My past and ongoing “problems” with the authorities who govern the West in general (and Indiana in specific) pretty much started when I became a student of this great man. He is the late Francis Schaeffer, and he spent most of his time in the 70’s and 80’s trying to convince the Protestant Evangelical Church to stand and fight for what Pope John Paul II called the Civilization of Love.

Secularists call it “the West.” It was once called Christendom.

In 1979, I attended Francis Schaeffer’s three day seminar entitled “Whatever Happened to the Human Race.” More than a few from the Allen County attended as well, including Pastor Gordon Smith, Arlen Birkey, Lynn Wegmann, Denny Laub and the Zimmermans (Max and Linda).

It changed my life and view of the Faith. It did the same to most all who attended. My thanks to Lynn and Gordon for making that pilgrimage possible for me.

Here is an excerpt from my former teacher’s sermon and call to cultural arms . . . Hit the link below to read the balance.

A Christian Manifesto
by Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer

This address was delivered by the late Dr. Schaeffer in 1982 at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is based on one of his books, which bears the same title.

Christians, in the last 80 years or so, have only been seeing things as bits and pieces which have gradually begun to trouble them and others, instead of understanding that they are the natural outcome of a change from a Christian World View to a Humanistic one; things such as overpermissiveness, pornography, the problem of the public schools, the breakdown of the family, abortion, infanticide (the killing of newborn babies), increased emphasis upon the euthanasia of the old and many, many other things.

All of these things and many more are only the results. We may be troubled with the individual thing, but in reality we are missing the whole thing if we do not see each of these things and many more as only symptoms of the deeper problem. And that is the change in our society, a change in our country, a change in the Western world from a Judeo-Christian consensus to a Humanistic one. That is, instead of the final reality that exists being the infinite creator God; instead of that which is the basis of all reality being such a creator God, now largely, all else is seen as only material or energy which has existed forever in some form, shaped into its present complex form only by pure chance.

I want to say to you, those of you who are Christians or even if you are not a Christian and you are troubled about the direction that our society is going in, that we must not concentrate merely on the bits and pieces. But we must understand that all of these dilemmas come on the basis of moving from the Judeo-Christian world view — that the final reality is an infinite creator God — over into this other reality which is that the final reality is only energy or material in some mixture or form which has existed forever and which has taken its present shape by pure chance.

Click here for the balance of this sermon.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 7:49 am and is filed under Battles past, battles future. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.