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May 08, 2022

TRUTH AND COMMUNITY:

"Every Christian group ought to have these two elements: a presentation of the truth and an exhibition of community that substantiates it."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? An Interview With Francis Schaeffer, Christianity Today, Oct. 1976


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Jun 21, 2021

FAITH IN FAITH IS UNFAITHFUL:

"Following the advent of the existential methodology there arose the neo-orthodox existential theology, which says that the Bible in the area of reason has mistakes but nonetheless can provide a religious experience in the area of nonreason. Neo-orthodox theologians do not see the Bible as giving truth which can be stated in contentful propositions, especially regarding the cosmos and history, that is, as making statements which are open to any verification. And for many of them the Bible does not give moral absolutes either. For these theologians, it is not faith in something; it is faith in faith."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Jun 03, 2021

FROM REASON TO NONREASON:

"Humanistic man tried to make himself self-sufficient and demanded that one start from himself and the individual details and build his own universals. His great hope that he could begin from himself and produce a uniformity of knowledge led him, however, to the sad place where his mind told him that he was only a machine, a bundle of molecules. Then he tried desperately to find meaning in the area of nonreason"

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Jun 02, 2021

THE LEAP UPSTAIRS:

"Modern people have put various things 'upstairs' in the area of nonreason in a desperate attempt to find some optimism about meaning and values."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 26, 2021

REASON VS NONREASON:

"Reason leading to despair must be kept totally separate from the blind optimism of nonreason."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 24, 2021

MAN IN DICHOTOMY:

"Modern man is a man of dichotomy. By dichotomy we mean a total separation into two reciprocally exclusive orders, with no unity or relationship between them. The dichotomy here is the total separation between the area of meaning and values, and the area of reason."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 18, 2021

CRUEL AND NONCRUEL:

"The attempt to make nature the basis of morals was also taken into the area of civil law, where it was called the Natural Law School of jurisprudence. Its influence is still strongly felt in jurisprudence. It was an attempt in this eighteenth-century period to have principles of law, “even if there is no God.” These jurists thought that a complete and perfect system of law could be constructed upon principles of natural law. But there was a serious problem in trying to construct a system of law upon nature. Nature is cruel as well as noncruel."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 17, 2021

NO PLACE FOR GOD, NO PLACE FOR MAN:

"Scientists in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries continued to use the word God, but pushed God more and more to the edges of their systems. Finally, scientists in this stream of thought moved to the idea of a completely closed system. That left no place for God. But equally it left no place for man. Man disappears, to be viewed as some form of determined or behavioristic machine."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 13, 2021

SCIENCE REQUIRES AND OBJECTIVE REALITY:

"There were certain other results of the Christian world-view. For example, there was the certainty of something 'there'-an objective reality-for science to examine. What we seem to observe is not just an extension of the essence of God, as Hindu and Buddhist thinking would have it. The Christian world-view gives us a real world which is there to study objectively."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 12, 2021

RETHINKING THE RISE OF SCIENCE:

"The rise of modern science did not conflict with what the Bible teaches; indeed, at a crucial point the Scientific Revolution rested upon what the Bible teaches. Both Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) and J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967) have stressed that modern science was born out of the Christian world-view. Whitehead was a widely respected mathematician and philosopher, and Oppenheimer, after he became director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1947, wrote on a wide range of subjects related to science, in addition to writing in his own field on the structure of the atom and atomic energy. As far as I know, neither of the two men were Christians or claimed to be Christians; yet both were straightforward in acknowledging that modern science was born out of the Christian world-view."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 11, 2021

RETHINKING THE COPERNICAN CONFLICT:

"When the Roman Church attacked Copernicus and Galileo (1564–1642), it was not because their teaching actually contained anything contrary to the Bible. The church authorities thought it did, but that was because Aristotelian elements had become part of church orthodoxy, and Galileo's notions clearly conflicted with them. In fact, Galileo defended the compatibility of Copernicus and the Bible, and this was one of the factors which brought about his trial."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 10, 2021

WHY WE CAN SAY THINGS ARE WRONG:

