Blog - Page 253 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Bella: A Beautiful Film You Must See

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:37-05:00November 9th, 2007|Categories: Film|

It all happens in the course of one day, or almost all of it. I’m speaking of the storyline and action of the new movie Bella. Through the use of flashbacks, some quite effective and some rather confusing to me, the accidental death of a young girl and a pregnant woman’s completely unrelated decision to have an abortion are closely linked in Mexican-born filmmaker Alejandro Gomez Monteverde’s magnificent new movie, Bella.

Bella is portrayed as a love story without the romance. It is this but in so many ways this is a misnomer. It is a love story that shows, in wonderfully human ways, what the Apostle Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. The characters in Bella are very real. Their sorrow and joys are palpable. I am under the strong impression that the story is rooted in true events, at least to some extent.

The internationally famous, Jose (Eduardo Verastegui), who is on his way to becoming a superstar soccer player in New York city, tragically hits a little girl while driving the streets of Queens the day before he […]

The Pleasures of Moral Purity: Kicking Over Some Furniture in the Church

By John Armstrong|2007-11-08T13:22:47-06:00November 8th, 2007|Categories: Renewal|

Columnist George Will, who espouses libertarian principles fairly consistently, wrote a recent piece on the funding of wars. His argument is that we should pay as we go by letting the people fund such conflicts more directly through special taxes. I have my doubts about his argument but in this same article he also referred to some very conservative Republicans not supporting their party’s nominee in 2008 if it is Mayor Rudy Guiliani. The threat of third party candidacies abound on both sides of the present political divide, with mention of New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg also entering the race as an independent. Even Lou Dobbs has been rumored as a candidate running on his protection of the border theme. But this is not my reason for citing George Will’s thoughts here.

Will adds that we should not "underestimate the the temptation to kick over their party’s furniture for the fun of it." This got me to thinking about many people in churches that I have known. They are very conservative (often) and thus want to bring about purity in doctrine and […]

The Grace and Witness of Billy Graham

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:37-05:00November 8th, 2007|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

The life of Billy Graham has impacted an entire era. No public figure has more often touched my own life. From my earliest remembrance my mom and dad listened to "The Hour of Decision" and watched Billy Graham TV specials in our home in the 1950s. When he stood against racism in Tennessee, where I lived, I admired him and loved him even more deeply. (I never dreamed I would someday have the joy of teaching evangelism and apologetics at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College in the Wheaton College Graduate School.)

It is widely known that Dr. Graham is not well now. He makes no public appearances and has several terminal illnesses. From what we know he is dying just as well as he lived, with both dignity and hope. Much like John Paul II, this man has taught us how to live faithfully and how to die. I believe no two Christians left a greater impact on the last fifty years on the planet than Billy Graham and John Paul II. Others will be remembered for different contributions but […]

Health and Wealth Ministers to Be Examined More Closely

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:38-05:00November 7th, 2007|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

Senator Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has begun a public campaign to look into the financial amenities and expenses of several big name television preachers. These ministers include Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn and Joyce Meyer, among others. Grassley sent letters to six ministries this week requesting answers by December 6 about their expenses, executive compensations and amenities, including their use of cars and private jets. Grassley says he is acting on complaints from news coverage of these various ministers.

There are several problems with Grassley’s approach. First, the IRS requires pretty stringent reporting of the salaries and benefits of these organizations already. You can go online and easily find our what a ministry like ACT 3 earns, what my total salary package is, and related valuable financial information. (I hope you will do this since you will find that we operate in solid and responsible ways in these areas.) Most people are simply not aware of this information and of how important it is to ministry credibility. Donors who have reasons to question a group they […]

Russell Crowe's Baptism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:38-05:00November 7th, 2007|Categories: Film|

Actor Russell Crowe, 43, says that he will be baptized soon. Telling Men’s Journal that his parents did not baptize him, or lead him toward any faith in particular, he now says that baptizing his own children, ages 1 and 3, has forced him to think that the sacrament is important and he should also be baptized. He will be baptized in a Byzantine chapel that he built on his country ranch in Australia for his wedding in 2003. I am interested to know much more than these bare facts but it is not an every day event for a Hollywood star of this magnitude to profess his need of baptism and then to openly announce that he was doing it.

