Reformation and Francis Schaeffer by Benjamin Ho

Transcription

1 Reformation and Francis Schaeffer by Benjamin Ho What we need is a presentation of the Bible s historical truth in such a way that it is acceptable to today s intellectuals it is irrational to think that watertight doors exist between religion and intellectual thinking. A step of faith is no step in the dark (Francis Schaeffer, Time Magazine, 11 Jan 1960) During the 1960s, amidst the counter-culture revolution that swept across much of North America as a form of protest against the conservative social norms of the 50s and America s ill-fated involvement in the Vietnam War, one man was embarking on a mission no less revolutionary or radical to reclaim in the Christian West the lost ground of the intelligentsia and to bring this group under the lordship of Christ. Born in 1912, Francis August Schaeffer grew up in a blue-collar family whose Christianity was only nominal. At the age of eighteen, following a period of studying the Bible and contrasting Scripture with secular philosophy, he converted from agnosticism to Christianity. Five years later, he married Edith Seville, the daughter of former missionaries to China and they subsequently had four children. Until his death in 1984, Edith was his soul mate, constant companion and fellow soldier in the struggle to advance Christ s kingdom. Based in Switzerland, the couple visited evangelical churches throughout Western Europe Fran to speak out against modernism and Edith to promote children s evangelism. 1 Both Fran and Edith were to later open L Abri (meaning shelter in French) - as a chalet to provide an environment where Christians and non-christians could seek answers to questions about God and truth 2. Emphasizing the importance of the presentation of the Bible s historical truth in such a way that it is acceptable to today s intellectuals, Schaeffer argued that the Bible as the Word of God was not just another religious story, but truth that can be acted upon even in the intellectual 1 Bryan Follis, Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2006). 2 Taken from

2 morass of the 20 th century 3. This intellectual morass as Schaeffer points out - is exhibited most vividly in the way modern man thinks about life as operating on two different planes, or what Schaeffer terms as the upper story and lower story. This upper story - lower story divide is not merely a matter of academic distinction, but one that has real consequences on morality, law, personal evangelism and the problem of evil. Insisting that biblical Christianity is Truth concerning total reality not just about religious things 4, Schaeffer emphasized that the Bible can stand on its own and challenged those non-christians to consider the biblical system and its truth without an appeal to blind authority that is, as though believing meant believing just because one s family did, or as though the intellect had no part in the matter. 5 This appeal to one s intellect as opposed to a leap of faith characterized Schaeffer s approach to the proclamation of the gospel and affirming the reasonableness in belief towards the Christian faith but without pandering to the extremes of the Enlightenment project where human reason alone became the final arbitrator of truth. Indeed, Schaeffer was best remembered for his emphasis on existential Christianity focused to living in the moment and embracing the reality of one s own existence while acknowledging the sovereignty of God and seeing the underpinning certainty of Christian faith in the historical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ 6. Calvin, Schaeffer and the Reformed Tradition John Calvin ( ), in his Institutes, stressed that the sum of true wisdom consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. According to Calvin, the two forms of knowledge ought not to be taken in strict chronology (as if one always precedes the other) as they are connected together by many ties Calvin elaborates as such: 3 Time Magazine, Mission to Intellectuals, 11 Jan Francis Schaeffer, Address at the University of Notre Dame, April 1981 cited in John W. Whitehead, Christians Under the Scripture. Accessed at 5 Francis Schaeffer, Escape from Reason, The Complete Works, Vol One, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), p Colin Duriez, Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008)

