"Our attitude toward all men should be that of equality because we are common creatures. We are of one blood and kind. As I look across all the world, I must see every man as a fellow-creature, and I must be careful to have a sense of our equality on the basis of this common status. We must be careful in our thinking not to try to stand in the place of God to other men. We are fellow-creatures."
"God's people are to be active, not seeking, on account of some false mystical concept, to sit constantly in the shade of a rock. There is no monasticism in Christianity."
"The Scripture emphasizes that much can come from little if the little is truly consecrated to God. There are no little people and no big people in the true spiritual sense, but only consecrated and unconsecrated people. The problem for each of us is applying this truth to ourselves: is Francis Schaeffer the Francis Schaeffer of God?"
--Francis A. Schaeffer, No Little People, Ch. 1
17 July 2008
Dose of Schaeffer
"I am such a small person. I don't have many talents. I'm weak. Nothing I do has any real significance." says many a Christian about the possibility of being used by God. Schaeffer's response to that man or woman is that, "with God, there are no little people."
Fighting for Truth in the Church - J. Gresham Machen
Below is a quote by J. Gresham Machen from the 1930’s laying out the battles taking place in the church. In the quote Machen rightly ascribes these battles to the modernists of his day. What is amazing about this quote is that it perfectly captures the arguments of the post-moderns in the church today.
"You will have battles when you go forth as minister into the church. The church is now in a period of deadly conflict. The redemptive religion known as Christianity is contending, in our own church and in the all the larger churches of the world, against a totally alien type of religion. As always, the enemy conceals his most dangerous assaults under pious phrases and half-truths. The shibboleths of the adversary have sometimes a very deceptive sound. ‘Let us propagate Christianity,’ the adversary says, ‘but let us not always be engaged in arguing in defense of it; let us make our preaching positive, and not negative; let us avoid controversy; let us hold to a Person and not to a dogma; let us sink small doctrinal differences and seek the unity of the church of Christ; let us drop doctrinal accretions and interpret Christ for ourselves; let us look for our knowledge of Christ, not to ancient books, but to the living Christ in our hearts; let us not impose Western creeds on the Eastern mind; let us be tolerant [think all views are equally correct] of opposing views.’ Such are some of the shibboleths of that agnostic Modernism which is the deadliest enemy of the Christian religion today. They deceive some of God’s people some of the time; they are heard sometimes from the lips of good Christian people, who have not the slightest inkling of what they mean. But their true meaning, to thinking men, is becoming increasingly clear. Increasingly it is becoming necessary for a man to decide whether he is going to stand or not to stand for the Lord Jesus Christ as he is presented to us in the word of God."
J. Gresham Machen – The Good Fight of Faith (sermon)
05 July 2008
Weekly Dose of Schaeffer
This is one of those blogs, you know, where some guy just rambles on about things from his perspective. Like the quote from Os Guinness says, "There are more people writing nowadays then are reading" is pretty true but I hope you can find some helpful information here, if anything at least from the links in the sidebar. To start things off I had been working on writing something that I thought sounded good but I've been busy with work and studying so I'll start with this.
Pyromaniacs has their Weekly Dose of Spurgeon so I'm going to provide a Weekly Dose of Schaeffer. This particular section from the book Genesis in Space and Time by Francis A. Schaeffer will most likely be the longest as it outlines the base for all my thinking and writing:
It is important to note that fallen man still retains something of the image of God. The Fall separates man from God, but it does not remove his original differentiation from other things. Fallen man is not less than man. Thus we read in Genesis 9:6: 'Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." Man is such a special creation that to take his life in a wanton, murderous way deserves a particular punishment. I feel that often the hue and cry against capital
punishment today does not so much rest upon humanitarian interest or even an interest in justice, but rather a failure to understand that man is unique. The simple fact is that Genesis 9:6 is a sociological statement is that man, being created in the image of God, has a particular value--not just a theoretical value at some time before the Fall, but such a value yet today.
We find a prallel in James 3:9--"Therewith [speaking of our tongues] bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God" (ASV). This likeness is parallel to the term, the image of God.
The Christian, therefore, has a sociological base which is extremely strong. As humanists are fighting today against prejudice, they have little philosophical base for their battle. But as a Christian I do: no matter who I look at, no matter where he is, every man is created in the image of God as much as I am.
So the Bible tells me who I am. It tells me how I am differentiated from all other things. I do not need to be confused, therefore between myself and animal life or between myself and the complicated machines of the second half of the twentieth century.
Suddenly I have value, and I understand how it is that I am different. I understand how it is that God can have fellowship with me and give me revelation of a propositional nature. Furthermore, I can see that all men are so differentiated from non-man, and I must look upon them as having great value. Coming back to Genesis 9:6, anyone who murders a man is not just killing one who happens to be of a common species with me, but one of overwhelming value, one made in the image of God. As James says, any man, no matter who he is, stranger or friend, a Christian or someone who is still in rebellion against God, is made after the likeness of God. A man is of great value, not for some less basic reason, but because of his origin.
Thus the flow of history has tremendous implications for every aspect of our lives. ...As I look at myself in the flow of space-time reality, I see my origin in Adam and in God's creating man in His own image.
Pyromaniacs has their Weekly Dose of Spurgeon so I'm going to provide a Weekly Dose of Schaeffer. This particular section from the book Genesis in Space and Time by Francis A. Schaeffer will most likely be the longest as it outlines the base for all my thinking and writing:
The Image of God and Fallen Man
It is important to note that fallen man still retains something of the image of God. The Fall separates man from God, but it does not remove his original differentiation from other things. Fallen man is not less than man. Thus we read in Genesis 9:6: 'Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." Man is such a special creation that to take his life in a wanton, murderous way deserves a particular punishment. I feel that often the hue and cry against capital
punishment today does not so much rest upon humanitarian interest or even an interest in justice, but rather a failure to understand that man is unique. The simple fact is that Genesis 9:6 is a sociological statement is that man, being created in the image of God, has a particular value--not just a theoretical value at some time before the Fall, but such a value yet today.We find a prallel in James 3:9--"Therewith [speaking of our tongues] bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God" (ASV). This likeness is parallel to the term, the image of God.
The Christian, therefore, has a sociological base which is extremely strong. As humanists are fighting today against prejudice, they have little philosophical base for their battle. But as a Christian I do: no matter who I look at, no matter where he is, every man is created in the image of God as much as I am.
So the Bible tells me who I am. It tells me how I am differentiated from all other things. I do not need to be confused, therefore between myself and animal life or between myself and the complicated machines of the second half of the twentieth century.
Suddenly I have value, and I understand how it is that I am different. I understand how it is that God can have fellowship with me and give me revelation of a propositional nature. Furthermore, I can see that all men are so differentiated from non-man, and I must look upon them as having great value. Coming back to Genesis 9:6, anyone who murders a man is not just killing one who happens to be of a common species with me, but one of overwhelming value, one made in the image of God. As James says, any man, no matter who he is, stranger or friend, a Christian or someone who is still in rebellion against God, is made after the likeness of God. A man is of great value, not for some less basic reason, but because of his origin.
Thus the flow of history has tremendous implications for every aspect of our lives. ...As I look at myself in the flow of space-time reality, I see my origin in Adam and in God's creating man in His own image.
