President Obama’s revised proposal still mandates availability of contraception coverage for such employees, only now it is to be paid for by the insurance companies. Mike Gonzales of the Heritage Foundation was right when he declared, “It’s an accounting trick. Do they think people are stupid?” Perhaps the Obama administration does think people are stupid if they think this shell game of who pays for what is going to satisfy the consciences of sincere Christians.

Suppose the administration says next that while Catholic hospitals do not have to provide abortion services with their own staffs, they will be required to make their facilities available so outside physicians can perform abortions there? Would that be acceptable just because the hospitals would not be paying the salaries of the abortionists? Of course not! Such hospitals do not want their patient care in any way linked to abortion. It is a matter of religious principle that runs deeper than just who pays the bills. The same is true of being party to the provision of contraception in their employee care.

I do not agree with the Roman Catholic opposition to all forms of contraception, though I do believe use of abortifacients is immoral. Nevertheless, I want to join with my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters in protesting the way our federal government is willing to run roughshod over our religious convictions. This is a time for Christian unity against governmental tyranny. I agree wholeheartedly with David French, who wrote for National Review Online:

The Obama administration should and must face a completely and firmly united American Christian community. As far as the Obama administration is concerned, we’re all Catholics now.

Join me in praying that the Roman Catholic bishops, clergy, and people in the pews will stand firm and denounce the president’s proposed compromise policy as the unacceptable charade that it is. Let us give them a broad front of evangelical Protestant support.

This is an issue we need to take to the airwaves, the blogosphere, the newspaper editorial pages, and ultimately to the ballot box. Let us not take our religious liberty for granted. If we do, we may lose it for good in this nation.

[Flag image courtesy of www.dreamstime.com]

Who were these people we know as the pilgrims? They were Puritans who felt conscience-bound to separate from the Church of England when that church in 1604 demanded strict conformity to the Book of Common Prayer in worship. These Puritans longed for a more thoroughgoing Reformation that would leave behind all remnants of Romanism in order to worship only in ways clearly mandated in Scripture. At first, they worshiped secretly in homes in England, but persecution was on the rise. One such group in the town of Scrooby soon realized that they would have to leave the country in order to worship freely. They went first to Holland in 1607, but troubles there eventually signaled time for another move.

When the Mayflower set sail for America in 1620, 37 of its 102 passengers were Puritan Separatists from Scrooby that had settled in Holland. Many in the community stayed behind in Holland with their pastor, John Robinson, intending to join their friends and loved ones in America later on. The two-month trans-Atlantic voyage was often rough and miserable, and things only got worse when they reached the New World in November. They began building their settlement in the midst of a deadly winter, through which only 55 of the 102 passengers survived. Eight children who had come with at least one parent now had none. Of 18 adult women, only four survived. Many reunions planned with those left behind in Holland would now take place only in heaven. It was a bitter beginning.

Spring and summer brought a peace treaty with the Indians, who helped teach the settlers how to farm in the New World. Crops were limited but sufficient for survival when combined with the fruits of foraging and hunting. When the harvest came in, there was a three-day celebration by about 50 settlers and 90 Indians. It was a time of feasting, recreation, and giving thanks to God for the blessings of the harvest. This celebration is commemorated by our Thanksgiving holiday.

How was it that these settlers could be so thankful after all the tragic losses of the previous year? I suggest it was because they were true pilgrims. They didn’t generally refer to themselves in this way. The closest they came to doing so is a statement by William Bradford in his book, Of Plymouth Plantation:

So they left that goodly and pleasant city [Leyden in Holland] which had been their resting place near twelve years; but they knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to heaven, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits.

This language echoes that of Hebrews 11:13-14, which speaks of believers as “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” who “seek a [heavenly] country.” The Separatists from Scrooby were pilgrims in the same way Bunyan’s character, Christian, was a pilgrim. They were pilgrims on earth making their way to the Celestial City. That eternal perspective made it possible for them to experience such great sorrow through the winter and yet emerge thankful for the good things God gave to them.

