Blog - Page 175 of 318 - John H Armstrong

A Friendship That Teaches Me a Great Deal About Christ

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:42-05:00October 26th, 2009|Categories: Unity of the Church|

One of the most faithful regular readers of this blog is Nick Morgan, a firefighter in St. Louis. Those who read the comments on this blog for very long have seen Nick’s name appear in the “Comments” section now and then. With permission I want to tell you a bit about Nick and our friendship. I also want to share some items from a letter that he sent to me just before 2009 began. I do this not to “puff” this blog, or the work of ACT 3 (especially me) but rather to demonstrate just how a friendship between a devout Protestant, and an equally devout Roman Catholic, can actually work itself out in the real world where we do not agree on some very important Christian doctrinal truths.

First, let me tell you that Nick initially met me by attending one of our large conference events in Wheaton back in the days when I was viewed as a role model teacher by some conservative Reformed Christians. Nick, himself a cradle Catholic, had gone through a deep conversion experience and […]

Labeling Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Is It a Disease or a Syndrome?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:42-05:00October 25th, 2009|Categories: Personal|

What you label something, or someone, is so important. If you are called lazy then you will likely become lazy. Or, as it has been in my case, you will over-compensate against the lazy label and then become a driven perfectionist who works nonstop. I had this lesson drilled into me very early by good parents who valued hard work done very well. It seems from the biblical narrative that "naming" is truly powerful. This is why God gave this power to human beings in the creation account in Genesis. We share in the work of creation in so many unexplored ways. But sin intervened and now we easily abuse this God-given power to our own harm and that of many others around us.

I thought of this when I wrote about my struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) just a few weeks ago. Putting a label on this illness is problematic for many reasons. It can become a way that I actually choose to define myself. This can allow me to excuse all kinds of things. I get impatient with Anita and […]

The Influence of C. S. Lewis on Head and Heart, Part 3

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:43-05:00October 24th, 2009|Categories: Apologetics|

I have suggested that C. S. Lewis was a truly great evangelist and apologist, though a reluctant one in a profound sense. I want to conclude my sundry thoughts about why Lewis is so important to us by a few quotations from Lewis himself.In an essay title "Man or Rabbit," written in 1946, Lewis says:

Here is a door, behind which, according to some people, the secret of the universe is waiting for you. Either that's true, or it isn't. And if it isn't, then what the door really conceals is simply the greatest fraud, the most colossal "sell" on record. Isn't it obviously the job of every man (that is a man and not a rabbit) to try to find out which, and then to devote his full energies either to serving this tremendous secret or exposing and destroying this gigantic humbug?

Think about this one for a moment. Though I think the modern atheists, called by themselves the Four Horsemen (e.g. Christopher […]

The Influence of C. S. Lewis on Head and Heart, Part 2

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:43-05:00October 23rd, 2009|Categories: Apologetics|

My good friend Dr. Jerry Root teaches a class at the Wheaton Grad School on C. S. Lewis. In the catalog it is listed EVAN 694 but the title is "C.S. Lewis: Apologist to the Head and the Heart." This is a course I wish I could take and someday maybe I will. Jerry is not only an inspiring teacher but he is a great student of all things C. S. Lewis.

In his syllabus Jerry asks, "Why was Lewis so effective?" He answers, "In part, his effectiveness stemmed from his holism; that is, he spoke to the head and the heart." I could not agree more.

C. S. Lewis speaks to my heart in a way that few modern writers do. He wrote out of deep personal experience. He was, as some young people would put it, "real." His journey to the faith, recounted in his own moving story Surprised By Joy, and his subsequent growth into a deeper and […]

The Influence of C. S. Lewis on Head and Heart

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:43-05:00October 22nd, 2009|Categories: Apologetics|

Some have referred to the late C. S. Lewis as "an apostle of faith and reason," or the apologist of "heard and heart." Lewis was arguably one of the great integrators of faith and learning in the 20th century. He also impacted my life deeply when I was a student at Wheaton College in the 1960s.

Before I transferred to Wheaton, from the University of Alabama, I only knew of Lewis because of his famous book Mere Christianity, which is really a collection of short presentations he gave over the BBC radio network during World War II. When he died, on the same day as President Kennedy's death, I did not take notice at all, since I was freshman in high school and had not yet even heard of him.

