Video of Francis Schaeffer’s workshop on „The Question of Apologetics” 1983 (70 minutes)

Francis Schaeffer workshop on „The Question of Apologetics”
L’Abri Conference, Atlanta, June, 1983
Recorded by Soundword Associates for L’Abri Fellowship

This 70 minute section is a lecture based on the chapter „The Question of Apologetics” from Francis Schaeffer’s book ‘The God Who Is There‘.

PHOTO credit Amazon.com Amazon’s description of the book:

In 2006, Christianity Today voted this title to be one of the top 50 books that have shaped evangelicals! For over thirty years The God Who Is There has been the landmark book that changed the way the church sees the world. In

Francis Schaeffer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Francis Schaeffer’s remarkable analysis, we learn where the clashing ideas about God, science, history and art came from and where they are going. Now this completely retypeset edition includes a new introduction by James W. Sire that places Schaeffer’s seminal work in the context of the intellectual turbulence of the early twenty-first century. More than ever, The God Who Is There demonstrates how historic Christianity can fearlessly confront the competing philosophies of the world. The God who has always been there continues to provide the anchor of truth and the power of love to meet the world’s deepest problems.

VIDEO by FrancisSchaefferStudies.org

Ravi Zacharias on suicide

Question to Ravi Zacharias: The catholic church believes that those who commit suicide go directly to hell. What do you think about that?

Ravi Zacharias:

English: Ravi Zacharias signing books at the Future of Truth conference (2004) at Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This question has so many ramifications, other than that, it goes into things like assisted suicide, where machines are pulled off, or, living wills. All these things are now coming into play. The more machines we have and the more science grows, the more complex these decisions become and we are making more decisions of a more rapid nature and with more dramatic implications.

Let me just say this to you: I wish I had an absolute answer to give to you. I would just say this: I wouldn’t want to meet the Lord, after I have taken my life. And the reason is, in Genesis 9:6, murder is called the ultimate attack upon the image of God. That’s what murder is- you have violated the image of God. So, if I violate the image of God in someone else, or I violate it in myself, it is the ultimate act of lack of faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God. So, I would say, I wouldn’t want to meet Him on those terms.

I will also say this, that I cannot stand as a judge, and tell the parent of an 18 0r 19 year old, where the life has been wasted like that, that that’s the end, and that that person is hell bound. That’s not my prerogative in life. I would have to leave God as the judge, and God to work for the peace of a family that has had to live through it. I would never want…. I tried that once. It took me years to even talk about it. I never talked about it to my parents, afterward. My wife spoke to my mother and my father, and said, „It is so embarrassing to Ravi to even discuss it.” It’s easier for me to discuss it from a platform, than it is to talk one on one across the table. The fact that I tried to take my life is a devastating thought to me. The only consolation I have is that I didn’t know Christ at that time.

Now that I know Him, I will never, ever violate the image of God, that is given to me. And, I pray that in pain or in struggle, or whatever… in Romans 14, it tells you about eating food, about one day being more sacred than another, it gives you all of these things, and it tells you this: „Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” What it really means is: if you violate a conviction that God has places in your heart, clearly, it’s a sinful thing to do.

So, I would say what Francis Schaeffer says about the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. „If you are ignoring the sovereignty,” he says, „that’s what I would preach to you at that time.” „If you are ignoring responsibility, that’s what I would preach to you at this time.” If anybody is toying with the idea of taking their life, that’s what I would say to them, „Don’t even think about it. It’s the most sacred gift that has given to you. Don’t use your freedom to violate your freedom. The eternal destiny is in the hands of God, but the moment is for us to choose and select. Let us not violate what God has given to us as a sacred gift. It is a privilege that is entrusted. Trust Him through the wildest twists and turns . When you finally meet with Him, you will find He has sustained you through the greatest and your darkest night of your soul.

Life is too precious, don’t squander it. Go out into the darkness, put your hand into the hand of God.

Francis Schaeffer: This country is almost lost not because of the humanistic conspiracy, but because the bible believing Christian… has done nothing about it

Francis Schaeffer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have been reading about Francis Schaeffer and working on a series of future posts on this visionary evangelical. Meanwhile here is a short video about him- the solitary man of his generation, who influenced a whole new generation of bible believing evangelicals to shape the future of evangelicalism itself. Schaeffer is most well known as the author of ‘The Christian Manifesto” which he wrote as a response to the ‘Communist Manifesto”.