If we would celebrate Thanksgiving in the spirit of these early settlers, we also should cultivate an identity as pilgrims on earth making our way to the heavenly city. When sorrows come to us, we can know that God is with us in them and that they will not last forever. We can give Him thanks for every good gift He sends our way. When you gather with your family and friends on Thanksgiving Day, remember these pilgrims and their harvest feast of celebration before God. Review the past year with its blessings and hardships, and reflect on God’s faithfulness to you in it. Offer sincere and specific prayers of thanksgiving to the Lord who is leading you on your pilgrimage. And then, like those pilgrims of old, enjoy the feasting and fun that should characterize your Christian faith.

Seven Days in Utopia

Gary M. Kramer, at salon.com, calls it a “sermon masquerading as a sports film.” It is true that the movie opens with a Bible verse on the screen and has pointers to Christianity throughout (talk about God working, a Bible as a gift, attendance at church), but it hardly qualifies as Christian propaganda. For one thing, the advice dispensed by Johnny Crawford sounds more like it comes from the lips of Yoda than Billy Graham. “Don’t think; see it, feel it, trust it,” is hardly a presentation of the gospel! I’d agree with the Christianity Today reviewer who wrote that the film “offers pretty thin theology.” But  I don’t look to movies for theological training. I want entertainment, and I’m happy when once in a while that entertainment supports rather than trashes the Christian faith.

Critic Roger Ebert was not entertained by the movie. He begins his review, “I would rather eat a golf ball than see this movie again.” What bothers him so much about it? Ebert was “looking for a twinkle in [Duvall's] eyes as he inflicts young Luke with his bull$#!t,” hoping Crawford would be revealed as a con-man. The critic can’t come to terms with all things wholesome in the movie. He particularly complains about the portrayal of the residents of Utopia, Texas:

“Let me give you an idea of what good people these are. Many things go wrong during the week. Many, many things. All this in the land beyond San Antonio. Do we hear the f-word? Do we hear the s-word? Do we even hear the d-word or the h-word? No, dear reader. This is the first general audience movie in quite some time that is rated G. Robert Duvall must seldom have had a greater challenge to overcome.”

Apparently, Roger Ebert likes his movies to be filled with the kind of profanity he employs in his review. How dare Hollywood release a movie for adults that is rated G?

I say, “Let’s see more such movies.” I’m not opposed to darker films with the edgier realism Ebert seems to long for. But there ought to be a place alongside such cinema for movies that aim at uplifting rather than wallowing in the gutter. There is nothing wrong with some entertaining escapism. Though it has its share of hokey platitudes, Seven Days in Utopia can be thought-provoking. Luke is challenged to bury the lies that have been guiding his life, such as his obsessive drive to please his father. Who doesn’t have such lies that would best be buried in order to live a more emotionally and spiritually balanced life? Even if the faith in the movie lacks deep content, its general Christian orientation points to a positive pathway we wish more would walk.

To borrow a term from Francis Schaeffer, Seven Days in Utopia is more pre-evangelism than evangelism proper. It raises issues and points in a direction that can prepare a viewer to be open to the gospel, without engaging in a bait-and-switch tactic of promising entertainment and delivering a heavy-handed pitch for Jesus. That is to its credit. (If there is any heavy-handed pitching going on, it is for Callaway golf products. I suppose it took a sports film to demonstrate product placement on steroids!) A website address flashes on the screen at the close of the movie as a source to learn more about the movie’s ending. That site does include a straightforward gospel presentation along with a continuation of the storyline. This is creative evangelism, though I doubt it is a strategy that will catch on. The movie is complete in itself.

If you can accept Seven Days in Utopia for what it is — an inspirational golf story that never reaches depths of profundity — then you may find it more enjoyable than eating a golf ball! Robert Duvall, now 80, excels at playing old codgers like Johnny Crawford. He’s starred in better movies with Christian themes (Tender Mercies, The Apostle, Get Low), but he is still a pleasure to watch in this film. And I, for one, would like to send Hollywood the message that there are still adults who can be entertained by well-produced G-rated movies.

[For my reflections on Duvall's earlier movie, Get Low, go to:  http://www.colsoncenter.org/the-center/columns/changepoint/16753-get-low-and-the-gospel]

Following up on a theme from last Sunday’s sermon, I share the following quote from Donald S. Whitney. I commend it for your consideration as you think about your own experience in worship.

