Blog - Page 317 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Jim Packer: A Pointer to Christ

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:08-05:00May 4th, 2005|Categories: Personal|

I am blest with a number of freinds who truly love and honor me. Most of them you would not know but to me they are "friends," a word I cherish the older I get. A few who have walked with me for some years now, would not be known to any of you, and a few are well-known to most of you. The danger, and I have succumbed to it over the years, is to "drop names" here and there to impress readers and potential friends. (Real friends are not impressed anyway,and do not need to be!)

I had dinner last evening with one of my best well-known friends, J.I. Packer. I am struck, after all these years, of how well Packer has retained both his natural and supernatural skills. He suffered a heart attack a few years ago, took great care of himself following a surgery, and is doing as very well for a man who will be eighty years of age on July 22. His witty, reflective and generous spirit is as good as ever. As you would expect of someone like […]

The Reformed Church Reforming

By John Armstrong|2005-05-03T08:56:07-05:00May 3rd, 2005|Categories: Church History|

The Reformation was not a movement that created a new church. It was a movement that led one part of the church to reform itself by the Word of God and another to reject the particular work of the Spirit’s renewing ministry in the sixteenth century.

When Luther walked to the University Church in Wittenberg, around noon on October 31, 1517, he did not think to himself, "Today I am going to reform the church. I will make claims for biblical renewal and the result will be a great church split, resulting in a new Protestant Church." He not only had no plans for a new church he still wasn’t even sure whether or not indulgences were right or wrong. He simply knew that profiteering in spiritual things was wrong!

The magisterial Protestant Reformers were most definitely not innovators. And they never desired two churches. They wanted to correct a number of moral and doctrinal abuses by the Word. And they understood that the Word was the gospel of Christ, not just any word from any text. These were not proof-texting radicals. They were faithful sons of […]

The Catholic Church Reformed

By John Armstrong|2005-05-02T06:49:23-05:00May 2nd, 2005|Categories: Church History|

There are a number of different ways by which Protestants speak of themselves, of their origins and development, and of the great Reformation of the sixteenth century. I think it is more important than ever that we understand ourselves correctly. We are not simply a "protest" movement, or a prickly splinter group. We are "the Church of Jesus Christ reformed according to the Word of God," to quote one modern writer. This self-understanding means several things.

1. We did not begin in the sixteenth century. Our churches are not the creation of human reformers. The Reformers didn’t believe this and we shouldn’t believe it either.

2. Our churches are the work of Christ, thus they are an expression of his one body in the world.

3. The goal of the Protestant Reformers was to purify the one church by the Word of God. They desired to give back things that had been lost and to remove things that went contrary to the witness of Scripture and the faith of the earliest Christians.

4. The patristic heritage of the church was not rejected by the earliest Reformers. They argued, […]

Is the Bible a Rule Book?

By John Armstrong|2005-04-29T15:07:55-05:00April 29th, 2005|Categories: Biblical Theology|

Yesterday I wrote an extensive word about the public lecture of Dr. Robert A. J. Gagnon at Elmhurst College on Wednesday night, April 27. There is so much that Gagnon said that is worth repeating but for now I will give one simple illustration.

After an hour plus on the subject of sexual ethics and purity he noted that many will say to me, "The Bible is not a rule book." Yes, he noted, this is true for sure. "But it does make commands." Then he said, "The purpose of the Bible is to make us whole." This was followed by the profound question: "Is there a word of grace here in the midst of all these requirements for sexual purity and covenantal fidelity within a one-woman and one-man relationship?" Gagnon answered, "Yes, all of it!"

Challenging Same-Sex Marriage

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:08-05:00April 28th, 2005|Categories: Sexuality|

"Challenging Same-Sex Marriage" was the title of Dr. Robert. A. J. Gagnon’s address last evening at Elmhurst College (IL). I was priviledged to be present among the 250 or so students and area attendees for a most amazing evening.

For those who do not know, Dr. Gagnon is associate professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (PCUSA), where he has taught since 1994. He is a frontline Pauline scholar and the author of the finest book available on this subject: The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (Abingdon, 2001). Dr. Gagnon’s work has influenced me more than any single author in this field. It is simply magisterial. He covers every possible shade of interpretation and destroys the case frequently made by certain Christian authors for homosexual practice. He also maintains the finest Web site available on the subject: http://www.robgagnon.net.

Frankly, Gagnon is hated by many in the mainline churches. This is because his work has done more to galvinize the biblical renewal movements on this issue than any single author. For example, his work is being used presently by renewal leaders to try […]

How Western Culture Undermines Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:08-05:00April 27th, 2005|Categories: Culture|

I have been reading a good bit by Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. He has authored over forty volumes, as well as scores of essays. No modern pope has written so much theology. One theme rises to the surface again and again in his writings: the tense realtionship that exists between church and culture.

