Blog - Page 279 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Protestant Principle: What "Sola Scriptura" Means and Why It Matters

By John Armstrong|2007-01-24T09:02:45-06:00January 24th, 2007|Categories: Reformed Christianity|

Protestants confess that Scripture alone has ultimate objective religious authority in the life of the Christian and the church. This does not mean, however, that divine revelation comes only through Scripture, a common mistake made by some evangelicals. Though the Scriptures reveal Christ immediately, or directly, more subjective forms of authority have also had a proper and important place. This is often denied by the more rationalistic sorts of Reformed Christians.

I would most definitely include, in a proper understanding of authority, holy tradition. By this I refer to the Holy Spirit speaking to the church down through the ages in the various ways that Christians have heard him through Scripture leading the church and helping Christians reach consensus about important subjects. We also listen for the Spirit’s voice in reason, properly understood as thinking God’s thoughts after him and not as rationalism. The same is true in experience, where real change leading to obedience is the obvious result of the Spirit’s work upon us and the church. By experience we gain insight into God’s nature and our human conduct. This happens […]

Solving the Church Government Debate is Not the Issue

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:48-05:00January 23rd, 2007|Categories: The Church|

On October 3 I wrote a blog titled: “The Church: A Stumbling Block to Real Change.” In that blog I cited a friend who commented on the problem of changing culture while still through working and serving in a local church context. This blog generated a fairly wide response in private at the time. I had a most thoughtful response from another reader in October that I think is still worth reading and reflecting upon by a wider audience. (My friend prefers that he remain anonymous.)

I have to say that I agree with virtually everything my friend relates in these comments. I have long urged churches to not make their institutional well-being their goal. Far too many think that getting the eldership concept right, or rewriting the church constitution to fix their unique problems, or finding the right pattern of doctrinal ecclesiology and teaching it, will bring life and blessing to a local church. My experience tells me something very different about the nature of a healthy church. (This holds true in all contexts, regardless of the nature of the government; […]

Bear Down Bears

By John Armstrong|2007-01-22T08:46:16-06:00January 22nd, 2007|Categories: Personal|

I promise to limit trivial banter about pro football to few entries but the nation now knows what many of us in the Windy City already knew, Chicago does have a very good football team this season. The Bears not only beat the media darling "Katrina sympathy" Saints very handily, but they did it the old fashioned way, with very good defense. Now they play in Super Bowl XLI on February 4. (You know you are aging when you can easily remember the first Super Bowl and Green Bay’s win and it seems not too long ago!)

I am also pleased that the Indianapolis Colts won. No so much because I am a huge Colts fan as that I grew weary of all the trash talk about Peyton Manning not being able to win the big game. Peyton Manning is a class act and a really good guy. You win as a team and you lose as a team. Why so much is made out of a proven great quarterback who can’t win the biggest game I will never understand. The Bears clearly […]

My Friend Joe and Our Mutual Love for Baseball

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:48-05:00January 20th, 2007|Categories: Baseball|

My friend Joe Ragont, a graphic artist who has done a lot of work for me over the past decade or so, is a huge Cubs fan. It is no secret that I am anything but a Cubs fan. Friendship, however, overrules the angst of baseball rivalry. Joe celebrated his 68th birthday this week and I gave him a baseball book to celebrate. It was a huge book with fascinating stories about the numbers players have worn down through the past 75 years or so. (Until about 1930 no team wore uniform numbers. The Yankees were the first and assigned numbers based on their starting batting order, thus Ruth wore number 3 and Gehrig wore number 4, etc.)

This little birthday celebration got us both dreaming about the season and how teams like the Sox, Braves and Cubs would perform this year. Joe was a bat boy for the 1954 Cubs and knew every number of every player on the roster when I quizzed him on Thursday at lunch.

All of this got me to reading baseball quips today for the sheer […]

Could Promising New Stem Cell Research End Culture War Aspect of Debate?

By John Armstrong|2007-01-19T08:38:57-06:00January 19th, 2007|Categories: Bio-Medical Ethics|

Stem Cell research may be on the verge of a whole new opportunity for advancement that could solve the ethical dilemma faced by harvesting stem cells from human embryos that requires the destruction of human life. New research published this month suggests that there may be an alternative to embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. Stem cells can apparently be taken from Amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus, as well as from the placenta. These stem cells seem to share the many qualities of embryonic stem cells. If this is true then this new research could point to the end of the hugely controversial culture war over the role of embryonic stem cells.

The White House published a 67-page report on the current state of stem-cell science in order to back up these research developments and to support the President’s firm position against killing human embryos. Meanwhile the new Democratic Congressional majority threatens to force the issue again by a vote last week. The good news is that a veto-proof majority seems impossible.

