Blog - Page 242 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Super Tuesday: Modest Reflections

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:18-05:00February 6th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

We still do not have a nominee from either political party but John McCain will be very hard to stop between now and March or April. He is the front runner by a large margin and more than half-way to the total number of delegates he will need. It is statistically possible that with all three men in this race no one could gain enough support to win before St. Paul in September.
But the pundits, even on the far right, are in almost complete agreement today that he will be the nominee unless something major or drastic happens to change the public perception and mood. Will Romney or Huckabee exist soon? I tend to think not. But this is a guess, which is about as much as anyone can make today.

On the other side the delegate total is very close and though Clinton has some large states ahead, where her campaign is strong, it is still possible she will not […]

Transformissional Church?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:19-05:00February 6th, 2008|Categories: Missional Church|

Over the course of the last few weeks I decided to launch a second blog site. The more I interact with Christian leaders the more I realize everything possible needs to be done to help Christian leaders and thinkers understand and put into practice the mandate of Jesus to make disciples of all nations.

This current site, found under my name (www.johnharmstrong.com) on the Web, allows me to range widely over a number of interesting topics that are personal, theological, economic, cultural, political, athletic and artistic. Because I am committed to a Christian and cultural worldview and try to relate my thoughts to countless friends and readers I see all of this as connected with God’s design for the created order. Plus, to put it very simply, I enjoy writing. Like Eric Liddell spoke of a different subject in the great movie Chariots of Fire, "I feel his presence when I run (write)." Thus, I will continue to write […]

The Eleventh Commandment of Reagan

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:19-05:00February 5th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

The eleventh commandment of President Ronald Reagan was: "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican." Reagan lost a few elections to Republicans,
including his challenge of a sitting president, Gerald Ford, in 1976. Later he won his party’s nomination in 1980 and then became the oldest president in U. S. history by his second term.
Reagan’s view was that you should never down your own your teammates. Why? Ultimately, you’re on the same side.

I do wish the various conservative media types would heed Reagan’s rule but by now it seems a fond wish at best. The favorite line of these talkers seems to be, "How can we dredge up more on John McCain today?" Meanwhile the Democrats have united, for today, behind the realization that one of their two candidates has a great chance to win in November if they do not destroy one another now. One fact is simple, at least in the past forty years or so: the Democrats […]

Evangelicals and the Orthodox Christian Tradition

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:19-05:00February 4th, 2008|Categories: Unity of the Church|

The evangelical Protestant and Orthodox Church traditions have had very little relationship with one another since the time of the Protestant Reformation. What contact they have had has been primarily negative and unfruitful. This is slowly changing in both Europe and America, especially in America.
It is still rare to find a Greek or Russian Orthodox Christian, or priest, who desires such serious conversation with a Protestant evangelical but there are other forms of Orthodoxy in America than these two ancient expressions. The truth is this—most evangelicals know next to nothing about Orthodoxy either.

In 2001, the Evangelical Alliance in the United Kingdom published a report by its commission on unity and truth among evangelicals (ACUTE). This resulted in a fine book titled Evangelicalism and the Orthodox Church (Paternoster), which I am currently reading. American Orthodox scholar Dr. Bradley Nassif, professor at […]

The Waterboarding Debate

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:19-05:00January 31st, 2008|Categories: Current Affairs|

A controversial interrograiton procedure, known as "waterboarding," is often in the news over the last year or two. Most people have no idea about what this term actually means or what happens when a person is waterboarded. I have several former-military friends who assure me that it is a horrible experience that makes you actually feel like you will die and in some cases it will cause death. Two articles appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal about waterboarding. They are interesting for entirely different reasons.

Three young men decided to try out waterboarding and then write about it. If you want to see how horrific this practice really is then read their account.

