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The Gospel of the Kingdom (4)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:38-05:00May 31st, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Discipleship, Evangelism, Faith, Gospel/Good News, Kingdom of God, Lordship of Christ, Missional Church, Prayer, The Church|

Alan Streett’s book, Heaven on Earth: Experiencing the Kingdom of God in the Here and Now (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 2013), is nicely laid out along canonical lines. By this I mean that he surveys his subject following the arrangement of the biblical canon, starting with Genesis, and then working his way through the mountain tops of the Old Testament. After surveying the Gospels, and addressing his theme in the epistles, he lands on the heavenly heights of the Apocalypse.

Streett shows the reader that the kingdom of God was first revealed in Genesis 1:28 by the command to: “Fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion . . . over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” The kingdom of God is first revealed in the opening chapter of the Bible! Here is the foundation of all theology, including kingdom theology. (Time and again I am amazed, so much so that I am no longer amazed, at how every central theme of the Bible is revealed in the narrative of Genesis 1-3!)

Following this proper beginning […]

The Gospel of the Kingdom (3)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:38-05:00May 30th, 2013|Categories: America and Americanism, Church Tradition, Discipleship, Evangelism, Faith, Kingdom of God, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church|

Alan Streett is Senior Research Professor of Biblical Exegesis and holds the W. A. Criswell Endowed Chair of Expository Preaching at Criswell College in Dallas, Texas. I discovered Alan’s work, decades ago, through a book titled, The Effective Invitation. At the time I was reacting quite strongly against all forms of evangelistic invitation, having become an ardent Calvinist and having also accepted the idea that every form of “public invitation” was biblically questionable. His book raised enough questions, even in my state at that time, to make me a lot more cautious about my rigid conclusions about this subject. (My views on this subject have moderated considerably over the years. I believe an “effective” invitation can and should be used in the right context.) I say all of this because when I met Dr. Streett last year I was not particularly prepared to meet such a gracious, capable, Christ-like scholar. He had no obvious agenda except to love me and welcome me into his fellowship. I know, I know, I was biased by one title and by […]

The Gospel of the Kingdom (2)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:38-05:00May 29th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Discipleship, Evangelism, Kingdom of God, Missional Church, The Church, The Future|

The kingdom of God is not a “unique” theme in the teaching of Jesus, though it is, quite likely, the major theme in both his life and teaching. The idea of the kingdom runs from Genesis to Revelation. What is “unique” in Jesus is that the kingdom is “fulfilled” in God’s timing in him and thus brought to fruition in history in a unique way. Mark 1:14-15 says, “Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.’” What should be noted here is that John the Baptist and Jesus both preached the same message–the good news of the kingdom of God. But in Jesus “the kingdom was no longer merely close by. Time was up. This intensified the kingdom message” (Heaven on Earth, 14).

Alan Streett is right when he says:

We might compare John’s and Jesus’ messages of the kingdom to an announcement of a pregnancy. A woman desires a child but seems unable to get pregnant. One day, she […]

The Gospel of the Kingdom (1)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:38-05:00May 28th, 2013|Categories: Discipleship, Evangelism, Gospel/Good News, Kingdom of God, Lordship of Christ, The Church, Theology|

Every Christian I know agrees that the gospel is essential to Christianity. It is “the power of God to salvation” (Romans 1:16). We know the word gospel means “good news” but what is this good news really about? And what is salvation? Is it escape from earth, life in heaven, missing hell, having our sins forgiven, or inviting Jesus into my heart? Likely we’ve all heard one of more of these answers given to that question.

The problem is not that there is no truth in these standard, simple answers but rather that this minimal truth is inadequate, even peripheral to the correct biblical answer.

Mark’s Gospel begins with words that I frankly missed the first thirty years of my life: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). Whatever the gospel is the record of this message is what the writer will give to his reader in the Gospel of Mark. (Of course, it is also to be found in the other three Gospels, which together give us the rich, full and […]

Christ Our Center – Dr. Hans Boersma

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:38-05:00May 27th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Evangelism, Gospel/Good News, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

When twenty-five Catholic and evangelical Protestant Christians gathered for the first ever “Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical Conversation” at Mundelein Seminary on April 18 we held an evening session on the first day that was open to the public. Our desire was to have a Catholic theologian present a paper on the centrality of Christ to true faith and life. Last Monday, May 20, I posted the first of three parts of the video we made of this event. Fr. Edward T. Oakes’ presentation on “Christ Our Center” can be seen if you go back to last Monday’s blog or to our ACT3 Network website.

