Veritas et Lux

Why Francis Schaefer Matters: The Line of Despair – Part 3

The Loss of Antithesis

The loss of antithesis in American culture led to what Dr. Schaeffer coined the “line of despair” or giving up all hope of achieving a rational unified answer to knowledge and life. Schaeffer outlines what he believes are the various steps below this line of despair. He begins with the German philosopher, Georg William Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) who became the first man to open the door into the line of despair. Hegel taught what we really have is a thesis, and an opposite antithesis, with the answer of their relationship not a horizontal movement of cause and effect, but a synthesis, or dialectical thinking. In the end result, Hegel’s philosophy produced a synthesis as opposed to antithesis which could be arrived at by reason.

Schaeffer believes that while Hegel opened the door to the line of despair the Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard was the first one to go below the line. Kierkegaard concluded that one could not arrive at synthesis by reason alone. Rather, one achieves everything of real importance by taking a “leap of faith.” Schaeffer, therefore, maintains that Kierkegaard’s conclusions gradually led to the absolute separation of the rational and logical from faith.

The Leap of Faith and the Line of Despair

What is this leap and what does it involve? Schaeffer teaches that Kierkegaard’s leap put away the hope of any unity. Schaeffer writes, “The leap is common to every sphere of modern man’s thought. Man is forced to the despair of such a leap because he cannot live merely as a machine . . . If below the line man is dead, above the line, after the non-rational leap, man is left without categories. There are no categories because categories are related to rationality and logic. There is therefore no truth and no nontruth in antithesis, no right or wrong – you are adrift.” (Escape From Reason, 241, 256).

Schaeffer continues to chronicle the subsequent philosophers who followed Kierkegaard’s thought including the atheistic existentialism of Karl Jaspers, Jean Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger. These men reasoned below the line of despair and gave up hope of a rational answer to the questions of life. The end result: they are left with only the anti-rational.

Schaeffer proceeds to explain what he considers the further steps under the line of despair. The first as noted above began with philosophy. The second step was art. The third – music. The fourth – culture, and the fifth step was the new theology which was opened by Karl Barth. While most refer to this brand of theology as “liberal” or “neo-orthodox,” and rightly so, the issue at hand runs deeper than labels. Indeed, liberal theology rejects the deity of Christ, the inerrancy of Scripture and the New Testament miracles. The new theology knows nothing of man being created in the image of God. But Schaeffer adds further clarity to the issue: “All the new theology and mysticism is nothing more than a faith contrary to rationality, deprived of content and incapable of contentful communication. You can bear ‘witness’ to it, but you cannot discuss it. Rationality and faith are out of contact with each other” (The God Who Is There, 64).

Man, therefore, is left in a state of despair which “arises from the abandonment of the hope of a unified answer for knowledge and life. Modern man continues to hang on to his rationalism and his autonomous revolt even though to do so he has had to abandon any rational hope of a unified answer” (Escape From Reason, 235-236).

The Consequences of Despair

The consequences and despair of modern man can be found in three areas. alling prey to nihilism or embracing a worldview that offers no hope.

The second is found in the fact that he accepts a false dichotomy (what Schaeffer calls an “absolute dichotomy”) between nature and grace. However, the modern scheme is presently a dichotomy between contentless faith (no rationality) and rationality (no meaning). “All the new theology and mysticism is nothing more than a faith contrary to rationality, deprived of content and incapable of contentful communication. Rationality and faith are out of contact with each other” (The God Who Is There, 64).

Third, since there is no integration point between rationality and faith man engages in acts of desperation in order to find meaning, namely, he accepts a mysticism which gives an illusion of unity to the whole. Hence we understand why the influx of eastern religion such as Hinduism, i.e. the New Age Movement has gained such a popular foothold in America today. If there is no hope of a unified field of knowledge one must cling to a mystical world-view that has no rational base but promises hope for the present and the future.

Schaeffer enhances his discussion by contrasting the Christian faith with modern man’s faith which has turned inward. In Christianity the value of faith depends upon the object towards which the faith is directed. So it looks outward to the God who is there, and to the Christ who in history died upon the cross once for all, finished the work of atonement, and on the third day rose again in space and in time. This makes the Christian faith open to discussion and verification (The God Who Is There, 65).

Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: An Introduction – Part 1

Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: The Turning Point in Truth – Part 2

Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: Consequences of Pitting Rationality Against Faith – Part 4

Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: The Turning Point in Truth – Part 2

The Truth Crisis

Francis Schaeffer sets the tone for his apologetical procedure by explaining the crisis of truth in America: “We are fundamentally affected by a new way of looking at truth. This change in the concept of the way we come to knowledge and truth is the most crucial problem facing America today” (The God Who Is There, 6). He believes a paradigm shift occurred around 1935 when the American attitude toward truth changed. Prior to this time, American’s were devoted to thinking about presuppositions, namely, the existence of absolutes, particularly in the areas of morals (ethics) and knowledge (epistemology). But the average American took it for granted that if a certain idea was true, it’s opposite was false. In other words, “absolutes imply antithesis.” The working antithesis is that God exists objectively (in antithesis) to his not existing.

Schaeffer believes that presuppositional apologetics would have stopped the decay. Incidentally, he maintains that the use of classical apologetics was effective prior to the shift because non-Christians were functioning on the surface with the same presuppositions, even though they did not have an adequate base for them.

The Role of Thomas Aquinas

Dr. Schaeffer maintains that Aquinas opened the way for the discussion of what is usually called the “nature and grace” controversy (Escape From Reason, 209). He contends that Aquinas set up a dichotomy of grace versus nature.

Aquinas taught that the will of man was fallen, but the intellect was not. The net result, according to Schaeffer, is that man’s intellect is seen as autonomous. Schaeffer maintains that the teaching of Aquinas led to the development of the so-called Natural Theology where theology could be pursued independent of the Scriptures. The vital principle to understand according to Schaeffer is that “as nature was made autonomous, nature began to ‘eat up’ grace” (Escape From Reason, 212).

Anthropology

Schaeffer militates against this so-called “grace/nature” dichotomy and insists that Christ is equally Lord in both areas. He suggests that God made the whole man and is consequently interested in the whole man. When the historic space-time Fall took place, it affected the whole man, not merely the will as Aquinas taught. Thus, Schaeffer taught that the whole man is saved and the whole man will eventually be glorified and perfectly redeemed.

Since God made man in His own image, man is not caught in the wheels of determinism: “The Christian position is that since man is made in the image of God and even though he is a sinner, he can do those things that are tremendous – he can influence history for this life and the life to come, for himself and others” (Death In The City, 258).

Schaeffer argues that Evangelicals have such a strong tendency to combat humanism that they end up making man a “zero.” He adds, “Man is indeed lost but that does not mean he is nothing . . . From the biblical viewpoint, man is lost, but great” (Death In The City, 258-259). Therefore, Schaeffer’s anthropological position is that man is sinful, yet he is significant because he is made in the image of God. And regenerate man is, as the Reformers emphasized, simul iustus et peccator – simultaneously righteous and sinful.

Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: An Introduction – Part 1

Why Francis Schaefer Matters: The Line of Despair – Part 3

Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: Consequences of Pitting Rationality Against Faith – Part 4

Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: An Introduction – Part 1

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984) may very well be one of the most important Christian thinkers of the twentieth century. Schaeffer attended Westminster Theological Seminary and was heavily influenced by J. Gresham Machen, Cornelius Van Til, and the Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper.

In 1948, after a ten year pastorate in the United States, he moved his family to Switzerland to engage in missionary work. In 1955, Dr. and Mrs. Schaeffer founded L’Abri in a small mountain village in Switzerland. French for “shelter,” L’Abri became a refuge for people in need of spiritual help. The Schaeffers were especially interested in people who sought answers to basic philosophical and metaphysical problems. He writes, “To the best of my ability I gave the Bible’s answers. But all the time I tried to listen and learn the thought forms of these people. I think that my knowledge, whatever it is, is formed from two factors: 1) Forty years of hard study, and 2) Trying to listen to the twentieth-century man as he talked” (Eternity, March 1973). Schaeffer’s keen ability to listen carefully and engage the intellect of these people became a primary factor that contributed to his success.

Students came to L’Abri from varied backgrounds – philosophy, medicine, architecture, science, and theology. The Schaeffers ministered to college professors, students, pastors, engineers, and lawyers to name a few. The common thread among all L’Abri visitors was a thirst for truth. These people sought answers to the basic questions of life: Who am I? Where am I going? What is my purpose in life? How does God fit in the scheme of things?

The stated purpose of L’Abri is “to show forth by demonstration, in our life and work, the existence of God” (L’Abri, 16). L’Abri continues to operate and fulfill the vision of Francis Schaeffer even over twenty-five years after his death. The ministry of L’Abri may also be found in Holland, Australia, England, Sweden, India, South Korea and Massachusetts.

