Dr Paul Allen

The public ministry of Jesus didn't create demonic activity, but it did expose it, theologian and New Testament scholar N.T. Wright said during a recent episode of "Ask Me Anything," cautioning Christians against both the denial of spiritual evil and the unhealthy fixation on it. Responding to a question  about whether Jesus’ arrival triggered an apparent surge of demonic activity in the New Testament, the 77-year-old British author said the Gospels portray Jesus’ proclamation of God’s Kingdom as a moment when hidden spiritual forces were suddenly confronted. “When Jesus comes into Galilee and starts saying, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand,’ it’s as though suddenly all the furniture starts flying around the room,” Wright said, pointing to Gospel accounts of public confrontations and exorcisms. “The dark powers realise, if He does everything that He looks as if He’s going to do, then we’re in deep trouble.” Wright, one of the world’s leading biblical scholars and a former A...

 

In Genesis 6:1–4, the reader encounters one of the most challenging passages in all of Scripture to interpret. Here’s the passage in the ESV. When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. Echoes from Genesis 1–3 People multiplying is an echo of Genesis 1. God made “man” (Gen 1:26–27), and then he commissioned his image-bearers to be fruitful and “multiply” (1:28). In 6:1, we read of this multiplication happening. The reference to God as “Spirit” in Genesis 6:3 reminds us of 1:2, the second verse in the Bible. There, th...

There are many stories of supernatural protection from angels. One inner‑city counselor claimed a seven‑foot angel protected her from a gang of thugs.1 On the other hand, Wolly Tope established a Christian ministry to people disillusioned by false and cultic teachings. In April 1992 he had an appointment with destiny. When he heard about riots breaking out in Los Angeles, Tope took to the streets and preached to the rioters. A gang of hoodlums beats him so severely that he fell into a coma. Tope died the following year, never regaining consciousness after his beating. Why didn’t angels protect Tope during the riots? If everyone or at least every Christian has a guardian angel, where was his guardian angel that night? Belief in guardian angels is nothing new. Ancient thinkers of the Greco-Roman world such as Plato, Plutarch, and Plotinus believed in spiritual guardians, as did Babylonian and Assyrian writers.2 Ancient Jewish traditions suggested that angels were assigned to everyone.3 S...

Of all the misconceptions we have about Heaven, which is the most destructive? That’s a difficult and important question to tackle. Someone asked: Do you really believe we will eat and drink in the afterlife?  Yes! But many Bible-believing Christians would die before denying the doctrine of the resurrection—and yet they don’t fully believe it. Some Christians don’t understand what resurrection means.  They really believe they will spend eternity as disembodied spirits. God’s revelation concerning the resurrection and the New Earth—our forever home—eludes them.  A Christian university professor wrote, “I was floored and dismayed to discover the vast majority of my students don’t believe in the bodily resurrection.” Some evangelicals even believe we become angels when we die. If I could eliminate one belief about Heaven, it would be the heresy that the physical world is an enemy of God’s redemptive plan rather than a central part of it. Dangers of Christoplatonism “Christop...

We are at war, but we cannot fight in the spirit realm with our natural ability, nor with our education, our money, or our natural resources. We can only fight spirit with spirit, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4, NKJV ). Demonic spirits with different ranks and assignments exist in the spiritual realm, and they respond to atmospheres. All spirits seek expression of their will into time and space, but they cannot accomplish this without someone providing them the opportunity. If a demonic spirit manifests, it is because somebody allowed it and created an atmosphere for that spirit to operate. When the disciples asked Jesus why they were unable to cast the evil spirit out of the child, Jesus said, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21, NKJV). “This kind” would indicate that there are spirits with different ranks. Without going into an expository work on demonology, le...