Blog - Page 72 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Spiritual State of the Nation (7)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:02-05:00December 17th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Evangelism, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Politics, The Church|

On November 27 I ended an article (in what is a series called “The Spiritual State of the Nation”) by saying that Christians should “get out of the stands and back on the playing field.’ The playing field I have in mind is the post-election 2012 field, what I am calling the new America. As believers we need to regain God’s heart-throb for the world. This new world is now on our doorstep. If it is not right next door to me it is, as a friend put it so well, in a zip code right next door to me.

What we actually need is a movement, a great people movement of the Holy Spirit touching individuals, churches and the entire nation. After the tragic events of Friday, December 14, in Newtown, Connecticut, we are again made aware of the release of genuine evil in our wider culture. But the great people movement of the Spirit that I pray for will not bring back the days of American hegemony in the world. In fact. I submit that it would turn America into a place where mission becomes […]

Don't Let the Suburbs Kill My Soul

By John Armstrong|2012-12-16T04:00:22-06:00December 16th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Music, Personal, Social Networking, The Church, Wealth|

My friend Jeff Gokee, executive director at partner ministry PhoenixONE, shared this You Tube song with me yesterday. It is written and performed by Christian musician Ben Rector. I had never even heard of the guy until I listened to this song. The plaintive and prayerful plea is to “not let the suburbs kill my soul.” I have done a lot of reading and viewing lately about how suburbia broke down community, broke up America’s cultural oneness and then drove us to independence in radical ways that harm our collective soul. This music strikes me as a haunting challenge to life as I’ve known it my entire adult life. I now pray, “Lord, do not let the suburbs kill my soul.” Tell me what you think when you hear it.

Words from a Christian Leader Who Witnessed Gun Violence in His Community

By John Armstrong|2012-12-15T11:30:54-06:00December 15th, 2012|Categories: Culture, Current Affairs|

My friend Kevin Jesmer serves as a gospel worker with UBF in DeKalb, Illinois. A few years ago DeKalb was rocked by gun violence on campus at Northern Illinois University, where Kevin has spent time with students in Bible teaching for many years. Kevin sent me these points about such violent tragedies last evening. I share them with the hope that they will ministry to more people.

1. Never loose hope… in humanity, in our society, in finding a solution…but especially in Jesus.

2. Continue to preach the Gospel as a matter of life or death.

3. Pray. Pray. Pray. Stop thinking that we have all the answers without Jesus. These shootings are happening in middle class, well equipped with well funded police forces. Our best efforts are not enough to stem the tide of this violence. I want to try my best, humanly, but I also want to trust in God and seek his help.

4. Be a better parent to my kids so they can find the love, support and affirmation that they need.

5. Support my local church and especially the youth out reach.

6. Support mental health programs […]

Testimony Has the Greatest Weight

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:02-05:00December 14th, 2012|Categories: Apologetics, Christ/Christology, God's Character, Incarnation|

The famous Samuel Johnson (1708–1784), often called quite simply Dr. Johnson, was a devout Anglican essayist, poet, literary critic and editor. He has been called “the most distinguished man of letters in English history.” He is also the subject of the most famous single work of biography in the whole of literature, James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson. Johnson observed, as reported in Boswell’s biography, “Testimony has great weight, and casts the balance.” I believe this is profoundly true with regard to our Christian faith. Let me explain.

The late Christian philosopher Elton Trueblood wrote, “If Christ is trustworthy, God really is!” He further said we have many reasons for believing in God but the one reason that is ultimately inescapable is the testimony of Christ. If Christ is the center of certitude then it is not rational for anyone to refuse to follow him into his own deepest conviction of reality. “The testimony of Christ is important,” adds Trueblood, “because thoughtful people are fully aware of a certain inconclusiveness in all other theistic evidences.”

There are good evidences […]

A Christmas Flash Mob Public Witness

By John Armstrong|2012-12-13T04:00:27-06:00December 13th, 2012|Categories: Uncategorized|

I have seen a number of “flash mob” public scenes on You Tube. I have enjoyed many of them. This one, however, moved me very deeply. I actually wept in great joy watching this. I wish more displays of our love for Christ, especially in our public displays, looked and felt like this scene. What creativity and grace. Watch the faces of those who realize what is happening as the singers praise God with beautiful voices.

