Blog - Page 249 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Tragic Story of the Colorado Killer Matthew Murray

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:33-05:00December 11th, 2007|Categories: Religion|

The young killer, Matthew Murray, was clearly a disturbed individual as we have discovered from today’s reports. His pleas for help were noticed by some. These people sought to counsel him. He also posted serious threats on the Internet between his two killing sprees this past Sunday. His warnings were anguished, despair-filled cries from a man who used the screen name: “nghtmrchld26.” Murray was a home-schooled youth who had once applied to work with Youth With a Mission, an organization known for strong training techniques and very Pentecostal theology. (I am not saying this in a pejorative way, it is a simple fact.)

On Sunday Murray posted this comment: "God, I can’t wait till I can kill you people. Feel no remorse, no sense of shame, I don’t care if I live or die in the shoot-out. All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you . . . as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world."

The Associated Press reported this evening that at least eleven posts, between […]

The Greatest Danger for Reformed Christianity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:33-05:00December 10th, 2007|Categories: Reformed Christianity|

I am a Reformed Christian. I love the "Three Forms of Unity" of the Dutch Church, especially the Heidelberg Catechism. I think it is the most evangelical and ecumenical of all the great Reformation catechisms. I grew up in a Baptist Church and was a Baptist minister for many years, having first been ordained in 1970. I still love Baptists, in fact more now than ever since they have taught me so much that I still value; e.g.,the soul liberty of the human conscience, the best understanding of the separation of church and state I know, the priesthood of all believers, the real importance of missions and evangelism, etc. But some years ago I began to realize that I really did believe in the covenantal way of thinking about the Bible and the Church. I understood the Church as a community gathered in and by the covenant. For this reason I was examined and accepted as a minister in the Reformed Church in America earlier this year. I will not promote this new identity over my catholicity or over my fellowship with all of […]

The Jesus Story: Myth or History?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:34-05:00December 9th, 2007|Categories: Apologetics|

Ever since the first century non-Christians have insisted that the Jesus story was myth. The fact that they have a huge platform upon which to say the same thing in our day is the only real difference, at least from where I sit. And since I teach apologetics I think a great deal about this subject.

Authors Greg Boyd and Paul Rhodes Eddy wrote an impressive and large book several years ago titled: The Jesus Legend. They laid out the case for the historical reliability of the New Testament and subjected it to what they believe are the "industry standards" criteria for serious historians. They concluded that the Jesus Story is not legend. They have now released a condensed, or popularized, version of the same book: Lord or Legend? (Baker, 169 pages, $14.99). Boyd and Eddy do a very good job of using recent scholarly studies to show how traditions and stories are transmitted in oral cultures and then show why this is a good reason the New Testament can be trusted. I agree with their conclusions completely.

The question […]

This is Not Your Father's Christmas Pageant

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:34-05:00December 8th, 2007|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

Evangelicals disdain the church calendar and continue to develop liturgies and practices on the run. Since bigger is deemed better there is seemingly no end to the development of larger events costing more and more money.

A case in point is the old-fashioned Christmas pageant. There was a time, not too long ago, when these were small in-house things that most churches did with and for their children. Everyone loved them and the kids got to become really involved in the Advent worship. Now they have become major extravaganzas in a growing number of mega-churches. The First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale has $1.3 million in their budget for their Christmas pageant. The program includes exploding fireworks, women dressed as angels flying about to herald the birth of Jesus, and real camels making their way to the nativity scene along with three kings. As one writer put it "Broadway meets Christmas" at First Baptist. Hundreds of men, women and children dress up as ancient residents of Jerusalem and dance, skip and sing their way down the aisles. There is even simulated snow, a […]

Spiritual Warfare is Real

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:34-05:00December 7th, 2007|Categories: Spiritual Warfare|

I have had a number of first-hand experiences with spiritual warfare and the demonic. Many of you do not like to talk about these things while others can talk about little else at times. C. S. Lewis was right when he said that the enemy was delighted when we went to either extreme. I thought about this as I read a prayer letter from a former student of mine who took three different courses with me at the Wheaton Graduate School over the past few years. She got her M. A. degree in May and then moved back to Nassau where she now serves in full-time evangelism. She is a woman full of the Holy Spirit and the love of Christ and is a fervent intercessor for me personally. She has given "the widow’s mite" (as it were) by investing in ACT 3 on several occasions, which truly humbles me when you know the poverty of her own culture and people. This student used to remind us, in class and out, that our heavenly Papa would always provide if we trusted him because he […]