Here’s an interesting quote in the video from Schaeffer:

„I have a question to ask you. Where have the Bible believing Christians been the last four years? We must recognize this country is close to being lost. This country is almost lost not because of the humanistic conspiracy, but because the bible believing Christian… has done nothing about it… there has been a vast silence.” -Francis Schaeffer

Published on Nov 4, 2012 by BibleandAmerica

Related articles

• Mohler Appointed Schaeffer Chair at World Journalism Institute (prweb.com)
• Francis Schaeffer – 100 Years (str.typepad.com)
• Literally Taking the Bible Literally? (sethsoasis.wordpress.com)

Chip Ingram – De ce cred in inviere (subtitrare) Why I believe in the Resurrection

IN ENGLISH:

Chip Ingram recounts how his faith in the Jesus of the Bible was challenged in college, during his master’s and doctorate programs by getting hit with some very hard questions as to the historicity of Jesus as well as having his intellectual standing assailed. Ingram states: „So I started this journey and I’ve been on this journey for about 30 years. And the journey goes something like this: Is there intellectually feasible evidence to support a faith in the Jesus of the Bible, with His claims of deity, eternal life and absolute truth?”

This is video 1 of a 12 part series posted on Romanian television. The entire DVD set is available at amazon.com  Here is the description of the DVD set: What happens when we die? Can miracles be explained? Is there really a God? Answers to questions such as these are as varied as they are confusing, and spring from a plethora of mystical belief systems. But the fact is, we can know the truth. There are solid, logical answers to satisfy the heart and mind of those who are seeking. If you or someone you know has genuine questions about issues at the core of human existence, this series is an excellent resource! Message titles include: Why I Believe in the Resurrection / Why I Believe in Life After Death / Why I Believe in the Bible / Why I Believe in Creation – Part 1 / Why I Believe in Creation – Part 2 / Why I Believe in the God of the Bible

IN LIMBA ROMANA:

Crestinii si ateii sunt de acord dintr-o privinta, principala chestiune este invierea. Credinta noastra este construita pe un Isus care a trait in timp si spatiu. Manuscriptele biblice, cantitatea lor si calitatea, atat din punct de vedere secular, cat si din punct de vedere a savantilor religiosi; avem 25,000 de documente Nou Testamentare care autentifica realitatea/existenta lui Isus Hristos. Biblia nu este doar o formula despre cum sa-ti traiesti viata. Potrivit lui Isus, sunt cuvintele adevarate a lui Dumnezeu, cuvintele adevarate ale vietii pe care Dumnezeu vrea sa le ai.

Vei accepta sau vei respinge dovezile?

Chip Ingram povesteste citindu-l pe Francis Schaeffer,  si studiind si absolvind Universitatea de West Virginia, unde a scris lucrarea de licenta despre bazele intelectuale ale eticii, pe care a inceput sa le aprofundeze. Spune Ingram: In sesiunea de masterat si de doctorat m-au bombardat cu intrebari dificile. Asa ca am inceput aceasta aprofundare de peste 30 de ani. Cercetarea suna cam asa: Exista dovezi intelectuale care sa sustina credinta intr-un Isus din Biblie si afirmatiile Sale despre divinitatea Sa, despre viata eterna si adevarul absolut? Acum, dupa 30 de ani doresc sa raspund prin ceia ce am invatat.”

DE CE CRED IN INVIERE

Published on Oct 5, 2012 by alfaomegatv

Acest seminar  este primul dintr-o serie mai larga De ce cred – o puteti cumpara pe DVD de aici: http://alfaomega.tv/magazin/details/528/29/dvd-uri/seminarii/de-ce-cred–chi…

Ravi Zacharias and Friends

Apologetics Beyond the Pew: A Conversation with Ravi Zacharias and Friends
Source http://tiu.edu/ Carl F.H.Henry’s Center for Theological Understanding on April 12, 2010. This lecture was given before Ravi Zacharias’s trip to  Romania and Armenia (2010).