3 In the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone [on the other hand], we are accordingly urged by our own evil things to consider the good things of God; and indeed, we cannot aspire to Him in earnest until we have begin to be displeased with ourselves 7 This organic relationship between the Creator and his creation was for Calvin central to the understanding of the Christian faith, and which finds its grounding in Genesis 1 where to be human means to be made in the image of God (the imago dei). Believing that there exists in the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity 8, Calvin argued borrowing from the writings of Augustine that man s natural gifts were corrupted by sin, and his supernatural gifts withdrawn so that all things which pertain to the blessed life of the soul are extinguished in him until he recovers them by the grace of regeneration 9. This tension concerning the nature of man noble, yet fallen; created, but in active rebellion against his Creator is a key paradigm of Reformed Christianity and, I argue, fundamental to making sense of our own existence as well as to all of life. Theses ideas were repeatedly articulated in Schaeffer s writings particularly in three books that Schaeffer were best known for. 10 According to Schaeffer, the objective reality of the external world and the mannishness of man that God has created 11 while they do not prove the existence of God nonetheless, point man to the existence of a personal God, in which we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:27, NIV). Schaeffer s assumptions concerning human nature was crucial in guiding his ministry particularly in framing his approach to apologetics in engaging with the 7 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book First (1559), trans H. Beveridge, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989), pp ibid, p ibid, p They are: The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason, and He Is There and He Is Not Silent., published in 1968, 1969 and 1972 respectively. 11 Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There, The Complete Works, Vol One. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), p. 24.

4 wider world of culture and social life. To Schaeffer, apologetics had to be directly linked with evangelism not merely an academic exercise - and he felt that it was not really Christian apologetics if it did not lead people to Christ as Savior and then on to their living under the Lordship of Christ in the whole of life. 12 True salvation as Schaeffer points out is not simply an upper story experience, but a salvation which touches the whole man 13 not only believing with our heads, but in this present moment acting through faith through that belief. 14 Like Calvin, who points out that doctrine is not an affair of the tongue, but of the life; is not apprehended by the intellect and memory merely but is received only when it possesses the whole soul, and finds its seat and habitation in the inmost recesses of the heart, 15, Schaeffer also insists that Christianity is not just a mental assent that certain doctrines are true [but living] in supernatural communion with the Lord every moment. 16 Nancey Pearcey, who once studied under Schaeffer at L Abri, warns, If all we give [our young people] is a heart religion, it will not be strong enough to counter the lure of attractive but dangerous ideas. 17 Indeed, among Schaeffer s fears was that the evangelical church would be in danger of being left behind by society, thus losing her prophetic voice in times when it is needed most. Unlike many who viewed Western society as distinctively Christian in nature, Schaeffer pointed out that among Western countries, the historic Christian faith had become a minority. As such, notes Schaeffer, Christianity today is not conservative for conservatism means standing in the flow of the status quo, and the status quo no longer belongs to us but revolutionary. 18 Demonstrating his affinity with the countercultural generation of the 12 Follis, p Ibid, p Francis Schaeffer, Death in the City. The Complete Works, Vol Four. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), p John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book Third (1559), trans H. Beveridge (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989), p.4 16 Francis Schaeffer, Death in the City. The Complete Works, Vol Four. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), p Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), p Francis Schaeffer, The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century. The Complete Works, Vol Four. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), p. 70

5 60s and 70s, Schaeffer rebukes the church for her lack of a base and for subscribing to the material spirit of her times: Do you wonder why the young people leave home? Youngsters come to L Abri from the richest families in the world, from the greatest luxury. Why? Because they are sick of their parents making gods of affluence and thinking that one adds enough meaning to life merely by adding one more automobile to an already crowded garage. These young people are not wrong in this. They may have the wrong solution, but they are right in their diagnosis. Many of their parents, in the majority of what in the 1970s was called the silent majority, may sound like Christians, but they have no base often they are merely repeating from memory what is comfortable for the moment (italics mine) 19 In being revolutionary then, Schaeffer was neither advocating a political rebellion nor was he trying to overthrow orthodox Christianity, but rather a return to a Christianity premised upon God s Word as truth and of Christians living out their faith in an authentic and loving manner. Schaeffer sums it as follows: I would want to emphasize from beginning to end throughout my work the importance of evangelism, the need to walk daily with the Lord the importance of evangelism, the need to walk daily with the Lord, to study God s Word, to live a life of prayer, and to show forth the love, compassion, and holiness of our Lord. But we must emphasize equally and at the same time the need to live this out in every area of culture and society 20 The Character of God and the Practice of Truth Schaeffer s endearing contribution to evangelical Christianity was his personal approach to evangelism and his genuine interest in people that he spoke to listening 19 ibid. 20 Francis Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster. The Complete Works, Vol Four. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), pp

