What really never ceases to amaze me, especially after reading Schaeffer’s works, is that Christians still fail to realize that we are no longer living in a Christian nation (if we ever did), and that we no longer have a Christian culture. It is a sub-culture, at best.

Our country, and our culture, are in the grip of subjectivism, humanism, and a rebellion against all convention. We are NOT in the grip of the Holiness and Majesty of the Lord God, Omnipotent. We are in the grip of a worldview which says “live all you can, cause you just live once… you have the right to do whatever you want” – to quote a DC Talk song from a ways back.

What have we become?

Self-indulgent people.

What have we become?

Tell me, where are the righteous ones?

What have we become?

In a world, degenerating…

What have we become?

On to Schaeffer.
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As we touched on in the last post, the battle has several “fronts”. One of those fronts consists of ideas. Schaeffer says we are “locked in battle” with our culture. We are in what has been called a “culture war” by many – with the unfortunate connotation that the war is about culture, or that it has a scope limited only to culture. Let me broaden it a bit for you.

The actions we take are legitimized by what we deem “permissible” – in our thought life. Our thoughts are the gateway to our heart of hearts, and to our actions. If you assume a certain form of thought, your actions will follow accordingly. How you think is integral to how you act – and you you feel towards, and regard, your fellow men. Any Christian with experience debating a proponent of humanism/atheism can tell you – they do not think the way that we are called to think. They vary in type, and form – but they are all incompatible with the thought life a Christian is called to have. What is it we are called to do?

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. – Col. 3:2

– and –

For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ. – 1 Cor. 2:16

We are to have the mind of Christ. Directed toward, guided by, and grounded in the knowledge and wisdom of Christ. Do we really understand the implications of this? Do we truly know the immensity of this calling? We are called to be Holy – as He is Holy. Do we, can we, imagine that our thoughts are exempt from this imperative?

Knowledge is added through diligent study – Wisdom is granted by God, and correctly applies knowledge to Godly principles – Understanding is gained through maturity, and application of Wisdom to daily living. Does that make sense? Knowledge can be acquired by anyone willing to put the work into it. The ability to apply knowledge into thoughts and precepts is wisdom. How that knowledge is applied differentiates Godly wisdom from worldly wisdom. Understanding is the correct balance resulting from the Godly application of knowledge (wisdom) to daily living – which will, in turn, result in Godly action. For more on wisdom, see this post.

Oh, we have a book to study! Read on…

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If the Evangelical world is mired within a Great Disaster (or should we use “quagmire”? :D) – this is part and parcel of it’s second failure. The failure to defend Truth as Truth. This is a battle! Martin Luther once said:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.’

What an utterly damning indictment! Examine yourself – where do you flinch? We cannot say honestly that we do not.

Oh yes… the book 😀

And if we have not fail to take the battle seriously, we have certainly failed to use the weapons our Lord has provided.

Once again – refer to Ephesians 6. Then read on.

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I’m not even going to touch Shaeffer this post. I’m going to hit something more important. As I told you last time, I wanted you to read Ephesians 6. That’s what we’re going to hit on today.

I had an absolute ball digging into this. If you remember, I was feeling a bit disappointed – unsurprisingly, God had something for me – in a rather immediate fashion. All this weekend, I’ve been dealing with God, and He with me. He rebuked me where I needed it, and encouraged me where I needed it. How? By bringing me to the point in Schaeffer’s book where we address spiritual warfare – and the portion of the Bible which directly addresses it.

An apologist is directly, smack-dab in the middle of spiritual warfare of the deadliest kind. It’s easy to get discouraged, or off course, or caught up in details when you should see spiritual battle lines. This was God’s wake-up call to me. “Quit having a pity party – and FIGHT! Here is how, and here are the tools I have given you. Quit your whining, and get back into MY fight!”

So… you want to see what I learned? Click “more.”

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Curiously, the chapter following “Form and Freedom” is “The Battle We Are In” – which, in a nutshell, is a clarion call to engage in Spiritual Warfare. We are often attacked, and denigrated within our culture for the martial theme with which we accompany our calls to cultural regeneration . In a way, this criticism is warranted – in a way, it is not. Why is this so?

