John H Armstrong

The Greatest Commandment

The Greatest Commandment

    ³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

   ³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

For the religious leaders of Jesus' time religion was a very complicated business, much as it became over time in the Christian church. It was full of rules and regulations, often so many no one could even keep up with the list. It had become so complex that a great many people could not hope to fulfill the demands of the Law or experience peace in practicing their faith. It is not surprising then to find a devout man asking Jesus about this in Matthew 22. He seemed to genuinely want to know, "What is most important in all this detailed instruction about living?" 

In his reply, which we read in the text above, Jesus goes to the core of the matter. All true religion and spirituality (including morality) depend on man's loving God with his whole being (his self, his inner essence, his personality) and then loving his neighbor with the same love that he had for himself. 

The Apostle Paul said the same thing in Romans 13:8-10 where he says that all moral and religious demands are not found in determined human effort but in a heart opened fully to the love of God and prepared to love other people.

Love Fulfills the Law

    ⁸ Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. ⁹ The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

"Love is the fulfillment of the law." 

I hear some Christians say, in essence, "We cannot fulfill the law. Only Christ can." True, in one sense. But not true in another. This clever theological shell game misses the point here and denies the reality of Christ's love working in us by the Spirit. 

Whatever denomination or group you belong to it behooves you to go back to the heart of the matter at the end of 2011. All our creeds, formulas, mission statements and programs are worth nothing if we do not fulfill the most basic command of all, the love God and our neighbors. 

Is Jesus watering-down the moral law here? Is he weakening the Ten Commandments? If you think this then you have not followed the way of Christ or understood what is going on here at all. If you follow Jesus in the coming year I promise you that you will surpass the demands of any set of laws and your actions will surpass those of people who try to follow the Law of Moses. The Ten Commandments may produce law-abiding people, albeit people who fail to keep the Law at every point, but the Law of Christ produces those who live as sons and daughters of the living God. 

I recently read a post in which a friend asked people to say what family characteristic is important to focus on in 2012? I was amazed at some of the responses. I wrote: "Love." Nothing else comes remotely close. Don't you think I'm right? And if not please help me understand why. "The greatest of these is love." 

 

 

Killing Lincoln: A "Flawed" Book Well Worth Reading

You have to admit it, television talk-show host Bill O'Reilly is extremely popular. His nightly Fox News Channel program is the highest-rated cable news show in America. Love him, despise him, or simply ignore him, millions of people know Bill O'Reilly and most have an opinion about him, one way or the other. His often bombastic style irritates and delights, driving his ratings through the roof. While he defends conservative political points consistently he is willing to go where similar hosts will not go in criticising certain conservatives by using his famous tag of "pinhead." Yet he continues to get most political leaders and pop-culture icons to appear on his show, something rarely done in this venue. He may well be the most talked about political commentator of our day. But can he write a successful historical book that goes beyond his modern political opinion? (O'Reilly was a history teacher at one point in the past.)

I confess that when I first saw the numerous advertisements for O'Reilly's new best-seller, Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever, I was distinctly not interested. Why? I am neither a fan of O'Reilly nor a huge critic. I just do not pay much attention to Bill O'Reilly at all. (I might watch him once or twice in a month for all of about ten minutes.) And as a serious student of Abraham Lincoln, our greatest president, I was quite sure that this book would never keep my interest for long. I was prepared to find so many flaws. Before reading word one I already knew what a few of these flaws were. 

My wife asked me to borrow the book from the public library when I was headed that way one afternoon. We were put on a waiting list. Finally the book became available. When Anita finished it in six days I still had eight days to read it before it had to be returned. So last week I finished it in five days! It was that good. I confess that I have read better history, and better Lincoln biography by far, but this is a truly well-written book. It is emotionally engaging in a way that is rarely found in books about Lincoln or any other American president or historical event. 

Short chapters, a vivid and imaginative style of writing, and enough detail to be helpful to ordinary readers, the book is truly a page-turner, especially for those who would never read the work of professional historians. Yet this is precisely why so many critics have widely attacked this book. It's popular style, joined with its non-use of historical footnotes, creates the perfect storm for genuine and fair criticism. The lack of notation is considered a cardinal sin in the academic world. Even some credible historians have been shredded by reviewers for lesser flaws than can be found in Killing Lincoln. And flaws there are in this book. 

