Dr Paul Allen

For years, I’ve written articles and books about evangelism. On the surface, this looks like a desire to help foster evangelism in the Christian community. And it’s true; I do desire that. But on a deeper level, it stems from working out my internal angst concerning evangelism. How do I present the gospel honestly and boldly without needlessly offending? How do I ensure I don’t slip into heresy by adding or subtracting from the gospel? When do I need to remember that the gospel is offensive to those who love their sin and rebellion and that their distaste for the gospel has nothing to do with me at all? Can you identify with this inner struggle? After decades of asking myself questions like these, I'd like to offer seven suggestions for you to keep in mind as you consider how to get started in evangelism. 1 1. Sweep away misconceptions in your head about evangelism. It’s easy to listen to well-meaning believers and get the wrong idea about evangelism. The mistaken ideas are almost ...

While German bombers raided southern England, the Church of England raided Psalm 58.1 In early July of 1917, the Lower House of the Canterbury Convocation passed liturgical reform to update the church’s psalter. That update excised from the psalter several individual verses calling for God’s judgment on the wicked, and the one psalm to be removed entirely was Psalm 58. This edit came just days after German Gotha planes had killed hundreds, including women and children, in London and the southeast of England. The bishops headed off using these psalms as reprisal refrains against the Germans by removing them from the psalter. Among the prayers removed were : “O God, break the teeth in their mouths” (Ps 58:6) and “Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child that never sees the sun” (Ps 58:8). In justification of this psalter edit, one writer said that these imprecatory psalms include, “wild screams of barbaric rage in which reason, morality, respect for ...

David Murray When a friend or family member experiences mental illness, it can often be a time of great confusion. What’s happening? What should I do or say? What should I pray for? I want to give you some specific petitions to bring to God, but our attitude in prayer is as important as our words, so I want to encourage you to pray with hope, patience, and love. Pray with hope because we are praying to the God of hope (Rom. 15:13), who encourages us to believe in his power when we and the sufferer feel powerless. God can fully heal mental illness, or he can give varying degrees of improvement, or he can give help in managing the condition better. As Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). Pray with patience because changes for the better can take a long time, and we can easily give up praying when so little change is evident. Praying for someone with mental illness is more like a marathon than a sprint. It will develop your patience muscles more tha...

Tim Shorely I have stage four, poor-prognosis cancer, and I believe in healing, either bestowed directly by the Lord or through the intercession of others. I’m convinced there are moments when God transcends and circumvents the normal to heal instantaneously and supernaturally (1 Cor. 12:7–9). I sincerely believe he can and often does this without any means other than his love-released power—to make the body whole, the spirit glad, and the tongue exult. My faith doesn’t embrace fraudulent faith healers, name-it-and-claim-it charlatans, prosperity peddlers, or positive-thinking gurus. I believe God can and often does grant actual, supernatural healings of the body, spirit, and mind, by which the truly sick are made truly whole through the authority of Christ’s name, often catalyzed by the believing prayers of God’s people. But I still have cancer. Despite thousands of prayers, many of which have been bathed in ample faith and anointing oil, I still have cancer, and my clock’s ticking. T...

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...

Does prayer make any difference? Does it really change anything? Someone once asked me that question, only in a slightly different manner: "Does prayer change God's mind?" My answer brought storms of protest. I said simply, "No." Now, if the person had asked me, "Does prayer change things?" I would have answered, "Of course!" The Bible says there are certain things God has decreed from all eternity. Those things will inevitably come to pass. If you were to pray individually or if you and I were to join forces in prayer or if all the Christians of the world were to pray collectively, it would not change what God, in His hidden counsel, has determined to do. If we decided to pray for Jesus not to return, He still would return. You might ask, though, "Doesn't the Bible say that if two or three agree on anything, they'll get it?" Yes, it does, but that passage is talking about church discipline, not prayer requests. So we must t...

Have you ever asked yourself who was the author of one of the books in the Bible ? Or, have you asked how did the author know about certain events in his book? Are you curious about who recorded what happened in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus prayed by Himself? Maybe you want to know who was at the events in the garden of Gethsemane. If you do, then you can learn the answer in what follows. Who Recorded What Happened in the Garden of Gethsemane? The Bible tells us that there are two authors of each book of the Bible. 2 Peter 1:20-21 reveals the identity of the two authors. The verses read as follows, But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. 2 Peter 1 :20-21 (NASB) The verse explains the two authors of Scripture or the Bible are the Holy Spirit and a human author. The Holy Spirit moved men to write. The Greek word translat...

I hesitate to put this article up, yet was asked the very question regarding failed prophecy and prayer.  Michael Brown writes; "We are living in an unprecedented season in American history, one of massive consequence for the nation as a whole and for conservative Christians in particular. All the more does this hold true for charismatic Christians, as I’ll explain shortly. Please allow me to lay out the stark, contrasting possibilities." I’ve written about this briefly in the last few days, but I’ll expand on things more fully here. "On the natural, non-spiritual side, either Donald Trump has pulled off the political feat of a lifetime, convincing tens of millions of Americans to reject the results of a fairly contested election. Or Trump is the victim of the most massive electoral fraud in our history, the exposing of which will shake our nation to its foundations." With the massive, worldwide, ongoing outpouring of prayer for this election, I feel confident that ...

2 Chronicles 14:11 “Asa cried to the LORD his God, ‘O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name, we have come against this multitude. O LORD, you are our God; let not man prevail against you’”  After the death of Abijah, his son Asa succeeded him as king of Judah (2 Chron. 14:1). It is to the reign of Asa that we now turn. Asa, the Chronicler tells us, “did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God” (v. 2). Thus, he was one of the good kings of Judah after the death of Solomon. However, we must note again that the Chronicler is referring to the reign of Asa as a whole. As we will see, Asa made some missteps later in his reign (ch. 16); nevertheless, his sins, while significant, were not so numerous and severe as to force the author to evaluate Asa’s reign negatively. Much of the Chronicler’s positive evaluation has to do with Asa’s religious reforms, including his rem...

One way to clarify the meaning of a Christian act is to take note of how much of the act the devil can do. So, for example, when clarifying what it means to have saving faith, James says, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe — and shudder!” (James 2:19). In other words, saving faith has to be more than what the demons can do. So, take note of that, and find out what it is that they can do. Never settle for a definition of “faith” that requires only what the devil can do. The Exegetical Devil-Principle There is an exegetical principle here that is useful in numerous biblical contexts. The principle is: when you are seeking to discern the meaning of a biblical duty, ask how much of the duty the devil can perform; take note of that, and don’t equate the biblical duty with what the devil can do. Every Christian duty taught in the Bible involves more than what the devil can do. In 1 Corinthians 12:3 Paul says, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ exce...

And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen from heaven your dwelling place,and when you hear, forgive. 2 Chronicles 6:21 No less than eight times in Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the temple does he beseech God to “hear from heaven” (see 2 Chronicles 6:21 , 23, 25, 27, 30, 33, 35, 39). But the obvious question is just how can God hear our prayers, especially those uttered only in silence? The answer is in both God’s omniscience and His omnipresence. Although God is indeed on His heavenly throne, He is also right here! “O LORD,” David prayed, “thou hast searched me, and known me. . . . thou understandest my thought afar off” ( Psalm 139:1-2 ). He can, and does, hear our prayers. “He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?” ( Psalm 94:9 ). In a manner of speaking, He hears the prayers of redeemed children today even more directly than in David’s day, for we who trust i...