Francis Schaeffer published his first book, The God Who Is There in 1968. He subsequently wrote twenty-two books which have been translated into more than twenty-five different languages. A common unifying theme runs throughout Schaeffer’s books, namely, “the Lordship of Christ in the totality of life” (The Great Evangelical Disaster, 303).

In the days to come, my goal is to expose readers to Francis Schaeffer and pay particular attention to his views on apologetics and the nature of the church.

Veritas et Lux!

Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: An Introduction – Part 1

Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: The Turning Point in Truth – Part 2

Why Francis Schaefer Matters: The Line of Despair – Part 3

Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: Consequences of Pitting Rationality Against Faith – Part 4

Men and Women in the Church – Kevin DeYoung (2021)

Kevin DeYoung, Men and Women in the Church (Wheaton: Crossway Books 2021), 170 pp.

One of the most contested issues in the church in recent days concerns the role of men and women in the church. What are they commanded to do? What are they prohibited from doing? The chief question among many people is this: “Can a woman preach on a Sunday morning to a congregation that consists of both men and women? Kevin DeYoung tackles this thorny question in his excellent book, Men and Women in the Church. The subtitle captures the essence of the book: A Short, Biblical, Practical Introduction.

The book is arranged in two parts. Part 1 focuses on biblical exposition. DeYoung begins in the Old Testament and works his way through Scripture and highlights the pertinent themes concerning the role of men and women in the church. Readers must bear in mind that the purpose of this book is to introduce the central themes and cause them to take a deeper dive into more comprehensive treatments of this subject.

Part 2 contains questions and applications. DeYoung explores common questions that pertain to men and women in the local church and he provides clear biblical answers.

One section that is particularly helpful concerns parenting children and teaching them their respective roles as aspiring men and women. DeYoung is intrigued (as am I) with John Piper’s helpful question: “If your son asks you what it means to be a man, or your daughter asks you what it means to be a woman, what would you say?” DeYoung builds on this thought-provoking question and explores ways for parents to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. He concludes:

What do we say then to our sons and daughters who ask, ‘Daddy and Mommy, what does it mean to be a man or a woman?’ Tell them they are made in the image of God and for union with Christ. And then tell your daughters that they should strive to be beautiful in the way God wants them to be beautiful. And tell your sons to strive to be strong in all the ways God wants them to be strong.

While the arguments in DeYoung’s work are not as detailed as those found in works like Recovering Manhood and Womanhood, edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem, the arguments are still substantial. Indeed, DeYoung’s arguments are concise. But more important the arguments are biblical. I commend Men and Women in the Church to anyone who will take time to wrestle with DeYoung’s essential arguments. My hope is that many readers will be convinced. The result is a strengthened and more obedient church.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.

Recovering the Lost Art of Reading – Leland Ryken and Glenda Faye Mathes

Recovering the Lost Art of Reading: A Quest for the True, the Good, and the Beautiful by [Leland Ryken, Glenda Mathes]

Leland Ryken and Glenda Faye Mathes, Recovering the Lost Art of Reading (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2021), 296 pp.

Reading has fallen on hard times. Technology and all things visual have led to a steady decline of the written page. Leland Ryken and Glenda Faye Mathes have something to say about this problem in their book, Recovering the Lost Art of Reading.

Reading is a Lost Art

The authors develop a strong case for the lost art of reading in part one. The authors laments, “The decline of reading has impoverished our culture and individual lives. We have lost mental sharpness, verbal skills, and ability to think and imagine.” One can only imagine how culture would improve if people recovered the lost art of reading.

Reading Literature

In part two, the motivation for reading is explored and several suggestions are given for reading a wide variety of genres, including poems, novels, children’s books, fantasy, and more. A fascinating theological appeal is set forth as the authors note that “God wants us to have literature in our lives because he has revealed himself to the human race in a book that is primarily literary in nature.” Such a challenge should move prospective readers in a direction that can only result in something positive and productive.

Recovering the Art of Reading

Part three is a call to arms. The chief argument is this: “The road to recovery lies through discovery.” Readers are challenged to make reading a normal part of their lives. “In the words we read,” write the authors, “we often see dim reflections of the One who created by his word and the Living Word, Jesus Christ.”

