Spiritual Warfare

What You Can Do About the Kenya Massacre: Choose to Love

Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe

Once again the senseless massacre of almost 150 students in Kenya has demonstrated the fallenness and depravity of humanity. It is impossible to comprehend the depth of brutality that human beings can perpetrate against others, particularly children and young people. Lives filled with so much hope and potential were snuffed out by the barbarity of those who seemingly will stop at nothing to promote their twisted ideology and beliefs.

What should be responses to such acts of cruelty? We have already seen swift military action by the Kenyan government in retaliation for the atrocities committed. Yet what should your response be, and the response of every individual Christian before God? The natural inclination is anger, to lash back, to punish the perpetrators. Yes, justice demands we respond and hold accountable the killers. But is that all we can do and will it bring an end to these senseless attacks?

It is a primary responsibility of governments to protect its citizens. However, given the fact the growing threat of terrorists is not contained within a specific geographic border,

By John Armstrong|April 29th, 2015|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Current Affairs, Politics, Separation of Church & State, Spiritual Warfare, The Church, The Future, The War on Terrorism|

The Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology

The Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology is an ecumenical organization that seeks to cultivate faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the churches. The Center nurtures theology that is catholic and evangelical, obedient to Holy Scripture and committed to the dogmatic, liturgical, ethical and institutional continuity of the Church. The Center was founded through the collaborative efforts of Robert W. Jenson and Carl E. Braaten, two outstanding Lutheran scholars. I have had the distinct privilege of meeting with both of them over the years. They are two of the misty gifted theological writers of our time. I know Carl Braaten more personally since he came to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1999 to speak at our first Catholic-Evangelical Theology conference at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. This is the same event that I mentioned in my blog yesterday. We had five plenary speakers at this Conference on Catholic and Evangelical Renewal – Carl Braaten, Donald Bloesch, J. I. Packer, William Abraham and myself. I was clearly out of my league I confess but I enjoyed every

By John Armstrong|May 9th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Church History, Church Tradition, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Spiritual Warfare, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

My Encounter with Street Evangelists – Entrenched Darkness or Emotional Ignorance?

Engaging with darkness, or just entrenched spiritual and emotional ignorance, is not a hobby of mine. In fact I tend to avoid it wherever possible. I have dealt with evil spirits and even been used to remove a demonic spirit here and there. In saying this I am not boasting in the least. I am reminded that our Lord taught his disciples, who were also empowered by his Spirit to deal with demonic spirits, to: “Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).

Last Saturday I was in Tuscaloosa enjoying a totally gorgeous fall day. I saw some friends, visited some Bama tailgaters and soaked in the ambiance of Alabama football before the kickoff at 2:30 p.m. Around 1:45 I decided it was time to walk down University Avenue to Bryant-Denny Stadium. A few hundred yards from the stadium, as throngs of people were moving along at a rather slow pace, I heard a street preacher just ahead of me on my left.

By John Armstrong|November 1st, 2013|Categories: Evangelism, God's Character, Personal, Spiritual Warfare|

Max Boot's "Twelve Articles" on Guerrilla Warfare and Terrorism

Colonel Roger Trinquier (1961) said, “We . . . attack an enemy who is invisible, fluid, uncatchable.” Perhaps no statement included in Max Boot’s masterful history of guerrilla and terrorist warfare better sums up what we have faced since 9/11.

Historian Max Boot concludes his massive tome on guerrilla and terrorist warfare with a postscript called: “The Lessons of Five Thousand Years.” In 1917 T. E. Lawrence wrote an essay called “Twenty-Seven Articles” which summed up many of the lessons that he had learned as an insurgent fighter. Boot provides twelve articles that sum up the lessons we can learn from Invisible Armies. I will not develop each one extensively but provide some brief comments.

1. Guerrilla Warfare has been ubiquitous and important throughout history.

Much of the world’s population lives in states whose current boundaries and forms of government were determined by insurgencies waged by or against their ancestors. This is not just true in the two-thirds world. Think of the United Kingdom. It is united because the English defeated the Scottish and Irish insurgencies. America is united because

By John Armstrong|June 21st, 2013|Categories: Books, History, Politics, Spiritual Warfare, The Future, The War on Terrorism|

A Strange Encounter with Evil in Phoenix

Last Sunday evening in Phoenix I was enjoying a lovely dinner with Jeff and Patti Gokee, along with their two sons, Ben (11) and Cooper (8). A man unexpectedly came up to our table to verbally assault Jeff and me for what we had been conversing about with Ben and Cooper. It was surreal, shocking. I confess that I have never had a total stranger approach me in a restaurant with curses and insults during dinner. The place grew silent as people watched in amazement. Jeff and I both thought it was a joke until the man began to call us names and assault us angrily with everything he had but his fists.

To understand this verbal assault you must know that Ben (11) wanted to discuss some pressing theological concerns with me and his dad has encouraged him to ask at dinner. His questions were about his brother Cooper (8), who has been in a battle with leukemia for several months now. (You could easily tell that Cooper has been undergoing some serious medical issues by

By John Armstrong|May 18th, 2012|Categories: Personal, Spiritual Warfare|

Spiritual Warfare is Real

I have had a number of first-hand experiences with spiritual warfare and the demonic. Many of you do not like to talk about these things while others can talk about little else at times. C. S. Lewis was right when he said that the enemy was delighted when we went to either extreme. I thought about this as I read a prayer letter from a former student of mine who took three different courses with me at the Wheaton Graduate School over the past few years. She got her M. A. degree in May and then moved back to Nassau where she now serves in full-time evangelism. She is a woman full of the Holy Spirit and the love of Christ and is a fervent intercessor for me personally. She has given "the widow’s mite" (as it were) by investing in ACT 3 on several occasions, which truly humbles me when you know the poverty of her own culture and people. This student used to remind us, in class and out, that our heavenly Papa would always provide if we trusted him because he

By John Armstrong|December 7th, 2007|Categories: Spiritual Warfare|

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