But O'Reilly (and Dugan) clearly set out to write a "historical thriller." I believe they succeeded quite well. The authors make you feel like you were right there at Ford's theater or in the fields of Virginia when John Wilkes Booth was found and shot. 

I could pick numerous examples to show why the writing style of this books works so well. I will use but one good example, in describing Booth's actions and thoughts just fifteen minutes before he shot Lincoln. The authors say, "Booth had a head full of whiskey and a heart full of hate. He thinks of the Confederate cause and Lincoln's promise to give slaves the vote. And then Booth remembers that no one can put a stop to it but him. He is the one man who can, and will, make a difference. There will be no going back" (page 195). Is this an accurate account of Booths thoughts? Well, yes and no. He did not write them down precisely nor was a reporter there asking him fifteen minutes before he fired on the president. But this form of writing liberty is exactly what makes the book so interesting. You "feel" all this in Booth since this is quite close to what he did say about himself and his actions before and after the assassination. Historians will challenge this free form of writing but I confess that I loved it. 

Now, back to the question of flaws. Is the book accurate in all ways? No, there are clearly some details that O'Reilly (and co-author Martin Dugard) got wrong. Consider the criticism of several published reviewers on November 13 in the Huffington Post. But anyone who follows political reporting and opinion knows that the Huffington Post is no fan of Bill O'Reilly. Other reviews are also critical but far more fair with the book. An example of this can be seen in the respected Kirkus Reviews.

So should you read Killing Lincoln? If you know very little about the story, enjoy a good way of telling it in evocative words and are not looking to do serious research on the subject then my answer is affirmative. If you are interested in Lincoln scholarship then try several of the books recommended in the Kirkus Reviews. 

The Complete Failure of Prohibition

I spent a few days before Christmas watching the recently released Ken Burn's documentary series Prohibition. It is, as most Ken Burns' productions, a great success. This three-part series, lasting over five-plus hours, relates the story of American idealism, folly and unintended consequences.

In 1920, after literally a century of crusades and agitation, we passed the 18th Amendment which outlawed the manufacturing and sale of alcohol. For thirteen years we then battled to apply a law that had no chance of doing what its proponents had hoped for, namely saving families and ending vice. And who do we have to thank for this foolish amendment? Mostly well-intentioned moralists who were crusading and zealous Christians! These Christians may have had good motives but their actions were rooted in a terrible misuse of Scripture and a total misunderstanding of the role of government in terms of personal freedoms. 

This series tells the amazing stories of small-time whiskey-jobbers, big-time bootleggers, and brutal gangsters; e.g. think Al Capone and Chicago in the late 1920s. From politicians to preachers America became a land of massive hypocrisy. Some studies actually show that drinking and drunkenness increased as a result of prohibition. One thing we know for sure; the number of lobbyists increased, as did wide-spread graft in government and the police departments. Catholics and Protestants (at least some Protestants like the Methodists and Baptists) became even further divided over prohibition. The debate was as much about small-town values vs. city-values as it was about drinking or not drinking. And there was a strand of anti-immigration xenophobia in this that ran deeply through the American divide much as it runs through our politics today. 

What is the proper role of government? We still debate this question as fiercely as ever. On the Left and the Right we think we know the answer, and thus give simplistic answers routinely. But history reveals how little we truly understand the question or the answer(s). And no issue shows this quite like prohibition. 

In 1933, less than a year after FDR became president, the state of Utah became the deciding vote that was needed to repeal the only amendment to the U. S. Constitution that was ever rejected. (I found that intriguing given the deep roots of Mormonism in Utah!) Few would deny that prohibition was a complete and total disaster. In the throes of a Great Depression repeal became a no-brainer when the revenue from alcohol was desperately needed and as many as one in four Americans was out of work and the repeal created jobs. "The Noble Experiment" came to an ignominious end. But what did we learn from its failure? I wonder, I seriously wonder. 

Personally this series made me question a number of the ways that conservative Christians still try to bring about a better moral environment through passing governmental laws against "sin." What made prohibition a total failure and Civil Rights a moral necessity? If you cannot answer that one with a fair degree of clarity then you had best rethink your zeal for making laws to stop or check sin in society. I can still hear, from my childhood, Christian people telling me that passing Civil Rights laws would not work since we could not change people's hearts through legislation! Their piety might be admirable but their grasp of law and freedom was positively awful. These same people were the folks who promoted prohibition! History makes us come face-to-face with some genuinely moral ironies in our American story. It would be extremely useful for modern Christian conservatives, and liberals, to see this excellent series. 

