Dr Paul Allen

Let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:1–2 Does the Book of Hebrews teach its readers to “leave behind” the basics of the Christian faith in order to press on to maturity? In the past generation, a chorus of voices, including Tim Keller, D.A. Carson, and John Piper, have encouraged their audiences, in various ways, toward a “gospel-centered” or “cross-centered” faith. Rather than leaving behind Christian basics such as the cross and Christian gospel, they would have us go deeper into them, and find true Christian maturity in these basics, not beyond them. The origins of such a gospel-centered Christianity are found in the pages of the New Testament, drawing most explicitly from the epistles of Paul, John, and Peter, as well as Hebrews. It is Hebrews, a...

In Matthew 7:24–27, Jesus tells us about someone’s house:  “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”  Jesus goes on to say that when the rains, winds, and floods came, the house survived. I’ve often wondered what style of house Jesus is describing in this passage. In all likelihood, the ancient people who heard Jesus teaching that day would have thought of their mud and clay homes. Perhaps you think of your childhood home or the house you live in now. Everyone’s house is different .  Even ancient mud and clay homes differed from one another. They had different sizes, different decorations, and different locations. But in Jesus’ metaphor, the house is meant to point to one’s life. This house is something we’re always building as we become who we are. What’s more, our lives are different from one another. Therefore, every life represented as a house in this passage will look different. We Christians ...

The city’s ancient name is Rekem and it is situated near the Dead Sea, in the desert lands of Jordan. It was discovered by Westerners as late as 1812. Like any ancient city, it consists of various buildings – houses, tombs, a monastery, temple, and other dwellings. Two facts about the city are striking. One is its age. It is so old that no one has any idea when it was founded. There are references to it in the writings of Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Old Testament, but it seems to have been around much longer than that. This survival would be remarkable for any city, but what makes this even more incredible is the harshness of the region’s geographic elements. The region is prone to severe flash flooding. The city has survived millennia of sandstorms, flash floods, and earthquakes, not to mention wars, fires, and various manmade calamities.  How is this possible? Because of the city’s other most striking feature: the entire city is carved out of a massive slab of solid...