Blog - Page 109 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Why Did the University of Notre Dame Fail It’s Own Christian Standards and Ideals?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:23-05:00July 21st, 2011|Categories: College Football, Current Affairs, Personal|

Blogging is a rather amazing phenomenon. It has impacted politics, the church and almost everything else in between. When I began to write blogs in April of 2005 I had no idea what I was doing or where this would go. I began blogging because I enjoyed writing and believed I could express my thoughts in this form and thereby help and serve both God and some of his people. My core values were clear: speak the truth in love, always correct my mistakes when they became known to me and encourage people in every way possible to think, grow and change in the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. For about five years now I have written a blog almost every day of the week.

To this end I soon began to write about a whole panorama of issues and ideas. Now, more than six years later, I write to an audience that includes Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox. I write to non-Christians and I write to people on both sides of issues that divide us; homosexuality, abortion, health care, etc. I generally avoid partisan politics because […]

Notre Dame and Big-Time Football: Something Isn’t Right in South Bend

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:23-05:00July 20th, 2011|Categories: College Football|

It is a widely known fact that I love college athletics, especially D-I football. Why? I grew up watching Alabama and Bear Bryant and then went to the University of Alabama. I am, thus, a die-hard Crimson Tide fan. Having said this I must admit that my alma mater has done more than its fair share of wrong over the course of my lifetime. It has cost Alabama dearly, putting it on probation several times and taking its storied tradition to the proverbial “dog house” of big-time football. So, let it be duly noted here, “The one without sin should cast the first stone.” I am not, however, comparing apples and apples in what I am about to say. I am speaking about a university that is the premier Catholic university in America and one that prides itself on a storied tradition that is supposed to be above the common lot of college football programs. Not so.

In late June the Department of Education handed down a decision […]

A Global Survey of Evangelical Leaders: Unity Not a Major Concern

By John Armstrong|2011-07-19T04:00:00-05:00July 19th, 2011|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Evangelism, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

Newly released data from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life provides the results of polling gathered from 2,196 evangelical leaders from 166 countries and territories who were invited to attend the Third Lausanne Congress of World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa, last October. The results make for a very insightful discussion about the state of evangelical Protestant Christianity around the world.

Evangelical leaders who live in the Global South (sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and most of Asia) are generally optimistic about the prospects for evangelicalism in their countries. But leaders who live in the Global North (Europe, North America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand) tend to be more pessimistic. The reasons are quite obvious if you read the poll and the attendant comments on it.

One that stands out – evangelical leaders around the world view secularism, consumerism and popular culture as the greatest threats they face today. More of the leaders expressed concern about these aspects of modern life than expressed concern about other religions, internal disagreements among fellow evangelicals or government restrictions on […]

Bishop Kallistos Ware: “The Center of the Christian Message”

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:23-05:00July 18th, 2011|Categories: Christ/Christology, Evangelism, Missional-Ecumenism, Orthodoxy|

A few months ago Christianity Today editor David Neff did an interview with Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware. This interview is now available online. Bishop Ware, who is from Great Britain, was an Anglican before he entered the Orthodox Church as a young adult. His story is widely known and can be accessed online as well. He is probably best known for his written work, much of it explaining Orthodoxy to the non-Orthodox. Unlike so many leaders in the Orthodox Church Bishop Ware understands and loves evangelical Protestant Christianity.

The Christianity Today interview was actually conducted while Bishop Ware was in the Chicago area speaking at North Park University and Wheaton College. I heard the Wheaton address at the Billy Graham Center. His lecture at Wheaton was titled: “What Have We to Learn from One Another?” He answered, at the outset, “We need one another to be truly human!” I shall never forget this answer so long as I live. This is at the core […]

John R. W. Stott: An Appreciation

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:24-05:00July 17th, 2011|Categories: Leadership, Personal|

Perhaps no evangelical thinker and writer has more influenced me over the last 45 years than John R. W. Stott, who turned 90 in late April. I’ve met John Stott on several occasions and keep a cherished photo of him in my study. The last time I saw him was in Carol Stream about four years ago.

Jim Packer has been a true friend, indeed a mentor. I’ve shared a great deal of time and fellowship with him over the last thirty years or so. He has personally encouraged me and been a profound theological influence. His frequent visits to serve as a senior editor for Christianity Today afforded us many evenings of sweet fellowship. But it is Stott that I write about today.

