Blog - Page 302 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Rite of Spring

By John Armstrong|2006-03-04T20:15:44-06:00March 4th, 2006|Categories: Baseball|

The world is back in its proper orbit. The rite of spring has arrived. This is much bigger than Groundhog Day, at least in my world. I heard the sound of a 32 ounce bat hitting a small well thrown white ball yesterday. I refer to seeing my first spring baseball game in Florida. For the record the Atlanta Braves beat the L. A. Dodgers 8-7, on a three-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth by future-star Jarrod Saltalamacchia. (One of the great joys of baseball is learning these amazing names!) But, truth be known, no one really cares that much who wins in a spring game. All the true fan cares about is this one simple fact: "The game is back. Spring is here! Summer will return."

The sun was high in the Florida sky, the stands were almost full for the home opener at the beautiful Ballpark at Disney. And I saw the Dodgers take batting practice while I had my first real "ballpark food" of the new season. On top of that the GM’s son, Jonathan […]

A Surprising Birthday Gift

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:35-05:00March 2nd, 2006|Categories: Personal|

Yesterday was my 57th birthday. I knew that my family was going to take me to lunch since they let me pick the place in advance. I am a pretty simple person, at least when it comes to picking my pleasures, so I picked T. G. I. Friday’s. I always relish these special times because they allow the whole gang (all eight of us) to be together. I also knew that my wife Anita would do her usual “party girl” routines and make the day very, very special. It was a memorable day but I did not know how memorable it would be at 8:00 a.m. when I came down to breakfast.

Around 9:00 a.m. two very dear pastor friends, Keith Duff and Tim Badal (Village Bible Church, Sugar Grove, Illinois), called to invite me to join them in hearing John R. W. Stott speak at 10:00 a.m., at Windsor Park Manor (a retirement home), which is only a mile from my residence. I couldn’t resist. I dropped all other plans and gladly went; wondering if this might be my last opportunity to […]

The Rise of the Megachurch

By John Armstrong|2006-03-01T21:35:48-06:00March 1st, 2006|Categories: The Church|

The number of megachurches, which refers to congregations with over 2,000 in weekly attendance, has more than doubled over the past five years. The number of such megachurches in America is now said to be 1,210. These churches draw an estimated 4.4 million attenders each week and collect more than $7 billion in donations per year.

I once thought that this megachurch trend was, overall, a very negative development. I generally saw megachurches as theologically compromised and culturally accommodated in harmful ways. I no longer believe this. Don’t get me wrong. I have deep concerns about some American megachurches. But I have deep concerns about most churches in the West in general. Furthermore, large churches have been part of the Christian story for centuries, not just over the last twenty years.

What I have come to see, by both more careful and honest study, as well as by first-hand experience, is that many megachurches have an incredible power to do good. Some are clearly using this power and influence in very impressive ways.

Why do people attack megachurches? […]

Dennis Prager: A Voice for Reasonable Moral Thinking

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:35-05:00February 27th, 2006|Categories: Politics|

I am not a huge fan of talk-radio, even less so of talk-television. I find much of this medium inane. It is more about entertainment than about provoking real thought. There are a few exceptions to this general rule, which proves the old adage that “exceptions prove the rule.”

I do listen to some talk-radio when I am in my car. This time period in my car is often in the middle of the day when I am going to and from appointments. One person I consistently enjoy listening to on the radio is the conservative Jewish talk-show host Dennis Prager. I have recently begun to read his online material www.dennisprager.com as well his published books. I sometimes disagree rather strongly with Prager about important moral and social issues; especially on abortion (he favors legal abortion with strong limitations in the first trimester).

Like me Dennis Prager is not a consistent conservative partisan politically. He often sides with the Republican Party on matters of national defense and public policy but his criticisms of the president, for over-spending and thus for […]

Harvard's President Resigns Under PC Fire

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:35-05:00February 22nd, 2006|Categories: Uncategorized|

Lawrence H. Summers is not a noted figure from the political right. In fact, he served as a cabinet member under President Clinton. But he has been the recipient of a barrage of politically correct attacks over recent years. Since 2001 Summers has served as the much maligned president of Harvard University and has been under great fire for some months now. Summers finally resigned yesterday, effective June 30, 2006. Sadly, his story represents a great deal of the problem in much higher education in our day.

