Blog - Page 71 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Spiritual State of the Nation (9)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:58-05:00December 24th, 2012|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Discipleship, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Politics, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

I ended my Monday-Tuesday blogs last week, December 17-18, by saying that the American church needs true revival. I sought to qualify this term by explaining what I meant by it. Now I would like to expand on this idea that the American church needs real revival. If you do not believe this to be true then I submit that you are in a deep spiritual coma, or willfully blind to what is happening to the churches of America, at best. My purpose is to bring you out of this coma and then to feed your faith with profound hope.

The End of Self-Help Philosophy

The gospel we have become accustomed to in popular American church culture is a message of self-help. We believe the good news is about us when it is first about Jesus. The reason why our sins can be forgiven is because Jesus died for us and rose for our justification. This has little or nothing to do with “self help” philosophy, a deeply American phenomenon.

Scores of books and articles have been written to demonstrate that my concern is not ill-founded. This point has […]

How Reason Can Humble You in Your Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:59-05:00December 21st, 2012|Categories: Apologetics, Faith, Reason|

Christians have always struggled to understand the role and place of reason in faith. The central problem is not whether or not reason is important but what reason can and cannot do. This reminds us of Plato’s warning about the danger of “misology.” Plato felt this was a great danger to man, in fact one of the worst things that could happen. The misologist is a person who has become discouraged by certain inabilities in the capacity to reason and concluded that careful reasoning is no longer relevant at all. To a large extent much of modern society has, at least popularly, fallen prey to this problem. Since we cannot be sure of some things we decide that it is pointless to attempt to reach any reasonable conclusions. Plato put this problem well: “Let us then, in the first place, be careful of allowing or of admitting into our souls the notion that there is no health or soundness in any arguments at all.”

Though reason is important to Christian faith most people are not drawn to Christ by reason. T. S. Eliot, and from what I […]

Have We Really Lost Faith in God?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:59-05:00December 20th, 2012|Categories: Faith, Missional Church, Postmodernity, Religion, The Church|

Barbara Bradley Hagerty is the religion correspondent for NPR, reporting regularly on the intersection of faith and politics, law, and science and culture. Her New York Times best-selling book, Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality, was published in May 2009. She has received the American Women in Radio and Television Award, the Headliners Award and the Religion Newswriters Association Award for radio reporting. Barbara Hagerty, who is now in her early 50s, graduated magna cum laude from Williams College in 1981 with a degree in economics. She also received a masters in legal studies from Yale Law School in the 1990s. Her first job in journalism was copyediting at The Christian Science Monitor. From there she covered a number of major stories, both overseas and in the U.S. She joined National Public Radio in 1995. In 2003 she married and moved to the religion side of NPR.

On her personal website she describes how she moved away from her Christian Science background, which makes the title of her book all […]

The Alpha Journey

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:59-05:00December 19th, 2012|Categories: Evangelism, Missional Church|

I am not sure when I first learned of the Alpha course but I do remember when I began to see its impact on reaching people with the gospel of Christ. In the early 1990s I began to travel all across the United States. As I did I met leaders and churches of all kinds, especially Protestant mainline churches. Wherever I witnessed a vital mission and growth in a mainline church I asked, “Do you have an Alpha course?” The answer, eight times out of ten, was affirmative. I then began to take note of the power of this simple course, a course that brought so many people to living faith. I then saw the Alpha course begin to enter Catholic churches, both in the U.S. and abroad. It was delightful to see people coming to personal faith, again through a simple course that used human relationships as a strength and brought people into a direct encounter with the gospel and the living Christ. Before long I met missionaries in Europe who were using Alpha in Catholic settings to win many more people to Christ. When […]

The Spiritual State of the Nation (8)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:59-05:00December 18th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Discipleship, Evangelism, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Politics, Religion, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

The Spiritual Heritage of the United States

Make no mistake about this one fact. America does have a great spiritual legacy. We might not be “the city set on a hill” but we have been wonderfully blessed. We still have so much to be thankful for as a people. But an unholy alliance of secular humanism, atheism, and New Age agendas are changing us rather profoundly as a people. Add to this the radical sexual agenda of the 1950s/60s and you have a mixture that threatens to divide us even further.

The struggle for freedom of speech and the true separation of church and state must continue. Freedom is a precious gift and is increasingly threatened by our changing landscape. The question is not about defending these most basic rights but rather about how to do it while we still give faithful witness to Christ and the gospel. My deep concern here is not that we should not engage in battles about defining our national future but rather that the way we engage in them will become something far less than Christlike.