“Worshiping God with reverence involves viewing the time of worship as more then mere duty or formality, but an actual meeting with God himself. When I’m reverent in worship I’m mindful of his holiness and justice, remembering that ‘our God is a consuming fire.’ I worship in the sobering knowledge that this consuming fire of a God takes no pleasure in a mouth that honors him while the heart and the mind are far away.

“To worship in reverence means that I humbly recognize my unworthiness before God apart from the goodness of Jesus that he has graciously credited to me. Reverence for God makes me serious minded in private [and corporate] worship. This does not mean that I’m grim or joyless; quite the contrary, but it does mean I’m not frivolous. I’m not meeting with a comedian or a clown. Since I am a child of my heavenly Father, I can be at home in his loving, accepting presence. But I never forget that I am meeting with God — my maker, my judge, my king.”

- Donald S. Whitney in Give Praise to God: A Vision for Reforming Worship, edited by Philip Graham Ryken, Derek W. H. Thomas, and J. Ligon Duncan III (P&R Publishing, 2003), p. 312.

[Image appears courtesy of www.dreamstime.com]

God’s grace in salvation is a central truth of Scripture, but it is not the only truth that distinguishes Reformed theology. Another subject that can be new to those from non-Presbyterian backgrounds is the doctrine of the covenants in Scripture. God has dealt with His people through the ages in a succession of covenants. Understanding the inter-relationship of these covenants is a vital key to interpreting the Bible. It allows one to see the unity and continuity of God’s purposes in redemptive history, and it is the necessary backdrop for understanding other issues such as infant baptism.

I taught on this subject in an adult Sunday School class using O. Palmer Robertson’s book, Covenants: God’s Way With His People. This book is something of an abridgement of Robertson’s larger work, The Christ of the Covenants, and it is an excellent introduction to covenant theology. We have now posted the audio files of those Sunday School lessons as well as PDF files of the accompanying handouts on our church web-site. You can print out the handouts and follow along while listening to the teaching. Hopefully, this will be a useful resource for those who are new to covenant theology or who wish to have a refresher course on the topic.

You can access the files at www.bethelpca.com by clicking on the “Worship” tab, selecting “Sermon Audio,” and “Sermon Series.” One of the options will be “Covenants (Adult Sunday School).” These are unedited recordings. I sampled one and was embarrassed to hear myself fumbling around trying to remember a catechism answer, so this isn’t polished teaching! Nevertheless, we post it in hopes that it may be helpful to some. Our plan is to continue to expand the offerings on our web-site in the coming months.

If we translate distance into time, there is an important lesson here for our Christian vision. There are three fields of vision that require the focus of all faithful believers. First of all, we are called to live day by day with a focus on what is immediately before us — our near vision. Solomon commands, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). The psalmist declares, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 124:24). Christians are to attend to short-term priorities of work and worship. We must be diligent, faithful, and focused on a moment-by-moment, day-by-day basis.

We also need to maintain longer-term vision for our earthly futures — our middle distance vision. Wise Solomon directs us to look to the ant as a model:

Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. (Proverbs 6:6-8)

There are many individual, family, and church responsibilities that require planning and purposeful work on a long-term basis. This includes everything from vocational advancement and retirement planning to nurture of our children to steady plodding in Christian ministry for the building up of the Kingdom of God. We need good middle distance vision to accomplish such things.

Finally, we must look beyond our present earthly lifetimes to contemplate eternity — our long distance vision. Paul calls us to let eternity impact us now when he writes, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2). The apostle ran the race of life in order to receive an “imperishable” prize (1 Corinthians 10:24-25). His eyes were fixed on what lay beyond this life. An eternal inheritance awaits all who trust in Christ (Ephesians 1:14). It is critical that we keep this long distance vision clearly in focus to rightly order our priorities.

There is danger in focusing exclusively on one field of Christian vision. If we look only at what lies immediately before us, we are liable to be driven by “the tyranny of the urgent.” That can lead to poor planning and dangerous long-term consequences. Sadly, it is easy to get so caught up in the moment that we never look beyond it. On the other hand, if we look only to eternity we may be less than faithful in our present responsibilities. Paul issued a specific command regarding those so fixated on the return of Christ that they were negligent in daily duties: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (1 Thessalonians 3:10). I think he took this seriously! It is possible to be “too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.” Exclusive attention to either extreme (or the middle) is problematic.

