Dr Paul Allen

I thought I understood culture until I moved abroad and went grocery shopping in Asia. I couldn’t read any labels, so I was painstakingly selecting each item, relying on pictures and translation apps. Suddenly, an elderly woman came over, pulled a bottle of dish soap out of my shopping cart, and spoke rapid Chinese as she wagged her finger at me. She returned my selected soap to the shelf, picked up a different brand, and put it in my cart. I was speechless and indignant. What in the world? How dare someone invades my privacy and replace an item in my shopping cart? Now that I’ve been in Asia for more than six years I better understand what was happening—not only with the elderly woman but also in my soul. Culture is like the proverbial iceberg. We may think we understand our culture, but much remains below the surface. We might not see it until someone crashes into our subconscious cultural beliefs. Sure, culture affects what we eat, where we live, and the clothing we wear. But cultur...

Paul’s statement in Galatians 3:28 has been cited to support numerous erroneous positions, but it is typically misinterpreted in one of two ways. The first is to misread Paul as if he’s saying all human distinctions are obliterated. The second is to not realize the significance of what Paul is saying. First, some people appeal to Galatians 3:28 to defend egalitarianism, transgenderism, comprehensive cultural assimilation, ethnic indifference, classless societies, and more. But those ideas are irrelevant to Paul’s point. The parity he’s advocating is with respect to salvation; it’s not a wholesale blurring of all human distinctions. In fact, certain distinctions were established at creation—such as between the Sabbath and ordinary days (Gen. 2:2–3; Ex. 16:22–26; Mark 7:19), between labor and rest (Gen. 2:15; 2 Thess. 3:10; James 5:4), and in gender roles (Gen. 2:18; 1 Cor. 11:3–16). This reality informs the general abiding validity of the three categories Paul mentions: gender ...