6 carefully, and giving the other person the time he or she needed. 21 Regardless of whether Schaeffer was speaking to five, fifty or five thousand, his underlying conviction remained the same: that truth mattered and people mattered. It was pointed out that Schaeffer was an emotional man who often did shed tears of concern as he spoke with people. He was not speaking about a world of abstract ideas or ideals. His goal was to bring a message that would alter the lives of his hearers. 22 All these were possible and necessary only because, to Schaeffer, truth was personal [and] it was rooted in a personal God. 23 Schaeffer s understanding of the character of God, not merely as a Platonic universal nor an Aristotelian Unmoved Mover, but as a personal being who has a living relationship with his creation formed the basis of his worldview and approach to evangelism. Schaeffer points out that the very beginning of everything [involves] a God who is personal on the high order of Trinity [creating] all else and that only within this understanding can there be a source and meaning of human personality, without which, men are left with personality coming from the impersonal (plus time, plus chance). 24 At this point, it is worth reiterating the significance and relevance of what it means to know God and how this knowledge is connected to the knowledge of oneself. According to Christian theologian R.C. Sproul, the greatest issue facing the Christian church in the twenty-first century concerns the church s understanding of the character of God. Sproul adds that apart from understanding God s justice, wrath, mercy and holiness, there is no way we can understand the gospel if you do not worship and serve the right God, you worship and serve a false one. 25 This distinction between the Creator and the creature is critical in differentiating between truth and falsehood. As the Apostle Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Romans, the sin of idolatry consists in exchanging the glory of the incorruptible God into an image 21 Follis, p ibid. 23 Address by Os Guinness at the memorial service for Francis Schaeffer in London in Cited in Duriez, p Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There, The Complete Works, Vol One. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), p In Gary L.W. Johnson, and R. Fowler White, eds., Whatever Happened to the Reformation. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2001), p. xii c

7 made like corruptible man [exchanging] the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (Romans 1:22-25). On this, Calvin stresses that the propensity for idolatry is deeply rooted in the heart of sinful humanity and that man in his thought-forms often distorts the character of God. Calvin writes: But although the Lord represents both himself and his everlasting Kingdom in the mirror of his works with great clarity, such is our stupidity that we grow increasingly dull toward so manifest testimonies, and they flow away without profiting us.[yet] we are much alike in that, one and all, we forsake the one true God for prodigious trifles For as rashness and superficiality are joined to ignorance and darkness, scarcely a single person has ever been found who did not fashion for himself an idol or specter in place of God. Surely, as waters boil up from a vast, full spring, so does an immense crowd of gods flow forth from the human mind, while each one, in wandering about with too much license, wrongly invents this or that about God himself. 26 In his observation of the evangelical church in a postmodern world, David F Wells notes the irony that what evangelicals have most surrendered in the hope of becoming culturally relevant is what, in fact, now makes them culturally irrelevant 27. Indeed, in her naïve and uncritical acceptance of the (post) modern cultural spirit, the evangelical church has all but abandoned what it means to be evangelical insisting on the centrality of God and the authoritative functioning of his Word. Wells elaborates: For many, the world seems too complex, the church too confused, to think that God still can accomplish his ends through [means of his Word]. The church is therefore awash in strategies borrowed from psychology and business that, it is hoped, will make up for the apparent insufficiency of the Word and ensure more success in this postmodern culture. 28 The centrality of Scripture as the ultimate authority for what is to be believed and practiced and its inherent sufficiency in speaking to all of life stands at the beginning and the heart of Reformational theology precisely what Schaeffer stood 26 ibid, p. xiii. 27 ibid., p. xviii. 28 ibid., p. xix

