moment, in every tragedy, in every moment of confusion, a light and deceptive hand turns my mind’s gaze Godward: “He did this.” “He should have stopped this.” “He wants you to think you can be happy, . . . but he’s a mischief maker. A  traitor .” If we can’t identify those arguments in our hearts, they’ll own our thoughts, emotions, and actions. They will drive us as we process pain. Very easily, even subconsciously, we learn that God is a traitor. I could be happy or I could be heartbroken. I’m heartbroken. God is in control. God said he loved me. One of these things cannot be true. Therefore , I trust him a little less now. Multiply that times a thousand losses, pains, or failures, and we can easily descend into a betrayed and victimized theology: God is a traitor. During grief — during a...

Sandy Hook, Connecticut (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Thus says the LORD: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”[Jeremiah 31:15] This time tragedy came to Connecticut, where a lone gunman entered two classrooms at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown and opened fire, killing at least twenty children and six adults, before turning his weapons of death upon himself. The young victims, now officially identified, ranged in age from five to ten years. The murderer was himself young, reported to be twenty years old. According to press reports, he murdered his mother, a teacher at Sandy Hook, in her home before the rampage at the school. Some of the children were in kindergarten, not even able to tie their own shoes. The word kindergarten comes from the German, meaning a garden for children. Sandy Hook Elementary School was no garden today. It was a place of ...