"On the biblical basis, there are absolutes, and therefore we can say that certain things are right or wrong, including racial discrimination and social injustice. Consider Jesus standing in front of the tomb of Lazarus. The New Testament records that Jesus not only wept but was angry. The one who claimed to be God could be angry at the abnormality of death without being angry at Himself. To a Christian on the basis of what the Bible teaches, not only is death abnormal, so is the cruelty of man to man. These things did not exist as God made the world. A Christian can fight the abnormality which has resulted from man's rebellion against God without fighting the final reality of what is-that is, without fighting God. Therefore, because God exists and there are absolutes, justice can be seen as absolutely good and not as merely expedient."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 09, 2021

LEFT WITH THE ARBITRARY:

"...humanism has no final way of saying certain things are right and other things are wrong. For a humanist, the final thing which exists-that is, the impersonal universe-is neutral and silent about right and wrong, cruelty and noncruelty. Humanism has no way to provide absolutes. Thus, as a consistent result of humanism's position, humanism in private morals and political life is left with that which is arbitrary."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 08, 2021

BLOODLESS VS AUTHORITARIAN REVOLUTION :

"...the decisive change in England in 1688 was bloodless--so much so that among historians it is called the 'Bloodless Revolution.' At that time William III of Orange and Mary became monarchs, and it was made clear that Parliament was not a junior partner but an equal partner with the crown. This arrangement brought about the deliberate control of the monarchy within specific legal bounds. The French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778), often called 'father of the Enlightenment,' was greatly influenced by the results of this bloodless revolution in England during his time of exile there (1726–1729)...If these men had a religion, it was deism...The men of the French Enlightenment had no base but their own finiteness. They looked across the Channel to a Reformation England, tried to build without the Christian base, and ended with a massacre and Napoleon as authoritarian ruler."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 08, 2021

BIBLICAL STRIVING AGAINST A TWISTED VIEW OF RACE:

"Today's Christians, by identification with their forebears, must acknowledge these inconsistencies in regard to a twisted view of race. We can use no lesser word than sin to describe those instances where the practice was (or is) so far from what the Bible directs. The most effective acknowledgment is for Christians to strive in the present to follow the Bible at these points. "

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? Editor's Note: In context, Schaeffer advocates a specifically Biblical stance against racism (like that of Wilberforce), which elevates the dignity of mankind as made in the image of God. He thoroughly would reject the Marxist solutions being advocated today.


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May 07, 2021

THE CITIZEN AGAINST DESPOTISM:

"The 'little man,' the private citizen, can at any time stand up and, on the basis of biblical teaching, say that the majority is wrong. So, to the extent to which the biblical teaching is practiced, one can control the despotism of the majority vote or the despotism of one person or group."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 06, 2021

THE BIBLE VS THE 51 PERCENT:

"...the Reformation's preaching of the gospel brought forth two things which were secondary to the central message of the gospel but nonetheless were important: an interest in culture and a true basis for form and freedom in society and government. The latter carries with it an important corollary, namely, that 51 percent of the vote never becomes the final source of right and wrong in government because the absolutes of the Bible are available to judge a society."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 05, 2021

CHRISTIAN VS CHRISTIAN CONSENSUS:

"...we should realize that the word Christian can legitimately be used two ways. The primary meaning is: an individual who has come to God through the work of Christ. The second meaning must be kept distinct but also has validity. It is possible for an individual to live within the circle of that which a Christian consensus brings forth, even though he himself is not a Christian in the first sense. This may be true in many areas--for example, in the arts or political thought."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 04, 2021

JUSTICE LIFTS THE NATIONS:

"The book is Lex Rex: Law Is King. When it was published in 1644, [Samuel] Rutherford was one of the Scottish commissioners at the Westminster Assembly in London. Later he became rector of St. Andrew’s University in Scotland. What Paul Robert painted ["Justice Lifts the Nations" (pictured)] for the justices at the Supreme Court Building Samuel Rutherford had already laid down in writing in this book. Here was a concept of freedom without chaos because there was a form."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?, Editor's Note: Note that the sword of Justice points to it's Biblical base.


