Francis Schaeffer

I've written about Francis Schaeffer in some of my other blogs but I'd like to focus on him today.

If you remember I mentioned that I became aware of Francis Schaeffer when I was in Piraeus, Greece (near Athens).  Some young people who were hiking around Europe mentioned him and his work with young intellectuals.  They gave me his book The God Who Is There and it opened my eyes to a new way to share the Gospel with those who needed to think about it.

Schaeffer was an evangelical Presbyterian pastor who came to a point in his life in his early 50's that he wasn't sure he was preaching real stuff.  He wasn't sure the Bible was worth staking his life on.  So he resigned his pastorate and moved to Switzerland.  There he spent three years reading his Bible, praying and pacing around a chalet until he felt he had encountered the living God.  He came to believe that the Bible was "true truth" as he used to say.

During that time his daughters were in college and they would bring their friends home to discuss life with Francis.  They were searching for truth but needed it framed in something other than hell fire and brimstone.  They wanted a faith that didn't negate their intellect.

Francis began to study philosophy, art and culture to discover ways that the God who was there was speaking to the intellectuals.  His God-given anointing was to be able to understand a philosophy and those who adhered to it, take them to the end of the philosophical thought and show them how it fell short of the Gospel.  He didn't do it by beating them over the head with a Bible but he addressed them where they were.  They were asking legitimate questions that needed legitimate answers.  It reminds me of what Paul did in Athens when he told those seeking truth that he could introduce them to the one who was truth. (Acts 17)

I had the opportunity to travel by train to Switzerland soon after I met those other kids in Piraeus.  I spent time with other young people from around the world listening to lectures, having tea with Edith and Francis Schaeffer in their chalet and being stretched intellectually.  I have often wondered who has taken up that mantel to the intellectuals.  I have had the opportunity when he was living to hear him lecture here in the states.  I remember Pat saying that she couldn't even understand some of the questions people were asking Francis let alone the answer.  I couldn't either.

I have discovered that the Gospel can reach anyone, at any level of intelligence, in any circumstance.  It is as magnificent as the landscape around us and the beauty of all creation.  I have never been found wanting for what the Gospel is capable of doing in the lives of those who hear, see and experience it.

My prayer is that your faith is as vibrant today and even more so than when you first believed.