The Last Words of Francis Schaeffer

What the “Last Words” of a famous evangelical mean for Seventh-day Adventists.

In the 1920s and 1930s Protestantism in the United States engaged in a struggle between liberal and conservative theology, which came to be known as theological modernism versus fundamentalism. The question at the heart of it was whether ministers should be required to subscribe to and teach what were referred to as “the fundamentals” of the Christian faith, such as the inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of the Bible, the virgin birth of Jesus, the substitutionary atonement of Christ, His bodily resurrection, and His visible return.

One of the major figures in that struggle was J. Gresham Machen, a distinguished conservative Biblical scholar and faculty member at Princeton Theological Seminary. When theological liberalism finally captured Princeton’s board of trustees in 1929, Machen participated in the founding of Westminster Theological Seminary. Eventually Machen was accused of rebellious defiance against his church’s authority because of his position that the authority of the Word of God supersedes that of any human organization or institution. Without opportunity for defense, he was suspended from the Presbyterian ministry in an action that demonstrated liberalism’s inherent intolerance.

Theology Shaped Culture.
The theological liberalism of the 20s and 30s helped to shape American culture following World War II, producing a climate for sexual promiscuity and perversion, the virtual destruction of Christian marriage as an institution and dissolution of the family, abortion on demand, feminist reinterpretation of the Bible and reconstruction of history, and the barbarism characterizing cultural paganism today.

Schaeffer.
In the midst of the turmoil was a young seminary student, Francis A. Schaeffer, who eventually became a powerful voice for biblical Christianity. The developments briefly described above had a profound impact on his life, faith, ministry, and thought. Schaeffer became a prolific author and in 1955 co-founded L’Abri Fellowship, a retreat and study center in Switzerland.

Schaeffer entered Westminster Theological Seminary, which Machen had co-founded, to begin his ministerial training in 1935, later transferring to Faith Theological Seminary from which he graduated in 1938. He became the first pastor ordained in the newly organized Bible Presbyterian Church. Shortly before he died he wrote the last of his many books, entitled The Great Evangelical Disaster (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1984).

Last Words.
The words a person speaks on the brink of death are often hung upon by loved ones and friends desperate for forgiveness, hope, wisdom, or direction as they face the terror of life without the presence of the dying person. How the heart of the thief on the cross next to Jesus must have rejoiced when Jesus spoke His last words to him, assuring him on that apparently darkest of all days, “you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Who knows how long the echo of “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” was heard by those who crucified Him! “It is finished!” would be pondered by millions through the centuries.

The last words spoken by the Lord to His disciples after His resurrection, the event that confirmed all He said while alive and on the cross, just prior to His ascension, empowered His followers to found and build the church: “Go,” He said, “and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt 28:19-20). We who believe in Him today are the inheritors of the evangelical message and the mission it empowers.

What were Francis Schaeffer’s last words? It is not the purpose of this article to review The Great Evangelical Disasterbut simply to call attention to what he book identifies as the "great disaster" and the only appropriate response to that disaster. Then we will ask if there is anything in Schaeffer’s last words that is of import for Adventism as it approaches the turn of the century.

DISASTER IDENTIFIED

Disaster’s Cause.
Schaeffer says that his final book grew “out of the critical situation in which we live today” (p. 12). With insight and wisdom sharpened by a lifetime of ministry, research, writing, and first-hand exposure, he identified the cause of that critical situation: accommodation on the part of evangelical Christianity “to the destructive and ugly world spirit of our day” (p. 15). First is accommodation regarding Scripture, in that evangelical Christianity no longer affirms the truth of all the Bible teaches. Second is accommodation regarding issues, in that the evangelical churches take no clear stand on matters of life and death. Culturally speaking, Schaeffer describes the fundamental nature of that world spirit as the drive toward absolute freedom. Absolute freedom is the idea that any kind of restraint or limit to human behavior is intrinsically evil. Such a view ultimately becomes rebellion against God and His law. When freedom is cut loose from Christian restraints, it becomes a force for destruction.

In a poignant passage Schaeffer bares his heart: "Having turned away from the knowledge given by God, the Christian influence on the whole of culture has been lost. In Europe, including England, it took many years—in the United States only a few decades. In the United States, in the short span from the twenties to the sixties, we have seen a complete shift. Ours is a post-Christian world in which Christianity, not only in the number of Christians but in cultural emphasis and cultural result, is no longer the consensus or ethos of our society. Do not take this lightly! It is a horrible thing for a man like myself to look back and see my country and my culture go down the drain in my own lifetime. ... The last few generations have trampled on the truth of the Bible and all that those truths have brought forth" (p. 29).

The struggle Schaeffer speaks of is taking place mainly in two arenas of contemporary life: the way we think and the way we live. The one follows the other. The Bible says, "For as he [a person] thinks within himself, so he is" (Prov 23:7 NASB). "If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions" (Gal 6:3-4). Both of these passages establish a relationship between thought and behavior. When the thought life is not grounded in the written Word of God, behavior will not demonstrate God's will for human living.

