Blog - Page 189 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Christian Right and the American Jeremiad

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:14-05:00June 16th, 2009|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

I am currently publishing a series of articles on the Christian Right, the history of the American jeremiad and civil religion. Today, June 16, another installment should be posted on our ACT 3 Website before the day is over. This series is available as a free subscription and/or as a podcast.

The central point that I have made in previous articles in this series is that a major part of our American religious identity is rooted in the unique role the jeremiad has played in our culture. It has served as our unique grand narrative by which we indict national sin. If you are deeply influenced by the American jeremiad you will tend to see America as a prodigal nation. The particular jeremiad the Christian Right offers is simple: American has fallen and faces certain destruction unless we repent! One Christian Right advocate notes that we once enjoyed a favored place in God’s economy but now says “the encroaching forces of […]

Evangelical and Catholic?

By John Armstrong|2009-06-15T05:00:00-05:00June 15th, 2009|Categories: Roman Catholicism|

The Center for Applied Christian Ethics (CACE) is one of my favorite teaching forums in America. It is connected to Wheaton College and led by Dr. Vincent E. Bacote, a member of the Bible and Theology faculty at Wheaton. Vince has spoken for ACT 3 several times and is deeply rooted in the theology of Abraham Kuyper. He is also a wonderfully gracious Christian man who understands how to conduct a civil and meaningful dialogue. This makes him a perfect choice to lead CACE at this time.

On Thursday, September 3, CACE will host a debate on the question: "Catholic and Evangelical?" The speakers are two of my favorite people to discuss this subject intelligently and irenically. Dr. Francis Beckwith, formerly an evangelical and now a Roman Catholic, will speak on: "Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic." Dr. Timothy George, a great Reformation scholar and dear friend, will speak on: "Confessions of a Catholic Evangelical." Then the debate will follow their presentations. Vincent Bacote informed […]

Another Surgery on My Foot

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:14-05:00June 14th, 2009|Categories: Personal|

Ever so often I share a personal prayer request, as with those I have shared related to my good friend David Stopke. Today I ask you to offer an earnest prayer for me as I face my third foot surgery, in four years, tomorrow morning. This procedure, to begin at 6:00 a.m. with preparation and surgery at 7:00, is designed to correct a previous surgery that appears not to have been done correctly by my first surgeon four years ago. In March of 2008 I had the same procedure I am having tomorrow on a different part of the same foot. Now we are going back to the first place, where the first surgery was performed, to correct some nerve damage that creates quite a bit of pain in my lower foot, especially when I stand or walk, both activities I engage in with regularity.

There is no expectation of complication but one never knows. I am not nervous about the procedure but […]

When Coexistence Is Compromise

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:14-05:00June 13th, 2009|Categories: Evangelism|

During the time of King Ahab (1 Kings 16:31-33) the leader of Israel married a princess of Tyre. When the princess arrived in Jerusalem she brought with her the worship of the Phoenician God Melkaart. She had a temple built for Melkaart in Jerusalem. She did not want to do away with Israel's God but rather to create a condition of mutual peace and co-existence. She was an ancient pluralist. Everyone can worship the god they choose, the god they desire, so long as we all follow our own truth and way. But God revealed himself to Israel as the one, true God and all other gods were vanity according to him. As the minister/theologian D. T. Niles noted in his classic little book, The Message and Its Messengers (Abingdon, 1966), "Coexistence may be good policy, but it compromises the nature of truth." (Niles was the president of the Methodist Church in Ceylon and was a very active leader in the World Council of Churches.)

I believe in tolerance in our social and legal stance […]

The Road to Re-Understanding Is Through Misunderstanding

By John Armstrong|2009-06-12T05:00:00-05:00June 12th, 2009|Categories: Reformed Christianity|

Somewhere, from a friend whose name I cannot recall, I recently heard it said: “The path to re-understanding is often through misunderstanding.” I profoundly agree with this insight. My own journey to what I call missional-ecumenism has followed a path of re-understanding what the church has taught in previous centuries, especially in the early centuries, that began when I plainly began to see that things I misunderstood where the very things I assumed to be correct. So my path to re-understanding followed a road that began with my misunderstanding.

I find myself hoping and praying, almost every day, that more and more Christian leaders would acknowledge their limited perspective regarding many things that they assume so confidently they clearly know. What I call “epistemic humility” is always appropriate. We know what we know, especially when it comes to the revelation of Christ by the Holy Spirit, but even what we know is never so certain that we cannot understand more than what we know. Why is this so difficult to grasp?

