Blog - Page 153 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Feast of Pentecost

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:57-05:00May 23rd, 2010|Categories: Church Tradition, The Church, The Trinity, Unity of the Church|

Today is the beginning of a new cycle in the church year, the Feast of Pentecost. Easter has ended liturgically but Pentecost reminds us that the resurrected Christ is still with us by the gift of the Spirit who makes him known to all who believe.

The word pentecost (from the Greek pentekoste hemera, meaning “fiftieth day”) was originally a Hellenistic term for the Jewish Feast of Weeks. For the early Christians Pentecost, eventually celebrated seven weeks after Easter, or fifty days after the Easter Vigil, commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples when they were empowered to preach the gospel. It marks the beginning of the church, at least as we know it in this present age (Acts 2:1-13). Pentecost was actually the third major Jewish feast. It initially celebrated the harvest of grain and later the giving of the Law to Moses on Sinai.

On the first […]

A Statement of Repentance for the Lack of Kingdom Thinking and Living

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:57-05:00May 22nd, 2010|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Renewal, Unity of the Church|

My dear friend, Rev. Dale Schlafer, is the director of the Center for World Revival and Awakening, based in Bradenton, Florida. Dale has encouraged me and taught me a great deal for many years. We have served together on a number of projects. Dale directed the well-known Promise Keepers gathering on the Washington Mall many years ago but left PK to pursue prayer and teaching for revival as widely as possible. He is one of God’s choice servants, a man in whom there is no guile and a brother who loves the kingdom of God and will do anything he can to extend that kingdom and to promote the unity of Christ’s people in prayer and awakening.

Dale is also the author of a wonderful small book that is one of the finest studies of true revival you will ever read, Revival 101. I recommend this booklet very highly and urge […]

Why Do So Many Good People Oppose a Just and Compassionate Response to the Immigration Problem?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:58-05:00May 21st, 2010|Categories: America and Americanism, Current Affairs, Politics, Poverty|

I am convinced that most of those who oppose what I have written over the course of the past two days do so for reasons that they believe are compelling and sound. I am also convinced that most of those who take a strong stand against legalizing illegal immigrants is rooted in our past history and their present fear. These are real concerns and unless, or until, those who favor the kinds of proposals that I have set forth offer a good answer to these questions then their minds cannot change on this subject. The art of good politics is to get people to move toward each other and thus to reach agreement wherever possible.

A major problem with the immigration debate right now is that we are less than six months from a congressional election. No one, including the President, wants to tackle this issue right now. Even Senator John McCain, who has historically […]

The DREAM Act and What It Means for Young Americans

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:58-05:00May 20th, 2010|Categories: America and Americanism, Current Affairs, Ethics, Personal, The Church|

The video story that I shared yesterday introduced many of you to what is called the DREAM Act. I learned of this proposal from my son, Matt. Matt pastors a multi-ethnic congregation and thus remains deeply involved in issues of justice and compassion day-to-day. I would like to explain this sane and humane act as clearly as possible so I asked Matt to help me. Here is what I learned.

The DREAM Act says that to be eligible, a student:

1. Must have come to the U.S. before the age of 16.

2. Must have lived here for at least five years.

3. Must have graduated from high school.

If they meet those three criteria, then such immigrants get a five-year visa and need to do one of the following during those five years:

1. […]

The DREAM Act and the Problem of Immigration in America

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:58-05:00May 19th, 2010|Categories: America and Americanism, Current Affairs, Politics|

Perhaps no single issue is more often in the news these days than that of immigration. Consider the debate over the recent bill signed by the governor of Arizona. This has stirred millions of Americans and might awaken the conscience of more people than anything done by a state government in recent memory.

