Blog - Page 34 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Must the Reformation Wars Continue? (Twenty-One)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:25-05:00June 24th, 2014|Categories: Uncategorized|

It should be born in mind that the goal of the Lutheran dialogues with the Catholic Church is full visible communion. Recent changes in the larger Lutheran Church regarding sexuality and marriage have challenged this process but the partners continue to dialogue, showing how disagreements that are rather profound do not have to end the pursuit of peace and unity. The way forward is not clear but when you consider where we were before World War II and where we are today we have surely come a long way.

A much bigger issue in today’s church is ecclesial authority, even more than justification. The adoption of papal infallibility as dogma (it was not an infallible teaching in the 16th century) complicates things for sure! Some good work has been done on these issues—especially by the Anglicans and the Orthodox. The Reformed and Lutheran churches have also done some important work and more recently Mennonite and other non-magisterial churches have engaged in official dialogues.

My personal preference is that we avoid the kind of language that either Calvin or Luther […]

Must the Reformation Wars Continue? (Twenty)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:25-05:00June 23rd, 2014|Categories: Church History, Church Tradition, Faith, Gospel/Good News, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

I want to conclude this series with three posts that will, I sincerely hope, summarize some important observations that I’ve made over recent weeks.

First, the Bible plainly teaches that God alone saves human persons therefore God alone gets the “credit” for salvation. It is all of grace. We can do nothing to save ourselves. Believing is not a work, it is the reception of a divine gift and believing is only possible by the Spirit’s work and power. Salvation is ALL God’s gift.

Second, the Bible clearly teaches that evangelical obedience is absolutely essential. Without it there is no real evidence that grace is really at work and that our faith is true, saving, active faith. Our works matter. Indeed, they matter profoundly. Without them we will not finally be saved; cf. Matthew 25.

I believe the church has always struggled, from the days of the apostles until now, to explain why obedience is absolutely necessary if God alone saves. We have always attempted to provide good reasons for obedience so as to “prod” ourselves and our people to live moral lives. We don’t seem to […]

Understanding Pope Francis – Some Lutheran Humor

By John Armstrong|2014-06-20T08:56:35-05:00June 20th, 2014|Categories: Uncategorized|

Earlier today I shared a video clip (here) from a Lutheran source. It was satirical about Pope Francis. I took this video down after a friend I deeply love challenged me that it was offensive to some viewers and that it harmed my witness to oneness. I did not intend to create this offense and after a few moments of prayer I have decided to take the humorous clip off my site. If you were offended please forgive me. If you have read my posts on the pope you know that I love Pope Francis as my brother. I never intended to harm the unity of the church by posting such a satirical clip. I will do my best to not do this again.

Must the Reformation Wars Continue (Nineteen)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:25-05:00June 19th, 2014|Categories: Church History, Church Tradition, Faith, Gospel/Good News, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

We’ve looked at the Council of Trent in several comments I’ve made in this series of blogs. More particularly we’ve looked at what the Council said about justification by faith alone. Now I would like to come to the simple and most straightforward question in the continued warfare that exists between extremely conservative Catholics and Protestants.

What did the Council of Trent say about justification?

The Council of Trent is often quoted as saying: “Let anyone who says that we are saved by faith alone be anathema.” The actual quote says: “If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ’s sake, or that it is this confidence alone that justifies us, let him be anathema” (Council of Trent, Session VI, Canon 12). When you read this statement as an all out attack on faith and grace you have replaced “nothing else than confidence in divine mercy” with “faith” itself. I do simply not accept this unfortunate substitution as an equivalent statement and neither do serious theologians who have studied the […]

Must the Reformation Wars Continue? (Eighteen)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:25-05:00June 18th, 2014|Categories: Church History, Creeds, Faith, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

In my opinion what the Council of Trent anathematized was (ultimately) a caricature of the robust and clear evangelical view of justification. Who is to blame for this problem? Honestly, both sides bear fault in my estimation. The Reformers were careful thinkers about these matters. They did not speak with a divided mind, though Luther at times spoke both aggressively and in ways that remain, to me at least, a bit confusing. (His strong law-gospel contrast underscores what I mean by this statement, to give but one example.) But many followers of the Protestant Reformers misrepresented their views in ways that radically separated faith from works. This plainly helped to provoke the growing tensions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A better understanding on both sides would have helped then and can surely help us now. Most evangelicals are not (generally speaking) separating sanctification from justification. With the exception of those who advocate radical “non-Lordship” theologies I think few genuinely advocate antinomianism. A strong view of union with Christ, as taught by John Calvin, would go a long way […]

Andy Stanley Gets Hammered for Comments on Revival

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:26-05:00June 16th, 2014|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Current Affairs, Evangelism, Missional Church, Renewal, The Church|

Pastor-author Andy Stanley is, if anything, a deeply passionate Christian leader about church growth and reaching the unchurched in the youngest generation. I am not a huge fan, thus I do not read him often. But I am not a huge fan of a lot of this kind of writing and teaching. But I profoundly respect Andy Stanley and believe that he contributes to the overall well-being of the church. Stanley, the son of the famous Charles Stanley, preaches to an estimated 33,000 people every Sunday at five different North Point Ministries metro-Atlanta campuses. Like his father, who still reaches older viewers, Stanley also has a television program, Your Move. This program is estimated to reach an audience of nearly one million per week.

