Dr Paul Allen

Davy Ellis Anonymity is one of my fears in ministry, and I suspect my fellow pastors share my worry. We marvel at men like Luther, Owen, Spurgeon, and Packer. We spend seminary reading D. A. Carson, Thomas Schreiner, Alec Motyer, and T. Desmond Alexander. These giants have written numerous books, preached to thousands, or changed the course of the gospel cause in their time. Then we look at ourselves. We pastor churches of maybe 100. Anything we write will likely be read only by our mothers and spouses. A hundred years from now, we may be forgotten. In a thousand years, we will be forgotten. We feel anonymous. If we dwell on that thought for too long, we soon wonder what the point is. First Chronicles 1–9 can help. Desert of Names Preachers and laypeople alike often overlook the books of Chronicles. One reason is the long list of hard-to-pronounce, largely unknown names in the first nine chapters. There are about 200 names in Chapter 1 alone. Mark Dever designated these chapters a “ver...

Is there a God? If so, what is He like? Does He care about us? What does He require of us? These are questions that all men must face. The answer to these will determine the direction and goal of each life. I. Evidence for God’s Existence A. Bible Reveals It. The Bible does not attempt to prove the existence of God. The first statement is: “In the beginning God …” (Gen. 1:1). It assumes it as a fact and asserts that “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God'” (Psa. 14:1). The Bible says that only a fool, ignorant of the facts, would deny God, and then not openly, but secretly in his heart. The Bible is written on the premise that the evidence for God is so strong that no informed person would deny His existence. However, to those who will not accept the Bible's teaching concerning God, it becomes necessary to examine added proof for His existence. A few pieces of evidence will suffice: B. Reason Teaches It. The law of cause and effect requires that back of every effect the...

As we enter the Advent season, it is a good time to be reminded that Jesus was a real person, who had a real family, and real ancestors. His ancestors were sovereignly appointed by God, who steered history all the way to the virgin birth. Here is a list of Jesus’ ancestors by name, along with the meaning of each name. While this may be a hard concept for us today (we often choose names that have no meaning), Hebrews were generally very aware of the significance of a name. Obviously, a person was given their name before they had their character revealed (although there are examples of people who had their name changed to reflect their current conduct–Israel, Naomi, etc.), but part of the Hebrew's trust in God’s sovereignty was a recognition that God is sovereign over birth, and over names. Thus the connection between a name and conduct was much more direct and atemporal than Americans can imagine. With that said, read through the meaning of the names of Jesus’ ancestors, and see how...