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Marty

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The Great Evangelical Disaster

by Francis A. Schaeffer

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Marty said: " This book, written in 1984 near the end of Francis Schaeffer's life, reflects on the modernist/fundamentalist division of the 1920s and 30s and when America's Christian consensus was lost, and proclaims that the contemporary state of evangelicalism i This book, written in 1984 near the end of Francis Schaeffer's life, reflects on the modernist/fundamentalist division of the 1920s and 30s and when America's Christian consensus was lost, and proclaims that the contemporary state of evangelicalism is equally disastrous.

Schaeffer says the fault lies with vast numbers of American Christians who are unwilling to bring the fight to the enemy and stand for Christ in their communities. Furthermore he says that the watershed issue for which we must stand is the inerrancy of scripture. "The real chasm is between those who have bowed to the living God and thus also to the verbal, propositional communication of God's inerrant Word, the Scriptures, and those who have not" (77). He warns of a new wave of neo-orthodox evangelicals, not just those in liberal denominations, who are abandoning Biblical absolutism. Evangelicals have become worldly, he says, because of their accommodation of the spirit of the age, their refusal to engage the enemy while their freedoms, based upon the Christian consensus inherited from the reformation period are slipping away.

My only critique of this book is that I wonder whether Biblical inerrancy is in fact the "real chasm" or the ONLY chasm, the only watershed issue. Aren't there plenty of Christians who believe every word of the Bible or at least claim to, including all that it says about history and science and morality, and yet still do not take the fight to the enemy? I think there are far to many Christians who just lack vision. They are sheep without shepherds. They don't work together and do courageous things because no one is out in front saying "forward!" Or perhaps even though there are a few of these leaders who have a vision for American Christian life, people are just too distracted, too focused on making money or trying to drag their spouse to counseling or whatever it may be.

QUOTES I LIKE:

"When the memory of the Christian consensus which gave us freedom within the biblical form is increasingly forgotten, a manipulating authoritarianism will tend to fill the vacuum. At this point the words 'right' and 'left' will make little difference. They are only two roads to the same end; the results are the same. An elite, an authoritarianism as such, will gradually force form on society so that it will not go into chaos--and most people will accept it" (23).

"The primary battle is a spiritual battle in the heavenlies. But his does not mean, therefore, that the battle we are in is otherworldly or outside of human history. It is a real spiritual battle, but it is equally a battle here on earth in our own county, our own communities, our places of work and our schools, and even our own homes.... In the realm of space and time the heavenly battle is fought on the stage of human history" (25).

"There is only one perspective we can have of the post Christian world of our generation: an understanding that our culture and our county deserves to be under the wrath of God. It will not do to say the United States is God's country in some special way. It will not do to cover up the difference between the consensus today and the Christian consensus that prevailed sixty years ago. The last few generations have trampled upon the truth of the Bible and all that those truths have brought forth" (29).

"But do we really believe that we are in a life and death battle? Do we really believe that the part we play in the battle has consequences for whether or not men and women will spend eternity in hell? Or whether or not in this life people will live with meaning or meaninglessness? Or whether or not those who do live will will live in a climate of moral perversion and degradation? Sadly, we must say that very few in the evangelical world have acted as if these things are true. Rather than trumpet our accomplishments and revel in our growing numbers, it would be closer to the rtuh to admit that our response has been a disaster" (32).

"Then in the mid 1930s, there occurred an event which I would say marks the turning point of the century concerning the breakdown of our culture. By 1936 the liberals were so in control of the Northern Presbyterian Church that they were able to defrock Dr. J. Gresham Machen.... It was the culmination of a long trend toward liberalism withing the Presbyterian Church and represented the same trend in most other denominations" (35).

"Many who left [the mainline liberalizing denominations] broke off all forms of fellowship with true brothers in Christ who had not left. Christ's command to love one another was destroyed. What was left was frequently a turning inward, a self-righteousness, a hardness. The impression often was left that coming out had made those who departed so right that anything could then be excused. Having learned such bad habits, they later treated each other badly when the resulting new groups had minor differences among themselves" (75).

"Some people think that just because the United States of America is the United States of America, because Britain is Britain, they will not come under the judgment of God. This is not so" (90).

"Jesus cannot be said to be Savior unless we also say he is Lord. And we cannot honestly and rightly say he is our Lord if he is only a Lord of part of life and not of the totality of life, including all the social and political and cultural life" (91). ...more "

Dec 05, 2011 08:54AM · see review