Democrats have made a great deal politically out of this practice in their reaction to the confirmation, and now the service, of Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Hcgk680_mukase_20070917194326 […]

Florida: The Day After

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:19-05:00January 30th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

There seems to be very little doubt now that Senator John McCain is in the driver’s seat, if not almost assured of the Republican nomination for president.
With Giuliani about to drop out, before Super Tuesday, and with only Governor Romney left as a serious challenger the conclusion does seem clear. But in politics, as they say, anything can happen and often does. To quote old Yogi Berra, "It ain’t over until it’s over." And since Governor Huckabee plans to stay in the race through next Tuesday he will likely take more votes from Romney than from McCain.

The two debates this week, one tonight and the other Thursday evening, will obviously be crucial to the Super Tuesday voting. This is the one window of opportunity that both Obama and
Romney have to create new momentum. (Obama already has considerable momentum, the […]

The Case for Christ: The Film

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:19-05:00January 30th, 2008|Categories: Apologetics|

Former journalist and legal editor Lee Strobel (Chicago Tribune) has done perhaps more than any single modern writer to popularize the case for the Jesus of the Holy Scriptures. His book, The Case for Christ, is an award-winning, best-seller and his story is fairly widely known by this point in time.
Lee was an atheist whose wife became a Christian and then she began to witness to him, sometimes ineffectively. (It is noteworthy that in the real story a group of people were praying for Lee during his search!)
Lee decided to use his skills as an investigative reporter to search out the claims of Christ. He studied the historical accuracy of the Gospels, the personal claims of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead. After nearly a two year struggle to come to grips with the evidence he then became a Christian. The rest […]

The New Reformation: Finding and Equipping Transformational Leadership

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:19-05:00January 29th, 2008|Categories: Uncategorized|

One example of the present missional moment struck me as worthy of real consideration by missionally thoughtful leaders this past week. I refer to the way younger people are responding to two of the presidential candidates—Barack Obama
and John McCain.
One is the youngest and the other is the oldest in the current primary contests. This demonstrates powerfully that age is not a major factor with this emerging generation. What is at stake with this younger generation is authenticity. (You may think these two men are the least authentic candidates or the worst possible choices but this is not my point here at all.) This generation, which will soon become the dominant force in American life and culture, is hungry for vision. They want change but they want change that will create new forces for new conversation and new solutions. They simply do not think […]

God, Grace and Globalization

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:20-05:00January 28th, 2008|Categories: Economy/Economics|

George Melloan, writing in the Wall Street Journal (January 11, 2008), noted that when Jesus warned his disciples (Matthew 6) against trying to serve two masters, God and mammon, that "An overly strict interpretation of his words seems to leave economics outside the realm of Christian theological inquiry." I concur, as readers of mine who frequent this blog site well know. We have misunderstood mammon and this warning on both sides, either by saying nothing at all or by saying many wrong things.

What Jesus clearly attacked in Matthew 6 was the worship of money, or stuff; i.e., mammon. But the pursuit of a livelihood is essential to human existence and thus a prerequisite of spiritual development. Jesus very plainly did not attack the necessity of all material stuff; food, clothing and shelter. These things are necessary for human sustenance. Money and wealth production is merely the way we provide for them. This means that economics, which is the study of how to best create wealth and to use it efficiently for human advancement, is not a "gloomy science" intended only for […]

The Anglican Mission in the Americas and My Five Days in Dallas

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:20-05:00January 27th, 2008|Categories: Missional Church|

I just returned home from a five-day preaching and teaching ministry in Dallas, Texas.
My first stop was to minister at the annual Winter Conference of the Anglican Mission in the Americas, held at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in downtown Dallas, January 23-26.
There were a number of moving sessions for me but Sandy Millar, from the United Kingdom, was refreshing, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom and ministered deeply to me in his plenary sessions.

I also preached at a plenary session, from Acts 3 on the ministry of the Holy Spirit and Church renewal, did a seminar on the anointing of the Holy Spirit on preaching and led a discussion with my dear friend J. I. Packer
for a large number of […]