Blog - Page 316 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Issues Change But the Disputes Remain

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:07-05:00May 16th, 2005|Categories: Church History|

Some of my friends embrace what I call "Reformation romanticism." This notion generally colors everything they see and do in the modern world. In this romantic spirit the modern is generally bad, while things from the sixteenth and seventeenth century are mostly good! A little reading and a great deal more honesty would help to cure most of this nonsense.

On April 6 Dr. Raymond Mentzer helped me to see more of it through a public address presented as the Meeter Center Biennial Lecture (Calvin College, Grand Rapids). The lecture had the arcane title, "No Benches Are Reserved: Seating Disputes in the French Reformation Church." Dr. Mentzer’s lecture actually focused on sixteenth and seventeenth century Protestant France. He showed that during this pristine time period benches and chairs first became part of the physical provision of Christian churches in France.

The choice to bring seating into the churches actually came from the emphasis of John Calvin on preaching. In order to support the Reformed style of worship church buildings in France were built, or renovated, to include a pulpit surrounded by pews and chairs. Though seating, in […]

Defining Evangelicalism

By John Armstrong|2005-05-14T16:20:49-05:00May 14th, 2005|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

Deciding on how to define evangelicalism, or how to meaningfully express that one is an evangelical, is notoriously difficult. Mark Noll has written about the scandal of losing the evangelical mind while other writers, myself included, have warned that the word refers more often than not to a subculture, not a doctrinally based movement of churches. It seems people have as many different definitions of "evangelical" as there are schools, groups and movements. One soon begins to doubt the value of retaining the term. I have chosen, to this point, to keep it. I have no real quarrel with those who decide otherwise.

My reasons for keeping the word evangelical may eventually be outweighed by the political and social baggage attached to it but currently these positive reasons include the following:

1. The word has its roots in the New Testament word evangel, thus reminding us that we are gospel Christians.

2. The word has solid historic roots in the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent evangelical awakenings.

3. The word avoids denominational labels and identities that make our boundaries of cooperation and fellowship too narrow.

4. The […]

Further Reflections on Joel Osteen

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:07-05:00May 13th, 2005|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

My blog on Joel Osteen’s very popular ministry, posted on May 9, elicited a considerable response. I am told that this is the goal of every blogger. Upon further reflection I write to respond to several of the comments posted throughout this week. These are general comments, not specific to any single writer who posted their thoughts.

1. Most of those who responded understood quite clearly what I wrote and why I wrote it. Some comments left me wondering what certain readers actually understood by my words.

2. I was most definitely not attacking the character, or intellectual honesty and credibility, of Dr. Michael Horton, whom I know and love personally.

3. I did question Dr. Horton’s use of a hermeneutical system that is plainly situated in a very self-consciously Lutheran-Reformed paradigm. By this I mean that his strong law-gospel antithesis rigorously governs how he sees faithfulness to the gospel. This he admits in his more academic writing. All I was saying was this principle impacts how he judges public ministries.

4. This paradigm actually led Dr. Horton to suggest that Joel Osteen was not worshiping […]

Come Let Us Die

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:07-05:00May 12th, 2005|Categories: Evangelism|

I pondered this morning the words of Robert A. J. Gagnon from several weeks ago. You may recall that I spoke of his writing and teaching on homosexuality. Gagnon is, hands down, the foremost biblical scholar on the subject today. What particularly struck me about his presentation at Elmhurst College, in a context that was anything but easy for his viewpoint, was the way he continually called upon people, both heterosexuals and homosexuals, to die!

Whenever Gagnon came to a hard point in the evening’s presentation he simply said, "I remind you, Jesus wants your death!" He recalled Matthew 10:38, which says, "Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it." By means of this text, and several others, he made this point about dying, again and again. How unlike the evangelism we so often hear today.

What was so striking to me about Gagnon’s presentation has not gone away, even after several weeks. Dr. Gagnon was teaching Christian ethics, in a […]

A Prayer for Enduement

By John Armstrong|2005-05-11T10:31:56-05:00May 11th, 2005|Categories: Personal|

In the 1960’s I read the book Through Gates of Splendor. It thrilled me, and deeply disturbed me at the same time. I was particularly moved by the pictures of the five speared bodies of young missionaries who gave up their lives in order to reach the Auca Indians in the South American jungles.

The impression made upon me was so great that I knew I had to give my life to follow Christ no matter where he led me, or what the cost or sacrifice. Little did I know at the time that when I began to look for a Christian college, in 1968 when I was in my second year at the University of Alabama, Wheaton College would be the place where God led me. I am often asked, "Why Wheaton?" The answer is really very simple. I wanted to study, and learn to preach the gospel, in the place where Billy Graham had matriculated in the early 1940’s and where Jim Elliott, Ed McCulley and Nate Saint finished college a few years after.

