Blog - Page 318 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Downfall: The End of Hitler's Life

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:10-05:00April 16th, 2005|Categories: Film|

Downfall is a haunting and chilling movie. I left the theatre with an impression that I rarely have after viewing a two and a half hour movie. Starring Swiss actor Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire, 1989) as Adolph Hitler, this powerful movie offers an insider’s view of the last ten days of the life of the infamous Hitler, and his Third Reich, between the days of April 20 and 30, 1945. It also makes Downfall one of the very best World War II movies ever made.

Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in this year’s academy awards Downfall opens in 1942 in East Prussia, outside "The Wolf’s Lair," Hitler’s planning center for the war. In the opening scenes a twenty-two year old Munich woman, Traudl Hump, is ushered into Hitler’s office for an interview to become his personal secretary. Traudl is noticeably treated with kindness and human warmth by Hitler (one reviewer says Hitler appears here as a "fatherly and depressed sort of man"), demonstrating that he was not an entirely sub-human monster. But this is not the last time that we see good qualities in […]

Why Liberals Don't Get It

By John Armstrong|2005-04-14T10:53:07-05:00April 14th, 2005|Categories: The Church|

Everytime I engage the more liberal parts of the Christian Church I am amazed at how clueless these folks really are about true evangelism. I suppose I should not be amazed. Afterall, if you don’t have a gospel that takes sin and the fall seriously, and grace biblically, along with an objective/subjective redemption accomplished by the historic Christ and the blessed Holy Spirit working supernaturally, then you don’t really have a lot of good news to share. And when you continually reinvent your message to fit the culture you have no anchor for the soul either.

I was among mainline Christians again this week and picked up a copy of The Circuit Rider (March-April 2005), a magazine for United Methodist clergy published by Cokesbury, the denominational publishing house. In this issue I discovered a full-page ad for a program called Living the Questions (www.livingthequestions.com). The tag line says Living the Questions is "an unapologetically liberal alternative to the Alpha course." For those who do not know Alpha is a twelve-week course that is extremely popular in many churches, especially in mainline churches. I can explain […]

Avoiding Ideology

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:10-05:00April 11th, 2005|Categories: The Church|

Tomorrow morning I drive to Dubuque, Iowa. I will share in a special evening, at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, where a number of us will honor the life and work of Dr. Donald Bloesch, one of the greatest evangelical theologians of our time. Bloesch is not widely known to ordinary folks but he is profoundly respected within the academy.

I first met Donald Bloesch about thirty years ago. I began to read his work shortly thereafter. Only about eight years ago did we actually become freinds. I would now call Dr. Bloesch my mentor in many important ways. First, he has profoundly influenced my thinking on many levels. He has also helped me deepen my spiritual journey in terms of prayer and devotion. I believe I comprehend the centrality of Jesus Christ in Scripture better because of Donald’s personal piety and his crystal clear teaching on Christian spirituality.

Bloesch, like the earliest Protestant evangelicals, is a theologian of "Word and Spirit." He believes reason must always serve faith, not faith reason. This method has transformed my approach to theology and removed a great deal […]

The Problem of Dullness

By John Armstrong|2005-04-10T21:26:50-05:00April 10th, 2005|Categories: Spirituality|

Is it me or do you find many Christians spiritually dull these days? Again and again, I leave churches of all kinds and wonder to myself, "How can so many people listen to the mystery of the gospel preached with no seeming interest, or at least very little interest?" It is not that I look for tears, or warm facial response, but at least someone should appear moved in some way. The singing is often listless, the listening seems ho-hum, and the evidence of real spiritual hunger expressed in words following the service seem so rare. I often leave saying to myself, "What can change this dull response?" The answer lies in God’s Spirit alone. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit."

Francois Fenelon said it well: "It is easy to mistake intellectual curiosity for spiritual hunger." The late A. W. Tozer once said, "We are as filled as we want to be." I beleive that is true. And the fact is few of us truly long to be filled. Tozer also said, "If there is anything in your life more demanding […]

Show Me Your Glory

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:25:10-05:00April 9th, 2005|Categories: Biblical Theology|

I have resisted composing blogs for almost a year. While many friends continued to tell me that I must enter the "brave new world," I declined their suggestions regularly. Friends not only urged me, they bugged me frankly, to begin. Journaling seems so private, so simple, so intensely useful, if done well. My friends kept saying, "Write your journal thoughts." I can’t I argued. Blogging is just too public for such writing, even potentially manipulative I feared.

But the medium is not the message, at least in this case. The message is what really matters to Christians I believe. I have prayed and labored for an outpouring of God’s glory, almost daily, since 1970. This is my passion. My message reflects that passion. Put very simply, I write and pray to see the goodness of God exalted in the church.

Like Moses, I have seen something of the Lord’s presence go with me, in my case for more than five decades. But like Moses I too pray, "Show me your glory." I saw something of it in the Jesus Movement in 1969-70. I have seen glimpses and […]