Blog - Page 80 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Living in God's Love, Filled with Hope, Facing Great Trials

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:12-05:00August 21st, 2012|Categories: God's Character, Love, Personal|

Jamie Stober describes himself as a newly confessional Lutheran theologian of the armchair variety who is looking forward for the opportunities coming up ahead on the pilgrimage that is the Christian life. He loves Jesus Christ and wants to serve him with his whole being. But his life is profoundly challenged by a rare disease called Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a form of muscular dystrophy that worsens more quickly than other forms of this crippling illness. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is caused by a defective gene for dystrophin (a protein in the muscles).

Through a mutual friendship Jamie and I met online and then we met a few months ago by telephone. Jamie is a young man who knows that his days are limited but he is filled with a deep determination to make every second count. I asked him to contribute a guest blog to my site. He is, himself, a regular blogger, thus I encourage you to visit his site and to pray for him as a brother in Christ. He is truly a “great soul.”

God wants […]

An ACT 3 Luncheon with Brendan Purcell

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:15-05:00August 17th, 2012|Categories: ACT 3, Biblical Theology, Books, Science|

The last two days I have written blogs about science and creation. I published a review of Brendan Purcell’s new book, From Big Bang to Big Mystery, written by Irish scholar, Dr. Joe McCarroll. I also mentioned that I have invited Dr. Brendan Purcell to speak in the Chicago area on his book at an ACT 3 Luncheon. This event will begin at noon (ending by 1:45 p.m.) on Wednesday, September 12, at Alberto’s, the restaurant of the Holiday Inn located at 150 South Gary Avenue, Carol Stream IL 60188. You can register for this event at our web site. Everyone is invited who is interested in the topic and the event. The cost, which includes the meal, a beverage and the gratuity, is $25.00. Registration is required because of seating limitations.

Dr. Brendan Purcell is a former professor of philosophy at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland, from where he retired in 2008. Currently, he is an adjunct professor in philosophy at Notre Dame University, Sydney, Australia. He is also a Catholic priest, having been ordained in […]

From Big Bang to Big Mystery (A Review: Part 2)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:15-05:00August 16th, 2012|Categories: Biblical Theology, Books, Science, Scripture|

Yesterday, I published the first part of Dr. Joe McCarroll’s review of Brendan Purcell’s important new book, From Big Bang to Big Mystery. Today I publish the second part of his review. I believe this portion of the review explains clearly why this is an important book for thinking, serious Christian readers who want to engage the question of origins in a biblically honest and insightful way while properly giving due to what we’ve learned from science over the last several centuries.

From Big Bang to Big Mystery

A Review, Part Two

Joe McCarroll

Apart from those engaged by the issues around evolution I’d say that From Big Bang to Big Mystery – Human Origins in the Light of Creation and Evolution has most to offer those working on the theme of creation.

The book is studded with stunning exclamatory and discursive statements on the contingency and sheer existence of aspects of the finite universe and ourselves, moving back and forth between the pneumatic and noetic dimensions of our experience of groundedness in a transfinite Origin so profoundly explored in Chapter 1, with remarkable quotations from Parmenides (41f.), Aristotle (47), Les Murray […]

From Big Bang to Big Mystery: The Question of Human Origins

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:15-05:00August 15th, 2012|Categories: Biblical Theology, Books, Science, Scripture|

I grew up in an ecclesial context that had positively no regard for insights we might gain from evolution. During my student years at Wheaton College I learned to think of creation differently and began to open my mind to broader thought patterns on the questions of origins. Then I wandered into “strict (literal) creationism” for a sojourn of about ten years. This came about while I was preaching through Genesis in the late 1970s. I was always uncomfortable with creationists, for reasons that I will not elaborate at this point, but I felt Genesis plainly taught that creation was completed in six 24-hour days. Almost out of necessity I then agreed that this work of creation was likely finished only 12,000-15,000 years ago. (This was much harder to accept and I never fully embraced the idea!) These views continued to sit very uneasily within my mind. Later they deeply troubled my heart as well. The reason was that they required me to deny some things that I saw very clearly. But much more importantly, they forced me to interpret Scripture in a way that I […]

The ACT 3 Missional-Ecumenical Cohort Groups 2012

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:17-05:00August 14th, 2012|Categories: ACT 3, Discipleship, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism|

The ACT 3 Missional-Ecumenical Cohort group might be the very kind of leadership training experience that you need to jump start your journey into a new stage of growth.

The ACT 3 Cohort is an eight-month learning process than involves various educational styles, small groups, intense discussions and intentional accountability. The group includes clergy and non-clergy, men and women. Members come from many church backgrounds and denominations, which provides a unique opportunity for learning.

These all-day sessions meet from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Attendance is mandatory to share in a Cohort group. Dr. Armstrong will personally be present to lead each meeting. Specific locations will be chosen (in most cases) when the group size is determined.

Cohort members will read approximately 300-plus pages of material before each meeting. They will discuss these readings and interact with guest presenters on related content.