Time after time I walked into Edman Chapel, during those years […]

A Visit to Mars Hill in Downtown Seattle

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:07-05:00May 10th, 2005|Categories: Emergent Church|

I mentioned twice last week my time in Seattle. I continue to process the information that I am learning from the Emergent Church, especially from Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church (www.marshillchurch.org). Mark Driscoll’s vision, and experience, is not exactly like that of other well known leaders in this movement, but his journey is one that is hugely insightful and quite instructive. There is little doubt that God is blessing this visionary pastor and his church. And scores of young pastors are following Mark’s leadership through the Acts 29 network. In addition to this his book, The Radical Reformission (Zondervan, 2004), is an important popular treatment of evangelism, mission and culture. It is a full-scale rejection of the cultural, and even theological, patterns of fundamentalism without rejecting anything essential to Christian orthodoxy. This, in itself, attracts me deeply since robust evangelical faith, outwardly focused upon a positive engagement of the world, is my vision too.

Mars Hill has four core values: truth, meaning, community and beauty. God’s truth is properly placed first. Mars Hill understands that truth is not “your truth” or “my truth” but God’s […]

The Popularity of Joel Osteen

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:07-05:00May 9th, 2005|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

Joel Osteen, one of America’s most popular evangelical preachers, appeared in Chicago this past week. The Chicago Tribune featured a front page religion report on the visit in its May 4 edition. For those who do not know, Joel Osteen is the 42 year old pastor of the largest local church in America, the nondenominational Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. He is the son of a famous charismatic minister, who began Lakewood Church after leaving the Southern Baptist Convention many decades ago, and is also the author of best-seller Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential. In addition Osteen appears on a national television program that is the highest-rated inspirational show in the country according to Nielsen Media Research.

I have mixed emotions about Christian success stories like that of Joel Osteen. This is a good news-bad news situation. Osteen represents some of the best and worst of popular religion in America. He is a gentle and engaging man with a huge smile. His persona is likeable and his message is positive, in a time when negativity is too prevalent. He […]

Church of the King

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:08-05:00May 8th, 2005|Categories: The Church|

Church of the King, in Santa Cruz, California, was my place for public ministry this weekend. I taught three times on hermeneutics, with my dear friend Andrew Sandlin, yesterday. I taught on “Extravagant Forgiveness” (cf. Weekly Messenger, May 2, 2005) this morning and then preached in the morning worship celebration on “The Prayer Christ Will Surely Answer” (Matthew 9:35-38). Audio copies of these addresses, and the sermon on Matthew 9, will soon be available on our Web site at: www.reformationrevival.com. If you would like a free cassette copy of the sermon you may write us at info@reformationrevival.com and request one until May 31. (Be sure to give us your mailing address.) We have a “Friends Tape” that includes the same message when it was previously given in February.

Church of the King (COTK) is a wonderful church family of about 150-200 people. It is served by six godly and effective elders who […]

Sleepless in Seattle: My Connection to Charismatic History

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:08-05:00May 6th, 2005|Categories: The Church|

Reading Nine O’Clock in the Morning seems like a distant memory at times. I was a student in the late 1960’s. The author, Dennis Bennett, was an Episcopalian rector who had been filled with the Holy Spirit while serving a parish church in southern California. His bishop wanted to move him, at Bennett’s request really, so he would not bring about schism in his church. The bishop was also fearful that another John Wesley might arise and challenge the church and thus, like Wesley, face ecclesiastical rejection.

Bennett was sent to a dying parish church in Seattle. His story gripped multitudes through his book and eventually impacted thousands of lay people and ministers alike. People came from all over the world to meet Father Bennett. They prayed for healing, and they spoke in tongues, but most of all they came to seek the fullness of the Spirit. This quiet, mild-mannered man poured himself out into the lives of all who came. He sent large numbers of them back to their own churches, never wishing to build his own ministry so much as to encourage blessing upon […]

Emergent Churches

By John Armstrong|2005-05-05T09:56:46-05:00May 5th, 2005|Categories: The Church|

I am visiting this week with several leaders from within the growing and developing evangelical movement known as "The Emergent Church." I am not sure I can even define what the term means, given the wide divergence I see regarding what gets labeled "Emergent." Even within the movement itself there is considerable nonconformity. There are scores of books, major conferences, journals, magazines, and ministry styles that are all called "Emergent." What is clear to me is this—God is doing something fresh among younger leaders who are serious about mission and creative in their evangelism. The wineskins always require change and these folks know it and are doing something about it.

But this movement is not just about wineskins. There is more. To only see this aspect is to miss the moment and the ministry. There is a clear need for theology in this movement. Some leaders, like the one I talked to yesterday, are deeply interested in theology. Others seem oblivious, or appear to be drifting theologically. Some, certainly not those I am with this week, even appear to be entertaining doctrinal ideas that sound a lot […]