Dr Paul Allen

A. The Two Types of Diseases     1)      Functional disease A functional disease is one in which there is a change in the function of an organ or tissue yet without structural or substantive damage being done. Examples would be high blood pressure , lower back pain, and most headaches. Whereas there are symptoms involved, such would not appear under X-ray because there is no demonstrable tissue damage.     2)       Organic disease An organic disease is one in which there is a demonstrable change in a bodily organ or tissue. Examples would be broken bones, paralysis due to a severed spinal cord, congenital malformations , coronary artery disease, etc. Evidence for an organic disease often shows up on an X-ray.  Someone has illustrated the difference between these two types of disease in this way: If a computer showed that two plus two equals five, the problem is probably functional. Someone most likely programmed it in...

Paul says, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). Amazingly, the Heidelberg Catechism says, "all the time He lived on earth, but especially at the end of His life, He bore, in body and soul, the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race" (Q&A 37). Jesus lived under the weight of our sins. There are two practical lessons here for us as Christians. First, since Christ has borne our sins once and for all, we are to continue laying on Him all our burdens from day to day: "[Cast] all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7; cf. Ps. 55:22). We need to pray daily for His help in bearing our burdens; and then, when we have done that, we need to continue praying. Second, since we in the new covenant are all priests of the Lord who can approach Him with boldness and confidence in prayer (Heb. 4:16), we are called by the Lord to bear one ano...

People who obey God’s will have often been discriminated against, persecuted, and killed. This history of prejudice, ridicule, and opposition began with Cain killing Abel, upon whom the Lord God had looked with favor (Gen. 4:4–5).  From that time onwards, many of God’s people have experienced reproach and affliction in various ways (see Heb. 11:35–38). This history of opposition continues until today: the execution of Jesus, Steven, James, Peter, Paul, and countless other Christians throughout the ages being only the more explicit examples of prejudice and discrimination. This is also why Jesus returns: when God restores his perfect creatio n, he will vindicate all those who have obeyed his will throughout the ages . It is not “the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars” who will live in God’s new world (Rev. 21:8). It is “those who conquer” (v. 7), that is, the people who followed the revealed will o...

One of the theological reasons for Jesus’ return is connected in a fundamental way with God’s creation and the fall. At the end of the sixth day of creation, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31; the phrase “very good” in Hebrew is tob me’od).  The next time that the Hebrew term for “very” (me’od) is used in the book of Genesis is in the statement “Cain was very angry” (Gen. 4:5), a disposition that quickly led to the first murder in history. The fact that Cain was “very angry” was a vivid demonstration of the fact that God’s creation was no longer “very good.” The event that changed God’s “very good” creation was the decision of Adam and Eve to act in deliberate disregard of the will of God, following the Serpent rather than obeying the One who had created a perfect world (Gen. 3:1–6). The consequences of the fall were swift, decisive, and numerous (Gen. 3:7–19). First, the relationship of Adam and Eve with God was fractured: th...