Following Vatican II, in the 1960’s, Ratzinger argued that the detente that existed between the church and the world was leading the church astray. He wrote:

It is time to find again the courage of nonconformism, the capacity to oppose many of the trends of the surrounding culture, renouncing a certain euphoric post-conciliar solidarity. . . . I am convinced that the damage we have incurred in these twenty years is due, not to the "true" council, but to the unleashing within the Church of latent polemical and centrifugal forces; and outside the Church it is due to the confrontation with a cultural revolution in the West:the success of the upper middle class, the new "tertiary bourgeoisie," with its liberal-radical ideology of individualistic, rationalistic and hedonistic stamp.

He went on to argue that […]

The Danger of Being Precise

By John Armstrong|2005-04-26T08:31:31-05:00April 26th, 2005|Categories: The Church|

A long time friend, who followed me as the pastor of my second church, wrote me today. He noted that he was tired of wasting time being "theologically precise." Not that theology is bad, he noted, or even inherently wrong. My friend confessed that precise theology became "my idol." He added that this penchant for precision led to his "being driven to have a pure church to the point that I drove people away." That hurts! Me too.

If I have one regret about my reformation journey as a pastor in a real congregation this has to be it. I can forgive my light weight brain for it’s many failures. I can even handle the mistakes of judgment that I made over the course of twenty years. But it is very hard to forgive this—I worked overtime for a "pure church." I did it by using theology in a number of unhelpful ways. And the results were often deeply troubling.

My long time buddy concluded: "I want to speak the truth clearly to the upcoming generations. I want to think outside the boxes that almost collapsed in […]

More on Faith and Filibusters

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:09-05:00April 25th, 2005|Categories: Spirituality|

It is regularly claimed, by some conservative Christians, that the "judiciary is out of control." I confess I would hate to be a judge in the present environment. Your are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If your life is not in jeopardy (think Atlanta a few weeks ago) then your career might well be. Or maybe your church membership. When Judge Greer (Florida) ruled on the Schiavo case a few weeks ago James Dobson called him "an evil man." The judge in question is a Republican. He is also a Southern Baptist, or at least he was until his pastor told him to leave the church for his judicial decision. I wonder if the pastor actually read the extensive court records before he made his decision to run Greer out of his flock? I did. I believe the judge gave a very clear and consistent ruling, whether you like it or not, given the laws of Florida and the facts of this particular case.

The esteemed conservative jorunal, First Things, even noted in it’s May issue that the problem in Florida was […]

Pardon Me, I Don't Get It

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:09-05:00April 24th, 2005|Categories: Politics|

Today was dubbed "Justice Sunday" by a number of conservative Christian organizations. A nationwide television simulcast was hosted by folks at Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, among others. The point of justice being promoted here is about stopping the filibuster in the Senate that has kept Bush judicial appointees from an up or down vote before the whole Senate. You would have to be politically news dead not to have heard about this issue and the impending actions to be taken in the Senate in the near future.

So what’s there to "not get" about Justice Sunday? Several things. First, the people who are conducting this effort suggest that the Senate’s refusal to vote on judicial nominees is somehow tied to the faith commitment of the nominees themselves. Second, the sponsors of Justice Sunday insist that the liberals in the Senate are beholden to special interest groups, thus they wield this power to block votes because of these particular groups. Of course they do. My question is "Who doesn’t?"

Personally, I confess that I would like to see these nominees voted up or […]

The End of Responsibility

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:09-05:00April 21st, 2005|Categories: Politics|

I often read John Leo, a columnist for U. S. News & World Report. Leo is both balanced and reasonable. I believe his "On Society" column in the April 25 issue is extremely important. It is titled "The End of Argument." Leo shows that both the left and the right have engaged in a kind of public rhetoric that is growing steadily worse. The left has produced "Kill Bush" T-shirts and various whacky speech that suggests "the pig Bush must die." Some on the right, even Christians no less, have called for the death of Judge George Greer (a Baptist) for his controversial rulings in the Schiavo case. Greer’s pastor wrote him a letter asking him to leave the local church. There was no due process followed (cf. Matthew 18), at least there was none reported.

The present anti-court rhetoric is particularly intense, especially among very conservative Christians. These rumblings promote a kind of tyranny that is frightening. Tom DeLay, who seems intent on making his "hatchetman" label stick, made numerous inflammatory remarks about judges a few weeks ago and then, thankfully, apologized. You might hope […]