Dr Paul Allen

The idea of immutability is very hard for us to understand, perhaps more so than the idea of eternity or infinity. How can ever-changing creatures such as us who live in an ever-changing reality grasp the idea of “changelessness”? The fact that everything changes has always been a truism. “Change is here to stay,” business analysts proclaim. “We live in times of change,” lazy journalists write, as if there ever were a time in history that was not a “time of change.” None of this is particularly new. After all, 2,600 years ago, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously proclaimed, “Everything flows!” But God does not change. At least, this is the teaching of Scripture, according to the unanimous tradition of the Christian church. However, this attribute of immutability has been increasingly challenged in recent years. Many today would question whether the idea of God’s immutability is sustainable, biblical, or even helpful. As we saw in previous articles, seventeenth-century Reformed th...

Robert Murray M’Cheyne lay on his sickbed in January 1839. Illness had punctuated much of his life and would eventually claim him at the tender age of twenty-nine. Eternity was ever before him in such seasons. Thus, on January 12, 1839, he wrote to a ministerial friend: “May your mind be solemnized, my dear friend, by the thought that we are ministers but for a time, that the Master may summon us to retire into silence. . . . Make all your services tell for eternity.” Worship is the main theme in the symphony that is the Christian life. Lord’s Day meetings are the center of our experience, for it’s in gathered worship that we encounter the triune God through His Word, sacraments, and prayer. When the saints gather on Sunday, eternity kisses the earth. WORSHIP THAT UNDERSTANDS THE REALITY OF ETERNITY What might happen to our services if they told for eternity? At least four things would be true. I. We would enjoy God’s presence . One great mystery of the Christian’s experience is that w...

Yet the reality of this next statement settles on you for a moment: you are going to die. It could be today or tomorrow, or maybe sixty or seventy years from now. For most of us, it will be sometime between now and then. Nevertheless, the fact remains, if the Lord doesn’t return before long, we are going to die. You are going to die. In modern times, we work hard at not thinking of death. We’d rather focus on the temporal and just get on with it. But Christianity teaches that when we refuse to take death into account, we’re destined to live deluded and deceived existences. When we stave off thoughts of our own mortality, we’re doomed to waste our lives on trivial matters. For, as Moses reminds us, we never gain the heart of wisdom if we don’t learn to number our days (Ps. 90:12). If you’ve ever visited ancient churches, you’ve likely noticed a graveyard surrounding the church. Lining the pathways that lead to the church’s entrance are tombstones with images of skulls or skeletons or an...

Is Jesus limited for all eternity by the human nature he took on? Where Jesus is now and what he is doing? At the time of his incarnation Jesus took on a human nature – a second nature – in addition to (not instead of) his divine nature. This second nature is a permanent addition, so Jesus will now always be both fully God and fully man.  Jesus is described in 1 Timothy 2:5 is currently “The man Christ Jesus.” Thus, from the time of his conception, and for eternity to come, Jesus is no longer just spirit but has a human body. Now his is a glorious body – as ours will be after our resurrection – but it is a body. (Philippians 3:21). While Jesus was on earth, he was subject to the limitations of being human. We know that Jesus became flesh (John 1:14), that could be touched (1 John 1:1), which got hungry (Mark 11:12), tired (John 4:6) and thirsty (John 19:28). Jesus showed emotions (John 11:33) and he had a mind (Luke 2:25) and a human will (John 6:38). He was subject to tem...

What happens to those who die while denying the truth of God in their lives? What will their rejection of the truth mean for them? Most people today do not want to think about the final judgment. For those who are young, death and eternity seem so far away.  Yet if we would think seriously about eternity—heaven and hell—it would change the way we live today, and for many, it will change where they will spend eternity. Many are betting their eternal destiny doesn't include a final judgment. This is a tragically fatal bet. The holiness and righteousness of God demand that He execute perfect justice on the final day. At the end of human history, God will judge the world, and His eternal purpose for redemptive history will, at last, be fulfilled. Looming on the horizon of eternity, there is coming a terrifying final day of judgment. This world is spinning through space on a collision course with this final day of reckoning. Known as the great white throne judgment, this climactic h...

Sooner or later we will all have to face the death of a loved one. Christians meet this reality more than most because we belong to a bigger family: the church. In the body of Christ , God blesses us with many brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers — all dear loved ones whose spiritual bond with us will never be severed (Mark  3:31 –35). We must all reckon with death. Some day we will all confront our own end, but along the way, we will also witness beloved friends and family pass from this life into the next. Death is a real enemy — a frightening enemy. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians  15:26 ). I have watched people die in front of me. I have lost friends, young and old. Death is always ugly. Death always brings sorrow. And there is nothing wrong with grief in the face of death. Jesus himself wept over the death of his friend Lazarus (John  11:35 ). God has so designed us that death is unnatural to us. We were meant to live. But wh...

Below are some foundational biblical/theological teaching on the decree of God. We will look at passages of Scripture that speak of God’s decree as eternal, unconditional, unchangeable, and exhaustive. As a result, we can conclud that God is properly said to be the ultimate cause of all things. In numerous passages throughout the Bible, there are places where Scripture speaks of God’s “purpose” ( Acts 4:28 ), His “plan” ( Ps 33:11 ; Acts 2:23 ), His “counsel” ( Eph 1:11 ), “good pleasure” ( Isa 46:10 ), or “will” ( Eph 1:5 ). In one way or another, each of these designations refer to what theologians call God’s decree. The Westminster Confession famously characterizes describes God’s decree as follows: “God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.” So in those instances where Scripture speaks of God’s purpose, plan, counsel, pleasure, or will, these passages are referring to the divine de...