Blog - Page 244 of 318 - John H Armstrong

A Bumper Sticker Worth Remembering

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:22-05:00January 15th, 2008|Categories: Culture|

Bumper stickers are pop-culture icons.
I sometimes save them and then put them on the wall in my garage. Anita will not allow them in the house but the garage wall is mine! I have gotten more than a few interesting bumper stickers from street vendors in Berkley. I have also found a few interesting ones in Seattle and Santa Cruz. But I saw one yesterday that takes the cake. It said: Keep Portland Weird.
If you live in Portland forgive me for laughing but that one does say a lot about the Pacific Northwest.

The other one that I saw recently, and this one did make me laugh out loud, is in the picture to the side.
This is the way some […]

The Early Primaries Clearly Prove We Have Not Settled on Any Candidate Yet

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:22-05:00January 15th, 2008|Categories: Uncategorized|

Proving again that this year’s primary elections are wide-open Michigan seems to have chosen Governor Romney tonight in a primary that actually carries little weight in terms of actual delegates to the Republican Convention. But a win is a win is a win.
Romney, it seems, needed a win to stay viable. Now Fred Thompson must win in South Carolina (Saturday) if he is to become viable, which seems unlikely. Then comes Florida where Giuliani needs a win. Giuliani’s strategy all along has been to win big on Super Tuesday, February 5. He may still pull it off but the national polls show him lagging behind McCain this week. Interestingly, only John McCain was close to Clinton or Obama in a possible general election match-up. Romney did the worst of the big four and Huckabee was only slight better, both being between 15 and 20% behind in a national match-up with either Democrat. Any handicapper would have to say that the odds on money should […]

Statins: The Modern Wonder Drugs?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:22-05:00January 15th, 2008|Categories: Bio-Medical Ethics|

Like many of my readers, at least those who are over fifty, I take a statin drug every day. I take a very small dose (10mg) of Lipitor.
I have read a great deal about these drugs, as should any consumer who puts anything into their body. I also have the benefit of a brother who is a physician and several other family members who are in medicine and research. Several years ago I had a simple heart scan that suggested one possible blockage problem.
I went through a battery of tests with a cardiologist, just to be safe. The prognosis was that I had normal damage. My pipes have mild corrosion from aging, as the cardiologist put it.
That, by the way, does help you focus on your mortality and your real age when you are nearing 60 as I am.

But […]

Machen's Warrior Children

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:22-05:00January 14th, 2008|Categories: Reformed Christianity|

J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) is still an esteemed name among some conservative Reformed Christians in America. It was Machen who wrote the classic book, Christianity and Liberalism, in which he argued that consistent liberalism in theology was not Christian. He also authored a number of other well-regarded books such as: The Virgin Birth and The Origin of Paul’s Religion. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Princeton Theological Seminary, Machen was deeply influenced by pious parents of Southern demeanor and sympathy. He was also profoundly marked by the famous B. B. Warfield, and the older Calvinism, favored by Charles and A. A. Hodge.

During the 1920s Machen was at the very center of the theological debates that rocked the Presbyterian Church in America. He was a champion for orthodox Christianity and saw some real dangers ahead for the Presbyterians. He eventually left Princeton, after serious shuffles changed the school internally, and helped found Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia in 1929, where he was both the president and a New Testament professor. When the Presbyterian Church disciplined Machen in 1935 he then helped found […]

The Faith of Joseph and the Flight of the Holy Family

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:22-05:00January 13th, 2008|Categories: Biblical Theology|

Today I had the joy of preaching again at my home church, First Reformed Church in South Holland, Illinois. The church is actively seeking a new senior pastor and just completed a 28 month interim ministry that was very fruitful. We enjoyed a joyful and holy time of worship. People were quite warm to me and received my ministry, as always, with warmth and deep appreciation. I truly feel at home at First Reformed Church.

I followed the lectionary today and thus preached from Matthew 2:13-23 on "The Forgotten Man (Joseph) and the Flight of the Holy Family." This story is amazing when you look at it carefully.

There are three episodes in the text, each ending with a reference to the Old Testament.

