Dr Paul Allen

Scott Harrower When I first met Marcel, he was slowly rubbing the side of his head, a small figure sitting alone at the back of our church. Tears streamed from his eyes as he told me the sermon had moved him. Over the next few weeks, I began to get to know Marcel, his dog Winkie, and his dislike of loud noises. Having been a nurse for a decade before I became a pastor, I slowly came to understand that Marcel was suffering from severe depression and anxiety. One day, he asked if I could help him stop feeling so “worthless and nervous.” I was faced with how to best care for Marcel. Should I refer Marcel to healthcare professionals and basically leave his mental health issues to them to care for? Or would it be best to care for his mental illness within the church community alone? Or could we develop a hybrid approach: a therapeutic model whereby our pastoral team and the wider church played a vital role within a more extensive professional approach to his care? What would it look like if...

THE DIMENSIONS OF DEATH What do we mean by the “dimensions” of death? When we think of death, we typically think of a friend or a loved one dying. Certainly, the Bible speaks of death that way. The Bible also has a broader understanding of death than biological or natural death. It can speak of death in terms of a person’s relationship with God.  We may call this “spiritual” death. Third, the Bible understands death in its fullest dimension in light of eternity. Those who die impenitent enter into “eternal” death. These three dimensions are not separate from one another. They are very much interrelated. Let’s look at these three dimensions of death: biological, spiritual, and eternal. Biological, or natural, death is the kind of death that is most familiar to us. 1 This death is the temporary dissolution of the bond between a person’s soul and body. As a result, the body undergoes corruption. This is how Solomon speaks of death in Ecclesiastes 12:7: “The dust returns to the earth a...

  One of the fundamental points of Christian theology is the deity of Jesus Christ —the belief that Jesus of Nazareth was truly the God of the Old Testament, born of a woman, living as a human being.  But Christ’s divinity does not mean that God was nowhere else when he lived on earth. Both God and Jesus simultaneously existed (as they had before Jesus was born). While on earth Jesus referred to God as “Father.” Consequently, Trinitarianism speaks of “God the Father” and “God the Son” (Jesus). The third person of this Trinity is the Holy Spirit. So even though Jesus is God, he is not the Father—hence the play on words: Jesus is God, but he isn’t God (the Father). Jesus is identified as God in several ways in the New Testament. Scripture describes him as having attributes and authority possessed only by God. John 1:1–2, 14 straightforwardly identifies Jesus as God: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God....

The statement from Paul to Timothy regarding spiritual discipline in 1 Timothy 4:7—“train yourself for godliness”—takes on not only transcending importance but personal urgency. There are other passages that teach discipline, but this is the great classic text of Scripture. The word train comes from the word 'gumnos', which means “naked” and is the word from which we derive our English word gymnasium. In traditional Greek athletic contests, the participants competed without clothing so as not to be encumbered. Therefore, the word train originally carried the literal meaning “to exercise naked.” By New Testament times, it referred to exercise and training in general. But even then it was, as it remains, a word with the smell of the gym in it—the sweat of a good workout. “Train yourselves, exercise, work out (!) for the purpose of godliness” conveys the feel of what Paul is saying. Spiritual Sweat In a word, he is calling for some spiritual sweat —so we must get ...

When I first became a Christian I was introduced to the priorities of the Christian community . I learned quickly that it was expected of me that I have a daily devotion time, a time reserved for Bible reading and prayer. I was expected to go to church. I was expected to have a kind of piety that was evident by not swearing, not drinking at the pub, not smoking, no dancing and the like.  I had no idea that biblical righteousness went far beyond these things. However, like most new Christians , I learned to emphasize such things . My personal letters and talk took on a new tone. They began to sound like pages from New Testament epistles . I soon learned to use Christian jargon in my everyday speech. I didn't "tell" anybody anything, I "shared" it with them. Every good fortune was a "blessing," and I found I could hardly speak without sprinkling my sentences with spiritual platitudes. We've all done it! Soon, however, I found that there was ...

2 Corinthians 6:14: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.” Now, this term “to be unequally yoked with,” is a translation of the compound word heterozugeo, which is made up of the familiar term heteros—“different”—and the word zugos, which is the word for “yoke.” This is an agricultural image. A yoke is a wooden crosspiece that a farmer would fasten over the necks of animals, which is then attached to a plow or a cart that animal would pull. There’s a double yoke, which sits on the necks of two animals as they plow side by side in the same direction. And the idea is: “Don’t get into a yoke with an animal that requires a different kind of yoke than you do,” or, “Don’t yoke together two different animals who are going to be pulling in two different directions.” And the imagery that Paul draws from comes from the Old Testament . The only other time Scripture uses the term heterozugeo is as an adjective in the Greek translation of Leviticus 19:19, where God commands Israel : “You ...

The power of invisibility is cool if you are a superhero, but it can have some disadvantages if you are a supreme being. For example, skeptics assert that God does not exist because we cannot see Him. But the fact of God’s invisibility does not limit His ability to make Himself known, nor does it inhibit His power to reveal His strength and His presence. The Bible describes God as invisible with statements such as: “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18) and “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever” (1 Timothy 1:17). Because humans don’t have much experience with invisibility, we tend to think that anything we can’t see doesn’t have much substance. After all, our thoughts are invisible, but they vanish at the slightest distraction, perhaps never to be recaptured. But being invisible doesn’t imply that God is a wispy, ethereal essence without substance. Like a violent wind, you might not see Him approaching, but He can make Hi...