War Horse: A Fine Film

The much-hyped Stephen Spielberg movie, War Horse, opened on Christmas Day. Since all the festivities at my house were over by early afternoon I decided to see the film in a packed theater at a matinee showing. (The prices are always much less at this first showing.) War Horse has to be one of the three best modern "horse" movies I've seen. 

If you know little about World War I you will gain some perspective. You will even feel the theater rumble and shake from the sounds created by the bombs hitting the trenches of British soldiers. The insanity and cruelty of this war was particularly barbaric. So many died in the field with so little hope of survival. The war became a battle of attrition. Most of us alive today have almost no sense of either the reasons this war was fought or the true carnage that was involved for much of Europe. And the end of the Great War merely prepared the way for another war two decades later. 

But this movie is not about World War I. Yes, there are some chilling combat scenes for sure but even these are not of the sort that we have become accustomed too in modern war films. The star of this film is truly the horse. This amazing and beautiful animal will likely prompt you to admire him like few animals you've seen in starring roles. I'll not give away the end but let's say that if you truly get into the story line, and feel the pathos of the central human character and his beloved horse, you will be deeply moved. The plot is somewhat formulaic and the ending is slightly predictable but on Christmas Day this all made for an enjoyable and truly feel-good film. Will it win awards? It should be nominated for several. Whether it wins or not the film is beautiful and satisfying, like fine wine.  

The film is rated PG13 for the war scenes but personally I think I would take a teen, ages 14 or 15 and up. If you loved Seabiscuit, and I did, then prepare yourself to fall in love with a horse. You might even shed a "feel good" tear or two and applaud at the end, just as the audience did in the theater where I saw the film on Christmas Day. War Horse is a great movie. I give it three and a half stars. 

My Bride Still Delights Me

Forty-one years ago this evening I married a beautiful young woman of 22 years of age. I, a senior on Christmas break at Wheaton College, could not believe this gorgeous lady would marry me. As I stood at the front of the Wheaton Bible Church watching her come down that long aisle I was simply staggered by God's blessing in my life. 

Today we remember all the blessings that were given to us in the years since that wonderful evening of December 26, a cold Saturday night in 1970. We had only truly met (we talked for a few seconds about five months before but we really did not notice each other at all) in May of 1970. We fell in love very fast. I do not recommend it but it was sheeer joy. Our parents were totally supportive and thus we got married rather quickly. If truth be told we hardly knew each other, at least in terms of our respective bad habits and ways of coping emptionally. Our cultures were very different too. I was from the deep South and Anita was a Chicago girl through-and-through. Oddly, both our dads were dentists who both graduated from Northwestern Dental School. (They had never met since they were there at different times.)

 Our love has grown over these forty-one years. We have faced challenges, as all couples do over time. But one thing I am sure about today more than ever. I made a good choice. (I think Anita would agree!) It would be better to say that God kindly directed me to a woman who was loyal, loving and so much fun to be around. She was gorgeous to me when we first talked warmly, and with real interest, in May of 1970. She is, and I am not making this up, more gorgeous to me now than she was then. She ages well, loves me much better each year and supports me like no one else in my life. And no one watches my back side, and my front side for that matter, like Anita. She can see through people like I cannot. She warns me about people who will hurt me and I am learning to listen better with time. She even tells me how to drive but I listen less to this counsel. Surprised?

God bless you my precious wife of 41 years!!!

ACT 3 & the New Year Ahead: I Need Your Help

I want to thank all of you who read my various posts, whether here, on Facebook and Twitter or by subscribing to our ACT 3 Weekly articles that are sent each Monday to thousands of readers. Your interest and love over the past year is a blessing. I also want to thank many of you who faithfully and generously supported us. This ministry simply could not exist, at least in its present and fast-growing form, without you!