On Tuesday (June 10), Stanley tweeted,

•”Instead of praying for revival leaders of the SBC should go spend three weeks with @perrynoble Why pray for one when you can go watch one.”

•”Praying for revival equates to blaming God for the condition of your local church.”

•”Why not call the Church to pray for […]

Must the Reformation Wars Continue? (Seventeen)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:27-05:00June 12th, 2014|Categories: Uncategorized|

The Joint Declaration (1999) says, in section 4:6, in a part of the document called “The Assurance of Salvation” the following (italics are all mine):

Catholics can share the concern of the Reformers to ground faith in the objective reality of Christ’s promise, to look away from one’s own experience, and to trust in Christ’s forgiving word alone (cf. Mt 16:19; 18:18). With the Second Vatican Council, Catholics state: to have faith is to entrust oneself totally to God,[19] who liberates us from the darkness of sin and death and awakens us to eternal life.[20] In this sense, one cannot believe in God and at the same time consider the divine promise untrustworthy. No one may doubt God’s mercy and Christ’s merit. Every person, however, may be concerned about his salvation when he looks upon his own weaknesses and shortcomings. Recognizing his own failures, however, the believer may yet be certain that God intends his salvation. [See Sources for section 4.6].

The Agreement concludes with Article 5 (Sections 40-44):

5. The Significance and Scope […]

Must the Reformation Wars Continue? (Sixteen)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:29-05:00June 11th, 2014|Categories: Uncategorized|

Could it really be true that Rome misunderstood the Reformers teaching on grace and faith in what they wrote at the Council of Trent?

One evangelical respondent to the blog that sparked my initial interest in preparing this series of posts put the common view of so many quite well: “What is needed from the Catholic Church is repentance so shouldn’t the Church formally renounce what it said at Trent?”

Isn’t this really the bottom line? Shouldn’t the Catholic Church “repent” or we cannot trust a single thing that they now say about justification and the gospel?

The answer of many anti-Catholic apologists to this question is very simple. They say something like this: “The Catholic Church cannot change by its own confession about itself never changing so whatever they now say has no bearing on the fundamental issue of justification unless they recant, repent and remove the teaching of the Council of Trent on this central issue.”

My first response to this is to ask you another question: “What church removes the past and unconfesses what it once strongly […]

Must the Reformation Wars Continue? (Fifteen)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:29-05:00June 10th, 2014|Categories: Faith, Gospel/Good News, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church|

For many Protestants the doctrine of the Council of Trent that was, and still is, the central point of the Reformation, is the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

This Trent question, it seems to me, comes down to this – did the Council of Trent reject a caricature of the Reformation view of sola fide and sola gratis or did it totally and completely reject the full blown doctrinal emphasis entirely? Or, have opponents misrepresented Rome’s position all along because they never denied the Reformation gospel in the first place?

The late Dutch Reformed theologian G. C. Berkouwer wrote in 1958:

People generally had the feeling that here was a decision of extremely far-reaching importance and that the entire controversy concentrated on this focal point. Does sola fide not imply a clearly drawn boundary which must be acknowledged by both sides? Does sola fie not function critically, just as do “only through Christ” and “only through the Holy Scriptures”? (G. C. Berkouwer, Recent Developments in Roman Catholic Thought, Grand Rapids; Eerdmans, 1958, 58).

It should be acknowledged that for centuries Rome understood the […]

Must the Reformation Wars Continue (Fourteen)

By John Armstrong|2015-01-23T16:23:59-06:00June 9th, 2014|Categories: Uncategorized|

Latin America evangelist Luis Palau is a good friend of Pope Francis. Here he reveals openly what he knows about his brother and this pope’s strong commitment to the gospel. This interview, done in the summer of 2013 after the pope’s election by the conclave in Rome, provides further perspective on why the “Reformation Wars” should cease. Simply put, they serve no “good” purpose in the mission of Christ. They seriously hinder his love among us and harm the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. I pray that an army of Christians will arise in my lifetime who will say, “Enough is enough. Let us get on with making disciples for Christ and his kingdom!”