Dr Paul Allen

What do I mean? I’m suggesting that the path to real biblical understanding requires that we don’t make the Bible conform to our traditions, our prejudices, our personal crises, or our culture’s intellectual battles.  Yes, you’ll find material in Scripture that will help you resolve personal difficulties and questions. But you must remember that, while the Bible was written for us, it wasn’t written  to  us. What they wrote is still vital for our lives today, but we can only accurately discern the message if we let them speak as they spoke. The Bible needs to be interpreted in context, recognizing all contexts—including the history of Christianity—that post-date the biblical world are foreign to the Bible. The right contexts for interpreting the Bible are those in which the Bible was written. You can’t let the Bible be what it is if you’re filtering it through a set of experiences and ideas (a “cognitive framework”) that would have been incomprehensible to t...

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.  For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.  Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed,  for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go . A stirring passage. And the preacher, who was a gifted speaker, skillfully weaved its themes into a unified sermon. We profited from it. We love to hear God’s word preached with care and feeling. But there was one implicit rhetorical move underlying the entire message that I felt uncomfortable with, and it was explicitly stated at the end when the preacher said, looking into the eyes of his audience,  These are God’s promises to you . Was it right for the preacher to apply those words from Joshua 1 directly to Christians today?  What would a socc...

How do we interpret the Old Testament as a Christian ? How are we to understand which promises apply to us and which ones don’t? We often struggle to interpret and apply portions of the Old Testament (specifically the prophetic books) where the word of God was being spoken to God’s people as the nation of Israel . How can we discern if warnings or promises directed towards Israel are applicable to other nations, the body of Christ in the global church, or even to ourselves as individuals? What benefit or dangers may there be in carrying over meaning from Israel to these other modern day audiences? 2 Chronicles 7:14 is one such example.” Let me see if I can simplify some very complex issues and provide a two-step process that enables Joe and the rest of us Christians to appropriate the Old Testament, especially the promises for our use as Christians in the 21st century. Here is the first step: 2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “All the promises of God find their Yes in him [Christ]. T...

Scripture contains spiritual truth. According to 1 Corinthians 1:18–2:16, people need the help of the Holy Spirit to correctly understand spiritual truth. “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.… This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (NIV 1 Corinthians 2:11, 13–14). Consequently, it is important to prepare our hearts and to ask God for the Holy Spirit’s help so we can correctly understand God’s Word. Start by praising and worshiping God, confessing sin, asking for forgiveness for sin, and getting your heart right before God. It will be easier to understand and accept what ...