Dr Paul Allen

What is Spiritual Warfare? 2 Thessalonians 1:4 –  Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions you are enduring. I heard a person who was in the military once share a harrowing war story with me. He and his men were deployed in Iraq and on patrol when they walked into an ambush. Enemies had set a trap for them that they unfortunately could not escape. They were surrounded on all sides, taking heavy enemy fire, low on supplies and ammunition, and had to settle in for an extended firefight. Thankfully, their communications still worked, and they could call for support. Exhausted, beat up, stressed out, and on alert, the soldiers needed to keep fighting to hold their position until reinforcements showed up, put down the enemy, and got them safely home. The Bible talks a lot about spiritual warfare, which has a lot in common with actual combat. For the Church, we are surrounded by the Enemy ...

Ghosts have long captivated the human imagination, sparking fascination and fear alike. But what is the truth behind these ethereal beings? Are they the spirits of the departed or something more sinister? As we delve into religion, history, and personal experiences, we will uncover the mysteries of ghosts and their true nature. The Many Faces of Ghosts Throughout history, accounts of ghostly encounters have taken various forms. Some claim to have witnessed the apparitions of deceased loved ones, while others have encountered restless spirits haunting specific locations. From dreams to unexpected appearances, the manifestations of ghosts are as diverse as the human imagination itself. However, understanding these discrepancies requires a deeper exploration of our religious backgrounds and beliefs. Religion and the Fear of Death Religion has often served as a solace for the human fear of death, offering explanations and reassurances about the afterlife. Different religious traditions pro...

In Genesis 6:1–4, the reader encounters one of the most challenging passages in all of Scripture to interpret. Here’s the passage in the ESV. When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. Echoes from Genesis 1–3 People multiplying is an echo of Genesis 1. God made “man” (Gen 1:26–27), and then he commissioned his image-bearers to be fruitful and “multiply” (1:28). In 6:1, we read of this multiplication happening. The reference to God as “Spirit” in Genesis 6:3 reminds us of 1:2, the second verse in the Bible. There, th...

By Jonathon Aigner The war against the once-beloved “Onward, Christian Soldiers” is decades old. When the United Methodist Church was revising its hymnal in the mid-80s, it made the mistake of trying to drop this hymn from what would soon become the current United Methodist Hymnal. Good Methodists and Methodists are good people. They started a war of their own, essentially inundating the hymnal committee with correspondence which, according to Carlton Young, made it “impossible for the committee to go on with its work.” Suitable for those lovely Methodist saints. Other denominations have long since dropped it like a hot potato. “Onward” hasn’t been in a mainline Presbyterian hymnal for 50 years. Other traditions still have it in their hymnals, like the Episcopal church, but I would guess that few Episcopal churches would use it lest they make those among them with little Scripture knowledge uncomfortable. On the one hand, I understand how militaristic language can be complex. It can be...

What the local church needs to know about angels, Satan, and demons is an intriguing question. In my experience, I have heard very little from the pulpit or in adult Sunday school on the topic. The question is intriguing because popular culture (movies and TV, for example) teems with treatments, often fanciful, on these themes, especially around Halloween. There are many aspects of the doctrine of angels, Satan, and demons worth making the local church aware of and here are only some of them.[1] The Bigger Canvas B. Philips, a noted Bible translator of the last century, wrote a small book which has proved very influential and is still in print, Your God is Too Small. The title is so instructive. He maintained that too many have a shrunken view of God. With debts to Philips, one could argue that your worldview is too small if it leaves out angels, Satan and demons.  This lack can be a problem at two levels: espoused and operational. At the espoused level, the believer never thinks a...

It’s impossible to read the New Testament and not see Jesus and the early church facing demonic possession. Summary statements of Jesus’s ministry, such as Matthew 4:24 and Acts 10:38, show us that Jesus not only encountered demon-possessed people but also healed them. Despite varied symptoms of possession and methods of deliverance (e.g., Matt 15:22–28; Mark 1:21–28; 5:1–20; Luke 13:10–17), the demons were no match for the Son of God. The early church also encountered demon-possessed people (e.g., Acts 5:16). Philip’s ministry included exorcism (Acts 8:5–8), as did Paul’s (Acts 16:16–18). As Bill Cook has observed, “Those who [encountered] demonic resistance—whether it was persecution, demon possession, or magic—showed no fear of confronting it in Jesus’s name.” Is Possession Still Possible? The question before us in this article, though, is whether demon possession happens today. Three caveats are in order. First, we must stand on the truth that “the human heart is the biggest proble...