We have two problems. I’m going to address the battlefield, and our call to it, in one post. After you read this, I want to request something of you. I want you to meditate on this chapter of Scripture, once you read this first portion below. Ephesians 6. Now, with that in mind – and please, do not forget, because I will be relying on it heavily in the post to follow, and I want your head, and your heart, in God’s word before doing so – read the rest, by clicking “more” below.

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This is the title page for my study through Francis Schaeffer’s “The Great Evangelical Disaster”.

As we move through the study, chapter by chapter, I’ll have the posts listed on this page.

I hope you enjoy it – and, most especially, that it’s edifying.

God bless!

~RK

Chapter 1: What Really Matters?

What Really Matters?

The Quest for Autonomy

Form and Freedom

The Battle We Are In: Part I

The Battle We Are In: The Full Armor

The Battle We Are In: Part II

The Wisdom of the World

A Post-Christian Culture

This is post number 3 in a series exploring Francis Schaeffer’s book, “The Great Evangelical Disaster.”

As we read last time, the article in Time magazine finished with an amazing statement:

The American Century was to be a century of unleashing, of breaking away, at first from the 19th century … and eventually from any constraints at all. Behind most of these events lay the assumption, almost a moral imperative, that what was not free ought to be free, that limits were intrinsically evil …but … when people or ideas are unfettered, they are freed but not yet free.

Schaeffer continues his analysis of those statements in this section.

Here the problem of the 1920’s to the 1980’s is properly spelled out. It is the attempt to have absolute freedom – to be totally autonomous from any intrinsic limits. It is the attempt to throw off anything that would restrain one’s own personal autonomy. But it is especially a direct and deliberate rebellion against God and His law.

Powerful stuff. When society, or even one person sets themselves up, saying they are intrinsically autonomous, what is that called? Pride.

When pride comes, then comes dishonor, But with the humble is wisdom. (Proverbs 11:2)

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. (1 John 2:16)

The problem is this: If there is not a proper balance between form and freedom, then the society will move into either of two extremes. Freedom, without a proper balance of form, will lead to chaos and to a total breakdown of society. Form, without a proper balance of freedom, will lead to authoritarianism, and to the destruction of individual and social freedom. But note further: no society can exist in a state of chaos. And whenever chaos has reigned for even a short time, it has given birth to the imposition of arbitrary control.

Let’s ruminate on this for a minute. Schaeffer is saying that the problem which exists in government, in society, and in every human endeavor is the requirement to balance form with freedom. Read the following and pause for a few minutes, before you go on.

Do a bit of thinking on what that means, and what implications that has on how we view life, and just about everything in it. What does “form” entail? What does “freedom” entail? We value freedom – but we also value structure – or form. Could it be, perhaps, that the balance between those two is really what makes societies what they are? Our lives what they are? Take a minute – stop here. Don’t read further yet. Do some thinking on that for a minute. Then, once you’ve mulled that over for a bit – click “more”.

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This is the second post in a series of studies found in the book “The Great Evangelical Disaster”, by Francis Schaeffer. I’ll be going chapter by chapter, sub-section by sub-section, in as much “true to the book” order as I can. Last time was the exception, because the last subsection is the thesis of the chapter – so, I covered it first. From the thesis, I’m advancing to the supporting truths used to reach that conclusion.

If you’d like to follow along in this study, and really get the “meat” of it, I suggest you pick up a copy of this book. It isn’t prohibitively long. It’s 192 pages, including references, both a preface and introduction, as well as “The Mark of a Christian” included, to reinforce the Biblical emphasis on love being the Christian’s mark in the world. If you can’t find at your local Christian bookstore (and I suggest you encourage them to carry volumes of a deeper nature, like this one), it may be found on Amazon . Onward.

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This is the opening post in what I hope will be an engaging experience – a study into the works of one of the great modern-day Christian thinkers. “The Great Evangelical Disaster,” by Francis Schaeffer.

Francis Schaeffer is the founder of the L’Abri Fellowship. That word, in French, means “shelter”. Francis was deeply concerned about the state of Christianity in the philosophical, theological, and public arenas. While not really an apologist, per se, his insights into the philosophy and basic tenets of Christianity may give us a better understanding of the world we live in, the ideas we face, and the true state of affairs the Church, and we as Christians, are in.

The introductory chapter to this book is entitled “What Really Matters?” The title question is actually asked at the end of the chapter, in a sub-section titled the same as above. He asks: “What is it that matters so muchin my life, and in your life, that it sets the priorities for everything we do?”

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