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May 03, 2021

FREEDOM WITHOUT CHAOS:

"The Reformation did not bring social or political perfection, but it did gradually bring forth a vast and unique improvement. What the Reformation’s return to biblical teaching gave society was the opportunity for tremendous freedom, but without chaos. That is, an individual had freedom because there was a consensus based upon the absolutes given in the Bible, and therefore real values within which to have freedom, without these freedoms leading to chaos. The world had not known anything like this before."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 27, 2021

CREATIVITY & WORLDVIEW:

"A person's world-view almost always shows through in his creative output, however, and thus the marks on the things he creates will be different. This is so in all fields"

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 23, 2021

THE CREATIVE IMAGE:

"It is not only Christians who can paint with beauty, nor for that matter only Christians who can love or who have creative stirrings. Even though the image is now contorted, people are made in the image of God. This is who people are, whether or not they know or acknowledge it. God is the great Creator, and part of the unique mannishness of man, as made in God's image, is creativity."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 22, 2021

NO REFORMATION, NO HALLELUJAH CHORUS:

"We must, of course, remember Handel who also stood in the same [Reformation] tradition. One naturally thinks of Handel's Messiah (1741), which was in the tradition of the restored Christianity in both its music and its message...The Messiah could only have come forth in a setting where the Bible stood at the center. "

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 19, 2021

NO LUTHER, NO BACH:

"Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was certainly the zenith of the composers coming out of the Reformation. His music was a direct result of the Reformation culture and the biblical Christianity of the time, which was so much a part of Bach himself. There would have been no Bach had there been no Luther."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 14, 2021

REFORMATION AND SONG:

"Luther himself was a fine musician. He was a singer with a good tenor voice as well as an instrumentalist with skill and verve. In 1524 his choirmaster, Johann Walther (1496–1570), put out a hymnbook (Wittenberg Gesangbuch) which was a tremendous innovation. Walther and his friend Conrad Rupff worked on these hymns in Luther’s home. Luther himself played out the tunes on his fife. The collection contained Luther’s own great hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," to which he wrote both words and music. As the rood screen was removed in the churches--because with an open Bible the people had direct access to God--so also in a direct approach to God the congregations were allowed to sing again for the first time in many centuries."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 09, 2021

IMAGES VS ART AS ART:

"The proof that the Reformation was not against art as art is seen in the effects of the Reformation on culture. We should not forget that Lucas Cranach (1472–1553), the German painter and engraver, was a friend of Luther and painted Luther and his wife many times...The vocal parts of the 1524 hymnbook were probably engraved by Cranach...There is no indication at all that Luther disapproved of Cranach's painting in all the varied forms that it took."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 08, 2021

GRACE ALONE:

"The individual person, they taught, could come to God directly by faith through the finished work of Christ. That is, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was of infinite value, and people cannot do and need not do anything to earn or add to Christ’s work. But this can be accepted as an unearned gift. It was sola gratia, grace only."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 07, 2021

VOCATIONAL DIGNITY:

"That Man is made in the image of God gives many important answers intellectually, but it also has had vast practical results, both in the Reformation days and in our own age. For example, in the time of the Reformation it meant that all the vocations of life came to have dignity. The vocation of honest merchant or housewife had as much dignity as king."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 06, 2021

HUMANITY WITH DIGNITY:

"The ironic fact here is that humanism, which began with Man's being central, eventually had no real meaning for people. On the other hand, if one begins with the Bible’s position that a person is created by God and created in the image of God, there is a basis for that person's dignity. People, the Bible teaches, are made in the image of God--they are non-programmed. Each is thus Man with dignity."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 05, 2021

IMPERFECT BUT IMPACTFUL REFORM:

"The Reformation was certainly not a golden age. It was far from perfect, and in many ways it did not act consistently with the Bible's teaching, although the Reformers were trying to make the Bible their standard not only in religion but in all of life. No, it was not a golden age...they indeed had many and serious weaknesses, in regard to religious and secular humanism, [yet] they did return to the Bible's instruction and the example of the early church."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 04, 2021

SOLA SCRIPTURA:

"To the Reformation thinkers, authority was not divided between the Bible and the church. The church was under the teaching of the Bible--not above it and not equal to it. It was sola scriptura, the Scriptures only. This stood in contrast to the humanism that had infiltrated the church after the first centuries of Christianity."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 03, 2021

ADEQUATE ANSWERS:

"...man needs the answers given by God in the Bible to have adequate answers not only for how to be in an open relationship with God, but also for how to know the present meaning of life and how to have final answers in distinguishing between right and wrong. That is, man needs not only a God who exists, but a God who has spoken in a way that can be understood. The Reformers accepted the Bible as the Word of God in all that it teaches."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 02, 2021

THE FINAL AUTHORITY:

"...in contrast to the Renaissance humanists, they [the Reformers,] refused to accept the autonomy of human reason, which acts as though the human mind is infinite, with all knowledge within its realm. Rather, they took seriously the Bible’s own claim for itself—that it is the only final authority."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Apr 01, 2021

