Blog - Page 309 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Judgment and Mercy

By John Armstrong|2005-09-06T22:05:45-05:00September 6th, 2005|Categories: Divine Providence|

As cultures fall further and further away from God and his righteousness we should expect them to experience divine judgment. Several have suggested, in the past few days, that New Orleans was ripe for judgment last week. I have some sympathy with this view, at least up to a point. But I also have some questions. Let me explain.

First, there is no doubt that nations and peoples are raised up, and taken down, by God. Acts 17:24-31 is clear on this point. And the Old Testament provides us with abundant evidence that God judges wicked people and their cities. New Orleans is a wicked city. Make no mistake about this at all. Its crime and murder rate are exceptionally high and its celebration of gay and lesbian lifestyle is infamous. It has boasted of its decadence openly for years. But there are far worse cities than New Orleans. And there were many righteous people in this city as well. And what about the other gulf cities that were also struck by Hurricane Katrina?

Second, all of us deserve judgment since all […]

Must Every Event Be Politicized?

By John Armstrong|2005-09-05T08:34:21-05:00September 5th, 2005|Categories: Politics|

I wrote my current Weekly Messenger today (September 5). It will soon be available to subscribers through our service on www.reformationrevival.com and then archived on our site. The subject in that piece is divine providence and Hurricane Katrina. As with the tsunami disaster at the end of last year, this natural catastrophe is bringing out both the best and the worst in humankind.

While the media focused upon death, looting and chaos for much of last week, we finally got some great stories of faith, hope and love over the past weekend. I told Anita last night that nothing brings out the light and darkness within the hearts of fallen men and women quite like a tragedy. People of faith rise to these occasions, displaying incredible sacrifice and commitment to others. Self-centered folks, the kind who say "you owe more to me than I am getting," will loot and destroy. (This is really a very small portion of the people suffering in this present tragedy.) The media loves to play this second response, which includes a great […]

Life's Ultimate Hope

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:44-05:00September 1st, 2005|Categories: Evangelism|

I get many unique opportunities for evangelism, just like many of you. Some of these come in the ordinary events of life. A news story in yesterday’s paper reminded me of a recent such witnessing moment I had in Atlanta outside Turner Field.

The press reported in Wednesday’s papers (8-31-05) that the "world’s oldest person (115), Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper," died this week in Amsterdam. Known as "Henny" she was born in 1890 and thus vividly recalled both Word Wars and a host of other memories. Louis Epstein of the Gerontology Research Group in Los Angeles, which verifies age claims for the Guinness Book of Records, reported that the oldest person in the world is now Elizabeth Jones Bolden of Memphis, Tennessee, who tuned 115 on August 15 of this year. The Geronootolgy Group tracks the supercentenarians, or those 110 and older. There are only 66 living.

I noted above I had a witnessing experience in Atlanta recently. I rode in a cab with a driver who believes that Christ and Christians are the real problem in America. He made some very […]

Doing and Teaching Apologetics

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:44-05:00August 31st, 2005|Categories: Evangelism|

I teach in many settings, both in churches and classrooms. A new one for me this fall is the Wheaton College Graduate School, where I have become an adjunct professor of evangelism this year. It is an opportunity that I cherish and one that will challenge and inspire me I am quite sure.

I met my fall class in apologetics for evangelism for the first time on Tuesday at 1:15 p.m. at the Billy Graham Center. The Wheaton M. A. program in evangelism has been recently redesigned and is thus being re-established this fall. For this reason I have only six students in this first class. This in itself will allow unusual opportunity for relationships and real learning. After meeting my students yesterday I believe I will be the one who is actually learning the most over the next few months.

My students come from Maine, Ohio, Washington, Connecticut, Chicago and the Bahamas. One student, perhaps two, intend to invest their lives in evangelizing Muslims. Another, a Haitian, is already a thirty-five year old full-time evangelist in Nassau who grew […]

Christ Alone or Christ Plus?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:45-05:00August 30th, 2005|Categories: Renewal|

The center of every faithful biblical theological recovery and renewal must be Christ alone. Even our evangelical emphasis on Scripture and grace must be centered upon Christ alone. Christ is the center of everything for the faithful Christian, not just the one who helps pull life together. He is not simply my Savior, or my helper, he is all, he is Lord. Paul’s argument in Colossians 1:15-23 make this all quite plain—Christ is supreme!

Evangelicals have lost the supremacy of Christ! By marginalizing Christ in our movement we have made him something other than Christ the theme of our best-selling books, the emphases of our popular ministries, and the thing that attracts people to our cause. It is not Christ we preach, but Christ plus whatever else makes people connect to our teaching or our movement.

I noted on August 29 the comments of David Bryant re: the national periodicals which recently surveyed the evangelical movement in America. In these articles Bryant noted that the mention of Christ occured only five times in over 150 pages of reporting. These various articles […]

Christ Alone Our Identity?