The Bible provides the principles that function like corrective lenses, so that we can see clearly how to live in light of our short-term, long-term, and eternal futures. Balancing these three fields of vision is a key to living as faithful disciples in the kingdom of God. If you don’t have such balance in your own life, consider this a call to have a checkup of your spiritual vision.

(Photo appears courtesy of www.freefoto.com)

It is a joy to see covenant children come to the place in their lives where they can make a profession of faith in Christ and be admitted to the Lord’s Table. This is an important event in the life of each child for which he or she should be prepared. Our denomination’s Book of Church Order addresses this in a way that can provide helpful guidance for parents and elders to work together in the nurture of covenant children. Here are some excerpts:

 When [believers' children within the Visible Church] are able to understand the Gospel, they should be earnestly reminded that they are members of the Church by birthright, and that it is their duty and privilege personally to accept Christ, to confess Him before men, and to seek admission to the Lord’s Supper. (57-1)

The time when young persons come to understand the Gospel cannot be precisely fixed. This must be left to the prudence of the Session, whose office it is to judge, after careful examination, the qualifications of those who apply for admission to sealing ordinances. (57-2)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism speaks to the prerequisites for taking communion:

 Q. 97.  What is required to the worthy receiving of the Lord’s supper?

A.  It is required of them that would worthily partake of the Lord’s supper, that they examine themselves of their knowledge to discern the Lord’s body, of their faith to feed upon him, of their repentance, love, and new obedience; lest, coming unworthily, they eat and drink judgment to themselves.

Another element in becoming a communicant member is the taking of membership vows. A child must be able to profess these vows with understanding and a commitment to keep them.

When we put all this together, we begin to get a picture of what is expected of children as they make a profession of faith in order to become communicant members. They must have an understanding of the gospel as well as a credible testimony to embracing the gospel through personal faith in Jesus Christ. They should demonstrate an ability to examine their own lives in order to recognize and repent of sin. They should also be able to understand and meaningfully affirm the vows of church membership. While it is understood that a child will not be able to articulate all these things in the same way as an adult, he or she should nevertheless be able to do so credibly in an age-appropriate way.

Our Communicants Class will review the gospel and the basic teachings of the Christian faith using the Bible and the First Catechism. Each week, take-home exercises will be given for parents to help children become grounded in these important truths. Our hope is that children who have faith in Christ will grow in their ability to understand and articulate that faith. Any child who wishes to become a communicant member must be examined by the Session. Completion of this class does not obligate a child to pursue communicant membership at that time nor does it guarantee a child will be approved by the Session. Nevertheless, the class is intended to be one more means of covenant nurture for the children that participate as they prepare one day to make personal professions of faith and become full communicant members of the church.

At present, I’ve heard from parents of prospective students ranging in age from 5 – 10 years old. Parents, if you are interested in having a child participate, please contact me (Pastor Steven) so we can plan the class appropriately. And I would remind all church members to be praying for the spiritual growth of our little ones. May God bless all avenues of covenant nurture in our families and church so that our children grow up to be faithful men and women of God.

 

“My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep Your law.”

(Psalm 119:136)

It is not hard to discern that we live in an age of shifting moral standards. Just watch a current sitcom on television with an eye to what is being allowed on the airwaves and promoted as acceptable. Or follow some of the ethical issues being debated in our culture. As Bob Dylan once prophesied in song, “The times, they are a-changin’.” Frequently, that change is a movement away from Biblical morality. How are we as Christians to respond when people around us reject the principles of God’s Law?

One response is to gather the troops to loudly and publicly denounce all that we perceive to be ungodly. We can take to the streets with slogans on banners and fists in the air. There is no doubt that this approach yields results. The media love to focus their cameras on the faces of angry Christians and to thrust their microphones before those who are ranting and raving. The louder and loonier you are, the easier it is to get attention. Yet, is this what God would have us do?

The psalmist points us in a different direction with his testimony,  ”My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep Your law.” Why was weeping his response to the law-breaking of others? Why was he not satisfied simply to keep the Law himself? The answer is that he was filled with a profound love for God and neighbor.

If you really love someone, you take offense when others treat him with dishonor. God is the great Lawgiver, and His Law is an expression of His character of holiness, justice, and righteousness. When men and women ignore that Law, they are thumbing their noses at the Lawgiver (whether they realize it or not). The psalmist’s love for God causes him to grieve when others don’t give God the honor He is due.

