Dr Paul Allen

As day dawned over England on December 25, 1647, the nation woke to the strangest Christmas of all: no Christmas. For the first time, Christmas had been cancelled. Christmas cancelled? Indeed, Christmas was cancelled. Noël nixed. Advent outlawed. Twelve years later, the Massachusetts Bay Colony followed suit. In place of decorations, they posted the following public notice: The observation of Christmas having been deemed a Sacrilege, the exchanging of Gifts and Greetings, dressing in Fine Clothing, Feasting and similar Satanical Practices are hereby FORBIDDEN, with the Offender liable to a Fine of Five Shillings. Had the spirit of Scrooge settled over England? Had Mount Crumpit moved to Massachusetts? Had the White Witch swept through the West on her way to conquer Narnia? Well, no, not quite. In fact, as we travel through some of the history of Christmas past, we who love the coming of Christ may feel a strange sympathy rising in our hearts for the Puritans who did this. We may not wa...

In times when the love of many grows cold, we will do well to pause over an overlooked Christian virtue that warms against the chill. Not only is such a trait designed by Christ to be increasingly true of all Christians; it is required to serve in the church’s lead office. To be clear, what Christ requires of his pastor-elders (1 Timothy 3:1–8; Titus 1:5–9) is not simply for qualification to enter the office. Rather, these virtues are the ongoing, daily graces needed to serve well in the office. Yet these too are the qualities Christ means to grant in growing measure to his whole church. Pastor-elders are examples to the flock (1 Peter 5:3). They not only labor at teaching and governing, to feed and lead the church, but they model, as a team, the Christian maturity toward which we hope all Christians will progress. So, in days that seem embattled and divisive, it might be freshly helpful, if not convicting, to remember that Christians, with their pastors leading the way, are not to be ...

Hell Is Awful What exactly are we talking about when we say “hell”? We hear the word used all the time in a street-level way—“What the hell . . . ?” “Hell no!” But when we stop and consider the actual reality of hell, beneath the irreverent and casual uses of the word, what do we find? Scripture teaches us these five truths and more about hell. 1. Hell Is Experienced by the Whole Person A common misconception is that it is only a person’s spirit or soul or mind that suffers in hell, once the body has been left behind. But the Bible’s teaching is that while those in hell now are indeed suffering without a body when the Lord Jesus returns everyone will be raised for judgment, and the impenitent will suffer in hell, body, and soul. In Matthew 5 , Jesus twice speaks of one’s “whole body” going to hell ( Matt. 5:29–30 ). In another place he warns us to “fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” ( Matt. 10:28 ). Humans sin against God with both their body and their soul; they suff...

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” (Psalm 16:2) In Psalm 16, David is taking refuge in God. Taking refuge includes David’s prayer for God to keep him. In other words, the prayer “preserve me” (Psalm 16:1) is itself taking refuge in God. But David doesn’t simply ask God to keep him. He also speaks and declares truth to God. He exults in Yahweh his refuge (Psalm 16:2). The last phrase of verse 2 is packed with deep theological truth and precious fuel for worship. So, what does David mean when he says, “I have no good apart from you”? God is the source of all goodness. Every good that is good comes from the God who is Good. God is the maker and sustainer of all created goods. Thus, in Genesis 1, he creates and then appraises his work: “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). “Every good that is good comes from the God who is Good.” Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109), the brilliant medieval theologian, saw in this t...

In Exodus 4:19 the Lord tells Moses to go to Egypt and gives directions, but in verse 24 I read that the Lord “sought to kill him.” So why would the Lord give an instruction followed by seeking his death? The Amplified Bible adds the text in brackets that helped me:  “Now it happened at the lodging place, that the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him [making him deathly ill because he had not circumcised one of his sons].”  Something seemed a little off. I remembered that passage in Exodus well; I’ve puzzled over it many times. It seemed to me, and I confirmed this with a quick check of a few translations and my Lexham English-Hebrew interlinear, that the Amplified Bible was adding its own ideas to the text. Now there’s nothing wrong with speculation and interpolation as long as it’s clearly marked off (as the Amplified Bible does) and understood by the reader to be speculation and interpolation. It’s the latter I’m concerned about: I fear that some readers may assume that th...