8 and fought for. In Schaeffer s mind, unless the church has a strong, uncompromising view of Scripture as her foundation, she will not be ready for the hard days to come. 29 According to Schaeffer, an existential methodology which dominates philosophy, art, music, and general culture has also crept into evangelicalism in which the Bible is seen as to be containing errors in non-spiritual matters concerning history, science, cosmology and in matters it does not affirm. This weakening of Scripture by proponents of liberal theology warns Schaeffer eats at the heart of the Christian faith, destroying the foundation upon which Christianity rests upon. As such, even before the term postmodernism came into vogue, Schaeffer warned that Western culture was capitulating to the pressure of an all-pervasive culture built upon relativistic thinking, resulting in the Bible [being] bent to the culture instead of the Bible judging our society and culture. 30 The acquiescence of the church to a less-than-full view of Scripture, remarked Schaeffer, is a betrayal of the church s role as the redeeming salt within her culture a culture that is committed to the concept that both morals and laws are only a matter of cultural orientation, of statistical averages. 31 The change in the concept of the way man come to the knowledge of truth as Schaeffer contends is the most crucial problem facing Christianity today. 32 Schaeffer notes that a deep chasm exists between the generations and that the Church has failed to communicate Christian truth to the next generation with a specific danger of even the believer s children being thrown away. Schaeffer also argued that if Christians were to be prophetic, they must be interpreters of the world, communicating the gospel to the present generation in terms they can understand. 33 Nevertheless, Schaeffer unlike many modern evangelicals of today remained committed to the unchangeable truths of Christianity and criticized those who compromised Scriptural truths so as to be understood. The fact that our contemporary 29 Francis Schaeffer, No Final Conflict, The Complete Works, Vol Two. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), p ibid, p ibid, p Francis Schaeffer, The God Who is There, The Complete Works, Vol One. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), p Follis, p. 50

9 Western mood of today is one that, as Carl Henry observes, [distrusting] of final truth and its implacable questioning of any sure word 34 presents a formidable challenge to Christianity, which insists on the existence of absolute standards as revealed by God. Schaeffer however, did not allow this relativistic mindset to overcome his conviction towards the Bible as God s absolute truth and the power of the gospel in addressing the existential questions modern man raises. Indeed Schaeffer was convinced that within the Christian system as God has given to men in the verbalized proposition revelation of the Bible one can move along and find that every area of life is touched by truth and a song. 35 Rejecting the Barthian existential notion of a leap of faith, Schaeffer held that God had acted in time, space, and history, and so His actions were open to discussion and verification. But despite his commitment to rational, propositional apologetics, Schaeffer knew it was not sufficient to convince; instead, the final apologetic that had to be demonstrated was love. To Schaeffer, love and truth went together, and truth was never to be an abstract intellectual concept but a truth that can be verbalized and lived out. In a skeptical age influenced by relativism, Schaeffer knew that Christian apologetics with its claim to absolute truth would not be taken seriously if Christians did not live out the truth. 36 This had to be done on two levels: the practice of purity of the visible church and the demonstration of observable love and oneness among all true Christians. In a moving plea for Christians, Schaeffer writes: The heart of these set of principles is to show forth the love of God and the holiness of God simultaneously. If we show either of these without the other, we exhibit not the character, but a caricature of God for the world to see. If we stress the love of God without the holiness of God, it turns out only to be compromise. But if we stress the holiness of God without the love of God, we practice something that is hard and lacks beauty. And it is important to show 34 Carl F.H. Henry, God, Revelation and Authority, Volume One. (Wheaton, IL: Paternoster Publishing, 1999), p Francis Schaeffer, He Is There and He Is Not Silent, The Complete Works, Vol One. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), p Follis, p. 137

10 forth beauty before a lost world and a lost generation. All too often people have not been wrong in saying that the church is ugly. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are called upon to show to a watching world and to our own young people that the church is something beautiful 37 Indeed, Schaeffer s ministry at L Abri was a testimony and expression of his love for people. By opening the doors of his home, both Schaeffer and his wife knew that there was a risk involved and that the consequences could hurt. Schaeffer recalls that in the first three years of L Abri s inception, all our wedding presents were wiped out. Our sheets were torn. Holes were burned in our rugs. Indeed once a whole curtain almost burned up from somebody smoking in our living room Drugs came to our place. People vomited in our rooms 38 In short, the Schaeffers exemplified the form of costly grace that Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about, with the lengths to which they were prepared to go in providing a shelter for those in need involving much personal cost and sacrifice. The practice of truth as Schaeffer repeatedly emphasized cannot be divorced from an authentic love and concern for the individual who has being created in God s image and likeness. Demonstrating a deep affinity and empathy for others, Schaeffer emphasized the importance of compassion in reaching out to the lost: We cannot shout at people or scream down upon them. They must feel that we are with them, that we are saying that both of us are sinners, and they must know these are not just words, but that we mean what we say. They must feel in our own attitudes that we know we too are sinners, that we are not innately good 39 Elsewhere, Schaeffer writes, If we fight our philosophic battles. without emotional involvement, do we really love God? How can we do it without being 37 Francis Schaeffer, The Church Before the Watching World, The Complete Works, Vol Four. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), p Quoted in Michael S. Hamilton, The Dissatisfaction of Francis Schaeffer, in Christianity Today, March 3, 1997; 39 Francis Schaeffer, Death in the City. The Complete Works, Vol Four. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), p. 252