Paul says “knowledge […]

Principles vs. Rules

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:14-05:00June 11th, 2009|Categories: Missional Church|

Structure is necessary for life to survive. The church needs structure to be fruitful. But much of the history of the Christian church reveals that structure has been far more important than life itself.

The gospel is taken by a missionary to a culture different from their own. They plant it like seed in the soil. They pray and teach and water this gospel seed to produce churches. The problems come when the missionaries do not replant the seed properly in the new culture/soil.

A few days ago I quoted D.T. Niles of Sri Lanka. Niles observed this point when he wrote:

The gospel is like seed and you have to sow it. Now, when missionaries came to our lands they brought not only the seed of the gospel, but their own plant of Christianity, flower pot included! So what we have to do is to break the flower pot, take out the seed of the gospel, sow it in our own cultural soil, and let our own version of Christianity […]

Terminator Salvation

By John Armstrong|2009-06-10T05:00:00-05:00June 10th, 2009|Categories: Film|

The Terminator trilogy fulfilled the role of good action flicks wonderfully, at least the first two. Who could ever forget the famous Arnold line: “I’ll be back!” And the first two movies had some pretty compelling human drama woven into intense, fun action. When Arnold gave a scorched thumbs up sign to his friend John Connor as he sacrificed himself for humanity I was moved like many others I know. These films employed science fiction in a way that demonstrated the clear difference between humans and robots: human’s have a heart. As Christianity Today’s reviewer put it: “What makes humans different from terminators? What makes them similar? Are humans' fates as programmed as the actions of their robot enemies? Terminators are trained to kill, but why do humans kill?”

Terminator Salvation does not deliver at all. It will not inspire or move you. That’s too bad because the action and special effects are drop dead great! The robots do rock. They even make a 1991-era […]

Another Update on David Stopke

By John Armstrong|2009-06-09T05:00:00-05:00June 9th, 2009|Categories: Personal|

My friend David Stopke is doing better each day. As I reported several weeks ago he is now in Denver and undergoing therapy and extensive recovery. He continues to not have the use of his arms and legs but is completely off the ventilator and sitting up and eating food. He can also talk, though with some difficulty and only for a short period of time. Last Thursday I phoned Eva, David's wife, and she handed the phone to David in the hospital bed. I finally got to hear David's voice and share my love with him once again.

On Monday I learned that David's feeding tube has also been removed and he is beginning to have movement in his left arm and hand. This is extremely encouraging news.

When I spoke with David he told me that he struggled a great deal and asked me for further prayer for his entire family. I told him that I shared his requests with thousands of readers, many of whom would pray for him because […]

The Big Unit Wins His 300th

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:14-05:00June 8th, 2009|Categories: Baseball|

The player known to fans everywhere as simply "The Big Unit," 6'10" pitcher Randy Johnson, became only the 24th Major League pitcher to win 300 games last Thursday evening in Washington D.C. He is only the sixth left-hander in that select group. He's also the first pitcher to win his 300th game on his first try since Tom Seaver did it in August of 1985. The next six who reached this great milestone needed more than one start. The six were Phil Niekro, Don Sutton, Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine.

And at age 45 Randy Johnson is the second-oldest pitcher to reach the 300 mark—behind only Phil Niekro, who achieved the feat when he was 46 years. Johnson accomplished his milestone win against the Washington Nationals, the same team who launched his professional career by drafting him in the second round in 1985 when they were then known as the Montreal Expos. Baseball is filled […]

C. S. Lewis on How To Begin the Day

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:20:14-05:00June 7th, 2009|Categories: Spirituality|

C. S. Lewis is always a great source of encouragement when you face the day ahead. This is especially true with regard to the Lord’s Day. In his masterful work, The Weight of Glory, Lewis make a powerful distinction between acquiescence and failure that I have often found helpful. He writes:

I do not think any efforts of my own will end, once and for all, this craving for limited liabilities, [or] fatal reservation. Only God can [end this]. I have good faith and hope He will. Of course I don’t mean I can . . . “sit back.” What God does for us, He does in us. The process of doing it will appear to me (and not falsely) to be the daily or hourly repeated exercises of my own will in renouncing this attitude, especially each morning, for it grows all over me like a new shell each night. Failures will be forgiven; it is acquiescence that is fatal, the […]