Dr Paul Allen

Tom Gilson Pressure can take you out — but it doesn’t have to. There’s a lesson for Christians on that in recent events. The U.S. Navy submersible vehicle Alvin has made more than 5,000 deep water dives as far down as 18,500 feet, and has always returned intact. The Titan sub was less than 70% that deep when it failed. It’s possible to dive that deep, but it’s possible to fail, too. The difference is in the quality of the vessel. The Titan’s pilot and passengers thought they were safe, and indeed, in shallower waters they would have been. Under enormous deep water pressures, however — well over 2 tons per square inch — that trust tragically imploded. I trust that learning from them does them honor in their tragedy, because pressure on Christianity in the West is becoming enormous, too. Will we hold firm? Persecution is nothing new to Christians. Even today, hundreds of millions of believers face pressures we Westerners could hardly imagine. The difference here in the West is in the rat...

Do angels carry our prayers to God? Do angels play a mediating role between us and heaven? What makes this especially interesting is the fact that angels do hold the prayers of the saints. They hold them. That’s the glorious point of Revelation 8:3–5. The prayers of the saints — our prayers — accumulate in “golden bowls full of incense,” bowls that are held by the angels (Revelation 5:8).  It’s an incredibly encouraging image .  God wants us to know that every one of our prayers — our answered prayers and our yet-unanswered prayers, all of them — are heard by him, is precious to him, and always exist before him.  Do angels carry our prayers to God?   In Roman Catholicism, the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, is put between us and God as a mediator. People all over the world, sadly, pray to Mary. They say their Hail Marys and do their rosary instead of coming to God directly and confidently and humbly through Jesus alone. No Other Mediators Millions don’t believe tha...