Dr Paul Allen

Pope Francis has made several controversial statements throughout the years, but perhaps none quite as controversial as the one in this video. You can watch it  here . Sure, it is false teaching , but can you actually call it demonic ? I would define demonic as any false teaching that distorts the Gospel (Gal. 1:6-9) in a way that would lead people to hell ( Eph. 2:1-3). Any preacher on any given  Sunday  may say things that are wrong, but that doesn’t make it demonic. When a preacher’s words cause the people who listen to trust in some other gospel, that is when it becomes demonic ( Luke 17:1-2). As I watched the video, I have found five different, serious errors that the Pope espoused that prove that he not only was teaching error but that he was doing so in order to lead the people who were present away from the true Gospel and into hell. The Pope is concerned about popularity not with truth The Pope is in a hard position here. He h...

The question is not whether you ever hear the voice of false teachers. You do — probably every day. The question is whether you can discern which messages are false. If you watch any television, listen to any radio or podcasts, keep up on the news, or interact at depth with just about anyone in modern society, you are being exposed to some form of false teaching. If you cannot identify any voices you hear as false, it’s not because you aren’t being exposed, but because you’re falling for it in some way. For most of church history, it took extraordinary energy and effort to influence the masses. Messages had to be copied by hand, and teachers had to travel by foot or horseback. There were no cars or airplanes, and no printing presses, websites, or Facebook pages. But today just about every false teacher has a Twitter account. How, then, does the church discern true teachers from false ones in a world like ours, where it’s easier than ever to spread false teaching? False Teachers Will...

Anyone paying attention to the news last week could not have missed Pope Francis’s historic visit to the United States. Perhaps the most alarming aspect of his visit was the way in which some evangelical leaders enthusiastically embraced him. Today’s article addresses one of the many reasons why evangelicals should neither endorse nor applaud the office of the papacy. The Popularity of the Papacy Francis is unarguably one of the most popular popes in recent memory. That popularity has been fueled, largely, by his unexpected message of tolerance toward those who have historically been condemned by the Catholic Church. In last few months, Francis has even shocked many Catholics with statements he has made about homosexuality, divorce, abortion, capitalism, climate change, and how he views of people in non-Catholic religions. Some of his comments have been so surprising, in fact, that it leads one to wonder about the continuing validity of the rhetorical question: “Is the Pope Catho...

The Spirit of False Prophets/Antichrist (Deceit) (1 John 4vv. 1b, 3) In the early years of Christianity, before the New Testament was completed (AD 100) and before the first creeds of the church were formulated (AD 325), there were no official, universal theological benchmarks for evaluating Christian preaching and teaching.  To complicate matters, the early Christians were pneumatics; that is, they believed themselves to be filled with the Spirit of God, which provided divine backing for their messages. This is why Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:19–21 that Christians should, on the one hand, not despise prophecies of the Spirit, while, on the other hand, they should discern whether the spokesperson truly was inspired by the Holy Spirit. John is calling for much the same in 4:1–6: his community needed to discern whether a speaker was inspired by the Holy Spirit.  For John, however, there was indeed at least one theological benchmark: if the person confessed that Chris...

Destruction of the bodies and souls of men is another major area of demonic activity. Physical problems that demons can inflict include dumbness (Matt. 9:33), blindness (Matt. 12:22), crookedness of limbs, paralysis, and torturous diseases (Mark 3:10; Acts 8:7; Luke 13:11, 16). Mental derangement is also within their power (Mark 5:4–5; Luke 9:37–42). The moral impurities of the Canaanites seem to have been traceable to demon activity (Lev. 18:6–30; see also Deut. 18:9–14), and we know that Satan can tempt believers to immorality (1 Cor. 7:5). The war against the souls of men was illustrated by our Lord in His teaching about the worthlessness of self-reformation (Matt. 12:43–45). The believer is in a constant spiritual warfare, his enemies being Satan and his demons (Eph. 6:12). Notice that this verse teaches the organization and ranking of demons and “their world-wide way over the present … spiritual and moral darkness.”59 In the Tribulation period, the destructive power of demo...