• When you look back upon the landscape of  the last 25 years, or 30 years, there were voices, sounding forth at that time,  of the changes that were coming. I remember listening to Everett Coop and Francis Schaeffer in the 1980’s sounding the alarm of what were then being seen as the moral underpinnings from which extensions would be made and decisions would be made. Who would have ever thought that you would hear ethical theories that we now listen to from the voice of Peter Singer and others. Not just liberal in their thinking, but radically so. At the end of a spectrum of thought, where we not only do not know how to define human life, but, we define it in ways that could actually be stunning and shocking. And, once the shock value is gone they become common ideas and carried into ramifications.
• We no longer can define what life is. We cannot define what sexuality is. We do not know how to define what marriage means. I remember when Chuck Colson had invited me and a few others to New York some months ago, from which emerged the signing of the Manhattan Declaration, I remember phoning my wife from New York and saying, „I never dreamed of the day when you would have a room full of men and women trying to define a thing like life, marriage, sexuality. Things that you thought would be self evident or that would have some input of the sacred…now totally desacrilized and almost defying any kind of definition or any kind of parameter. But people like Schaeffer warned us of this.
• Zacharias lists 4 changes he believes have come about in the last 25-30 years:

1. The popularization of the death of God of the atheistic mindset and the willingness (popularizations) to live with its ramifications a la Hitchens and Dawkins and Dennett and Harris who say what Huxley said, „I want this world not to have meaning because a meaningless world frees me to my own exploits of sexual and political freedom. (Hypocrisy is the charge that vice brings to virtue …deep in their own thinking they know some things are wrong)
2. It is the third world’s attack upon Western ideas with the pantheistic and postmodern underpinnings to it that has actually made the ideas that shaped the West look juvenile and everything else that comes from abroad look very sophisticated. I have a question for people like that. „Why did you come to the West?” Because there were some moral assumptions that were a quest of the Judeo-Christian framework; even if you didn’t want to give credit to the world view  that framed them, you liked what you saw in the outworking. Do you know that the Chinese government has just commissioned writers to rewrite the history of missions in China because the leadership in China recognized that Missions has not been given a good and fair name? They want to acknowledge the benefit that Missions has done in the last century, principally in two arenas: in education and health and well being for the Chinese people. Think of this statement, „We take these truths to be self evident that we are all created equal…with inalienable rights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Let me ask you this question, „Do you know of any other world view that would have framed that statement, other than the Judeo-Christian faith?” There are ideas in the Gospels that are not presented anywhere else. Take for example that no where else is there an offer of sacrifice, or of forgiveness,  such as the cross of Christ.
3. The power to inform through the visual. We now take truth through the eye gate not through reason and so it comes through the back door of the imagination. We’re intended to see through the eye with the conscience. Most people see today with the eye, devoid of a conscience. We’ve got a visually conditioned culture. On the movie Avatar- brilliant in cinematography and now English movies are just beginning to resemble Hindi movies. That’s all it is. Bollywood was 30 yrs ahead on this kind of stuff and 30 yrs ago we would have sat and laughed at this kind of stuff and now it is so engaging. Isn’t it interesting? A Hollywood technocrat, who sees the military as the culprit for destroying lives has never bothered to ask how many souls and consciences Hollywood has destroyed.  We’ve got a generation raised with the visual that has never cerebrally addressed these issues of systemic contradiction.
4. A youth oriented world as a culture molding point, which means the young ought to really be an audience to whom we speak and how we speak to them. The question is how we reach a generation that thinks with its eyes or listens with its eyes and thinks with its feelings? That’s the challenge.

• I’ll give you 3 simple responses

1. We are going to need an apologetic that is not merely heard, but is also seen. If the Christian life is not seen, it will become nothing more than theoretical.
2. An apologetic that is not merely argued but that is also felt. You cannot have a persuasive preacher if the preacher is not coming through as being persuaded. woe be to me if I preach not the Gospel. Passions are very real, therefore the passion for the Gospel will also have to be real, if it is to appeal to a generation that lives so much with the pathos and the reality of the felt word.
3. It is an approach that rescues not only the ends of bringing them into the knowledge of Christ, but the means where we do not compromise the Word in process. The Word has a lasting, abiding value as a carrier of truth.

Related articles

• Ravi Zacharias – How to measure your choices a recent lecture at Lee University
• RAVI  ZACHARIAS  Page