AUTONOMOUS OR SUBORDINATE?:

"...in the South, much of the High Renaissance was based on a humanistic ideal of man's being the center of all things, of man's being autonomous; second, in the North of Europe, the Reformation was giving an opposite answer. In other words, the Reformation was exploding with Luther just as the High Renaissance was coming to its close."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 31, 2021

TWO RESPONSES:

"...the reaction against the distortions [of the Middle Ages] which had gradually appeared in both a religious and a secular form. The High Renaissance in the south and the Reformation in the north must always be considered side by side. They dealt with the same basic problems, but they gave completely opposite answers and brought forth completely opposite results."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 30, 2021

THE PRE-REFORMATION:

"...affirming the Bible as the only final authority, emphasizing a return to the teaching of Scripture and the early church, and insisting that man must return to God through the work of Christ only...[the] teachings of Wycliffe and Huss moved away from the humanism which had gradually but increasingly entered the church."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 29, 2021

THE PRE-RENAISSANCE DISTORTIONS:

"Humanist elements had entered, For example, the authority of the church took precedence over the teaching of the Bible; [merit based salvation], a mixture of Christian and ancient non-Christian thought. This opened the way for people to think of themselves as autonomous and the center of all things. The unfortunate side of the Renaissance was the reaffirmation of the distortions."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 28, 2021

NO BASIS FOR MEANING OR MORALS:

"Beginning from man alone, Renaissance humanism—and humanism ever since-has found no way to arrive at universals or absolutes which give meaning to existence and morals."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 27, 2021

ON RAPHAEL'S SCHOOL OF ATHENS:

"The fresco is in the Vatican. In The School of Athens Raphael painted Plato with one finger pointed upward, which means that he pointed toward absolutes or ideals. In contrast, he pictured Aristotle with his fingers spread wide and thrust down toward the earth, which means that he emphasized particulars. By particulars we mean the individual things which are about us;...this [emphasis] set the stage for the humanistic elements of the Renaissance and the basic problem they created."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 26, 2021

RETHINKING RENAISSANCE:

"...we must recognize that there eventually came a change which does merit the name Renaissance. But we should realize that it was not the rebirth of man; it was the rebirth of an idea about man. There was a change in thinking about man, a change which put man himself in the center of all things,...The word Renaissance, taken to mean 'rebirth,' has less obvious meaning if applied at this time to political, economic, or social history, although changes of mentality do have an impact in all areas of life. But even where the word can be used without qualification, it should not be taken to imply that every aspect of the rebirth was a gain for mankind."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 25, 2021

THE DARK AGES MYTH:

"When we approach the Renaissance we must not make either of two mistakes. First, as we have seen, we must not think that everything prior to the Renaissance had been completely dark. This false concept grew from the prejudice of the humanists (of the Renaissance and the later Enlightenment) that all good things began with the birth of modern humanism. Rather, the later Middle Ages was a period of slowly developing birth pangs. Second, while the Renaissance was a rich and wonderful period, we must not think that all which it produced was good for man."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 24, 2021

CHURCH AND STATE, A CLASSICAL DEBATE:

"...paradoxical as it may seem, the church, through its frequent tussles with secular rulers over the boundary between church power and state power, had encouraged the evolution of a tradition of political theory which emphasized the principle of governmental limitation and responsibility. There was, in other words, a limit-in this case, an ecclesiastical one-on worldly power; and the theme of kingship balanced by priesthood and prophetic office is important in the statuary of Chartres and many of the great Gothic cathedrals."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 23, 2021

ON LORENZETTI'S ALLEGORY OF GOOD AND BAD GOVERNMENT:

"Probably the greatest artistic study...Lorenzetti clearly distinguishes between good and bad government, showing on one side the devil presiding over all those vices which destroy community, and on the other side the Christian virtues from which flow all those activities-including honest toil-which manifest oneness between men under God...However, as the painter knew well enough from Siena's own turbulent city politics, if the sources of good and evil were distinct, the effects were humanly mixed together in a more or less jumbled heap of good and bad intentions."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 22, 2021

THE HUMANISTIC ELEMENT:

"...the pristine Christianity set forth in the New Testament gradually became distorted. A humanistic element was added: increasingly, the authority of the church took precedence over the teaching of the Bible. And there was an ever-growing emphasis on salvation as resting on man’s meriting the merit of Christ, instead of on Christ’s work alone. "

