Dr Paul Allen

As typically defined, gender dysphoria is a state of consciousness that consists at its core of a qualitative feeling of a discordant “gender identity.” According to the common understanding, the individual has an “inner” self that has a gender or sex that’s different from what the body indicates, and hence the individual feels like—and in stronger cases believes him or herself to be—a woman trapped in a man’s body, or vice versa. The cultural upheaval surrounding gender and sexuality presents many challenges for Christians and pastors. Have we done the theological reflection that’s necessary to respond carefully and pastorally? Do we have thoughtful theological responses to questions like, “Could God create someone whose inner self is one gender and place that individual in a body of the opposite gender?” Answering thoughtfully will mean exploring our underlying assumptions about the human constitution. Are we purely physical bodies? Are we a combination of body and soul? Does our hum...

Saying you won’t believe in God unless there is evidence he exists is a fundamental misunderstanding of the Christian God, says one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists. Professor Ard Louis from Oxford University spoke with Australian author and historian John Dickson about the rationality of the universe While Louis believes there must be a mind – a Creator – behind our universe, he told Dickson that one of the difficulties he has as a scientist and a Christian is science’s culture of scepticism. “When we think about God, what happens is that people assume we should take the same approach that we do in science: we should assume there is no god unless we find evidence to the contrary. So the default position is the assumption that there is no god.” – Professor Ard Louis “That culture is antithetical to Christian faith,” says Louis. “Skepticism is really good in science. If you come to me and say ‘I’ve discovered this new virus in my lab,’ then the right approach ...

I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.” ( Jeremiah 27:5 ) “The earth, the man and the beast” are the three entities which God is said to have “created” (Hebrew bara—note Genesis 1:1 , 21, 27) in the Genesis account of creation. However, they are also said in Genesis to have been “made” (Hebrew asah—note Genesis 1:25-26 ; 2:4), and that is the emphasis in our text above. Of course, both aspects were accomplished in the six days of creation week, after which God “rested from all his work which God created and made” ( Genesis 2:3 ). This statement makes it abundantly plain that the present processes of nature do not “create” (call into existence out of nothing) or “make” (build up into more complex forms) anything, as our modern theistic evolutionists and evangelical uniformitarians allege. God has rested from both of these works, except in occasional mira...

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.” ( Colossians 1:16 ) Before one can really know Jesus Christ as Savior or Lord, he must acknowledge Him as offended and rejected Creator, because He was our Creator first of all. This is such an important doctrine of the New Testament that it is remarkable how rarely it is emphasized in modern evangelicalism. Creation by Jesus Christ is the doctrine with which John begins his great gospel of salvation: “In the beginning was the Word, . . . All things were made by him; . . . and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not” ( John 1:1 , 3, 10). It is the foundational message of the book of Hebrews: “God. . . . hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” ( Hebrews 1:1-2 ). The apo...