Dr Paul Allen

Christians need clarification and encouragement. When things are difficult, asking why they are so hard is easy. There may or may not be specific answers to this question, yet the Scriptures remind us that the people of God have, in every season, faced opposition—yet not without purpose. Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in his commentary on Acts 6, said: The Church has had to fight for her life from the very beginning. We have seen how the apostles were arrested and thrown into prison, how they were threatened, and how they were commanded to stop preaching. From the moment it was born, the church has faced a world that has done everything it could to exterminate Christianity. Although this tempts us to be more anxious than anchored, it reminds us that what we face is not entirely unprecedented. It also causes us to look to the early church to see how they faced difficult circumstances and remained faithful. The life of Stephen, in particular, can help us understand how we are to live. Stephen wa

Little is known about the extent of literacy among the ancient Israelites and other Near Eastern societies. For the most part, only scribes, certain religious and governmental officials, and some wealthy businessmen, along with other elite persons, could read and write beyond the basics. Possibly those with lower socioeconomic standing would have had basic literary training, but the evidence is small. The invention of writing appears to have occurred in Egypt and Mesopotamia at about the same time—​the late fourth millennium BC—​but neither of those writing systems is alphabetic like ancient Hebrew.  One must presume that some predecessor of ancient Hebrew, a Northwest Semitic language, is the language the Biblical text refers to in Ex 17:14 since the writing is to be preserved for future reference.  Ancient Hebrew and most other alphabetic languages (including modern languages such as English) all derive from the same alphabet—​likely a Semitic invention in the first half of the secon

English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew 27:35–44 “When they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there” ( vv. 35–36 ). Like the other three evangelists, Matthew does not describe the process of crucifixion in detail, probably because the practice is well-known to his first-century audience.  No Roman punishment is more painful or degrading than to be crucified; therefore, Rome normally reserves the cross for non-citizens, crucifying those with full citizenship only when the Caesar himself prescribes it. The Jews under Rome’s rule regard the cross as particularly abhorrent, and the rabbis later forbid its use in self-governing Jewish communities . In Jesus ’ case, however, the religious leaders are elated to see Him disgraced on the cross. He is crucified outside Jerusalem in deference to Jewish sensibilities ( Heb. 13:12 ), on a major thoroughfare so as to warn others n