A final appeal is made to Jonathan Edwards who argues that beauty is an important part of the Christian life:

For as God is infinitely the greatest being, so he is allowed to be infinitely the most beautiful and excellent: and all the beauty to be found throughout the whole creation, is but the reflection of the diffused beams too that Being who hath an infinite fullness of brightness and glory.

Reading, then, is an important part of God’s redemptive plan. Surely, the people of God should rise up and either restore their passion to read or begin afresh by making reading a priority as a matter of Christian discipleship.

Recovering the Lost Art of Reading: A Quest for the True, the Good, and the Beautiful is a helpful book. It is a much-needed book. I trust that many will dig in and take up the challenge that Ryken and Mathes offer.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.

Embodied – Gregg R. Allison

Gregg R. Allison, Embodied (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2021), 260.

Embodied: Living as Whole People in a Fractured World by Gregg R. Allison addresses a crucial matter that impacts every person. While every systematic theology addresses the issue of embodiment, few tackle this subject with the skill and precision that Dr. Allison does here.

Allison shows at the outset that a theology of embodiment is critical since it crosses several other important Christian doctrines including creation, anthropology, Christology, and eschatology. More specifically, “a theology of embodiment addresses numerous contemporary moral and social issues: human personhood, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, heterosexuality and homosexuality, dehumanization and objectification, body image, the obesity epidemic, anorexia and bulimia, compulsive exercise, orthorexia, body modification, selfie dystrophia, and more.”

Additionally, a theology of embodiment directly challenges the Gnostic heresy that was so prominent in early church history and continues to plague the worldviews of contemporary Christians. In the end, as Allison writes, “a theology of embodiment will help us live as whole people in a fractured world.”

Each of the topics above are explored and exposited in the framework of a biblical worldview. The author clearly explains each subject, shows how it emerges in Scripture, and how it conflicts with worldly ideology. Finally, readers are challenged at the close of each chapter with thought-provoking questions that enable them to apply the lessons.

Embodied: Living as Whole People in a Fractured World is a book that may not have received much attention in previous generations. But given the radical paradigm shift in the culture and contemporary church, this book will is a welcome guest in a culture that is coming apart at the seams. It challenges theological and philosophical error with graciousness and humility and helps equip the next generation of Christ-followers.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.

The New Creation and the Storyline of Scripture – Frank Thielman (2021)

Frank Thielman, The New Creation and the Storyline of Scripture (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2021), 142 pp.

The New Creation and the Storyline of Scripture by Frank Thielman is the most recent installment in Crossway’s Short Studies in Biblical Theology. The goal of this series, according to the editors is “to magnify the Savior and build up his church – magnifying the Savior through showing how the whole Bible points to him and his gracious rescue of helpless sinners; and building up the church by strengthening believers in their grasp of these life-giving truths.”

Thielman’s work is the most general in nature in the Crossway series. It guides readers from a world under the curse of sin to the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. The author does a commendable job in a short amount of space in showing God’s redemptive purposes in the plot line of Scripture. “Because God is so gracious,” writes Thielman, “he has not left his creatures to wallow in the mire of their own rebellion against him. He has undertaken costly and concrete steps to put the world right.”

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.

The Promise: The Amazing Story of Our Long-Awaited Savior – Jason Helopoulos (2021)

Jason Helopoulos, The Promise: The Amazing Story of Our Long-Awaited Savior (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2021), 64 pp.

Everyone loves a good story. For centuries people have gathered to tell stories. Some stories are simply fun. Others are life-changing. The Promise: The Amazing Story of Our Long-Awaited Savior by Jason Helopoulos is a story of the latter variety. Indeed, it is a story about God’s plan for the nations. But it is not just any story – it is his story.

This short children’s book is a creative way to teach biblical theology to young minds. Pastor Helopoulos begins in Genesis 1:1 with the creation narrative. He walks readers through the six days of creation and proceeds to show how sin entered the world and ruined everything. The remainder of the book focuses on various ways that people try to find peace with God.

In the end, the reader is confronted with the reality of the gospel as the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, the one who was promised in Genesis 3:15: The author writes:

In this child, the promise came. He was the one who would crush the head of the serpent, deliver mankind from their sins, grant them his righteousness, work in them his holiness, give them his life.

The Promise not only accurately unfolds the precious promise of the Redeemer; it is beautifully bound and includes stunning illustrations on each page by Rommel Ruiz. The blend of art and theology geared to children of all ages makes this book an important part of family discipleship. It is a book that can and should be read multiple times and discussed with children. Such a book can be passed from one generation to the next and introduce children to God’s redemptive plan for the nations.