By John Armstrong|2005-08-29T09:13:35-05:00August 29th, 2005|Categories: Renewal|

The Protestant Reformers sought the renewal of the Christian church, in the sixteenth century, by means of both doctrine and practice. They stressed a number of important doctrinal truths, with the goal of reforming the church’s pastoral and liturgical practice. The two doctrinal truths that are most often cited, when people talk about the Reformer’s efforts, are sola Scriptura, called the formal principle of the Reformation, and sola fide, called the material principle. I believe, however, there is a very real sense in which the most important sola for them was solus Christus.

The Reformers understood that the Old Testament prepared the way for Christ. The New Testament, understood in this way, explained the Christ who was concealed in the Old. The New Testament put forward his life, death, burial and resurrection as the basis for faith and life in the Spirit. At the center of the whole of divine revelation the Reformers saw Jesus Christ as God’s perfect and final Word. Their emphasis was intended to bring glory to Christ alone in the saving of God’s people.

Now you […]

The Need for Revival is Universal

By John Armstrong|2005-08-25T11:36:16-05:00August 25th, 2005|Categories: Renewal|

I have been given a gift and with that gift a marvelous opportunity to use it. As a teacher of the Word, and a servant of ministers and missionaries, I get to travel very widely and encourage many faithful servants of God. This week I have had the opportunity to be among a lovely group of missionary couples (sixty couples in all) who serve mostly small churches in very out-of-the way towns and villages in Canada and the northeastern US. The event, in Schroon Lake, New York, is the annual regional mission conference for Village Missions, a group based in Dallas, Oregon.

I have preached to these folks from 2 Corinthians 1-5 on how Christ’s strength is prefected in their human weakness. I have sought to be transparent and honest, stressing "integrity" and "godly sincerety" from 2 Corinthians 1:12 (TNIV), the theme verse for this week. They have responded wonderfully. I have sensed God’s presence with us, especially in the evening worship times. In the end I am the one who receives the greatest blessing form being with people like these faithful […]

Brother Roger Laid to Rest

By John Armstrong|2005-08-24T14:57:50-05:00August 24th, 2005|Categories: The Church|

Brother Roger (see August 22) was laid to rest today in France. The service was led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, who served the communion to all who gathered. As Brother Roger would have wanted it there was no distinction made between Catholic and Protestant in the distribution of the elements.

Kasper noted that two things marked Brother Roger’s long life and ministry. First, he worked humbly and tirelessly for real ecumenism. He did not seek to change "official" dogmas but chose to demonstrate the common bonds that unite all who love Christ. Second, Kasper noted that "every form of injustice or neglect made him very sad." I pray that both will motivate me more and more as I seek to be an agent for reformation.

Brother Roger was the son of a Swiss Calvinist minister. He began the community he is now famous for, near Cluny, France, in 1940. He obviously did not see irresolvable conflict between his Reformed heritage and his ecumenical vision. I have come to agree with him over the course of the past ten years. I […]

Why Pat Robertson Harms the Cause of Christ

By John Armstrong|2005-08-24T14:08:15-05:00August 24th, 2005|Categories: Current Affairs|

I once thought Pat Robertson was a fairly bright man with an oddly conservative position on many issues. I now think he is completely misguided in the extreme, if not completely foolish.

You can overlook a certain number of silly comments over time but after awhile you have to say Pat Robertson is positively harmful to both the Christian church and the Republican Party. I care very deeply about the first, and very little about the second. His comment on Monday that the US should assassinate ("take out") President Chavez of Venezuela is not only irresponsible, it is positively dangerous for the cause of Christ in Venezuela. It also adds fuel to the fires of misunderstanding and opposition to evangelicals in general. Frankly, people like Robertson require me to regularly tell people that I am not associated with him or his tragic version of conservative Christianity.

Sadly, Robertson went crazy again this week. Hopefully he will soon be so marginalized by serious Christians that this new comment will make him less and less important to the mission of the church. […]

The Death of a Great Monk

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:45-05:00August 22nd, 2005|Categories: The Church|

Brother Roger Schutz, a Protestant monk and the founder of ecumenical Taizé Christian community in Burgundy, France, was stabbed to death during a service there late last week.

"Given all the current controversies surrounding so many religious leaders, Brother Roger was the last for whom any would have predicted a violent death," London Times religion correspondent Ruth Glendill wrote in a personal column.

The Protestant leader was a symbol to the entire world of Christian reconciliation. The unique Taizé community includes monks from Lutheran, Anglican, free church evangelical, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox traditions. In an earlier piece I wrote about the death of John Paul II I noted that it was Brother Roger who publicly received Communion from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) at the funeral. This was an astounding and powerful symbol that violates Catholic law in my understanding. But it also demonstrates the kind of respect the entire Christian world had for this unusual man.

Thousands of evangelicals have visited this community in the village of Taizé for years now. One reporter has noted that […]