If you really love someone, you want the best for her. God is our Creator, who knows what is best for us and has revealed that in His Word, the Bible. When our neighbor is defying God’s Law, she is missing out on the blessings that God has in store for her. The psalmist’s love for neighbor causes him to weep when others aren’t experiencing the benefits that attend obedience to their Creator.

We can learn some important lessons from the author of Psalm 119. The next time someone who is defying God’s Law gets your attention, ask yourself a few questions before you respond. Is my primary concern in this situation the honor of God? Will my response be motivated by genuine love for the one with whom I disagree?  I fear that if we were honest, we’d have to say that the answers to these questions would oftentimes be “No.” It is all too easy to act out of self-interest that is perceived (often justly) as self-righteousness. We can be consumed with concern for our own honor (not God’s) and love for self (not neighbor).

This is not to say that it is never appropriate to take a public stand on moral issues of the day. Love can require this! But how we express ourselves is all-important. We should always and only do so with weeping. That may or may not involve literal tears, but it should express the disposition of hearts driven by love for God and others. It may not put us in the headlines, but we are far more likely to have a positive moral impact in society if we lead with love and not anger. If we never take time for tears, then the most productive thing we can probably do is remain silent and pray that God would soften our hearts.

Symbols of Evangelists in the Book of Kells (ca. 800 A.D.)

This is a question I’ve been asked several times recently. People are not interested in my astrological sign but in the symbolism of Bethel Presbyterian Church’s logo as featured on our roadside sign. The first thing one notices about the sign is its Celtic flair, evident in the green background, distinctive font, Celtic cross, scrollwork border design, and the symbols in the four corners. Why would a Presbyterian church in 21^st century America employ early Irish Christian imagery in its logo? That is a question worth exploring.

The answer begins with Bethel’s commitment to fostering a truly catholic spirit. While we are Protestants rooted in the recovery of the gospel in the Reformation of the 16^th century, we are also Christians who wish to celebrate all that is good from every age of church history. Our weekly use of the Creed in the liturgy gives expression to this commitment, as we confess the faith held by all Christians in all time and in all places. Adapting symbols connected with the Celtic Christian revival of the 5^th-8^th centuries links us with one of the high points in Christian cultural development:

The astonishing legacy of the Celtic Christians was an unlikely achievement. It arose from the ashes of antiquity amid the darkness of barbarianism to shine the brilliant light of Christian culture throughout a weary continent. In the work of these anonymous artists we see an example of how visionary believers can forge new culture out of the rubble and bring beauty, goodness, and truth to life in a time of uncertainty        and despair. (T.M. Moore, Culture Matters, p. 44)

Like the Celtic Christians of old, we at Bethel desire to promote beauty, goodness, and truth in our own age of uncertainty and despair.

That beauty, goodness, and truth finds focus in Jesus Christ. The Celtic cross on our sign points to Christ’s redemptive work accomplished through His sacrificial death. Each arm of the cross features an interlocking symbol of the Trinity while the circle in the background represents the universality of creation over which Christ exercises Lordship. We wish to proclaim Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, as the Lord of creation and the hope for our world.

We learn of Christ in all of Scripture, but preeminently in the four gospels that are represented by the symbols in the corners of our sign. These winged beings are based upon the creatures seen by the Apostle John in his vision of the heavenly throne-room recorded in Revelation 4:6-8:

And round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are  full of eyes all round and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

In the 2^nd century, the Christian apologist Irenaeus of Lyons appealed to this passage in an argument for the necessity of having exactly four gospels bearing witness to Christ. He linked attributes of each of the creatures with particular gospels, and others in the early church followed his lead. The identifications made by Jerome in the late 4^th century have become standard. Jerome linked the winged human to Matthew, the winged lion to Mark, the winged ox to Luke, and the winged eagle to John.

Celtic Christian artists employed these images as symbols of the four evangelists in illustrated manuscripts, most notably in the Book of Kells (see illustration above). Through intricate illustrations and decorations, the Irish monks sought to honor and glorify the written record of the life of Christ. The symbols on our sign are adapted from those found in the Book of Kells, one of the most stunning and beautiful artistic creations of all time.