An ACT3 Network Partnership in Phoenix

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:03-05:00December 12th, 2012|Categories: ACT 3, Discipleship, Emergent Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Social Networking, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

Last week I shared again in a wonderful time of ministry in Phoenix. It was my third visit to the Valley of the Sun over the last 16 months. My primary purpose has been to be with my dear friend, Jeff Gokee. Jeff is the executive director of PhoenixONE, one of the most hopeful and exciting movements of the Spirit that I’ve personally witnessed in my travels across the U.S.

The mission of PhoenixONE is to be a unified movement of local churches who come together as ONE to reach 20-30 something’s for Christ and connect them to a local faith community. PhoenixONE began about two years ago and now reaches over 1,000 people every other Tuesday evening in downtown Phoenix.

After completing his B.A. at Moody Bible Institute Jeff Gokee originally moved to Phoenix to help plant an urban church. After a series of setbacks he joined the staff of an area mega-church and, after several more years of pastoral ministry, was led to pioneer this ministry to reach out to the generation that […]

Will the World End One Week from Today?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:03-05:00December 11th, 2012|Categories: Current Affairs, Eschatology, Science, The Future|

Will the world end on December 21st? An interpretation of an ancient Maya calendar has been used, for several years now, to suggest that the end of the world will take place on (or around) December 21, 2012. The film “2012,” starring John Cusack, made the idea popular with many movie goers. The warnings are linked with the Mayan calendar turning over on that day. A Mayan inscription from a small ruin was,at least according to some experts, mistranslated to imply big events surrounding that date. These big doings then evolved into doomsday scenarios made popular through various forecasts. Add to this the popular movie “2012” and there you have the buzz about the end next week.

So what should we make of this forecast regarding 2012? First, and I might surprise you by saying this first, it could be right. We do not know the day or the hour of the Lord’s return. In Matthew 24:30-31 we read:

Then a sign will appear in the sky. And there will be the Son of Man. All nations on […]

Lincoln on the Big Screen (5)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:03-05:00December 10th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, Film, History, Race and Racism|

Since the new film “Lincoln” deals directly with the passage of the 13th Amendment, and the abolition of slavery in the United States, scholars and pundits of all sorts are asking new questions about both Lincoln and slavery. I welcome this dialogue and actually pray that we might see a little more light and a lot less heat. Rhetorical bombs, made out of deep anguish and the pain of our collective story, often begin to fly when we engage profound American tragedy like the slavery, the Civil War and the life of our sixteenth president.

“Lincoln” rightly shows that Abraham Lincoln understood that equality before the law would not easily translate into human equality in 19th century America. Our modern concepts of equality were held by some in Lincoln’s time but held only dimly in contrast to what we believe and understand about the matter today. Lincoln advised Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, perhaps the strongest abolitionist in the House, to “avoid the swamps” in making his case. Stevens’ radical allies were appalled at his demeanor during the House […]

Lincoln on the Big Screen (4)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:03-05:00December 7th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, Film, History, Politics|

When producer Steven Spielberg began to talk with script writer Tony Kushner about his project to do the first serious film on Abraham Lincoln in seventy years their ideas began to coalesce when Spielberg asked, “Why don’t we make a movie about passing the 13th Amendment?”

So it is that the new “Lincoln” film came to be about only one month–January, 1865– in the life of Abraham Lincoln.

In January 1865 Lincoln had just been re-elected. The war drug on but was nearly won. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by the president as a special war powers act, abolished slavery but only within the areas of the U.S. that were “in rebellion” against the Union. There was serious question whether this war powers act, an general emancipation, would hold any legal force once the war had ended.

It is worth noting that the intense struggle to pass the 13th Amendment is confined to only five pages of 754 in Goodwin’s book, Team of Rivals. So this film may owe something to Goodwin’s great book, certainly in terms of its inspiration, […]

Lincoln on the Big Screen (3)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:03-05:00December 6th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, Film, History, Politics|

The screenplay for the new “Lincoln” film was written by Tony Kushner (photo at left). Kushner began writing for the screen in 2000. He previously co-wrote the screenplay for “Munich” in 2005, a film also directed by Steven Spielberg. Kushner, who is a secular Jew, is widely known for his criticism of religious extremism in Israeli politics, which has created some controversy within American Jewish circles. His written work includes scripts dealing with homosexuality and he legally married his same-sex partner in 2008. For some this is enough to make them suspicious of this film. I assure you there is no logical or palpable reason to draw such a conclusion.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, whose work I have often praised on this blog, wrote a November 29 “Evaluation” in the New York Times about the Lincoln film.

In the wide-ranging online conversation about Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner’s “Lincoln,” it’s been interesting to watch the movie be praised and criticized for the same artistic choice: Its determinedly narrow focus on the month or so […]