Today I present part two of the three videos that we made from this event. In part two you will see Dr. Hans Boersma, J. I. Packer Professor of Theology at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia. Dr. Boersma read the paper by Fr. Oakes in advance of our meeting but he agreed with Fr. Oakes so profoundly, as you will clearly see at the beginning, that he took a different direction from a response and […]

Is the "Dark Night" of Christianity in the West Inevitable?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:39-05:00May 23rd, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Church History, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

Are we living in a “dark night” for Christianity in the West? The church, and culture shaping Christian influences, have both been losing ground since the late 1950s. The only people who seem unaware of this are Christians of my own generation, people who continue to do the same things they were doing twenty years ago. They seem to do this as if this is what we really need in a time of rapid declension and loss–opposition to serious change. I think a lot about these issues because of my missional-ecumenism vision.

I’m a historian and missiologist by training. I love to remind people about our Christian past, not as a wistful reminder of better days but as a reality check about where we are now and what we should be thinking about the present and the future.

In the period between 1400–1500 Christianity faced the most desperate and dark times it’s history. A major part of the church had spanned Asia but this part had been all but eliminated. In the Middle East, as well as in Northern […]

Our Global Future – How Will We Respond?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:39-05:00May 22nd, 2013|Categories: Current Affairs, Missional Church, Poverty, The Church, The Future, Wealth|

Growing population and poverty are inextricably linked together in the modern world. Very few Christians in America recognize this problem for what it is nor do they seriously discuss solutions and responses. It seems to me that a simple, basic expression of the love of God requires that we not only have this dialogue but that we prepare our churches and missions to respond to this moment of modern crisis. Can we do less?

In the poorest countries people generally have children at the highest rate, believing that their future is in their children. (It is hard for Westerner people to grasp this since our birth rate is declining rapidly and we are not even replacing our own population unless you include immigrants and undocumented workers who have larger families.) Very little of the financial aid that is given to less developed countries addresses the root problems or leads to sustainable, replicable changes.

In 1950 the industrialized nations were the most populous. But in the second half of the century birth rates plunged while those in the least developed […]

Two Philosophers – Two Responses to Life

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:39-05:00May 21st, 2013|Categories: Apologetics, Faith, Freedom, God's Character, Love, Personal, Reason, Reformed Christianity|

I have the amazing privilege of sharing the platform with a diversity of Christian speakers and authors. Last Saturday I spoke for the Prison Fellowship Centurions program near Lansing, Michigan. There where three speakers at this particular gathering. One was a Centurion from within the group and the other, besides myself, was Dr. Cornelius Plantinga. Plantinga recently retired as president of Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids. Cornelius Plantinga has written several books including the award-winning Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (1995), Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning and Living (2002), and Discerning the Spirits: A Guide to Thinking About Christian Worship (2003). Cornelius Plantinga, who goes by Neal among his friends, is now Senior Research Fellow at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and president emeritus of Calvin Theological Seminary. He spoke on “The Christian’s Calling.” He gave a magnificent and simple presentation of the Kuyperian worldview. His emphasis on the kingdom of God stressed the fact that we are all “called” to vocation (our divine calling), not just to get a job […]

Christ Our Center – Fr. Edward T. Oakes

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:39-05:00May 20th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Christ/Christology, God's Character, Gospel/Good News, Missional-Ecumenism, Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

On Thursday, April 18, the first ever Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical conversation on mission and evangelism took place at Mundelein Seminary in suburban Chicago. In planning this meeting our Lausanne committee, a group of five which I serve as chairman, agreed that we should have a public lecture/dialogue to begin the private meeting for the three days that we were together, April 18-20. We further agreed that we wanted to address the subject: “Christ Our Center.” The idea for this comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his emphasis upon finding our unity in Christ as Lord of all. I devote an entire chapter in my book, Your Church Is Too Small, to this same topic. So we invited Fr. Edward Oakes, of the Mundelein faculty, to speak to this topic. Dr. Oakes is the author of the excellent book: Infinity Dwindled to Infancy: A Christology for Catholics and Evangelicals (Eerdmans, 2011).

Dr. Hans Boersma, professor at Regent College in Vancouver, was invited to respond. Boersma is the James I. Packer Professor of Theology at Regent. His presentation will be posted next […]

Evangelism, Evangelization and Missional-Ecumenism (4)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:39-05:00May 16th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Discipleship, Evangelism, Gospel/Good News, History, Kingdom of God, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

Over the last three days I have written about evangelism and evangelization, from both a Protestant and Catholic perspective. I have attempted to show the meaning and importance of these respective terms and the theology that lies behind both of them. But what has all of this to do with ecumenism, or with what I call missional-ecumenism?

John Paul II answered my question clearly when he wrote: “How many internal tensions, which weaken and divide certain local churches and institutions, would disappear before the firm conviction that the salvation of local communities is procured through cooperation in work for the spread of the Gospel to the farthest bounds of the earth!” I recognize that the pope was primarily writing about local Catholic parishes but when you see his view fully you will soon realize that he embraced ecumenism as a necessary part of the work of global evangelization.

John Paul II believed that this new evangelization is connected with “entering a new missionary age, [one] which will become a radiant day bearing an abundant harvest, if all Christians, and […]