Blog - Page 117 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Celebrating Osama bin Laden’s Death

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:37-05:00May 3rd, 2011|Categories: Current Affairs|

I found myself tragically struck by both the tone and the manner of popular response to the death of Osama bin Laden. I felt like I was watching some of the Arab world after 9/11. People celebrating in the streets and making noise and triumphantly proclaiming “God bless America.” I was particularly mortified by the response of so many Christians I’ve listened to in public and private conversations. I fear their response reveals, rather tragically, just how far we have actually fallen from comprehending the gospel itself. I have resisted writing on this topic since it seems everyone has something to say right now. Better to say very little than too much. I need time to think and pray. I do not think that I can add much to this discussion but I urge you to carefully read the reflections of a first-rate Christian theologian, Miroslav Volf.

Michael Horton also had a thoughtful opinion piece in Christianity Today. I commend it to you as well.

Cape Town, Orlando and the Kingdom of God

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:38-05:00May 3rd, 2011|Categories: Business, Leadership, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

Question: What has Cape Town to do with Orlando?

Last October a historic global gathering of 4,200 evangelical Christian leaders took place in Cape Town, South Africa. Many of you followed that event via the Internet and some of you may have even listened to keynote addresses and know people who were present at this meeting. I posted one Lausanne address, by Christopher J. Wright, on this blog site. Since the first Lausanne Congress (1974) this initiative for worldwide evangelism has grown into a much more mature movement of Christian leaders working for unity and mission. The story is one every Christian who loves mission and unity should know.

The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE) is itself an evangelical movement that grew out of the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization (ICOWE) and promotes active worldwide evangelism LCWE is simply known, among those who follow it, as The Lausanne Movement. The Lausanne Covenant, which was a theological and missiological document that grew out of the first meeting […]

Coming Out, Coming Home

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:38-05:00May 2nd, 2011|Categories: Abortion, Evangelism, Homosexuality, Marriage & Family|

I wrote a blog on January 16 titled: “A Conference on Faith and Sexuality.” It was about a local Saturday seminar on same-sex relationships and the church. The host church, Gary Memorial Methodist Church in Wheaton, invited four speakers to give biblical and theological presentations. The speakers clearly held different perspectives. The last of the four speakers was Christopher Yuan. I was moved to my depths by the story Chris told of a life of homosexual practice and drug dealing. After three years in prison, an HIV-positive blood test result, and an obvious conversion to Christ, Chris entered into a new Christian lifestyle.

Now you can read Chris’ moving account of this conversion in his new book, Out of a Far Country (Waterbrook Press, 2011), which comes out May 3. The story is told by both Chris and his mother Angela. The foreword to their new book is written by Kay Warren.

Chris is one of two sons of Chinese immigrants. His father, as my father was in his professional career, is […]

The Sad Actions of a Great Coach

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:38-05:00May 1st, 2011|Categories: College Football|

Friends know that I am a huge college football fan. I am especially loyal to my own school, the University of Alabama. The Crimson Tide has had its own trials in the recent past with probation because of serious violations with boosters paying for players, etc. This sad legacy came on the heels of the head coaches moral failure (Mike DuBose). The coach’s lack of attention to his own program landed them in deep weeds. No excuses. Alabama got hammered and deserved it.

Nothing strikes a college fan with more dread than an NCAA investigation. It likely means penalties that will set back the football program for years. The ramifications for the school, the team and the fans are immense. But the NCAA shows no mercy in these instances. (Perhaps on another day I will share my view of the NCAA, which is not all that favorable either. )

Now the school under the investigative microscope is Ohio State University. I am not a Buckeye fan, nor am I […]

How Satan Views the (Divided) Church

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:38-05:00April 30th, 2011|Categories: Unity of the Church|

A friend sent me this link about Satan and the church. It is clever and will make you think about unity in Christ’s mission.

