Dr Paul Allen

A glorious inheritance was won for us by Christ’s own faithful perseverance and patience. In the incarnation, he came alongside us in our sufferings, joining us in this broken world. He not only began well but also faithfully lived his entire life in service to God. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that Christ “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb. 5:8). In his case, his suffering produced endurance, character, and hope (cf. Rom. 5:3) as he persisted in faithful obedience right until the very end.  He patiently endured the disappointment over disciples who failed to understand his teaching, who squabbled over the top places in the kingdom, and who then abandoned him at the end. He patiently bore the grief of losing friends whom he loved to death and being betrayed by one of his own disciples. He patiently put up with a people who cried out, “Hosanna to the king!” one day and then, “Crucify him!” just a few days later. He patiently put up with human followers who are j...

Jesus prayed, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”   Matthew 26:42 “Is there no other way?” It’s the kind of question we ask when life reaches its most difficult points: when a long, slow illness steals the strength and vitality of a loved one; when a deeply troubled marriage stands on the cliff of divorce; when a desperate search for work, food, and shelter results only in hunger and homelessness or crime and begging; when an addiction becomes a fast track to rock bottom and despair; when depression closes in and makes the whole world dark … again.  In these times, the question sneaks into our minds and sometimes escapes our lips: “Is there no other way?” Have you ever asked God that question? When the brokenness of this world and our lives reaches its most intense, most threatening moments, we are tempted to think we are the only ones who have asked that question or felt that sorrow.  But would it surprise you to...

Why do some historians like Tallus and Phlegon mention unusual events like eclipses during Jesus' crucifixion, and what do these accounts add to the narrative? We do not have any actual writings from Thallus, although some of his work was quoted by later writers. One such writer was Sextus Julius Africanus, a Christian who lived in the early third century. He said that Thallus reported darkness at about the time of the crucifixion but dismissed it as a solar eclipse.  As Africanus points out, solar eclipses never occur at the time of the full moon. Origen reported, in Against Celsus 2.xiv, that Phlegon wrote about "the greatest eclipse of the sun" at the sixth hour.  William Lane Craig, a theologian and Christian apologist, has written a lengthy article (Thallus on the Darkness at Noon) in which he accepts that Thallus wrote the account attributed to him and demonstrates that there was, in fact, a darkness at the time Jesus was crucified. As we only have references to wha...

If we look at the intricacy of the drama of the events of Jesus’ crucifixion , we see that some amazing things took place so that Old Testament prophetic utterances were fulfilled to the minutest detail.  In the first instance, the Old Testament said that the Messiah would be delivered to the Gentile s (“dogs” or “congregation of the wicked”) for judgment (Ps. 22:16). It just so happened in the course of history that Jesus was put on trial during a time of Roman occupation of Palestine .  The Romans allowed a certain amount of home rule by their conquered vassals, but they did not permit the death penalty to be imposed by the local rulers, so the Jews did not have the authority to put Christ to death. The only thing they could do was to meet in council and take Jesus to Pontius Pilate , the Roman governor, asking him to carry out the execution. So Jesus was delivered from His own people to the Gentiles—those who were “outside the camp.” He was delivered into the ...