....I want to say to you, those of you who are Christians or even if you are not a Christian and you are troubled about the direction that our society is going in, that we must not concentrate merely on the bits and pieces. But we must understand that all of these dilemmas come on the basis of moving from the Judeo-Christian world view -- that the final reality is an infinite creator God -- over into this other reality which is that the final reality is only energy or material in some mixture or form which has existed forever and which has taken its present shape by pure chance....
....this is the real reason for the breakdown in morals in our country. It's the real reason for the breakdown in values in our country, and it is the reason that our Supreme Court now functions so thoroughly upon the fact of arbitrary law. They have no basis for law that is fixed, therefore, like the young person who decides to live hedonistically upon their own chosen arbitrary values, society is now doing the same thing legally. Certain few people come together and decide what they arbitrarily believe is for the good of society at the given moment, and that becomes law.
The entirety of Dr. Schaeffer's 1982 address at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church will be posted over the course of the next two weeks. Section divisions and titles are mine:
Part 1: The Reason for the Breakdown
Part 2: The Source of Inalienable Rights
Part 3: World Views In Shift
Part 4: Tyranny begotton of Relativism
Part 5: Should I Save This Life?
Part 6: When Human Life has No Value
Part 7: Where have the Bible-believing Christians been?
Part 8: Where has the Christian Leadership been?
Part 9: Oppression begotten of Materialistic Chance
Part 10: Tyranny and Hidden Censorship
Part 11: True Spirituality brings Social Change
Part 12: The Cost of Spirituality
Part 13: Christ Must be Lord, Not Caesar
Part 14: Prayer
Bump for later.
My favorite Christian writer after The Bible. He talks about reality. Thanks for printing this.
Years ago, when Schaeffer was bringing out the “How then shall we live” series, I heard him speak about similar topics. I watched the videos & was a little non-plussed that he never really answered the question. He clearly claims to be a reformed thinker, but seemed to wander into a free-will ethos where all of this cultural shift was something which could be avoided if only we...fill in the blank. And that blank was fuzzy and moveable. Perhaps this will be a little more definitive.
Nevertheless, his trilogy is great reading for believers who think the atheistic naturalists sound smart and unassailable. He points out how bankrupt their positions are and how much they need theism just to keep their brains from exploding.
Thanks for posting the series. I’ll try to catch each installment.
Thanks for posting this.
Missed this. Seems this was taught 30 years ago. Now look where we’re at.