One could take two approaches to this announcement I suppose. The skeptical one is to say, "So what? This is just an act of outward religiosity and it means nothing if he doesn’t have faith." A second response, the one I hold, says: "Praise God for this very public man’s desire to confess Christian faith in this God-ordained manner." I have […]

Gone Baby Gone

By John Armstrong|2007-11-05T21:20:56-06:00November 5th, 2007|Categories: Film|

Some movies are thrillers. Some are violent and tough on the system. Some have plots with twists and turns that keep you guessing for almost the entire movie. Many have interesting characters and subplots. But few have all of these and then include some of the most perplexing ethical dilemmas imaginable. Gone Baby Gone is all of the above. Starring Ben Affleck this movie should win some awards if critics pay attention. It kept me riveted for two plus hours without missing a beat. It was a morality play, based on a popular novel, with a heart-tugging twist.

The film should not be seen by young people. It will shock you with the ugly portrayal of sin and the underworld of crime and drugs it provides, but this is all too real. But it will also force the viewer to take stock of "easy answers" Christians often give to tough issues. Few films pack the punch of Gone Baby Gone, at least few that I have seen this year. See it if this is the kind of movie you can handle. Caveat […]

Understanding the Nature of My Football Blogs

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:38-05:00November 5th, 2007|Categories: College Football|

My brother spoke to me this evening by phone and expressed the concern that readers might think I have a special angst, or personal vendetta, against Coach Charlie Weis, the football coach at Notre Dame. The truth is I respect the Irish football tradition immensely. Seeing a game in South Bend is a glorious experience and the university is a class place. I walked on the field the night before a game against Alabama some years ago and then watched the Irish bury my team in every way the next day. The fans were classy and the place was first rate. So, Irish fans, please do not think I am against you. My point is that this is a very bad team and this is, to all appearances, a very bad coach. The university will make their own determination about him and I expect, as I have already indicated, that he will get one more season to show that he can win as a head coach.

Bottom line: Notre Dame is good for college football much like the Yankees are good, in […]

Looking Over the New Evangelical Titles

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:38-05:00November 5th, 2007|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

I had some time this morning, cleaning up my desk after a busy two weeks, to sort through some new book catalogs from several mainstream evangelical publishers. Included in my stack were also two brochures inviting me to two national pastors’ events for early 2008. My feelings about evangelicalism in America run deep as my readers know. I am an evangelical, if Mark Noll’s simple definition is used. Yet I have confessed many times over that I do not much like the term in the public arena. I much prefer to call myself a classical Christian. By this I mean that I receive the Holy Scripture as the fully authoritative and divinely inspired Word and the earliest ecumenical creeds as the best witness to what the Church ought to believe at its core, or center. I believe in holy tradition and I am an heir of the Reformation, as a minister in the Reformed Church (RCA). I am also happy to work widely with mainline Christians and evangelicals who are non-Reformed. But then I also work with Catholic and Orthodox Christians who join me […]

Norman Shepherd is No Heretic

By John Armstrong|2007-11-03T21:12:31-05:00November 3rd, 2007|Categories: Biblical Theology|

We concluded our ACT 3 Biblical Forum today in Carol Stream. It was a wonderful time for many of us to sit under the teaching of Norman Shepherd. Rev. Shepherd, for those who do not know him at all, was a professor at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia and in the late 1970s came under fire for teaching that the faith by which we are brought into union with Christ in salvation, i.e., the faith that brings justification in the present and at the final judgment, is vital, living, penitent, obeying faith. Shepherd also challenged two other ideas that are held by some Reformed thinkers, though surely not all by a long shot. First, he believes that the is no "covenant of works" made with Adam in the creation by which Adam could have merited his salvation if he had obeyed God. Second, Shepherd believes that we are imputed the righteousness of Christ as forgiveness and pardon but we are not imputed his active obedience, which is an idea that follows the "covenant of works" notion. This second idea says that we are saved by […]

The Longest The Losing Streak in College Football Ends in South Bend

By John Armstrong|2007-11-03T20:53:49-05:00November 3rd, 2007|Categories: College Football|

Notre Dame’s storied football history can not go much lower than it did today. Navy, who has not beaten Notre Dame since 1963 (when Roger Staubach quarterbacked the Midshipmen), ended the longest losing streak against an opponent in college football history. This is the game all ND fans pencil in every season as a sure win. Well, today it did not happen. And once again Charlie Weis must be questioned. He eschewed a makable field goal on a fourth down play late in the game and it cost him big time. Eventually the Irish lost in the third overtime. Congratulations to Navy! They deserved to win the game.

I have to confess to you big time Irish fans that I have no sympathy for your excuses about this coach or this team. Navy doesn’t have a single "blue chip" recruit on their entire roster. There is no way a team that lost to Delaware last week, and earlier to Ball State, should go into South Bend and outplay Notre Dame. Navy had more heart and more spirit than the formerly "fighting" Irish. […]