Dec
04
2009
Hudson T. Armerding, 1918-2009
On Tuesday, December 1st, Dr. Hudson T. Armerding was released from this life into the presence of his Lord and Savior. Dr. Armerding was President of Wheaton College when Jani and I were students there. We revere the memory of this profound man of God.
Going through my “Dr. Armerding” file last evening, with many personal letters back and forth through the years that I will always cherish, I found this letter he wrote to Christianity Today on August 12, 1996:
“. . . For me, the specific declarations of Scripture are statements to be accepted as both true and normative. Indeed, it was the preaching of this authoritative Word in the power of the Holy Spirit that God used to cause me to receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation. In the subsequent years it has been the systematic truthfulness of the Scriptures as of first-order importance in disclosing the remarkable character of a sovereign God that anchored me in those episodes of doubt, disobedience, or the despair of the dark seasons of the soul. Thankfully, it was not my experience that was primary but the specific commands and promises of a faithful and unchangeable God. These enabled me to adjudge my experiences and, at least to a degree, see his hand of purpose and blessing in them.
A number of us accept ‘rational propositions in an orderly system’ such as the Westminster Confession but repudiate the idea that this leaves us with a Christianity reduced to ‘mere orthodoxy.’ On the contrary, the more I reflect on the specific truths about Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the more I am moved to worship and praise, awe and wonder, obedience and sacrifice, renunciation and acceptance.”
O Lord, raise up such men for the next generation!