The Polycentricity of the Church

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:38-05:00April 29th, 2011|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

Five general secretaries of international ecumenical organizations engaged in lively conversation with leaders of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) on Friday, April 8, at the Ecumenical Center in Geneva. The general secretaries who engaged in this interesting and important dialog are the heads of the ACT Alliance, the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC).

“One of the most pressing challenges we face is religious intolerance,” said John Nduna of ACT Alliance, a coalition of churches and church-related agencies working in the areas of human development and emergency assistance. As a second concern, Nduna noted that “the shrinking humanitarian space around the world, [hinders] how we can reach people in need of aid.” Each of the five leaders acknowledges that partnership among Christian churches and missions is of key importance, both in promoting dialog with various governments and in advocating before various international organizations who are tasked with improving conditions […]

Church Fathers: Who and Why?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:38-05:00April 28th, 2011|Categories: Patristics|

The first teachers of Christianity are called the Church Fathers. The reason is that these teachers were seen, over time, as the great teachers of spiritual truth for the whole church. The term “Fathers of the church” refers to those theologians and teachers who were the earliest post-apostolic thinkers and writers who left us a rich legacy of faith and doctrine in their written works.

There is no clear cut-off date by which someone may be called a “Father” or not but I lean toward the fifth century for several reasons. The Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) was critical to the entire future of the church. Up to and through this time period the major theologians were the greatest Fathers of the faith. But St. Gregory the Great (d. 604) is included on some lists, as well as Venerable the Bede (d. 735) and St. John Damascene (d. 749). No arbitrary time period works perfectly but tradition generally treats the patristic period up to and through […]

Canucks Win! Canucks Win!

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:38-05:00April 27th, 2011|Categories: Friendship, Games, Personal|

I was not always a hockey fan. I grew up in the South when there were only six NHL teams thus I had no understanding of this great sport. My dad took me to my first game at age 8 or 9. It was in Chicago when we visited the city in February of one year. I thought, as only a little boy, “This is a rough and fast game.” I was right. It is the fastest thing on ice.

Since I’ve never had a huge love affair with Chicago teams I saw a few Blackhawks games over my 41-plus years in Chicago. But I never got into the team or the sport that much. Then I met a Christian brother in the mid-1990s in Vancouver while doing a weekend conference in a church. Later that brother (Paolo, at the far right in the photo with me, my daughter Stacy, and my son Matthew, […]

The Importance of the Church Fathers

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:38-05:00April 26th, 2011|Categories: Patristics|

Many evangelicals know little or nothing about the Church Fathers (and in a few cases Mothers). These ancient writers were the early Christians who taught and wrote about Christ and the sacred truths of the faith in the first centuries after the death of the apostles. I was asked once, in a public dialog with Catholic peers, why this was so. I answered, “Because we think that citing the Fathers is a Catholic practice and, furthermore, we think that trusting in the authority of the Scripture means we don’t need to read these Fathers.”

I still think that response is warranted, at least in general. But more recent developments, which are now beginning to spill over into the wider church among non-professional readers, is to place increasing value on reading and understanding the patristic writers. We can thank scholars like Thomas Oden, Christopher Hall and Daniel Williams, among others, for these developments. I believe reading and using the Fathers is important for personal reasons. It is also extremely […]

Of Gods and Men: A Film to Move the Soul

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:39-05:00April 25th, 2011|Categories: Film, Roman Catholicism, The Persecuted Church|

Of Gods and Men is one of the most moving and tender Christian films that I’ve seen in several years. It is understated, in terms of its Christian witness, and profoundly human. There is no great display of heroism here, just a group of devoted Christian men living courageously for Christ and peace in a violent place and time. The soundtrack is in French, with English subtitles. Please do not let this keep you from seeing this moving depiction of the very real world in which Christ has called some of his people to both live and die.

Based loosely upon real events that happened in 1996, seven French monks in Algeria are kidnapped by Islamic terrorists and disappear. (The reason that we know the story as well as we do is because two men escaped capture and told the story!) The circumstances […]