Blog - Page 112 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Day-to-Day Work of Ecumenism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:32-05:00June 17th, 2011|Categories: ACT 3, Unity of the Church|

I’ve written this week about the importance and role of ecumenism in the modern church. I am persuaded that there are two great needs in the church today.

First, we need to recover the centrality of the triune God who revealed himself in Jesus Christ. We have a weak or nonexistent understanding of the Trinity and almost as weak an understanding of Jesus. We have so many religious parties and sects that it amazes me we cannot agree that the only solution is to recover the person of Jesus as central to faith and from Jesus see that he revealed the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The early church developed a doctrine of Trinity precisely because there was no other adequate way to respond to the person of Jesus. He had an intimate relationship with the Father and spoke of being one with the Father. He spoke as well of the Father sending the Spirit when he departed and that he, that is Jesus, would still be with his disciples. This is the Trinity. One God, revealed in three persons: Father, Son and Spirit. No […]

Who Are the Real Christians?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:32-05:00June 16th, 2011|Categories: Jesus, The Church, Unity of the Church|

I wrote on Tuesday about how a particular evangelical responded to an address I gave on Christian unity last week. The issue, for this earnest brother, came down to the issue of faithfulness to the gospel. I was calling for something (unity) that would involve compromising the gospel thus my appeal might include Roman Catholics. This compromise must be wrong, so wrong that he felt strongly he must openly oppose it out of love for the truth. The gospel, in his thinking, was at stake. (By the way, this is one way I try very hard to be a better listener and not a judge of motives or character. This brother really did believe that he was acting wisely and in character with the truth of the gospel.)

If we appeal to the letters of St. Paul himself we can readily see that a major point of division in the early Church surrounded the issue of circumcision. This was no minor matter if the context of the debate […]

James MacDonald Goes After Congregationalism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:32-05:00June 15th, 2011|Categories: American Evangelicalism, The Church|

Mega-church pastor James MacDonald posted (June13) a deliberately provocative article: “Congregational Government is from Satan.” In a note introducing his thoughts, which serves as a warning about what follows, MacDonald writes, “The tone of this post is intentionally aimed at engaging those who are engulfed in this system of church government that neither honors the Scriptures nor advances the gospel.” MacDonald calls the congregational form of church government a “forum for divisions,” and says that voting by church members is “not biblical.” This form of criticism is not new. Several well-known mega-church leaders have said the same for decades now. Some even teach churches how to rid themselves of this form of government in seminars aimed at ending congregational practice. (I’m not making this up!)

I have seen more than one local church division in the midst of such a heated debate over the form of government a church will adopt. While I am no friend of congregationalism, per se, I have to wonder why we need […]

Who Gets Into Heaven?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:32-05:00June 14th, 2011|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, Sacraments, Unity of the Church|

I wrote yesterday about a recent experience of sharing my vision of unity with a large group of conservative Protestant leaders in Chicago. Some were very positive. A few reacted not so positively. The flash point became whether or not Roman Catholics are included in the work of ecumenism. (I am not making this up! Some of you on other sides of this subject may find this amusing but it is how some conservative evangelicals really do think and respond to this discussion about ecumenism.)

The context was an address that I gave on John 17:20-23. I suggested, as I always do, that relational unity was what Jesus prayed for in the context of this prayer. Just as he and the Father were in a perfect relationship so we should pursue relationship with one another in Christ in order for the world to see that the Father had sent the Son. I have explained these points elsewhere, especially in my book, Your Church Is Too Small.

After I […]

The Conversation of Ecumenism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:32-05:00June 13th, 2011|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

I am deeply persuaded that the Christian Church should be one. I am likewise convinced that disunity always damages the credibility of the church, especially in the modern West.As a realist I know that there is little or no consensus on how we should get from where we are to where we want to be, or where we believe God wants us to be. But I will press on trying because I believe this is what Jesus wants from me and the whole church.

The word ecumenical offends some and troubles others. But it excites those of us who understand it. The word is actually derived from the Greek οἰκουμένη (oikoumene), which means "the whole inhabited world.” It was historically used with specific reference to the Roman Empire. A Christian ecumenical vision comprises both the search for the visible unity of the Church (Ephesians 4.3) and the commitment to gospel unity and mission throughout the “whole inhabited earth'”(Matthew 24.14). Both should be the concern of all Christians. If […]

We Are All Part of the One Loaf

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:32-05:00June 12th, 2011|Categories: Sacraments, Unity of the Church|

I am particularly interested in the metaphors and images the New Testament uses to show us exactly how the church is one. I confess I have previously paid too little attention to 1 Corinthians 10:17. “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.” The church is not only one body but it is one loaf. Just as there is one body so there must be only one loaf.