Lewis remains as important as ever, indeed more important in my estimation, precisely because he was a serious thinker, a serious Christian and an intellectual who spoke clearly […]

Are American's Abortion Views Really Changing or Not?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:43-05:00October 21st, 2009|Categories: Abortion|

A recent poll, conducted by the ever reliable Pew Research Center, shows that support for abortion has declined. The public is now almost divided 50-50 on the issue. The apparent shift in opinion has occurred in the last twelve months. In 2008 a Pew poll found those in favor of keeping abortion legal outnumbered opponents 54-40%. The new poll is 47-45%. This is, according to researchers, a fairly significant shift in opinion. The problem is that this new survey did not seek to find reasons for this shift but I expect we will have more polling on this question in time.

Pew researchers pointed out that this shift has occurred since the election of President Obama, a strong supporter of pro-choice law who has said he would like to reduce the number of abortions while keeping it perfectly legal. (The reality is he wants to expand the practice as widely as possible from everything he has said and one to […]

Gay Marriage and Gay Divorce

By John Armstrong|2009-10-21T05:00:00-05:00October 21st, 2009|Categories: Homosexuality|

If you oppose gay marriage should you also oppose gay divorce? This is the very real dilemma faced by conservatives in Texas. A recent court ruling in Texas would allow a couple legally wed in Massachusetts to divorce in Texas but some are opposing this ruling.

This story began in 2006 when two men were married in Massachusetts and then moved to Texas. Now they want a divorce. In January the couple reached an agreement re: property and the dissolution of their legal marriage. But when they went to court to formalize their decision the Attorney General of Texas sought to stop the divorce. His argument? Same sex marriage was not allowed by a constitutional amendment in Texas so same-sex divorce could not be legal in Texas. A judge saw it differently and granted them a divorce. She argued that the state's law violated the federal right to equal protection under the law. The Attorney General then appealed the case to "defend traditional marriage." A gay spokesman said, "the irony is that the anti-gay forces are so opposed to gay relationships that […]

China: The People's Republic of Capitalism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:43-05:00October 20th, 2009|Categories: Current Affairs|

China is a vast land with the world’s largest population. It is also has the fastest growing economy in the world. Year-by-year China is being pulled out of poverty and crumbling cities into a Western way of life rooted in the forces of the free market.

This story is wonderfully told by Ted Koppel in the new two-disc three hour series: “The People’s Republic of Capitalism” (Athena Learning Company, 2009). No program I’ve seen does a better job exposing Western viewers to the amazing story that is modern China.

Part one of this DVD series shows how America and China are now joined at the hip economically. The Chinese economy relies on the U.S. capital for investment in technology and on U. S. customers (through retailers like Wal Mart) for a ready market for their cheaper goods. The search for cheaper labor has led Western companies to go to China. Chine has a growing middle and […]

Can a Married Man Have an Emotional Bond with a Woman Who is Not His Wife?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:43-05:00October 19th, 2009|Categories: Marriage & Family|

As I read the tragic news about Governor Mark Sanford’s disappearance to Argentina a few months ago, for what we now know was the pursuit of a sexual relationship with another woman, I was forced to ask again a question that has troubled me for many years. (By the way, Sanford is under perpetual fire to resign as governor but remains in office. Personally I wish he would resign since he was such an outspoken critic of Bill Clinton and, more importantly, his effectiveness as governor has been under severe fire from the day his adultery was revealed in June.)

My question is really quite simple: Can a married man have a deeply personal relationship with another woman?

Let me begin by saying there is no obvious biblical answer to this question. If this were so clear we would not need to think about it all that much. I have seen some very good arguments made on both sides of this debate. But I am more convinced than ever, after reading the Mark Sanford story, that […]

Living with Chronic Fatigue

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:43-05:00October 18th, 2009|Categories: Personal|

Many of my friends know that I have battled with a strange illness called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) for about thirteen years. This illness seems to work on the auto-immune function of the body in a way that results in a cluster of symptoms that commonly fall under the title of fatigue because of the overwhelming fatigue that is common with the condition. No matter how much I rest I am "very tired" 24/7. The CDC says that symptoms can be as disabling as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. And there is no known cure. (Suggestions of cures are really not helpful to me. I study CFS, get treatment from a very knowledgeable physician and do what I can to deal with the illness properly.)

There are a lot of ways to treat the illness but the only ones that routinely seem to help at all involve various types of cognitive behavioral therapy. Some of these claim to provide a cure but none have been proven under serious testing to be widely effective in a way that has been accepted in […]