Freedom of religion is fast becoming freedom […]

The Spiritual State of the Nation (7)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:02-05:00December 17th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Evangelism, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Politics, The Church|

On November 27 I ended an article (in what is a series called “The Spiritual State of the Nation”) by saying that Christians should “get out of the stands and back on the playing field.’ The playing field I have in mind is the post-election 2012 field, what I am calling the new America. As believers we need to regain God’s heart-throb for the world. This new world is now on our doorstep. If it is not right next door to me it is, as a friend put it so well, in a zip code right next door to me.

What we actually need is a movement, a great people movement of the Holy Spirit touching individuals, churches and the entire nation. After the tragic events of Friday, December 14, in Newtown, Connecticut, we are again made aware of the release of genuine evil in our wider culture. But the great people movement of the Spirit that I pray for will not bring back the days of American hegemony in the world. In fact. I submit that it would turn America into a place where mission becomes […]

Don't Let the Suburbs Kill My Soul

By John Armstrong|2012-12-16T04:00:22-06:00December 16th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Music, Personal, Social Networking, The Church, Wealth|

My friend Jeff Gokee, executive director at partner ministry PhoenixONE, shared this You Tube song with me yesterday. It is written and performed by Christian musician Ben Rector. I had never even heard of the guy until I listened to this song. The plaintive and prayerful plea is to “not let the suburbs kill my soul.” I have done a lot of reading and viewing lately about how suburbia broke down community, broke up America’s cultural oneness and then drove us to independence in radical ways that harm our collective soul. This music strikes me as a haunting challenge to life as I’ve known it my entire adult life. I now pray, “Lord, do not let the suburbs kill my soul.” Tell me what you think when you hear it.

Words from a Christian Leader Who Witnessed Gun Violence in His Community

By John Armstrong|2012-12-15T11:30:54-06:00December 15th, 2012|Categories: Culture, Current Affairs|

My friend Kevin Jesmer serves as a gospel worker with UBF in DeKalb, Illinois. A few years ago DeKalb was rocked by gun violence on campus at Northern Illinois University, where Kevin has spent time with students in Bible teaching for many years. Kevin sent me these points about such violent tragedies last evening. I share them with the hope that they will ministry to more people.

1. Never loose hope… in humanity, in our society, in finding a solution…but especially in Jesus.

2. Continue to preach the Gospel as a matter of life or death.

3. Pray. Pray. Pray. Stop thinking that we have all the answers without Jesus. These shootings are happening in middle class, well equipped with well funded police forces. Our best efforts are not enough to stem the tide of this violence. I want to try my best, humanly, but I also want to trust in God and seek his help.

4. Be a better parent to my kids so they can find the love, support and affirmation that they need.

5. Support my local church and especially the youth out reach.

6. Support mental health programs […]

Testimony Has the Greatest Weight

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:02-05:00December 14th, 2012|Categories: Apologetics, Christ/Christology, God's Character, Incarnation|

The famous Samuel Johnson (1708–1784), often called quite simply Dr. Johnson, was a devout Anglican essayist, poet, literary critic and editor. He has been called “the most distinguished man of letters in English history.” He is also the subject of the most famous single work of biography in the whole of literature, James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson. Johnson observed, as reported in Boswell’s biography, “Testimony has great weight, and casts the balance.” I believe this is profoundly true with regard to our Christian faith. Let me explain.

The late Christian philosopher Elton Trueblood wrote, “If Christ is trustworthy, God really is!” He further said we have many reasons for believing in God but the one reason that is ultimately inescapable is the testimony of Christ. If Christ is the center of certitude then it is not rational for anyone to refuse to follow him into his own deepest conviction of reality. “The testimony of Christ is important,” adds Trueblood, “because thoughtful people are fully aware of a certain inconclusiveness in all other theistic evidences.”

There are good evidences […]

A Christmas Flash Mob Public Witness

By John Armstrong|2012-12-13T04:00:27-06:00December 13th, 2012|Categories: Uncategorized|

I have seen a number of “flash mob” public scenes on You Tube. I have enjoyed many of them. This one, however, moved me very deeply. I actually wept in great joy watching this. I wish more displays of our love for Christ, especially in our public displays, looked and felt like this scene. What creativity and grace. Watch the faces of those who realize what is happening as the singers praise God with beautiful voices.