I have found people all over the map on this issue. And most of these people have very strong opinions about immigration whether they have considered the real facts or not. Few people actually seem to understand what is really involved in this issue and how Christians should think about it with a balanced view of justice and compassion. Even fewer still understand the consequences of this issue for their own brothers and sisters in America. One person who does understand, and whose voice I listen to on this subject because I love and respect him so much, […]

A History of Christianity on DVD

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:58-05:00May 18th, 2010|Categories: Church History, Church Tradition, Film, The Church|

I recently viewed an excellent six-part video series titled: “A History of Christianity” presented by Professor Dairmaid MacCulloch, a professor of church history at University of Oxford (since 1997) and Fellow (formerly Senior Tutor) of St Cross College, Oxford (since 1995). MacCulloch is the highly esteemed author of several important volumes that have won numerous literary awards.

His published works include the eminently useful work Reformation: Europe’s House Divided 1490-1700 (2003). This volume won the 2004 National Book Critics Circle Award and 2004 British Academy Book Prize, adding to his earlier success in carrying […]

My Three Conversions

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:58-05:00May 17th, 2010|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Reformed Christianity, Spirituality, The Church, Unity of the Church|

Conversion is an often misunderstood word. In English it refers to a changing of one’s direction, or of one’s faith. Literally, Webster says, conversion means “to change from one belief, religion, doctrine and/or opinion to another.” Many of us have undergone some kind of conversion. Most of us have had more than one conversion experience. We have seen a truth so powerfully revealed to us by the Holy Spirit that we had to change our belief and practice. This is a conversion. Christianity is rooted, by the work of the Holy Spirit, in conversion. This is why this type of language is so common among Christians the world over.

The New Testament speaks of conversion to faith in Christ and it clearly speaks of this work as past, present and future. We have been saved, we are being saved and we will finally and ultimately be saved. I experienced the first of these tenses decades ago and I am experiencing the second one even today. The third is future for me and all who read this blog if you are a follower of Jesus.

[…]

Word and Spirit: The Missing Key to the Liberal and Conservative Split

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:58-05:00May 16th, 2010|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Biblical Theology, Hermeneutics, Spirituality, The Church|

The famous Bible teacher G. Campbell Morgan once said the whole truth does not lie in “It is written,” but rather in “It is written” and “Again it is written.” By this Morgan wanted to make what I believe is a vital point. The second text must be placed over against the first or we lose symmetry. I believe the Reformers understood this as Word and Spirit theology. Just as the right wing needs the left to fly so the left needs the right. A. W. Tozer once said that “Many of the doctrinal divisions among the churches are the result of a blind and stubborn insistence that truth has but one wing. Truth has two wings” (The Incredible Christian).

For many years I have been persuaded that truth, in order to be really and properly understood, must be lived. And to be lived it must be processed by the power of the Holy Spirit. […]

So What Are You?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:58-05:00May 15th, 2010|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Biblical Theology, Church Tradition, Science, The Church|

I began three days ago asking the question: “Are you liberal or conservative?” I suppose I think about this question more than most of my readers. One reason may be that a writer becomes the public target of critics from both sides of so many debates. Another might be the presence of the nearly ubiquitous profile page on Facebook. I read these pages almost every day and see people list themselves as conservative, liberal or something else. My Facebook profile says that my political views are independent and my religious views are described as follows: “A Jesus follower rooted in the ecumenical confessions and creeds of the earliest Christian churches.” I have stuck with that for several years and think I will let it stand still.

I read a post recently that actually attacked people for referring to themselves as “Jesus followers.” I was surprised since I use the term a lot these days. But then […]

The Response of Conservatism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:59-05:00May 14th, 2010|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Current Affairs, The Church, Unity of the Church|

Yesterday I wrote about the rise of liberal theology in the nineteenth century, first in Europe and then in America. The most noteworthy intellectual response to these developments, at least in America, came from the strong opposition of a Presbyterian pastor and professor, J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937). Machen graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1905 and then did postgraduate work in Gottingen and Marburg (1905-06), experiencing the teaching of European liberal theology firsthand. From 1906 until 1929 Machen taught at Princeton Seminary. Ordained as a minister in 1914 Machen was both temperamentally and theologically a strong advocate for strict subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith. (I had a professor at Wheaton College in 1969-70 who had studied under Machen at Princeton. Through this esteemed professor I heard a lot of great stories that got me interested in Machen as a man and in the various conflicts of that era. My professor loved Machen, and generally agreed […]