Remember the context of these words – the Eucharist. The loaf is a reference to the bread, which is the body of Christ. When we share the bread we share as one people because there are not two kinds of bread, one one for this group and one for the other. We all consume the same bread which is the one body of Christ. Andrew Murray wrote: “He who partakes of the body and blood of Jesus is incorporated with His body, the church, and stands thenceforth in close relationship with all its members.” In the New Covenant, thus in the meal of the covenant, there is such […]

What is the One Issue That Most Motivates the Christian Right?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:32-05:00June 11th, 2011|Categories: Politics|

When you think about the Christian Right, and a host of politically charged issues, which one of these issues most motivates evangelical conservatives in terms of their actual voting behavior? I admit I could not have guessed this until Governor Mitt Romney announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination on June 2nd.

What causes the Christian Right to specifically oppose Mitt Romney? Take a guess? You think it is his Mormonism? Try again. What about his previously moderate position on both gay rights and abortion, a position which he changed when he last ran for the nomination of his party? Guess again. Or what about his experience in running a business or a government agency? Guess again. What about foreign affairs, wars overseas that continue to increase national debt and remain morally questionable? Guess again.

The issue that truly motivates socially conservative voters, which is of course the largest share of so-called evangelicals, is Obamacare! Social conservatives cast 2 of every 5 Republican votes. They consistently place the […]

Following Jesus and St. Francis in Rural Nebraska

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:32-05:00June 10th, 2011|Categories: Evangelism, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

A friend who I met here in the suburbs of Chicago moved to Nebraska several years ago. We recently met again to have coffee during a visit he made to Wheaton. This friend has become a really dedicated missional-ecumenist who believes in spiritual renewal, evangelism and the catholic church. Along with others he has planned a men's ecumenical mission into the countryside of rural Nebraska to follow in the footsteps of the seventy-two (Luke 10 ) that Jesus sent out two-by-two. For some evangelicals this sounds a bit too mystical and it is not based on a clear command rooted in the text cited. Yet many others down thru the ages have adopted a “simple” approach to evangelism that has captured the idea of Luke 10 and applied it in faith, hope and love. My friend writes, “I am extremely excited to have such a great group of men from a wide variety of churches signed up. This year we even have one Catholic joining us which should be a blessing.”

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Why Do We Wait When Danger is So Near?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:33-05:00June 9th, 2011|Categories: Personal, Psychology, The Future|

Yesterday I wrote about the recent storms in the southeastern portion of the United States. The violent storm that hit Joplin, Missouri, killed an estimated 142 people. What we know about this storm and this city is that twenty-minute sirens went off warning people to flee to cover. Many did flee but some waited. Why did these people wait?

William Donner, an environmental sociologist at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, says, “Research generally shows that folks are in denial that a tornado is going to harm them.” I have to confess I know this to be true personally. Why? When the sirens have gone off in my neighborhood, and my wife heads for the basement, I have stayed on the upper level watching a baseball game or working away. I have said, more than once, “I don’t think this is the big one. I’ll be safe.” When I told her I was going to write this she said, “Will you listen to me next time?” My answer was a humble, simple one: “Yes, I will dear.”

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The Science of Tornadoes

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:33-05:00June 8th, 2011|Categories: Religion, Science|

The recent wave of storms that have hit portions of the United States have been unusually deadly. In the two states in which I lived in my first nineteen years, Tennessee and Alabama, 276 people have died. In Joplin, Missouri, one town is estimated to have lost 142 people in one May storm. This got me to thinking about the science of storms. And it also made me wonder if the frequency and strength of these storms could have any relationship to global warming?

Before I proceed we need a simple definition of science. Science (from Latin: scientia meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world. Science observes facts, organizes them and offers a response to what we see and know in the world. Good science never conflicts with religious faith and vice versa.

Researchers have been to places like Tuscaloosa, where I lived in 1967-69, to study the storm's impact. Now they've been to […]