Blog - Page 34 of 318 - John H Armstrong

July 4 – Enjoying Freedom With Caution

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:25-05:00July 4th, 2014|Categories: America and Americanism, Freedom, Personal|

I love my country. I believe that true patriotic love for one’s home and nation is a wonderful emotion. I am troubled, however, by a continual insistence that a certain ideology is tantamount to true patriotism. This ideology grows stronger the more polarized we become in our public life. This ideology is also antithetical to the kingdom of Christ yet it easily gets linked with celebrations like July 4. Balanced and healthy Christian patriotism is not blind nor is it silent.

I saw a T-shirt last night at a baseball game which said: “In God We Trust. Deal With It.”

I wanted to ask the wearer what this meant but I was trying to relax, not start a debate. Something about it really bothered me. If, for whatever reason, I do not believe “In God We Trust” should be a national motto on our coins and in other parts of our reigning opinion then I have only one choice: “Deal With It.” So much for my freedom.

What if a person loves their country but sees flaws in it that are harmful […]

“Manny Being Manny” – Who Is this “New” Manny Ramirez?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:25-05:00July 2nd, 2014|Categories: Baseball, Love, Personal|

Former Major League Baseball all-star Manny Ramirez was the perennial “bad boy” of the sport. With his long dreadlocks, sullen attitude, disrespect for the game in general and inability to get along with teammates, the perennial slugger was both a sensational talent and a complete drain on teams who employed him. When Manny Ramirez left baseball I frankly never missed him. Then this all changed on Sunday.

Manny Ramirez was born in 1972 in the Dominican Republic. My first memory of Ramirez was the 1995 World Series when he was a second-year regular player and a huge threat to the great pitching staff of the Atlanta Braves in the post-season. The Braves, as some readers know, are my childhood favorite team. I watched the Braves great pitchers (Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz) work carefully to get around Manny. Along with Jim Thome they feared his bat in the Cleveland lineup as much as that of any slugger in the game. Later Ramirez would play for a World Championship team in Boston. (Manny played for twenty years; […]

The Legacy of Howard Baker, Jr. (1925-2014)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:25-05:00July 1st, 2014|Categories: America and Americanism, Culture, Current Affairs, Personal, Politics|

The funeral of one of the finest public servants in my lifetime will be held this morning in a small Presbyterian Church in the tiny East Tennessee town of Huntsville. When I first heard of Senator Howard Baker’s passing last week I felt more than a usual measure of sadness about the death of a well-known American. Baker, the former son-in-law of the famous Everett Dirksen, served as Ronald Reagan’s chief-of-staff, as Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate and as an ambassador to Japan. Howard Baker filled many roles during his illustrious public life but the man Howard Baker was an even better person than he was a political leader. Let me tell you why I believe this is true.

Howard Baker (1925–2014) was 88 years old when he died. He rose to prominence when he famously asked at the Senate Watergate Committee hearings: “What did the president know, and when did he know it?” The beginning of the end for President Nixon was clear when the voice of Howard Baker was raised in honest doubt about the […]

Must the Reformation Wars Continue? (Twenty-Two)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:25-05:00June 30th, 2014|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Faith, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

In this my final post in this series I wish to note that the way forward is for Protestants and Catholics to get to know one another much better. Out of dialogue we can learn to say very simple things and not initially major on trying to tease out all the details until we first build trust. Disagreement should not be ignored but disagreement must be addressed in the right context and manner.

Regarding the Council of Trent – which was quoted by several in the original post I responded to as saying: “Let anyone who says that we are saved by faith alone be anathema.” The actual quote is: “If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ’s sake, or that it is this confidence alone that justifies us, let him be anathema” (Council of Trent, Session VI, Canon 12). The blog commenter has replaced “nothing else than confidence in divine mercy” with “faith.” I do not accept this substitution as equivalent. “Nothing else than” is an important […]

St. Patrick’s Bad Analogies

By John Armstrong|2014-06-25T17:31:31-05:00June 26th, 2014|Categories: Uncategorized|

So, do you think it is easy to express the doctrine of the trinity faithfully and clearly? Think again. And laugh just a little as you watch and listen to some intelligent theological humor.