Battle With Culture.
In both the arenas of ideas and actions, says Schaeffer, "Bible-believing Christians find themselves locked in battle with the surrounding culture of our day" (p. 26). There is a conflict between "the wisdom of this world" and the "wisdom of God" (1 Cor 1:20-21). Worldly wisdom gives little or no credence or consideration to the Word of God, producing a distorted picture of reality. Those who think like this, and yet consider themselves wise, the Bible judges to be "fools" because they have "exchanged the truth of God for a lie" (Rom 1:22-25).

THE SOLUTION
Recognizing the cosmic battle, which Seventh-day Adventists call the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan, Schaeffer wrote to encourage Christians to oppose courageously such destructive accommodation. But how? What are the only effective weapons available to the Bible-believer? They are the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, and prayer in the Spirit (Eph 6:10-18). Schaeffer points out that the only offensive weapon in the above list is the Word of God! The Bible as Word of God in everything it teaches is the only weapon that can defeat the spiritual hosts of wickedness. "Holding to a strong view of Scripture or not holding to it is the watershed of the evangelical world" (p. 51). To compromise on anything the Bible teaches, and thus accommodate to the world spirit, puts us in the enemy’s camp. The Bible must be read and studied by God’s people in order to know the mind of God and thus be capable of thinking in His terms, rather than in human, cultural terms. When God’s people know His mind and think His thoughts, they can live His way.

Role of Scripture.
The Word of God, when allowed to exercise its creative power, shapes the life of the individual. And when the witness of the church to Christ and to the Scriptures is strong, it shapes society and culture as well. To effect such a change in society and culture, says Schaeffer, "will take a life committed to Christ, founded on truth, lived in righteousness and grounded in the gospel" (p. 25).

IMPLICATIONS FOR ADVENTISM
When Schaeffer’s analysis and solution are applied to specific contemporary issues, even within Adventism, the extent to which accommodation is prevalent becomes apparent.

Here are some passages of Scripture by way of illustration, which hardly need commenting upon:

• "Do not be deceived: Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals... shall inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor 6:9-10 NASB).

• "Women again must dress in becoming manner, modestly and soberly, not with elaborate hair-styles, not decked out with gold or pearls, or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, as befits women who claim to be religious" (1 Tim 2:9 NEB).

• "And do not get drunk with wine, in which is debauchery" (literal translation of Eph 5:18).

• "Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer [elder/pastor/bishop], he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife [Greek: a man of one woman]" (1 Tim 3:1-2 NIV).

The Seventh-day Adventist church faces internal conflicts today on every one of these issues on which the Bible speaks plainly. In addressing homosexuality, adornment, abstinence from alcoholic beverages and the reservation for men of the headship office in ministry, these passages clearly illuminate the conflict between God’s revelation and contemporary culture, which has accommodated to what Schaeffer calls the world spirit of the age. Our church has not escaped the pressure to conform to culture in these and other matters. The stakes are high. To know God’s revealed truth and deliberately turn away from it is catastrophic personally and collectively.

Spiritual Battle.
Bible-believing Seventh-day Adventists are aware that the church is engaged in a cosmic and spiritual battle for the minds and souls of people everywhere. Who would have imagined two generations ago that millions of unborn babies would be killed in America, that every form of sexual perversion would be accepted as "normal," that the institutions of marriage, family, and motherhood would actually be denigrated and considered restrictive of personal fulfillment? Who would have thought that in an age of amazing medical advancement and antibiotics, the whole world would experience the AIDS plague, a disease rooted in behavior?

While Adventism’s understanding of biblical Christianity is broader and more comprehensive than that of other evangelicals, it is still evangelical in that at its core is the evangel, the good news concerning the redemption purchased for sinners by Jesus Christ who is Saviour and Lord. We stand together with our evangelical friends on 1 Corinthians 15:3-5: "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve" (NIV, emphasis mine). Notice the authority of Scripture.

As He has done through the vicissitudes and upheavals of centuries of human history, God will continue to preserve His Word. His determination to do so is reflected in some of the Bible’s own last words: "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book" (Rev 22:18-19 NIV).

Adventism’s Challenge.
Yes, God will see to it that His Word survives. Adventism’s effectiveness depends upon belief in and obedience to the Bible as the Word of God. Our strength is not in our institutions, our organizations, or even in our doctrines as such. As important and vital as they are, our doctrines are an outgrowth of a fundamental conviction: that the Bible is truly God’s Word to us. Without this, nothing we do matters. But with this conviction, everything we do matters! The Word of God shows us how to receive the enabling strength of Jesus, and in so doing it makes demands upon those of us who claim to be His people, calling us to lives of holiness and service. Only when we take the Word with utmost seriousness will we have the will and the power to resist the world’s efforts to "squeeze you into its own mold" (Rom 12:2, Phillips). Only then will we demonstrate our willingness to conform life, action, and behavior to our Lord, who gave us the Word. Here is to be found the secret of power for the church today.