David Neff, editor of Christianity Today, wrote a tribute to Stott a few months ago and suggested that two things struck him as he read two different collections about his life. First, John Stott has remarkable discernment. Second, he has incredible discipline. My friends who […]

New Hope for Treating Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:24-05:00July 16th, 2011|Categories: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Personal|

I’ve shared before that I have had a 13-year struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). This is an illness that has no known cure and creates a pattern of physical breakdown that borders on complete exhaustion through the inflammation of the central nervous system. Personally, I can function at reduced capacity and must take breaks and rest at various times of the day. Some days are so-so and others are terrible. By God’s grace I have learned to deal with this illness (weakness) by developing an increasingly contemplative practice of Christian faith. Some of this appears in occasional blogs and some of it is too personal to share at this point.

A few months ago scientists discovered proteins in spinal fluid that can distinguish people with two different, but similar, mysterious illnesses that mimic one another – Lyme disease and CFS. The study earlier this year is small and needs further verification. But some see it as a promising start. The bottom line, however, is that there is still no good means of consistent diagnosis or treatment. Dr. Suzanne Vernon of the Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction […]

A Post-Christendom Ecclesiology

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:24-05:00July 15th, 2011|Categories: Missional Church, The Church, The Future|

Looking over a thousand years of church history the Dutch theologian Hendrikus Berkhof asserted, “For centuries a static concept of the church [has] prevailed.” Historically Christendom churches stressed the institution and pastoral character of the church. This led to hierarchical leadership and ecclesiastical tradition, both of which reinforced the authority of the church over the role of the members. Even the Catholic Church acknowledged this at Vatican II and recent papal encyclicals have spoken about recovering the ministry and mission of the laity.

In this context theology has been formally preoccupied with the intellectual and pastoral concerns of the church, not its engagement with the world around it. What is the church’s role in winning people to the faith, in making disciples of every ethnic people group on the entire planet? If the goal is the kingdom of God, and this kingdom will finally come in all its fullness when Jesus returns, what is the church’s role in the kingdom now?

For too long the church has isolated the […]

Can Faith Be Both Biblical and Flexible?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:24-05:00July 14th, 2011|Categories: Hermeneutics, Theology|

I referred a few days ago to the dangers of labels; conservative and liberal. I believe we live in a time when labels have less meaning than ever. I am just not sure what a person means by the use of these labels, especially with regard to the Christian faith. Let me explain.

If being a conservative means that one takes the creeds and the core of the Christian faith with all seriousness, and really believes the truth claims of the historic faith are essential to right confession and life, than count me as a conservative. I wish to conserve the ancient faith. But, and this is important, that faith is not conservative in terms of many modern issues we face that require us to think and grow as believers.

If being a liberal means that one has an openness to the sciences, to new ideas about solving persistent problems, to different ways of seeing the world and the church then I am a liberal. If liberal means that you take a suspicious view of the Bible’s integrity and truthfulness or that you think what the church rightly […]

Josh Hamilton: An Icon of Grace in a Game of Skill

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:24-05:00July 13th, 2011|Categories: Baseball, Current Affairs|

Texas Rangers superstar outfielder Josh Hamilton has won an MVP award and played in the World Series in the past year. He is just one of the very best players there is in a game that demands skill, perseverance and dedication all wrapped into one athlete. Hamilton is also a serious and thoughtful Christian.

It was not always this way for Josh Hamilton. When he first came up to the Major Leagues he was addicted to drugs and on a course to total destruction. In fact, when I looked for information and photographs of Josh Hamilton I found pictures of his present life and past life, revealing something of the lewd behavior he once engaged in when he lived in spiritual darkness. But then Josh Hamilton genuinely encountered the grace of God in Jesus Christ and became a new creation. Not only did his marriage and personal life dramatically change but his baseball career got new life. One could say that this guy walks and talks “resurrection life” […]

Fr. John Corapi: Scandal in the Catholic Church?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:24-05:00July 12th, 2011|Categories: Roman Catholicism, The Christian Minister/Ministry|

Fr. John Anthony Corapi is a 64-year old Catholic priest who is well known to many conservative Catholic readers of this blog. I knew very little about him personally until quite recently. I have enjoyed listening to him on Relevant Radio now and then. He is an engaging speaker and in style could pass for a passionate evangelical preacher! He is humorous, convicting, clear and winsomely human. He speaks about his past, sometimes a bit too much for some, but he seeks to exalt Jesus in his redemption. He is dogmatic and generally very opinionated. Corapi has had both extensive television and radio ministries for several years and has conducted speaking tours across North America that have introduced him to countless thousands of the faithful. Fr. Corapi’s story is available at his own web site as well as at Wikipedia.

Earlier this year Fr. Corapi was charged with sexual impropriety and drug addiction. His bishop began an investigation in March. Fr. Corapi pled with his listeners […]