Blog - Page 298 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Was There Really Any Doubt?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:16-05:00June 7th, 2006|Categories: Politics|

I read today that Alabama Governor Bob Riley (R) beat his challenger in a primary election yesterday. The challenger was the real issue in this race. Who was the challenger you ask? Judge Roy Moore of Ten Commandments fame, the man who has been previously mentioned critically on this site. Was there doubt in anyone’s mind that Judge Moore was really up to political ends in his "noble" defense of the decalogue? First we had a book by the judge, then this run for political office. When will Christians wise up to this crass use of God’s truth for personal political goals? As long as the Christian Right fails to take sin seriously, both personally and coporately, leaders will never have an adequate view of how to use power humbly and properly. Power can still corrupt, even good guys.

Thankfully Judge Moore acknowledged that "God’s will" was done in the primary yesterday. That may have been the most accurate bit of theologizing the judge has done recently. I hope he stops his campaign for God, goes on with his personal life, and […]

More on Baseball and Life

By John Armstrong|2006-06-06T15:41:12-05:00June 6th, 2006|Categories: Baseball|

George Ushela is a suburban Chicago high school baseball coach. In Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (June 4) he considered three parts of the game that still fascinate him after twenty-one years of coaching.

1. Failure. The hitter can do exactly what he wants to do and still make an out. The game has failure built into it. For this reason maturity comes through constantly failing. A mature player will realize that he did everything right and still failed. The difference will be that the truly mature player perseveres and thus eventually will know success.

2. Strategy. The way a baseball manager shifts his defense, plays the percentages, decides when to bunt or when not to bunt, and considers all the other elements that go into a complex game strategy make the game so intriguing for those who understand it.

3. Time. As long as your team is on the field there is still time to win. Anything can happen and a lot does. The clock never runs out on you in baseball, since both teams get the same number of outs. This […]

A Friend Moves On

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:16-05:00June 3rd, 2006|Categories: Personal|

Professor Mark Noll came to Wheaton College several years after I graduated (B.A., 1971; M.A., 1973). He has been an institution at my alma mater for nearly three decades. In some circles his name is virtually synonymous with Wheaton’s solid academic reputation. However, Noll is leaving Wheaton College this month to replace George M. Marsden at Notre Dame University. Both Noll and Marsden are world renowned scholars of American church history. And both are Christian gentlemen in the truest sense as well as serious Reformed scholars and Christians. George Marsden’s dad was an Orthodox Presbyterian minister and Mark Noll has faithfully served as an elder at Immanuel Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) in Warrenville, pastored by an ACT 3 board member, Dr. Mateen Elass.

Most know Mark Noll for his many books, especially for his two highly respected books: The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln. Marsden is known for his biography of Jonathan Edwards, thus his contribution to our own ACT 3 conference on Edwards two years ago here in Wheaton.

I […]

Questions I Ponder as a Reformed Christian

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:17-05:00June 2nd, 2006|Categories: Reformed Christianity|

Questions I often ponder these days as a confessional Reformed Christian living in a time of real ecclesial change in the West:

1. Why do modern conservative Reformed Christians seem to have historical amnesia when it comes to events that transpired in church history from the death of John on the Isle of Patmos, late in the first century, until the completion of the Canon several centuries later?

2. Why do modern conservative Reformed Christians virtually ignore the Church Fathers as well as the catholic creeds of the Christian church?

3. Why do modern conservative Reformed Christians ignore the fact that John Calvin was especially influenced by the Church Fathers? For that matter why do these same conservative Reformed Christians virtually ignore other Reformed writers who relied very heavily upon the classical catholic tradition such as Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley?

4. Why do conservative Reformed Christians treat only certain confessional traditions, such as the Westminster Confession or its cousin the London Baptist Confession, as if only these confessions and catechisms were the proper confessional grounds for the Reformed […]

Obama in ’08 and Reflections on Pastoral Leadership

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:17-05:00June 1st, 2006|Categories: The Christian Minister/Ministry|

Since I live in Illinois I hear more than my fair share of the hype about our charismatic and appealing Senator Barack Obama (D. – IL), who is seen by some as a viable presidential candidate in 2008. It appears that there is a substantial group of Democrats who want anybody but Hillary (Sen. Hillary Clinton, D. – NY), who is seen as too polarizing. If former Vice-President Al Gore does not run, and this is still anybody’s guess, then Obama’s chances dramatically increase, so it seems.

Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune columnist, summed up the case for Obama’s run in ‘08 in yesterday’s edition (May 31). Zorn wrote that he was fully aware of Obama’s shortcomings; e.g., little foreign policy experience, a complete lack of accomplishments on the national stage, and an apparent unwillingness to spend his political capital on unpopular positions. He writes, “Plans and philosophies are important, sure. But everyone in the game has a surplus of those.” Zorn even admits that Obama has already made clumsy moves that have alienated “his core supporters.” But none of this deters Zorn, […]

A Truly Wonderful Novel

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:17-05:00May 31st, 2006|Categories: Books|

The modern novel, Peace Like a River, written by Minnesotan Leif Enger is one of the finest first works of fiction I have read in years. Indeed, it is a superb book, first or otherwise, period! It is the story of a real family tragedy, told within the context of a true (Christian) love story. It is most definitely not sentimental “Christian” fiction, but a serious gripping story with real human characters set in a most believable 1960s context.

Told from the standpoint of eleven-year old Reuben Land, an asthmatic boy in the upper Midwest, it brings the reader right into the grip of divine providence from the very first page as it recounts the birth of Reuben, which was a miracle in itself. Along with his sister, and deeply devoted charismatic father, Reuben and the family begin a cross-country journey to find Reuben’s outlaw older brother in the middle portion of the story. The brother had been controversially charged with a double murder. The family’s journey follows a most unpredictable course, all the time leading the reader to see the faith […]

My Present Reading

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:17-05:00May 30th, 2006|Categories: Books|

I read widely, as you might guess. I always have and suppose I always will. I am presently reading Douglas John Hall’s theological autobiography, Bound and Free, an engaging and moving memoir by a prominent theologian of our time. In the evening, and for sheer fun, I am reading and enjoying the baseball biography, Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig (2005), by Jonathan Eig. In the mornings, along with the Scriptures, I am reading two books: Wisdom of the Little Flower: Therese of Lisieux—Bearer of Western Spirituality, a wonderful treatment of the biblical spirituality of the nineteenth century French Catholic saint, written by Rudolf Stertenbrink. Yesterday I began the Desert Father: A Journey in the Wilderness with Saint Anthony, by the Australian author James Cowan, a book I discovered while browsing in Borders on Sunday evening. (I can’t go into these places and not buy one book most of the time!)

Along with these books I recently began reading a wonderfully helpful 1992 out-of-print title, The Myth of Certainty, written by Bethel College English professor Daniel Taylor. This book is […]

The Issue is Hermeneutics

By John Armstrong|2006-05-29T10:47:57-05:00May 29th, 2006|Categories: Hermeneutics|

Christians can and do harm the missional cause of Christ when they misuse the Scriptures. Make no mistake about this fact. One such "Christian", who has worked immeasurable harm to the cause of Christ in America, is the Rev. Fred Phelps, pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.

Phelps, and his small flock, have been showing up to demonstrate around the country for several years now. At first they picked homosexual groups for their loud and obnoxious protests. Their strident “God hates fags” slogans did nothing positive for the kingdom of Christ, prompting skeptics to consign them, rightly or wrongly, to the category of more conservatives gone crazy. Now, Phelps and his gang are protesting military funerals around the country.

Today they showed up at the Arlington National Cemetery to sing “God Hates America” to the tune of “God Bless America.” They held placards which read: “God is America’s terror” and “Thank God for dead soldiers.” They even had other creative and original signs saying “You’re going to hell” and “Bush killed them.”

As crowds of […]

Celebrating the Holy Season of Easter

By John Armstrong|2006-05-28T20:50:54-05:00May 28th, 2006|Categories: Church Tradition|

This year, my fifty-seventh, marks the first time in my life that I have publicly celebrated all the great days of the church calendar surrounding Easter. These have included Holy (or Maundy) Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday (or the Easter Vigil) and Easter Sunday. Then there were the Sundays of Easter and the special celebration on Thursday of this week of Ascension Day. Finally, today (May 28), we celebrated the last (or seventh) Sunday of Easter which took us to the amazing events of Act 1:12-26. Next Sunday (June 4) will be Pentecost Day, a time of great celebration.

I can’t even begin to relate the significance of these celebrations in my life over these many weeks. I feel as if the realities of my salvation were brought home to me in a fresh and powerful way that I have never known in the gathering of the church. I can now see, more plainly than ever, why the church has celebrated these events during a special season of the year for well over nineteen hundred years (at least in some cases).

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A Beatiful Day in the Sun at Wrigley Field

By John Armstrong|2006-05-27T12:10:54-05:00May 27th, 2006|Categories: Baseball|

My love for baseball borders on passion, as readers already know. I thus enjoyed one of the loveliest days of the year on Friday. My daughter, who got her passion for this rgeat game directly from me, accompanied me for a gorgeous day at the old ball park—Wrigley Field. We had seats twenty rows above the Cubs dugout and soaked up the sun, enjoying the sights and sounds of a great day near Lake Michigan. And we saw the Braves win 6-5, this time in the ninth inning as the Cubs found several new ways to lose. Since we both went to see the Braves, our favorite team, the outcome was superb, just like our day. You really can’t beat fun at the old ball park, especially on a near perfect day in Chicago. I am truly blest to enjoy such delights in the summer.