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 21, 2021

ART AND HUMANITY:

"The Byzantine art became characterized by formalized, stylized, symbolic mosaics and icons. In one way there was something good here—in that the artists made their mosaics and icons as a witness to the observer. Many of those who made these did so with devotion, and they were looking for more spiritual values. These were pluses. The minuses were that in the portrayal of their concept of spirituality they set aside nature and the importance of the humanity of people."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 20, 2021

ART PARALLELS:

"A parallel can be drawn between the 'living' quality of this early Christian art and the living Christianity of the early church. Leaders like Ambrose of Milan (339–397) and Augustine (354–430) strongly emphasized a true biblical Christianity. Later in the church there was an increasing distortion away from the biblical teaching, and there also came a change in art."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 19, 2021

THE PERSECUTION OF ABSOLUTES:

"Because the Christians had an absolute, universal standard by which to judge not only personal morals but the state, they were counted as enemies of totalitarian Rome and were thrown to the beasts."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 18, 2021

WHAT A TOTALITARIAN STATE WILL NOT TOLERATE:

"No totalitarian authority nor authoritarian state can tolerate those who have an absolute by which to judge that state and its actions. "

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 17, 2021

A THREAT TO THE UNITY OF THE STATE:

"Rome was cruel, and its cruelty can perhaps be best pictured by the events which took place in the arena in Rome itself. People seated above the arena floor watched gladiator contests and Christians thrown to the beasts. Let us not forget why the Christians were killed. They were not killed because they worshiped Jesus. Various religions covered the whole Roman world...The reason the Christians were killed was because they were rebels...they worshiped Jesus as God and they worshiped the infinite-personal God only. The Caesars would not tolerate this worshiping of the one God only. It was counted as treason. Thus their worship became a special threat to the unity of the state..."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 16, 2021

CULTURE+TIME+PRESSURE:

"Culture and the freedoms of people are fragile. Without a sufficient base, when such pressures come only time is needed-and often not a great deal of time--before there is a collapse."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 15, 2021

FROM TERROR TO AUTHORITARIANISM:

"Before the days of Caesar, the senate could not keep order. Armed gangs terrorized the city of Rome, and the normal processes of government were disrupted as rivals fought for power. Self-interest became more significant than social interest, however sophisticated the trappings. Thus, in desperation the people accepted authoritarian government."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 14, 2021

STRENGTH TO RIGHTLY JUDGE:

"This strength [of the early church] rested on God's being an infinite-personal God and His speaking in the Old Testament, in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, and in the gradually growing New Testament. He had spoken in ways people could understand. Thus the Christians not only had knowledge about the universe and mankind that people cannot find out by themselves, but they had absolute, universal values by which to live and by which to judge the society and the political state in which they lived. And they had grounds for the basic dignity and value of the individual as unique in being made in the image of God."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 13, 2021

STRENGTH OF WORLDVIEW:

"It is important to realize what a difference a people's world-view makes in their strength as they are exposed to the pressure of life. That it was the Christians who were able to resist religious mixtures, syncretism, and the effects of the weaknesses of Roman culture speaks of the strength of the Christian world-view."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 12, 2021

THREE ORIGINS:

"To understand where we are in today's world-in our intellectual ideas and in our cultural and political lives-we must trace three lines in history, namely, the philosophic, the scientific, and the religious."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 11, 2021

THE INNER ACTOR:

"People are apt to look at the outer theater of action, forgetting the actor who 'lives in the mind' and who therefore is the true actor in the external world. The inner thought-world determines the outward action."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 10, 2021

IDEAS ARE CONTAGIOUS:

"Most people catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society the way a child catches measles. But people with more understanding realize that their presuppositions should be chosen after a careful consideration of what world-view is true."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 09, 2021

WHAT IS YOUR PRESUPPOSITION?:

"People have presuppositions, and they will live more consistently on the basis of these presuppositions than even they themselves may realize. By presuppositions we mean the basic way an individual looks at life, his basic world-view, the grid through which he sees the world."

~Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Mar 08, 2021

HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE NOW?:

Follow us for the next 10 weeks as we share quotes and insights from Dr. Schaeffer's work, How Should We Then Live? Here is today's quote: "There is a flow to history and culture. This flow is rooted and has its wellspring in the thoughts of people. People are unique in the inner life of the mind-what they are in their thought-world determines how they act. This is true of their value systems and it is true of their creativity. It is true of their corporate actions, such as political decisions, and it is true of their personal lives."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Jun 04, 2019

YOUR DECISION :

"To make no decision in regard to the growth of authoritarian government is already a decision for it."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, A Special Note: How Should We Then Live?


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Jun 01, 2019

WILL WE BE THANKFUL?:

"I wonder if Christians of the future will be thankful that in our day we spoke out and acted against abuses in the areas of race and the noncompassionate use of wealth, yet simultaneously and equally balanced this in speaking out and acting also against the special sickness and threat of our age-the rise of authoritarian government?"

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, A Special Note: How Should We Then Live?


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May 31, 2019

INFLUENCE IN MINORITY:

"Christians do not need to be in the majority in order to influence society."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, A Special Note: How Should We Then Live?


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May 30, 2019

A GOVERNMENT THAT WILL NOT BE JUDGED:

"No truly authoritarian government can tolerate those who have a real absolute by which to judge its arbitrary absolutes and who speak out and act upon that absolute."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, A Special Note: How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 29, 2018

YOUR DECISION:

"To make no decision in regard to the growth of authoritarian government is already a decision for it."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, A Special Note: How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 28, 2018

INFLUENCE IN MINORITY:

"Christians do not need to be in the majority in order to influence society."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, A Special Note: How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 27, 2018

ENEMIES OF STATE:

"If we as Christians do not speak out as authoritarian governments grow from within or come from outside, eventually we or our children will be the enemy of society and the state."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, A Special Note: How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 26, 2018

IT WILL NOT BE JUDGED:

"No truly authoritarian government can tolerate those who have a real absolute by which to judge its arbitrary absolutes and who speak out and act upon that absolute."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, A Special Note: How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 25, 2018

WE ARE NOT EXCUSED:

"The danger in regard to the rise of authoritarian government is that Christians will be still as long as their own religious activities, evangelism, and life-styles are not disturbed. We are not excused from speaking, just because the culture and society no longer rests as much as they once did on Christian thinking."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, A Special Note: How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 21, 2018

WILL WE BE THANKFUL?:

"I wonder if Christians of the future will be thankful that in our day we spoke out and acted against abuses in the areas of race and the noncompassionate use of wealth, yet simultaneously and equally balanced this in speaking out and acting also against the special sickness and threat of our age-the rise of authoritarian government?"

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, A Special Note: How Should We Then Live?


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Oct 04, 2018

GRAND CONSPIRACY:

"With an elite providing the arbitrary absolutes, not just TV but the general apparatus of the mass media can be a vehicle for manipulation. There is no need for collusion or a plot. All that is needed is that the world-view of the elite and the world-view of the central news media coincide."

~ Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Sep 27, 2018

NATURE AND LAW:

"...nature provides no sufficient base for either morals or law, because nature is both cruel and noncruel."

" ~ Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Sep 05, 2018

NO NEED FOR A CONSPIRACY THEORY:

"With an elite providing the arbitrary absolutes, not just TV but the general apparatus of the mass media can be a vehicle for manipulation. There is no need for collusion or a plot. All that is needed is that the world-view of the elite and the world-view of the central news media coincide."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Jul 24, 2018

FREEDOM CONSENSUS:

"...the unusual and wide freedoms which biblical Christianity gave to countries where it supplied the consensus. When these freedoms are separated from the Christian base, however, they become a force of destruction leading to chaos. When this happens, as it has today, then, to quote Eric Hoffer (1902-1983), 'When freedom destroys order, the yearning for order will destroy freedom.'"

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Jun 11, 2018

CRUEL AND NONCRUEL:

"...nature provides no sufficient base for either morals or law, because nature is both cruel and noncruel."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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May 28, 2018

ENEMIES OF STATE:

"If we as Christians do not speak out as authoritarian governments grow from within or come from outside, eventually we or our children will be the enemy of society and the state."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, A Special Note: How Should We Then Live?


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May 23, 2018

AS THEY THINK:

"I believe people are as they think. The choices we make in the next decade will mold IRREVOCABLY the direction of our culture... and the lives of our children!"