These sessions are not formal lectures but a dynamic, life-changing process that encourages learning through active participation. Friendships will be established and grow. This is a continuing education experience designed with no academic pre-requisites, only a profound commitment to learn and grow in Christ’s love and mission.

Extensive information […]

An Ancient-Modern Way to Equip Transformissional Leadership

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:17-05:00August 13th, 2012|Categories: ACT 3, Discipleship, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism|

Do you long to be a Christ-like peacemaker, a bridge-builder, and a servant-leader?

Do you believe that Christ’s kingdom is not about a program but rather about being one with God’s people in a relational unity that leads to deeply shared mission?

I have recently shared with many of you how God has been pleased to give me a fourth quarter life-vision for ACT 3’s purpose of “equipping leaders for unity in Christ’s mission.” This new vision is to mentor leaders, both lay and ministerial, through a series of missional-ecumenical cohort groups gathered around the country. These groups are intentional small groups focused on mission, joined across traditional denominational boundaries, for the kingdom of Christ.

These training sessions are four day-long meetings, spread over the course of eight months, shared with other Christians committed to understanding and pursuing these same goals together. If you are interested, then please read on, and register online. It is imperative that you sign up and begin this process soon. Please feel free to contact me directly. These cohort groups include 1,200 pages of carefully selected reading, personal interaction with […]

Can We Live Without Sinning?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:17-05:00August 10th, 2012|Categories: Biblical Theology, Love, Patristics, Spirituality|

Love and cognition merge into a single act when we feel ourselves loved by God. This is what it means, in Paul’s language, to be “in Christ.” We are mystically brought into the reality of the divine Logos. Here we are “consumed with love” says Archimandrite Sophrony.

This personal revelation to the heart draws us into the “so great salvation” that is entirely of God’s grace. This revelation may be granted suddenly, as was true with Paul in his dramatic conversion. But even if this is true, as it was in my case as well, we can only assimilate this love by degrees. And this is true only after we have endured long ascetic struggle. We must grow into this complete salvation and this means “death and resurrection” are recurring experiences in our journey. “From the first instant the vital content of the revelation is clear and the soul feels no impulse to explain in rational concepts the grace experienced” (His Life Is Mine, 44).

Words fail me when I seek to describe this transforming vision. The knowledge […]

Through Love We Are Joined With God

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:17-05:00August 9th, 2012|Categories: Biblical Theology, God's Character, Orthodoxy, Patristics, Spirituality|

Yesterday I wrote of how hypostasis and persona are integrally connected with our being saved. They are also a vital part of how we learn to live by the Spirit and produce the fruit of the Spirit, not the sins of our flesh. What is at stake here is the true understanding how God’s love works in us to produce transformation through askesis, or self-denial.

Man, made in the image of the triune God, is hypostatic. (See my earlier posts for an explanation of this important Greek term that was first used by early church fathers to develop the theological truths I am appealing for in these posts.) God is a Hypostatic Being. God is Spirit, and man is spirit. Yet the spirit in us is not unconnected, or abstract being, but concrete expression in a corporeal body.

The Divine Logos, the second person of the Divine Hypostasis, took on himself human flesh and showed, once and for all, that God is not a fantasy of our human imagination. He is an actual reality. This is why Archimandrite […]

The Love of God and Our Spiritual Transformation

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:18-05:00August 8th, 2012|Categories: Biblical Theology, God's Character, Orthodoxy, Spirituality|

Galatians 5 refers to the acts of the human flesh, that is the acts that come from our sinful nature. Here is how Paul puts it:

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

What we need, more than we realize, is the gift of repentance. Repentance does not come readily to us. The reason is that so few of us fathom the real problem of sin. This problem is only disclosed to us though Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Repentance for sin is possible. But it is only possible and appropriate “where there is a personal relationship” (His Life Is Mine, 42). We must encounter the living triune God in order to experience the “fear of the Lord.” But we often mistake this fear because we turn it into an end, or goal, and then […]

How Then Shall We Be Saved?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:18-05:00August 7th, 2012|Categories: Biblical Theology, Gospel/Good News, Orthodoxy, Spirituality|

For much of my life I thought “being saved” meant accepting Jesus in a moment of faith. Those who were saved had done this faith act/decision and those who were not saved had not yet done it. “Are you saved?” really meant “Have you prayed to receive Jesus?” Time to think, the fullness of the truth of Holy Scripture, and great grace, have all conspired to change my view quite significantly. Let me explain.

The word saved refers to being rescued, to our deliverance. While conversion is the beginning of our new life it is just that, a beginning. The conversion itself may not even be something that a person is deeply aware of existentially. The reality is what matters – “new life” has begun. Paul says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here” (2 Cor. 5:17). Another way to translate the last part of the first sentence is: “that person is a new creation.” Thus the main point here is our becoming “a new creation.” Jesus is making everything new thus when he puts […]