Blog - Page 67 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Living and Ancient-Future Faith in Babylon (5)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:52-05:00February 22nd, 2013|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Biblical Theology, Church History, Church Tradition, Culture, Current Affairs, Kingdom of God, Lordship of Christ, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

The words of Jeremiah 29:6 are rather shocking if you get the context and historical moment right. God is telling his people that they will be in this state for a long time thus they should become active in the culture of Babylon, not separatists who go private. When we are not sure whether we will be somewhere for very long we rent or stay with family and friends for a season. But if we plan to stay we are inclined to get a house and begin planting ourselves in the city in which we live. Building, planting, marrying and giving in marriage are signs that a normal community has been established.

Verse six is striking for sure but verse seven provides the perspective that we desperately need in modern Babylon. These exiles are told to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf. . .” This is the counsel I believe God has for the church in the West in the twenty-first century. We […]

Living an Ancient-Future Faith in Exile (4)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:52-05:00February 21st, 2013|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Biblical Theology, Church History, Church Tradition, Culture, Current Affairs, Kingdom of God, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

Before I proceed with my response to the question of living in exile I would like for you to read Jeremiah 29:1–23. Please pay very careful attention to the italicized portions of the text that I have added.

1 These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 This was after King Jeconiah, and the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem. 3 The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. It said: 4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they […]

Living an Ancient-Future Faith in Exile (3)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:52-05:00February 20th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Biblical Theology, Church History, Church Tradition, Culture, Current Affairs, Discipleship, Kingdom of God, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

Conservative evangelical leaders are generally comfortable discussing doctrine and faith. Most evangelical pastors were taught to expound the Scripture in their formal education. This is our strength, generally speaking, even though I do not think we realize some of our glaring weaknesses that show up in this area of our strength. We can also discuss vocation, work and cultural engagement, but with a much less clarity and passion. The latter, namely cultural engagement, is too often conceived of in terms of rejection/restoration, huge category mistakes that I am challenging in my blogs this week.

A marvelous example of these points can be made by looking at the recent history of the “modern” home school movement. (Remember, generally there were no other types of primary schools in early America!) My wife and I resisted the first appeal of the home school movement as a radically anti-public response to educating our two children. We finally agreed to look at this movement as an option when we took a hard look at the education that our son was actually receiving in […]

How to Criticize the Culture – Living an Ancient-Future Faith in Exile (2)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:53-05:00February 19th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Biblical Theology, Culture, Current Affairs, Kingdom of God, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

Is our response as Christians, living in Babylon culturally, to drop out of all attempts to shape and form a new and better culture? Should we “shake the dust off our feet” and move on. Or should we deduce that the culture is lost and filled with darkness and our role is to hold up the light and tell them to come to us in order to be blessed? These responses, and more, are common.

More recently the church began to fight back. We wanted to stop the cultural slide to immorality and massive social change by calling upon our leaders to announce the laws of God and to enforce them as ways to correct our slide toward secularism.

I believe we got this all wrong. The Franciscan tradition teaches a better way. It says that the best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. It reasons, rightly I think that oppositional energy only creates more of the same, bad energy and bad practice.

So what is the church to do? I suggest that we become faithfully […]

Living an Ancient-Future Faith in Exile (1)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:53-05:00February 18th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Biblical Theology, Church History, Culture, Kingdom of God, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Renewal, The Church|

Over the last several weeks I’ve tried to lay out a call to the church, and to leaders of the church, that would summon us to courage and clarity with regard to our role in the world of our time. I have drawn from Martin Luther’s model of “The Babylonian Captivity.” I have also drawn from the more biblical model of “living in exile.” I want to return to the idea of exile and develop it positively in terms of the opportunities that we have to live in faith, hope and love in the twenty-first century.

The biblical concept of exile is seen in the story of Israel in the Old Testament. But the model belongs to “us and our children” because Paul refers to the church as “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16), thus clearly connecting salvation/covenant history. Whether or not it was God’s intention (revealed plan) to create a church that was culturally at home in what we call Christendom is debatable. That such happened, and that we inherited the fruit of this marriage between church […]

The Tragic Sense of Life

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:53-05:00February 15th, 2013|Categories: Biblical Theology, Divine Providence, Reason, Science, Spirituality, The Church, Uncategorized|

I remember when I first heard the Spaniard’s name – Miguel de Unamuno. I was driving my car to speak in Iowa in the summer of about 1998 and the esteemed founding president of Regent College (Vancouver), James Houston, mentioned the importance of this Spanish philosopher for deeper insight into the faith. The course was one on spiritual formation. It seemed odd to me that Houston would mention a philosopher who more than dabbled in some ideologies that would trouble most American conservatives. (They trouble me too.) Little did I know what treasures awaited me in discovering the work of this early twentieth century thinker. But I am ahead of myself. Who was Miguel de Unamuno?

