True Spirituality
How to Live for Jesus Moment by Moment
Francis Schaeffer
PrefaceFrancis Schaeffer
Schaeffer went through a spiritual crisis in the early 50s. He explains this on page 196
“I faced a spiritual crisis…. I had become a Christian from agnosticism many years ago. After that I had become a pastor for 10 years in the United States, and then for several years my wife Edith and I had been working in Europe. During this time [1948-1951] I felt a strong burden to stand for the historical Christian position, for the purity of the visible church. Gradually, however, a problem came to me - the problem of reality. This has two parts: first, it seemed to me that among many of those who held the Orthodox position, one saw little reality of the things the Bible so clearly says should be the result of Christianity. Second, it gradually grew on me that my reality was less than it had been in the early days after I had become a Christian. I realized that in honesty I had to go back and rethink my whole position.
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"As I rethought my reasons for being a Christian, I saw again that there were totally sufficient reasons to know that the infinite-personal God does exist and that Christianity is true." Page 196
It was out of these struggles that True Spirituality was written. His determination to live differently as a result of his spiritual crisis was also the basis for his ministry in Switzerland (L'Abri).
One of the things that turned me on to Schaeffer was his consideration that Christians are to live in such a way so as to show forth the existence and character of God. This thought runs throughout True Spirituality. Here is a quote from The Letters of Francis Schaeffer that is very straight forward on this point.
This thought really resonates with me. As I was being converted, I became so certain of truth (biblical, historic, reformation truth) that I threw it down like a gauntlet. I think immature people are prone to this. I now see the abiding principle as we deal with folks is to be truth with love. We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. This includes the believer as well as the unbeliever. The one who presumes upon Christ and the one who is proudly skeptical. How can we love and serve people? Eventually we love and serve our fellow man by showing them their utter lostness and hopelessness. Then, by God's grace, when they understand their need for a Savior, we point them to Jesus Christ. But, all of this must take place within the context of a loving relationship.
"Increasingly I believe that after we are saved we have only one calling, and that is to show forth the existence and the character of God. Since God is love and God is holy, it is our calling to act in such a way as to demonstrate the existence of God - in other words, to be and to act in such a way as to show forth his love and his Holiness simultaneously. Further, I believe that the failure to show forth either of these is equally a perversion. Of course, in one's own strength it is only possible to show forth either love or holiness. But to show forth the holiness and love of God simultaneously requires much more. It requires a moment by moment work of the Holy Spirit in a very practical way. It has become my conclusion... that there is something doctrinally wrong with that branch of [extreme] fundamentalism.... This wing of “fundamentalism” not only failed to show forth the love of God, but actually considered mentioning the love of God in itself to be a heresy.... I believe, however, they are a heresy in their own way, in reference to the love of God, just as modernism is a heresy in its own way in regard to the holiness of God.” The Letters of Francis Schaeffer, Edited by Lane Dennis, Page 71
Schaeffer has much to say on this front and we will hopefully see more later.
1 comment:
Pretty deep for me...I'll have to have John read this one!
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