~ Promo material for "How Should We Then Live" ~ Francis Schaeffer


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Apr 14, 2018

ACT UPON YOUR WORLDVIEW!:

"...as Christians we are not only to know the right worldview, the world-view that tells us the truth of what is, but consciously to act upon that world-view so as to influence society in all its parts and facets across the whole spectrum of life, as much as we can to the extent of our individual and collective ability."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 11, 2017

WITHOUT THE REFORMATION:

"Countries that have never had a Christian Reformation base will be the first to bow to authoritarianism."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 10, 2017

A REFORMATION WITH ANSWERS:

"And they [the Reformers,] took seriously that man needs the answers given by God in the Bible to have adequate answers not only for how to be in an open relationship with God, but also for how to know the present meaning of life and how to have final answers in distinguishing between right and wrong. That is, man needs not only a God who exists, but a God who has spoken in a way that can be understood."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 09, 2017

SCHAEFFER ON SOLA SCRIPTURA:

"The Reformers accepted the Bible as the Word of God in all that it teaches. Luther translated the Bible into German, and translations of the Bible began to be available for the people in the languages they could understand. To the Reformation thinkers, authority was not divided between the Bible and the church. The church was under the teaching of the Bible--not above it and not equal to it. It was sola scriptura, the Scriptures only. This stood in contrast to the humanism that had infiltrated the church after the first centuries of Christianity. At its core, therefore, the Reformation was the removing of the humanistic distortions which had entered the church."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 08, 2017

THE REFORMATION IN CONTEXT:

"...in the south, much of the High Renaissance was based on a humanistic ideal of man's being the center of all things, of man's being autonomous; ...in the north of Europe, the Reformation was giving an opposite answer. In other words, the Reformation was exploding with Luther just as the High Renaissance was coming to its close."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 06, 2017

SONGS OF REFORMATION:

"Wycliffe's and Huss's views were the basic views of the Reformation which came later, and these views continued to exist in parts of the north of Europe even while the Renaissance was giving its humanist answers in the south. The Bohemian Brethren, the antecedents of the Moravian Church, were founded in 1457 by Huss's followers, and, like Luther's doctrines later, their ideas were spread not only by their teaching but by their emphasis on music and use of hymns. Huss himself wrote hymns which are still sung today."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 05, 2017

SCHAEFFER ON HUSS:

"John Huss of Bohemia (the heartland of modern Czechoslovakia) was a professor of the University of Prague (the Charles University). He lived between about 1369 and 1415. Thus his life overlapped Brunelleschi's, Masaccio's and van Eyck's. In contrast to the humanistic elements which had come into the church--and which led to the authority of the church being accepted as equal to, or greater than, the authority of the Bible and which emphasized human work as a basis for meriting the merit of Christ--Huss returned to the teachings of the Bible and of the early church and stressed that the Bible is the only source of final authority and that salvation comes only through Christ and His work. He further developed Wycliffe's views on the priesthood of all believers. Promised safe conduct to speak at the Council of Constance, he was betrayed and burned at the stake there on July 6, 1415."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 04, 2017

SCHAEFFER ON WYCLIFFE:

"...there had been forerunners of the Reformation. John Wycliffe (c. 1320-1384), whose life overlapped Giotto's, Dante's, Petrarch's and Boccaccio's, emphasized the Bible as the supreme authority, and he and his followers produced an English translation which had wide importance throughout Europe. "

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Nov 03, 2017

REFORMATION OR RENAISSANCE?:

"The High Renaissance in the south and the Reformation in the north must always be considered side by side. They dealt with the same basic problems, but they gave completely opposite answers and brought forth completely opposite results."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Oct 31, 2017

HAPPY REFORMATION DAY!:

"Let us emphasize again that the Reformation was no golden age; and our eyes should not turn back to it as if it were to be our perfect model. People have never carried out the biblical teaching perfectly. Nonetheless, wherever the biblical teaching has gone, even though it has always been marred by men, it not only has told of an open approach to God through the work of Christ, but also has brought peripheral results in society, including political institutions."

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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Oct 27, 2017

WE ARE AS WE THINK:

"I believe people are as they think. The choices we make in the next decade will mold irrevocably the direction of our culture... and the lives of our children!"

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, Promo material for "How Should We Then Live"


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Oct 14, 2017

WHEN FREEDOM DESTROYS ORDER:

"When...freedoms [afforded by Christianity] are separated from the Christian base,...they become a force of destruction leading to chaos. When this happens, as it has today, then, to quote Eric Hoffer (1902-), 'When freedom destroys order, the yearning for order will destroy freedom.'"

~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?


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