11 moved as Jeremiah was moved? How can we speak of judgment and yet not stand like the weeping prophet with tears? 40 Redeeming our Times In his appraisal of Francis Schaeffer, Colin Brown comments that the strength of Schaeffer s approach to evangelism lies in his emphasis on an integrated view of the whole of life instead of being concerned only with post-mortem salvation or [restricting] the Christian s interest and activity to the cultivation of personal piety and devotion. 41 Despite Schaeffer s death a quarter of a century ago (in 1984) due to cancer, his voice continues to reverberate through the halls of the evangelical world echoing the voices of Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, to Augustine and the Apostle Paul to valiantly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3, RSV) while at the same time, demonstrating a passionate love for God, a passionate love for people and a passionate lover for truth. 42 Looking back at the past quarter of the century since Schaeffer s passing, we see that his influence has not waned, particularly among the intelligentsia community and among Christians who have had to wrestle with existential questions of which they have been unable to find the answers to within the context of the evangelical Church whose anti-intellectual spirit has bled her of a life of the mind 43 that is required to engage the ideas of the world. A mark of a Reformed church - as informed by the Reformation spirit lies in its emphasis on Scripture as God s unchanging truth, and the courage to speak that truth in love to a fallen world that knows not its need for redemption. The words of the Apostle Paul in exhorting the Ephesian church on her mission through declaring to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus (Acts 20:21, NIV), is the message by which the rallying cry of the 40 ibid, p Colin Brown, Philosophy and the Christian Faith (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1968), p Follis, p See Mark A. Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995), p

12 Reformation slogan Sola Scriptura seeks to deliver the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In this respect, Francis Schaeffer both through word and deed demonstrated an approach to spirituality that is based upon the truth of rational understanding of biblical revelation that is then lived out in a moment-by-moment experiential reality 44 - thus avoiding the excesses of a faith that is purely rationalistic or emotivistic in nature. The challenge to the Christian church of the 21 st century is to proclaim the truth as revealed in the Scriptures within a context of authenticity in order to redeem our times. This call to authenticity is to be lived out not simply within the four walls of the church premises but in the marketplace and beyond. As David Wells rightly notes about today s postmodern culture, what postmoderns want to see, and are entitled to see, is believing and being, talking and doing, all joined together in a seamless whole. 45 Indeed, it is precisely this consistency between faith and practice that is the embodiment of what it means to be Christ-like and to follow the example of the incarnate One. This was to be what Schaeffer is best remembered for at least in the mind of the author - and to which it is hoped that generations of Christians will learn from. 44 Follis, p David Wells, Above All Earthly Powers: Christ in a Postmodern World. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005), p. 315.

13 BIBLIOGRAPHY Brown, Colin. Philosophy and the Christian Faith. (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1968) Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book First (1559), trans H. Beveridge, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989) Duriez, Colin. Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008) Follis, Bryan. Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2006) Henry, Carl F.H. God, Revelation and Authority, Volume One. (Wheaton, IL: Paternoster Publishing, 1999) Johnson, Gary L.W. and White, R. Fowler. eds. Whatever Happened to the Reformation. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2001) Noll, Mark A. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995) Pearcey, Nancy. Total Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004) Schaeffer, Francis A. The Complete Works (Volumes I-V). (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982) Wells, David. Above All Earthly Powers: Christ in a Postmodern World. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005)