I hope you know that your support is helping me to challenge and teach thousands of Christian leaders across the country, even around the world. The Lord is using ACT 3 to mentor pastors, missionaries, educators, professionals, businessmen and women and homemakers. We impact Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christians in an ever growing way. We uniquely combine a passion for mission with a vision for unity, some all too uncommon in our time. We are in partnership with a major Christian think tank, with a mission that reaches around the globe, with several growing churches and many other related kinds of ministries. Our desire is always to equip leaders in unity for Christ's mission in order to help draw Christians into a transforming faith and robust witness by becoming missional in their understanding of the church and of Christ's vocation/calling. 

Please know that your confidence, prayer and financial support means so very much to me personally. I am so very grateful for each of you! 

This season is critical to our annual fundraising. We have operated behind our budget for three-plus years now. By God's grace we are making it, step-by-step, but we could do much more going forward with your help. Please pray that God would touch the hearts of those receiving all of our year-end appeals. A Christmas card was sent to our physical mailing list. If you did not get one then be sure to send us your address for future mailings. (More and more these communications are being done by email to save money.) If your heart is moved toward this work then please give as generously as you can to help us end the year well with our revised budget. If we end well then we can move boldly into our new vision for 2012 and beyond. This vision is expressed well on the home page at ACT 3.

I pray that you have a wonderful Christmas and that the New Year will be filled with many blessings. God bless you all. 

A year-end gift, of any size, will be appreciated. You can go to ACT 3 and donate online anytime. 

A Canadian Leader Who Models Christian Grace in Leadership

A Canadian Christian friend recently introduced me to the head of state in his province by sharing an email link. I thus learned about a remarkable politician named Brad Wall. Wall was elected Premier of Saskatchewan in the November 2007 provincial election. 

Since that election, the Wall's leadership of the government can point to a remarkable list of achievements, including;  

- Three balanced budgets; 
- The largest tax cuts in the history of Saskatchewan; 
- Cutting the province's debt by almost 40 per cent; 
- Record infrastructure spending to improve roads, schools and senior's facilities all across Saskatchewan and providing more affordable housing for those with lower incomes.

Prior to his career in politics, Premier Wall was active in his local business community and was involved in service work spanning local events, economic development and health care recruitment.

One of his earliest forays into politics was in the late 1980's as a founding member and western co-chair of the Alliance for the Future of Young Canadians. This was an organization dedicated to promoting free trade.

Brad Wall was born and raised in Swift Current, which is in Saskatchewan's south-west.  He still lives there with his wife, Tami as well as their three children: Megan, Colter and Faith.  And because of them, he tries to get home most nights, even though it's a two hour drive from Saskatchewan's capital-Regina.  He also enjoys coaching minor football in his hometown.

Here is the premier's Christmas greetings to his people. This is an amazing balance of faith and leadership in a time when we are learning how to live in the public sector where Christendom no longer dominates the culture. God bless Premier Wall.  

 

The Growing Reality of Interfaith Activity

A recent Hartford Institute study indicates an increase in connections across all faith traditions, especially among more civic-oriented communities. Since the 9/11 attacks, congregations have gotten more involved in interfaith work and are cooperating more for the social good of their communities. In the past decade, American congregations' involvement in interfaith worship doubled and their involvement in interfaith community service nearly tripled. Although interfaith work has increased in both evangelical and oldline churches, the most liberal congregations have the highest level of this activity. 

Older evangelicals have a very difficult time thinking about interfaith dialog and practice. Their categories are totally black and white. You are for Christ or for the devil. This is spiritual war and we must choose sides. We cannot serve God and Satan so we cannot have discussions with non-Christians unless they are evangelistic conversations. We must remind people, as soon as possible, that they are going to hell unless they convert to our faith in Jesus.  

I have clearly overstated the case here for a reason. Even if my words are not entirely accurate they are too close to reality for comfort. 

What is the problem here? 

1. We have failed to see that the term "brothers and sisters" has several different meanings in the Bible and tradition. Clearly, the New Testament speaks of "brothers and sisters" primarily in terms of those who are one with us in Christ. But there is more nuance to this issue than some will allow. We are plainly related to one another as members of the same human family, created by the same God and loved by the same Creator who sent his one and only Son into the world to save us. He did not send the Savior into the world "to condemn the world" (John 3:16-17) as the Fourth Gospel makes so plain. 

We are all created by God thus none of us exists independently from God. "We live and move and have our being in God." Ontologically we are all brothers and sisters who are coming forth from God here and now as a divine creative act. This is why St. Francis could speak of "brother sun and sister moon." Evangelicals have often lost this robust doctrine as it is expressed in the first article of the creed.