Bethel’s logo seeks to present something of our vision for ministry. We as a church are committed to the proclamation of the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. It is only through Christ that human beings can be reconciled to God. Those who have experienced salvation in Christ are called to be agents of transformation, seeking to express their faith by promoting beauty, goodness, and truth. The Church at its best has done this in all ages, including that of the early Celtic revival. May we as a congregation take up the challenge to be faithful followers and winsome witnesses of Christ in our own generation, so that our lives communicate clearly what is symbolized on our sign.

(Special thanks goes out to Christa Gates, who worked closely with designer Marty Bee on the development of our logo and with Mark Hebert of Hebert Signs on the production of our sign.)

Francis Schaeffer had an abiding interest in truth. As a young man, he enrolled at Westminster Theological Seminary in order to study under J. Gresham Machen, a leading advocate of orthodoxy in the battle with theological liberalism. He became caught up in a fundamentalist movement that rallied around the absolute truth of Scripture. After several pastorates in the United States, Francis and his wife (Edith) and children moved to Switzerland in 1948 with the dual goals of promoting evangelistic work among children and building up Bible-believing churches in post-war Europe. The focus of the Schaeffers’ ministry eventually shifted to reaching out to disaffected young people with an intellectually-credible presentation of Christian truth.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, many college-age students were asking hard questions about the Christian faith. Some were influenced by existentialist philosophy, while others had their faith challenged by theological liberalism. There was widespread questioning of the middle class values that seemed to have taken hold in the churches. Schaeffer was greatly concerned that too many churches were simply telling young people to believe without taking their questions seriously. He thought honest questions deserved honest answers, and he was convinced the Bible had the best answers for those questions. L’Abri Fellowship was birthed as a place where students could come to ask hard questions and receive answers in the context of a caring Christian community.

Much of the ministry of L’Abri took the form of one-on-one and group discussions. Many testify that Schaeffer exemplified great personal focus and compassion in these encounters. In his chalet on a Swiss mountainside, he modeled loving listening as a prelude to speaking truth. Schaeffer came to look back with regret on the lack of love often on display in the fundamentalist battles of his earlier days, and he sought to promote a winsome unity of truth and love in Christian living and proclamation.

Eventually, word about this intellectually-minded evangelist got out, and Schaeffer had the opportunity to reach a broader audience through writing books. Twenty-three of these appeared from 1968 until his death in 1984. My encounter with Schaeffer that began with that film series continued as I voraciously read many of his books. I found in their pages a vision of Christianity that affirmed life and culture and answered basic philosophic questions with the truths of Scripture. It is a vision I embraced and, with faltering steps all along the way, have sought to live out.

Francis Schaeffer was not a professional scholar. Many academics have found fault with some of his philosophical and historical judgments. I think many of these criticisms are valid, and we should not look to Schaeffer as providing some sort of air-tight master system of truth. He was an evangelist who took the life of the mind seriously, and we can be grateful that quite a few scholars influenced by him in their youth are standing on his shoulders and providing more rigorous Christian investigation into many topics he explored. By way of analogy, I believe Schaeffer did get the identification of a few trees wrong, but that didn’t keep him from giving a basically sound picture of the forest. His vision of the Bible speaking to all of life continues to be inspiring.

Some at Bethel are getting their first taste of Francis Schaeffer as we study his book, Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History, in adult Sunday School. For those who would like to read more of his work, I will make some recommendations. To get a sense of the heart of the man, I suggest reading his short book entitled, The Mark of the Christian. In its pages, he pleads for Christians to wed an uncompromising stand for truth with a visible demonstration of love. His basic philosophical and cultural apologetic is presented in a series of three books – The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason, and He is There and He Is Not Silent. These three have been collected under one cover with the title, The Francis Schaeffer Trilogy. Schaeffer’s intellectual concerns were never separated from a life of Christ-centered devotion, the latter of which finds expression in his book, True Spirituality. It should not be neglected. Finally, for those interested in the story of the Schaeffers’ ministry, I heartily commend Edith Schaeffer’s account in L’Abri. You will find it to be a thrilling story of the Lord’s guidance and provision as He led the Schaeffers in unexpected directions with unanticipated results.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Francis Schaeffer. He died on the day I turned twenty. But few people I have met have had as much influence on my life and thinking as this man who raised his voice in the cause of truth and love in an age of doubt and despair.