I have to wonder if certain […]

Vibrant Catholicism Grows in Africa

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:48-05:00January 19th, 2007|Categories: Roman Catholicism|

Catholics have long had a deeper and more developed sense of social responsibility than evangelical Protestants. They actually have a tradition and papal encyclicals since the late 19th century have addressed such issues seriously.

When I discussed growing African Christianity with several Catholic brothers at Mundelein Seminary in November I was amazed at their comparisons of how the longer, slower development of Catholicism in Nigeria was producing a much more fruitful Christian interaction with culture there than the work of charismatic and indigenous evangelicals. While evangelicals grow in number the Catholic Church is teaching and preparing priests as deeply formed thinkers and leaders for the future.

The Wall Street Journal reported in “What’s News” (January 17) that southern Nigerian Catholics have to prove that they are registered to vote in April in order to continue taking communion,according to a local paper report. As odd as this may sound to American Christians I am personally not surprised by this report at all. African Catholicism is not only vibrant and growing, but frankly maturing in unusual ways. In the next several decades […]

Baseball, Spring and Crazy Salary Demands

By John Armstrong|2007-01-18T22:40:20-06:00January 18th, 2007|Categories: Baseball|

Baseball season is not far away now. My hopes for the spring are never far behind when arbitration hearings are announced and discussed. But do some players ever miss reality when they start seeking higher salaries or what? Don’t get me wrong—the game brings in a lot of money and the players should get what they contribute to the sport. I do not begrudge them their salaries, even though they are often very large. This is entertainment and entertainers make a lot of money when they are at the top. Face it, without the players there is no major league baseball. (I know, some of you are saying, “So what” John. But indulge me here since I confess a lifetime of love for this great American game.) But some of these guys are truly beyond belief when you see the salaries they request via arbitration. Two such cases came to mind today as I read over the baseball news.

First, there is Chicago Cubs pitcher Mark Prior, limited to nine starts last season because of injuries, who was offered a cut from $3.65 […]

The Issachar Project: The Importance of Film

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:48-05:00January 17th, 2007|Categories: Film|

Last weekend I had the joy of sharing in a special meeting in Newport Beach, California, that was appropriately named the Issachar Project. This small project is the work, primarily, of my friend Andrew Sandlin of the Center for Cultural Leadership (www.christianculture.com). Andrew is convinced that there must be an intellectual and existential coalition of (1) Christians working in Hollywood and elsewhere in the film industry and (2) serious Christian thinkers in the arts.

You may recall that the sons of Issachar are described in the Scriptures as “men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). Their number was small but their impact was great. This unique gathering included men and women, mostly under forty. The purpose of this group was not to form a “think tank” but rather to explore the neglected dimension of knowing God through beauty and imagination, in other words to explore how we know him incarnationally, not merely intellectually.

Most of the invited participants at this unusual meeting were film and television script writers, […]

Justice and Tyrants

By John Armstrong|2007-01-16T21:26:25-06:00January 16th, 2007|Categories: Current Affairs|

David Gelernter is a favorite writer of mine. He is Jewish, has a wide grasp of the Bible’s teaching, appreciates the Christian tradition with respect, and the last I knew still lived in Jerusalem. In the current issue of The Weekly Standard (January 15, 2007) I believe that he got it about right when he said that Saddam Hussein’s death was "a triumph for one of the noblest of all causes: the sanctity of justice no matter how powerful the criminal, no matter how poor or powerless the victim."

Gelernter correctly appeals to Proverbs 24:17 which says "Do not gloat when your enemies fall." He rightly reminds us that the classical rabbinical tradition cites this very verse whem it urges us to never celebrate the death of an enemy no matter how evil he might have been. As much as I longed to see Saddam brought to justice his death was not a cause for gloating but for mourning, in the right sense. This is most especially true with regard to all the people he brutally killed who will not be brought […]

Baptism: Four Views

By John Armstrong|2007-01-15T21:57:03-06:00January 15th, 2007|Categories: The Church|

For some years Zondervan has produced a helpful series of books called "Counterpoints." These books have addressed two broad categories: theology and church life. The distinction made by these two categories is somewhat artificial but the issues the series addresses are very often important to contemporary Christian life and thought. The standard approach adopted by these Counterpoint volumes is to evaluate several views of an issue or doctrine and to survey how these views impact the church. Different authors contribute from their own perspective and show how the issue is variously understood by serious Christians. Each author is allowed to respond to other contributors in a fair and humble way. Volumes in this series have addressed issues such as law and gospel, sanctification, eternal security, apologetics, hell, creation and evolution, women in ministry, Eastern Orthodoxy, the church growth movement and and even different perspectives on worship. There are presently twenty volumes in the entire series.

The twentieth volume, Understanding Four Views on Baptism, was released today by Zondervan. I had the privilege of editing this book and writing about 35% of the […]