In his resignation letter Summers said to the board of Harvard:

I have notified the Harvard Corporation that I will resign as President of the University as of June 30, 2006. Working closely with all parts of the Harvard community, and especially with our remarkable students, has been one of the great joys of my professional life. However, I have reluctantly concluded that the rifts between me and segments of the Arts and Sciences faculty make it infeasible for me to advance the agenda of renewal that I see as crucial to Harvard’s future. I […]

Preserving Peace Through Strength

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:36-05:00February 21st, 2006|Categories: Politics|

Radical pacifism is alive and well in the United States. Behind a great deal of opposition to every war there are those who genuinely believe the New Testament obligates them to non-participation in armed conflict. I have great respect for such conviction, found particularly in the Anabaptist tradition. I once seriously considered this position myself, in my late teens, and have friends who truly hold this ethical stance out of loyalty to Christ as Lord.

But I have serious reservations about the more popular kinds of pacifism that stir up “antiwar” and “peace protests” in our present context. If these views had been dominant in the 1940s I am convinced that Nazism would have swept Europe. If they had been dominant in the 1950s and 1960s Communism would have prevailed in the world. Now that the threat to the West, and its freedoms, is militant Islam the stakes are just as high. The arguments for an antiwar stance range from a lingering commitment to unilateral disarmament all the way to naively embracing the lies that radical Islam wants peace with the West. […]

When William Willimon Speaks I Listen

By John Armstrong|2006-02-20T09:50:00-06:00February 20th, 2006|Categories: Politics|

William Willimon is the bishop of the Methodist Church in Alabama. He is also a widely respected writer and a very able preacher of the gospel. If you don’t know his work you have missed something. Every preacher, and serious Christian thinker, ought to read "Will," as he is called by friends. You will disagree at some points but you will profit for sure.

Willimon has a unique way of cutting the chase when he writes about public issues. He is keenly prophetic and quite often provocative. He once said, “There can be no better work for us than—in our own way, in our own place—to testify to the fact that God rules the world; nations do not.”

Someone needs to remind Iran, North Korea, and Syria of this truth. But someone also ought to remind Israel and the United States of America that this is true, especially in the light of the responsibility these Western nations have before God. If God’s preachers will not speak to this matter who will? I am a political conservative, for several intellectually formed […]

The Tyranny of Medical Research and the Body-Police

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:36-05:00February 16th, 2006|Categories: Science|

Modern medical research has done a great deal of obvious good. Life spans have been lengthened in recent decades and people generally enjoy healthier lives as a result of studies in nutrition and diet.

But there is a real trap for some in these continued medical discoveries. Hard science is necessarily committed to a continued quest for better knowledge based upon better research. The results mean that once “proven” assumptions about good or bad can be altered again and again. A good example of this was seen in the recent research evidence that coffee is not nearly as bad for you as was previously assumed.

Manfred Kroger, a retired food scientist from Penn State University, says: “A lot of early research was flawed. Coffee lovers are more likely to do harmful things like smoke and drink alcohol in excess, so coffee was often falsely incriminated.” The health benefits of coffee are not so great that anyone is urging you to up your intake significantly. Pregnant women are still urged to abstain. And large amounts of coffee still appear to present […]

Charles Colson and the Culture Commission

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:36-05:00February 13th, 2006|Categories: Culture|

Many pastors and church leaders are confused about the present culture wars. They either embrace them uncritically, adopting the views, and even the rhetoric, of people they hold in esteem, or they sit them out, saying (in effect) that the Great Commission trumps all Christian involvement with such culture issues. But these two extremes are not the only options.

Charles Colson, who seems to understand this matter very clearly, suggested several months ago that we are called to obey both the Great Commission and the culture commission. Christians, Colson rightly argues, are called upon to bring the gospel of saving grace to their neighbors, because of love for Christ and their neighbor. But they are also called upon to be engaged as agents of common grace in the culture commission. Colson argues that the culture commission includes things like “sustaining and renewing creation, defending the created institutions of family and society, critiquing false worldviews, etc.”

I agree with Colson. However, I think a large mistake in category is often made at this precise point. The church is to be a family, or […]

Responding to Islam's Passion Over Blasphemy

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:36-05:00February 11th, 2006|Categories: Islam|

Blasphemy is in the news. Mocking God has been a non-issue, at least in Western civil society, for nearly one hundred years. A combination of Enlightenment thought, joined with a correct understanding of what Jesus taught about church-state and one’s public and private actions, helped to rid the West of barbaric attempts to enforce respect for God. Now, the issue blasphemy is all about violent Muslim reaction to cartoon portrayals of the prophet Muhammad. The outcry from the West is strong. Freedom of speech is our highest value, so it seems. Religion is a private affair and of no concern to the public in general.

But is religion simply a private idea? Isn’t the worship of the true God, and living in obedience to his law, our highest ideal as Christians? And to raise that age-old problem we Western Christians face every day: “How does our faith properly intersect with public policy and practice?” Mercatornet (www.mercatornet.com) editor Michael Cook argued in “Blasphemy, Protest and Freedom” (February 10, 2006) that Christians, of all people, should be able to […]