1. Matthew 2:13-15; cf. Hosea 11:1
2. Matthew 2:16-18; cf. Jeremiah 31:15
3. Matthew 2:19-23; cf. Psalm 22:6; Isaiah 53:3

The reference to the Old Testament in the third of these three episodes is rather dubious. There is not a single text that fits this point at all. Perhaps the […]

The PCA Divided Again by the Charges Against Steve Wilkins

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:22-05:00January 12th, 2008|Categories: Reformed Christianity|

Sadly, some leaders in the Presbyterian Church in America refuse to tolerate what they perceive to be "deadly errors." I am not suggesting "deadly errors" should be tolerated, not in the least, but let’s be honest here. This debate is about whether or not the errors themselves, assuming they are errors, are indeed "deadly." Additionally, this is about whether or not the person who holds the supposed errors really denies the Westminster Confession of Faith (WSF) or not. This is an honest debate, in the formal sense, for sure. And Presbyterianism allows elders to have this struggle. (This is a matter for more thought but I seriously doubt that this "type" of presbyterian practice can thrive, and help a groups of churches grow, in the new century. Clearly, the next generation has no tolerance for it at all. Sadly, many in my generation really love it and thrive on it, preferring rational debates about doctrine to actually dealing with real people in pastoral and missional ways.)

The response defenders of "strict confession," if you read the various Web sites that promote their rather […]

Don't Forget the Holocaust

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:22-05:00January 12th, 2008|Categories: Israel|

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. Regardless of the revisionist historians and their utter nonsense about this great war, six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated while many of the German and Russia (and even American) peoples and political leaders, with some courageous exceptions, looked the other way! In an attempt to remember these important and defining moments a friend sent me a poignant cartoon that is worth seeing and reading.

Iran, among others, continues to claim that the Holocaust is "a myth." This makes it imperative that people who love freedom and respect real history make absolutely sure that the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do this again. If you doubt this statement you simply do not understand the modern world and the […]

Did Hillary Clinton Find Herself in New Hampshire?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:22-05:00January 12th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

After winning in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday night Senator Clinton said, in her most poignant statement of all, that she had "found herself." Pundits continue to speculate on what this means. Peggy Noonan asks in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal, "One must ask of Mrs. Clinton what one would never ask of Mrs. (Eleanor) Roosevelt: Will the new voice have a new accent?"

If the new voice of Hillary Clinton is a softer one then how do you explain Hillaryis44, a Web site that seems to be, as Noonan put it "a back door to her war room?" The site says that federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will soon "destroy" Barack Obama in a "scandal" involving an "indicted slumlord" who is Mr. Obama’s "friend." This story is not new. The Chicago Tribune vetted it extensively months ago and did a complete investigation finding nothing that implicated Obama at all. I followed this with close interest at the time. […]

Ian McEwan and Atonement

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:23-05:00January 11th, 2008|Categories: Film|

The film adaptation of English writer Ian McEwan’s prize-winning novel Atonement
opened last month to widespread critical acclaim on the big screen. Winners of the Golden Globes will soon be announced and many critics think the movie version of Atonement will win best picture for 2007. I saw the film version of Atonement after I read the book. I have to say that I did not view Atonement as one of the great films of this year.
It is not even in my top twenty films. It clearly has the most nominations of any film for awards this year but I confess I do not understand why. And I do not think the book was worthy of its almost universal acclaim either. It is widely praised by many critics but I have missed the reasons why. The New Republic online did a recent interview […]

Populism is Alive and Well in Both Major Political Parties

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:23-05:00January 10th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

The term populism is being thrown around a great deal these days as we hear the back and forth of the present political debate. Populism is generally understood to be the use of discourse, ideas or policies which aim to appeal to "the people" by setting up a strong dichotomy between "the people" and "the elite." This populist appeal to "the people" is usually rooted in a strongly emotional appeal to identities, class, and ethnic/regional categories. Populism, in the American context, has historically involved a political philosophy, often not understood by the people or even by those using the approach, to urge social and political changes through a rhetorical style that goes right to the people with the idea that the outsiders need to replace the insiders because the insiders are the problem.

There are several candidates who are employing populist rhetoric and philosophy rather strongly in the present political context.
Hillary Clinton has a very hard time playing this approach since […]