Dr Paul Allen

It was October, 312. A young general who had the allegiance of all the Roman troops from Britain and Gaul was marching toward Rome to challenge Maxentius, another claimant to the imperial throne. As the story goes, General Constantine looked up and saw a cross of light in the sky. An inscription read, “In this conquer.” The superstitious soldier was already beginning to reject the Roman deities in favor of a single god. His father had worshiped a supreme sun-god. Could this be a favorable omen from that god on the eve of battle? Later, Christ appeared to Constantine in a dream , bearing the same sign, a cross with the top bent over, resembling the Greek letters chi and rho, the first two letters of Christos. The general was instructed to mark this sign on his soldiers’ shields. He did. As promised, Constantine won the battle. It was one of several decisive moments in a quarter century of violent change. If you had left Rome in A.D. 305, to spend twenty years in the desert...

Luke 22:63–65 . Who struck you Jesus? This question was asked by wicked men who held the Saviour in the hour of the power of darkness, Luke 22:53. So far, during His ministry they could not stretch forth a hand against Him.  But now, having been falsely accused and condemned to death by their leaders, those wretched minions thought to physically man-handle Him. They mocked His claims by spitting in His face, smiting and buffeting Him. Then, they thought of further humiliating Him by blindfolding Him, striking Him, then asking Him to tell who it was that had carried out the mean action. Did they really want to test His prophesying ability? Or were they just putting Him to an open shame, Heb. 6:6? Were they really interested in learning the truth about His Person? Did they have a genuine desire to know if He was indeed a prophet? Certainly not! This was simply a clear demonstration that ‘the carnal mind is enmity against God’, Rom. 8:7. Every proof that Jesus of Nazareth was ...

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 othe...