Dr Paul Allen

“That you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9b). In Judges 18, we see the idolatry begun by Micah take root among the people of the colony established by the Danites on Israel’s northern frontier. Doing what was right in their own eyes, they veered away from the true worship of the God of Israel and fell into apostasy. We might say they established their own “cult.” Nowadays, there is vast disagreement over what is true about God and how He is to be worshipped. To make matters worse, the various groups that weigh in on spiritual matters often classify themselves as “the one true church” and their opponents as cults.  How can we tell the difference between an orthodox church and a cult? What makes a cult a cult? What are some of the significant cults today?  The word cult comes from the Latin cultus, which means “to care for” or “to take care of.” The word cult initially referred to a group of people who had sim...

" Cage-stage " describes an all too common phenomenon wherein a believer comes to embrace the doctrines of grace, and for a time becomes an obnoxious lout in defending the doctrines to all comers, whether they are interested or not. It suggests that such a newbie should spend some time in a cage until they calm down. If you are a Calvinist, you likely have been through this stage. If you are not, you surely have encountered those who were infected. What causes Cage-stage Calvinism is a failure to believe Calvinism. Now I don't mean to rattle any cages here, but I believe it's true. It begins with a failure to believe in total depravity . The Cage Stager is frustrated, bent out of shape, often angry at the failure of others to embrace these biblical doctrines. But this biblical doctrine acknowledges that we all have difficulty embracing biblical doctrines. The Cage Stager seems to forget the battle with sin he not only continues to have, but the battle he only recen...