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (1864 – 1936) was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher. His best known, and most important, philosophical essay was The Tragic Sense of Life (1913). His most famous novel was Abel Sanchez: The History of a Passion (1917), a modern exploration of the Cain and Abel story. For Unamuno, art was a way […]

Why I Celebrate Lent

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:53-05:00February 14th, 2013|Categories: Church Tradition, Forgiveness, Gospel/Good News, Liturgy, Personal, Renewal, Spirituality, The Church|

For those readers who do not practice Lent, and I am sure there are a few, bear with me while I tell you why I do.

First, what is Lent?

The word “Lent” means “spring” and comes from the Middle English lente, meaning “lengthen.” It signifies the “lengthening” of the days after long winter nights. The cold and darkness of winter is beginning to pass and spring is not too far behind. New life is near and the season reminds us of renewed spiritual life and growth.

When did the church begin to observe Lent?

As early as the second century, making it a much older Christian tradition than the celebration of Advent and Christmas. Irenaeus (130–202) wrote about Lent “going back to the time of our forefathers.” That’s pretty impressive in terms of its origins. It stands to reason that the early church observed this time because new converts were prepared for baptism and entry into the church at Easter and this time was a part of the process. It was also a time for those already baptized […]

The Church As God's Social Strategy (3)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:53-05:00February 13th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Church Tradition, Civil Rights, Culture, Lordship of Christ, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Politics, Race and Racism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

The second form of the church – political/social – is called the conversionist church. This form argues that no amount of tinkering with the structures of society or state will adequately counter the effects of human sin. What is needed is the conversion of individuals. The promises of secular optimism are false because they too quickly bypass the biblical call to personal repentance and faith, a repentance and faith that lead us to reconciliation with God and our neighbors. “The sphere of political action is shifted by the conversionist church from without to within, from society to the individual soul” (Resident Aliens, 45). Since the conversionist church works almost exclusively for inward change it can really offer no alternative social ethic of community to the world. The exception, at least for many within this particular model in America, has been to embrace a pro-life position in the political world. Generally speaking conversionist churches abandon all other “life” and “moral” issues, leaving them to the state alone. In this way they very often opt for a […]

The Church As God's Social Strategy (2)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:53-05:00February 12th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Creeds, Culture, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future, Uncategorized, Unity of the Church|

Yesterday, I introduced you to “The Barmen Declaration.” I did this in the light of my consideration of what social strategy the church ought to take in the public square of modern America. In this amazingly simple, but deeply profound, statement we see that these Christians in Nazi Germany refused to call for a sectarian division in the visible church. They did not attack the visible church but called it to repentance. These were not sectarian voices, voices we hear regularly in our American context.

“The Barmen Declaration” ends with these words:

8.22 – 5. “Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (1 Peter 2:17.)
Scripture tells us that, in the as yet unredeemed world in which the Church also exists, the State has by divine appointment the task of providing for justice and peace. [It fulfills this task] by means of the threat and exercise of force, according to the measure of human judgment and human ability. The Church acknowledges the benefit of this divine appointment in gratitude and reverence before him. It calls to mind the Kingdom […]

The Church as God's Social Strategy (1)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:54-05:00February 11th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Politics, The Church, The Persecuted Church|

The much reviewed and debated book, Resident Aliens (Abingdon, 1989), which I wrote a great deal about last week, prompted deep emotional reaction in me when I first read it back in 1990. Now, twenty-two years later, I have re-read the book with new eyes. These new eyes are the result of my missional-ecumenism, grounded in a deep theology of unity that says Christ’s mission is carried out by the whole people of God working together in deep relational love [Your Church Is Too Small, John H. Armstrong (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010)].

One of the core arguments the authors of Resident Aliens make is that “the church doesn’t have a social strategy [because] the church is a social strategy” (43). It is this idea that I want to explore with you for the next several blogs.

The nub of this argument is that the church has never really found it difficult to be in the world. The real problem has come when the church did not understand how to be in the world. I have come to embrace […]