Dr Paul Allen

Could there be a more profound opening to a book than the one to John’s Gospel? One could search through the great ideas of mankind, explore the thoughts of philosophers, and examine the poetry of artists, and still find no idea higher than God, nor a more concise—yet expressive—statement about Him than the one John makes at the beginning of his Gospel. John profoundly links his Gospel to the creation account in Genesis 1 with the words “In the beginning” (John 1:1a) before launching into the world’s most economical articulation of the everlasting relationship between God the Father and God the Son. The first statement of John’s Gospel is a bomb of meaning that goes off without warning, erupting suddenly, and the sublime and inexpressible, the infinite and unsearchable, and the personal and ineffable reality of God come exploding onto the consciousness of John’s audience in the words of John 1:1–5. Here, John proclaims the Word as God, through whom the world was made, in whom is life, ...

  Countdown to Riches  - What It Is (2025) Countdown to Riches is Rhonda Byrne’s new self‑help book focused specifically on wealth and financial mindset . It applies the same Law of Attraction principles popularized in The Secret but narrows them to a 21‑day daily practice plan designed to shift the reader’s thinking from scarcity to wealth‑attracting habits. The exercises include: One of the exercises involves outlining one's desires for money and visualising achieving them.  The Times of India Using affirmations and visualisation techniques to internalise abundance. Goodreads Gratitude practices help reframe your experiences related to money. Medium Byrne asserts that financial struggle stems from thought patterns rather than circumstances and  that changing your mindset will transform your financial outcomes.  I am going to compare "Countdown to Riches" with Christian theology. This is not a personal attack or vilification; this is simply a ...

  What happened to the author of The Secret? Twenty years after the book The Secret made her wealthy beyond imagination, Melbourne’s Rhonda Byrne breaks twenty years of silence with her controversial new wealth guide.  But what was the secret all about? Does the Bible support this? Is this New Age teaching?   Today, I want to compare the contents of the secret with theology. This is not a personal attack or vilification. This essay is a comparison of contents. The Secret and Christian Theology -Comparison & Critique 1. View of Reality The Secret: Reality is governed by an impersonal Law of Attraction . The universe responds mechanically to thoughts and emotions. Christian Theology: Reality is governed by a personal, sovereign God (Ps 115:3; Dan 4:35). God acts according to wisdom, love, justice, and redemptive purpose—not human mental states. Key Difference:  Impersonal force vs. personal God. 2. Source of Power The Secret: Power ...

Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph less than nine months after they had been married. That was probably the basis for the Pharisees’ accusation against our Lord: “We were not born of sexual immorality” ( John 8:41 )—insinuating that Jesus was the result of an illicit union.  The real scandal, however, is that Jesus of Nazareth was not conceived by a sexual union at all, because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary (cf. Matt. 1:18–25 ; Luke 1:26–38 ). God ordained that His Son would be produced in the womb of His mother, apart from the normal means of human procreation. Thus, by the Spirit, God worked the quietest miracle of all. The clear teachings of Scripture are usually among the first doctrines to be ridiculed by sceptics. This should not be surprising, for everything about “Christ crucified”—including the manner of His incarnation—is a stumbling block (Greek skandalon) to the mind of the flesh ( 1 Cor. 1:22–25 ). God’s wisdom, revealed in Christ, cap...

The Gospel of Mark is understood by some as having a low Christology . This is understandable, to some extent, in light of the very human aspects of Jesus in the Gospel:  He displays a range of emotions (Mark 1:41; 8:12; 3:5; 6:6);  He doesn’t know everything God the Father knows (Mark 13:32; Edwards 2002, 13);  He is occasionally unable to perform miracles (6:5);  His question to the rich man—“Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone” (Mk. 10:18)—could be interpreted as a direct denial of divinity. Mark’s use of the Old Testament, however, reveals a Christology that is “enigmatic and paradoxical” (Strauss 2014, 734), full of the reality of Jesus’ humanity and yet pointing to his divinity. Jesus is the Davidic Messiah , and yet a suffering servant. He is the Danielic Son of Man who, at his lowest point, claims the highest authority (Mark 14:62). More than that, whether by direct quotation or by allusion, Jesus is revealed as the God ...