Highly recommended!

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.

The Church: An Introduction – Gregg R. Allison

Gregg R. Allision, The Church: An Introduction (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2021), 181 pp.

The church is at the very center of God’s redemptive purposes. Gregg Allison is quick to articulate this great reality in The Church: An Introduction. Dr. Allison’s work is the newest installment in Crossway’s Short Studies in Systematic Theology series, one that has been commended unreservedly by this writer.

Foundational Issues

Dr. Allison pours a sturdy ecclesiological foundation in part one and demonstrates the great need to ground this subject in the triune God. Almost immediately, the author distinguishes himself as set apart from a Classical Dispensational understanding of Scripture:

In summary, both the Old and New Testament present the one people of God in two aspects: as the people of Israel in old covenant relationship with him. Believers constitute the one people of God … Specifically, this redeemed people of God consists of two aspects: the people of Israel in old covenant relationship with him and the people of the church in new covenant relationship with him. Believers constitute the one people of God.

God redeems a people for his own possession and his Spirit dwells among his people. Once again, Allison drives home the reality and importance of the church: “There is one people of God, who from eternity past has graciously elected all those who will believe in him by faith and walk with him in obedience, worship, love, and service.”

Next, the author focuses on the ecclesiastical framework.

Mere Ecclesiology and More Ecclesiology

Various elements of the church are explored in some detail including the leadership, government, and ordinances of the church. As with the other topics in the Short Studies in Systematic Theology series, these are covered in a basic manner but never in a simplistic way.

More than anything else, I appreciate the tone of Dr. Allision. His books are theologically rich and practical. Both beginners and veterans of the Christian faith will benefit from this excellent discussion.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.

Finding Truth – Nancy Pearcey

Finding Truth, by Nancy Pearcey is another fine contribution that deserves to be read. The author maintains with Romans 1 that all people have access to general revelation. As such:

We all have access to evidence for God through creation.
We all suppress the evidence for God from creation.
We all create idols to take the place of God.
God gives us up to the consequences of our idols to a “debased” mind.
God gives us up to the consequences of our idols – to “dishonorable” behavior.

Pearcey builds upon her earlier works, both of which are best sellers. Total Truth argued for a unified view of truth and the obliteration of sacred/secular split. Saving Leonardo sought to help people develop skills in critical thinking. Finding Truth introduces readers to five principles that help make sense of competing worldviews and make a positive case for historic Christianity. The five strategic principles are summarized below:

Identify the Idol. Anything which is presented as eternal and unchanging is an idol. This principle helps us get to the heart of mankind’s propensity to erect idols and bow down to them. By way of contrast, Christianity refuses to begin with creation and an epistemological starting point. Rather, the beginning of knowledge rests in a transcendent Creator who is sovereign over all things.
Identify the Idol’s Reductionism. Pearcey notes, “The link is that idols always lead to a lower view of human life … When one part of creation becomes deified, the other part will be denigrated.” Reductionism, is, therefore, a fool’s errand as the creation is elevated to a status that God never intends.
Test the Idol: Does it Contradict What We Know About the World? Since idols always fail to satisfy, people will begin to realize that they cannot live according to the logic of their presuppositions. They are either forced to live in the real world – which is to oppose their worldview or they live in accordance with their worldview which contradicts reality.
Test the Idol: Does it Contradict Itself? The competing worldview, at this point, becomes self-defeating. The author notes, “Everyone who proposes a reductionist worldview must make a tacit exception for his own thinking – at least, at the moment he is stating his claims. But that too creates a logical inconsistency.” Thus the worldview fails.
Replace the Idol: Make a Case for Historic Christianity. As it becomes apparent that a competing worldview fails, the apologist must make a strong case for the viability and truthfulness of the Christian worldview. “By identifying the points where non-Christians are free-loading, we can be confident that we are addressing areas where they sense the need for something more.”

Finding Truth is an essential toolbox for thinking Christians. Pearcey does a dual service for readers as she not only instructs them to analyze and demolish competing worldviews (2 Cor. 10:5); she encourages readers to go deeper in the Christian faith which is informed by biblical reality and rock-solid facts. A more accurate description, however, would be a treasure chest. This is required reading which will only enrich one’s Christian life and effectiveness in the marketplace of ideas!

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.