Must the Reformation Wars Continue? (Twenty-One)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:25-05:00June 24th, 2014|Categories: Uncategorized|

It should be born in mind that the goal of the Lutheran dialogues with the Catholic Church is full visible communion. Recent changes in the larger Lutheran Church regarding sexuality and marriage have challenged this process but the partners continue to dialogue, showing how disagreements that are rather profound do not have to end the pursuit of peace and unity. The way forward is not clear but when you consider where we were before World War II and where we are today we have surely come a long way.

A much bigger issue in today’s church is ecclesial authority, even more than justification. The adoption of papal infallibility as dogma (it was not an infallible teaching in the 16th century) complicates things for sure! Some good work has been done on these issues—especially by the Anglicans and the Orthodox. The Reformed and Lutheran churches have also done some important work and more recently Mennonite and other non-magisterial churches have engaged in official dialogues.

My personal preference is that we avoid the kind of language that either Calvin or Luther […]

Must the Reformation Wars Continue? (Twenty)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:25-05:00June 23rd, 2014|Categories: Church History, Church Tradition, Faith, Gospel/Good News, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

I want to conclude this series with three posts that will, I sincerely hope, summarize some important observations that I’ve made over recent weeks.

First, the Bible plainly teaches that God alone saves human persons therefore God alone gets the “credit” for salvation. It is all of grace. We can do nothing to save ourselves. Believing is not a work, it is the reception of a divine gift and believing is only possible by the Spirit’s work and power. Salvation is ALL God’s gift.

Second, the Bible clearly teaches that evangelical obedience is absolutely essential. Without it there is no real evidence that grace is really at work and that our faith is true, saving, active faith. Our works matter. Indeed, they matter profoundly. Without them we will not finally be saved; cf. Matthew 25.

I believe the church has always struggled, from the days of the apostles until now, to explain why obedience is absolutely necessary if God alone saves. We have always attempted to provide good reasons for obedience so as to “prod” ourselves and our people to live moral lives. We don’t seem to […]

Understanding Pope Francis – Some Lutheran Humor

By John Armstrong|2014-06-20T08:56:35-05:00June 20th, 2014|Categories: Uncategorized|

Earlier today I shared a video clip (here) from a Lutheran source. It was satirical about Pope Francis. I took this video down after a friend I deeply love challenged me that it was offensive to some viewers and that it harmed my witness to oneness. I did not intend to create this offense and after a few moments of prayer I have decided to take the humorous clip off my site. If you were offended please forgive me. If you have read my posts on the pope you know that I love Pope Francis as my brother. I never intended to harm the unity of the church by posting such a satirical clip. I will do my best to not do this again.

Must the Reformation Wars Continue (Nineteen)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:25-05:00June 19th, 2014|Categories: Church History, Church Tradition, Faith, Gospel/Good News, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

We’ve looked at the Council of Trent in several comments I’ve made in this series of blogs. More particularly we’ve looked at what the Council said about justification by faith alone. Now I would like to come to the simple and most straightforward question in the continued warfare that exists between extremely conservative Catholics and Protestants.

What did the Council of Trent say about justification?

The Council of Trent is often quoted as saying: “Let anyone who says that we are saved by faith alone be anathema.” The actual quote says: “If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ’s sake, or that it is this confidence alone that justifies us, let him be anathema” (Council of Trent, Session VI, Canon 12). When you read this statement as an all out attack on faith and grace you have replaced “nothing else than confidence in divine mercy” with “faith” itself. I do simply not accept this unfortunate substitution as an equivalent statement and neither do serious theologians who have studied the […]

Must the Reformation Wars Continue? (Eighteen)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:25-05:00June 18th, 2014|Categories: Church History, Creeds, Faith, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

In my opinion what the Council of Trent anathematized was (ultimately) a caricature of the robust and clear evangelical view of justification. Who is to blame for this problem? Honestly, both sides bear fault in my estimation. The Reformers were careful thinkers about these matters. They did not speak with a divided mind, though Luther at times spoke both aggressively and in ways that remain, to me at least, a bit confusing. (His strong law-gospel contrast underscores what I mean by this statement, to give but one example.) But many followers of the Protestant Reformers misrepresented their views in ways that radically separated faith from works. This plainly helped to provoke the growing tensions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A better understanding on both sides would have helped then and can surely help us now. Most evangelicals are not (generally speaking) separating sanctification from justification. With the exception of those who advocate radical “non-Lordship” theologies I think few genuinely advocate antinomianism. A strong view of union with Christ, as taught by John Calvin, would go a long way […]