Dr Paul Allen

Self-importance is an often-overlooked sin that breeds dissension and crashes into the heart of the gospel. It fans the flames of controversy. When James and John approached Jesus to ask for the seats of highest honor in his kingdom, the other ten disciples “became indignant” (Mark 10:41). This wasn’t the first time the topic came up. Earlier, on the way to Capernaum, the disciples had been “arguing with one another about who was the greatest” (Mark 9:33). Indignation. Quarreling. Dissension. Self-importance is a subtle sin that leads to conflict. A Check on Self-Importance Strong agreement with the statement “I am an extraordinary person” almost always indicates narcissism. Of course, Christian anthropology holds that we human beings really are extraordinary—“remarkably and wondrously made” in the words of the psalmist (Psalm 139:14). But, as Theodore Dalrymple claims, Christianity “manages the difficult feat of assuring a man of his supreme importance without giving him a swollen hea...

What does the Bible teach about “the laying on of hands,” and how should this ancient ritual function, or not, in the church today? Like anointing with oil , much confusion often surrounds these outward signs which the New Testament has very little (but something) to say. Like fasting, the laying on of hands and anointing with oil go hand in hand with prayer and healing. Because of the way God has made the world, and wired our own hearts, on certain special occasions we reach for something tangible, physical, and visible to complement or serve as a sign of, what is happening invisibly and what we’re capturing with invisible words. Before turning to what the New Testament teaches about the laying on of hands today, let’s first get our bearings by looking at how this practice arose, functioned, and developed in the story of God’s people . Old Testament Foundations Throughout the Bible, we find both positive and negative senses of “the laying on of hands ,” as well as “general” (eve...