After the Wedding

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:34-05:00December 7th, 2007|Categories: Film|

After the Wedding is a 2006 Danish film now widely available on DVD. It received an Academy Award nomination for best foreign language film last year. It is one of the best stories that I’ve seen on film this year. It begins with Jacob (Casino Royale villain, Mads Mikkelsen), who is running an orphanage in India. The scenes here bring back powerful remembrances to me personally since I did work there in several such settings in the 1980s, but for only a month at a time. Jacob is an idealistic, guarded and emotionally reserved guy who you sense immediately has a past that powerfully influences his present. He returns to Denmark to get money for his work from a wealthy businessman and potential benefactor named Jorgen (Rolf Lassgard).

Jacob feels very out-of-place in his five-star hotel penthouse suite and wants desperately to return to India and his work. But his life is about to be radically altered in a way that he could never have imagined. Invited by Jorgen, innocently enough as a gesture of friendship, to attend his daughter’s wedding Jacob […]

A Great Year for Films

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:34-05:00December 6th, 2007|Categories: Uncategorized|

The year 2006 was a bad year for films. I mean Al Gore won an Academy Award in 2006! And the best films were a major cut below the films of much better years. But 2007 is different. This is proving to be a banner year for good films. If you love movies, and I do, then there are some must see films playing right now.

Yesterday the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures (NBR) released its awards for 2007. These first awards often portend the other awards that will come out in the next few months, including the famous Academy Awards. This is not always the case since the Academy Awards are too often rooted in popularity and politics. The NBR members include educators, historians and film industry professionals. The NBR sometimes makes choices that disdain box office appeal and they are thus willing to pick more esoteric films. This may be the case this year but I am hard pressed to believe The Academy will not follow suit in most cases.

The best film of 2007, according to […]

Does Tradition Matter?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:34-05:00December 5th, 2007|Categories: Church Tradition|

The majority of evangelicals, at least in America, would answer the question I pose in my title negatively. When they hear this word they think of traditionalism and of ancient practices that are non-biblical. This is unfortunate for a number of reasons.

I thought about this question yesterday as I conversed with a very good friend who is a devout Roman Catholic. I was sharing how I had recently re-embraced the reading of the Scriptures in large narrative chunks of material at one sitting as a good spiritual practice. (I have tended to read the Scripture by doing technical exegesis as primary and thus became used to studying it as something like a science book at times.) She admitted that she never did read Scripture in this manner, though she attends some Benedictine worship settings where this is practiced by the brothers. She then said, "But by going to daily Mass I hear the Word of God read aloud as it was intended to be used as stated by the writers of the New Testament itself."

After thinking about this […]

Missional Churches and Partnership Styles of Leading

By John Armstrong|2007-12-04T21:07:22-06:00December 4th, 2007|Categories: Missional Church|

Leadership is a huge issue in the American Church these days. Book after book is being produced on this subject. It has become another "fad" we spend a lot of time talking about. I find most of it both boring and unhelpful.

Missiologist Ralph Winter has written: “It is astonishing that most Protestant missionaries … have been blind to the
significance of the very structure within which they have worked. In this
blindness, they have merely planted churches and have not effectively concerned
themselves to make sure that the kind of mission structure within which they
operate also be set up on the field.”

The answer to this problem is true partnership
in ministry, the kind of partnership that
is so often lacking in our modern way of leading people and missions. We place the highest priority
on entrepreneurial skills and strong vision. In the process we have often missed the mark and thus do not reproduce ourselves missionally.

A college classmate
of mine wrote me today. When I visited the Web site of his mission I found these four
marks of his […]

A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:35-05:00December 3rd, 2007|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

My late friend, Bob Webber, helped to write and establish what is now known as the "Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future." This call is available at Ancient Future Worship. There is also an active and interesting blog carried on in association with this call. I encourage you to read the Call and visit the blog spot if you have never done so. It is consistent with my vision of the past, the present and the future of the Church. If you want to know where I am headed read this material. If you want a vision that is rooted in ancient and classical Christianity then read it. If you believe that the future must pass through the historical past then read it.

The second annual gathering around the Ancient Evangelical Future Call took place November 30 to December 1 at Northern Seminary in the Chicago suburb of Lombard. The subject this year was: "On the Primacy of the Biblical Narrative." Plenary speakers included Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Scot McKnight and Edith Humphrey. I have read Kevin a great deal and […]