Dr Paul Allen

Because Christianity is built upon certain historical events, discussions about Scripture’s historical truthfulness are constant. Regarding Genesis, such discussions revolve around several issues, including the flood and patriarchal narratives. People want to know, “Did a global flood actually happen? Did the patriarchs really exist?” Frustratingly, these discussions are complicated by the lack of explicit evidence from outside the Bible that could serve as historical verification. Was Joseph in Egypt? When it comes to the account of Joseph, the difficulties are predictable. Indeed, the biblical account contains numerous details that align with historical realities of Middle and New Kingdom Egypt, but there is nothing definitive in the historical or archaeological record that verifies Joseph or his exploits in Egypt. Yet the Joseph narrative is also somewhat unique . The genre of this narrative—with its carefully crafted sequence, plot shifts, characterization, and other features—has e...

The prayer of illumination is an important prayer. In this prayer, we humbly ask God to illumine His Word to us by the Holy Spirit so that we would rightly hear, understand, and apply what the Lord is saying to us in His Word. The reason it is one of the most important elements of our worship because we desperately need the Holy Spirit to help us understand His Word.  We are dependent on the Holy Spirit to help us grasp the glorious truths of God’s sacred Word. The Holy Spirit indwells us and enables us to interpret and apply His Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth. We are utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot rightly understand anything in His Word. We don’t need to be great scholars to understand God’s Word, we simply need to be born-again, humble children indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Yet, even as believers, we know that not everything in Scripture is easy to understand. In theology, we speak of the perspicuit...