2. We have far too often assumed that if we talk to non-Christians about matters of God and faith then we must talk to them in an aggressive way about our faith or we have failed to take evangelism seriously. I find this premise entirely wrong. It seems to me that it is like saying, "The only way we can and should talk to people of non-Christian persuasion is if we can talk about their need to convert and join us." Surely we can have loving and wonderful conversation with people as real friends and neighbors without that conversation leading us to "present the plan of salvation" as our only purpose for a relationship. 

3. We need to read our Bibles much more carefully if we are to enter into the growing interfaith reality. I recently engaged several serious Christian thinkers about this subject because of a simple re-reading of the parables of Jesus. I am quite aware that judgment is a biblical theme. I take this quite seriously. But I am also aware that Jesus revealed the Father's love for the world. He did not reserve his love for the "right" crowd. In fact the one crowd that he most frequently warned of impending danger was the conservative religious crowd that was most sure they knew who belonged to the true people of God and who did not. 

So what needs to happen? We need to stop reacting against liberal conceptions of "the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God." These conceptions were false and remain dangerous if advanced without the clarity of the good news. But what we replaced this danger with was a theology of anger and judgment that left us with precious little to say to non-Christians but "repent" and "you are headed to hell without Jesus." If you think I make this up talk to non-Christian under age 40! I believe deeply in repentance but I do not believe that I can even begin to communicate why a God of love commands all people everywhere to repent unless people know I love them. People do not care what I love unless they know I love them. And they cannot know I love them if I will not converse with them out of deep human respect precisely because they are loved by the living and true God whose love I have found in Jesus Christ. 

Sexual Influences Upon the Church

Young Adults are clearly surrounded by sexual influences like never before. I cannot imagine how I would cope in this context if I were 21 again. I am sure I would need exceptional grace to remain chaste and pure if I were single.

A new Barna Group study reveals that a growing number of young people are leaving the church because their church experiences related to sexuality are too simplistic. This particular study found that young adults question how to live in purity while immersed in a culture that values hyper-sexuality over wholeness. Turning to the church for answers too often results in a list of forbidden activities with very little explanation about how to keep from doing them. Students and youth pastors say if the church is going to reach young adults, it must focus on the internal instead of the external. 17% of young Christians who responded to the Barna study said they made mistakes involving sex and felt judged within the church as a result. My personal experience says that this number is likely much higher. 

How can we change this? I suggest we develop a better understanding of anthropology, i.e. the doctrine of humankind. I also believe that we must regain a deep commitment to the real humanity of our Savior who was tempted in every way common to us. When we believe human persons are made in God's image and that Jesus is the ideal human person who lived in love and faith (and of course purity) then we are at least headed in the right direction again. Jesus did this by the power of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit given to us to live in faith, hope and love. 

Thinking About the Virgin and Her Child

I have been reflecting again, during this Advent season, about the person and mission of the Virgin Mother. I have quietly been doing this for the past twenty years or so. Perhaps no doctrinal thinking more quickly divides Protestants from Catholics and Orthodox Christians. Don't misunderstand me. I do not believe all the Marian dogmas affirmed by the Catholic Church, especially the two affirmed in the 19th and 20th centuries. (I do understand the rationale for these doctrinal deductions/conclusions but I am not convinced that they are either essential or faithful to Scripture or the historic creeds!)

At the same time I believe that most evangelical Protestants are quite deficient in their understanding of Mary. This means that their theology of the incarnation is also deficient because the two are clearly related in historic Christian thought. The two were plainly related in the practice of the early church. This is why the church concluded, in council, that Mary was "the mother of God, " not simply "the mother of Jesus." If you say something like this today you will very likely be attacked for false devotion to the Holy Mother, if not for some kind of heresy. This is a most unfortunate response to the historic Christian faith and orthodox understanding. Thankfully a number of serious Protestant theologians have been addressing this issue over the last five years or so. At least two or three well-written popular books, by some of our best theologians, come to mind. 

A Catholic brother recently sent me a link to a blog post by Daniel Tomberlin, a Pentecostal scholar. Tomberlin has done some helpful thinking and writing about the Virgin Mary. I commend this post to you with great appreciation. We can and should love and regard this great woman of faith.