Dr Paul Allen

 Can we see God? Why is God invisible?

Issues of conscience and preference require careful consideration to maintain unity and love within the church. Understanding these categories helps Christians respect diverse opinions and avoid unnecessary conflicts, promoting a more unified and loving community. Is it an issue of conscience? Conscience issues arise when someone abstains from something that is neither sinful nor foolish, influenced by biblical wisdom and personal experience. Even among like-minded believers, circumstances colour perspectives. The influence of your personal experience can make it difficult for you to imagine how others could operate differently in good conscience. No wonder the New Testament commands believers to respect and tolerate diverse opinions on issues in this category (Rom 14:13). Christians must submit their consciences to God (Rom 14:5–7) and seek to build one another up in love (Rom 14:19), even as they exercise liberty with discretion (Rom 14:20). Is it an issue of preference?   The key to

On its own, it’s hard to make sense of Jesus’ eye-lamp metaphor. However, the ambiguity fades when our interpretation of “the eye is the lamp of the body” involves reading Jesus’ words in context. He’s using imagery from the Hebrew Bible to say that one's spiritual health can be assessed in part by observing the way one uses material possessions. First, this single sentence belongs to a large body of teaching found in Matthew 5-7, known as the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus talks about the body’s eye-lamp in a section of the sermon that focuses on the dangers involved with wealth. This context helps us see that his metaphor specifically speaks to our relationship with money and possessions. Second, as a Jewish teacher, Jesus appeals to common idioms in the Hebrew Bible. Seeing how biblical authors use the metaphorical language of “light-filled” versus “dim” eyes—or “good” versus “bad” eyes—can help us gain a deeper understanding of Jesus’ intended message. For Jesus, the eye becomes an

“Wars will continue to flare up between sinful human beings as long as they live in this fallen world, in which Satan is at work…. Christ himself declared there would continue to be ‘wars and rumours of war’ [Matthew 24:6]…. Only when he returns in glory to bring this world to its end and fully subjugate Satan will war cease.” So says The Lutheran Study Bible, “Divine Warfare,” p. 376. That doesn’t mean we have to like it. We must acknowledge that we’re stuck with warfare, hoping and praying to keep it manageable. But that’s a tall order at the moment, considering that nine countries now hold a total of 12,000 nuclear weapons. The Current Top 10 Most Deadly Conflicts Granted, Russia and the U.S. hold more than 90 per cent of those 12,000 weapons. But as tensions escalate around the globe, that’s hardly reassuring. Here are the most violent conflicts currently being waged around the planet, with their minimum estimated fatalities over the last two years: Russia vs. Ukraine: 98,000 Israe

  Who is Luke and why is he important? Luke was acquainted with and traveled with the apostle  Paul . Not only did Luke travel with Paul outside the land of Israel, he also visited Israel and may have become personally acquainted with members of Jesus’s family, including his mother Mary and his brother James. Between them, Luke and Paul wrote more than half of the New Testament. This makes Luke hugely important for Christianity. Where does the Bible refer to Luke? Luke’s name appears three times in the Bible. All three occur in the New Testament, and all three are found in letters written by Paul ( Col 4:14 ;  2 Tim 4:11 ; Phil 24). In  Colossians 4:14 , Paul refers to Luke as “the beloved physician.” In  Philemon 24 , Luke is listed along with Mark, Aristarchus, and Demas among the apostle’s “fellow workers.” Both of these references occur in what we know as Paul’s Prison Letters, for they were written while the apostle was detained either in Caesarea Maritima, on Israel’s coast, or i

Does God plan everything ahead of time? If so, does that mean humans lack free will, that we are like robots? Such topics lead to questions about salvation: Does God save only those he’s chosen in advance? And, if so, how is that fair? These are the kind of questions that pop up whenever we broach the doctrine of predestination. These questions are not just extra-biblical speculation. Christians mainly talk about the doctrine of predestination because they’ve encountered it in the Bible. The doctrine of predestination derives from several biblical passages, including Romans 8:28–30 Romans 9:9–23 and Ephesians 1:11Open in Logos Bible Software (if available): “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.”1 To answer our questions correctly, we must first understand some key terms. The different categories used to explain predestination and its related topics, as well as how other