00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
So why don't we start with a word of prayer, and then we will jump right in. Father, we thank you that you brought us together again tonight in our various places, that you make it possible for us to connect across these kinds of distances, and you give us opportunities to travel for work and for other things as well. We take these things for granted too easily. Thank you for the safe travels that we've had, and I pray that you would Be with us again tonight as we continue to look at the life and the work of Francis Schaeffer. Help us to understand the times that he lived in, as well as the times that we live in, as an extension of his work. And we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. So we're on lecture four. Hopefully everybody has a copy of your notes tonight. You'll notice I did manage to shorten the notes this week. Wasn't necessarily a plan, but it worked out that way, so we'll go with it. At least we have a fighting chance of getting through most of the material in the time that we have. So what we're going to be doing tonight is, in the first session, looking at the next 12 years of Schaefer's life, starting with his ordination and call in 1938. The big picture is that he'll spend the next 10 years in pastoral ministry, and then in 1948 is going to be the relocation to Switzerland, and things start to get more interesting at that point. So, it is helpful to remember, I think, as we consider Schaeffer's life, that he expected to go into the ministry, to serve in the ministry as a pastor, so he did have a pastoral ministry. It is the case as well, that even after starting the ministry at Labrie, that he was still engaged in pastoral ministry. He was still preaching. Sometimes, or maybe for, in many cases, the only congregation he had to preach to was his own family, but he still continued to preach. So he had a preaching ministry throughout his life. But this is official, so to speak. So he finishes at Faith Theological Seminary in 1938 as the first graduate. He completed two years at Westminster, Leland, but his last year was at Faith, and that's where his degree is from. So he's called to the Bible Presbyterian Church in Grove City, Pennsylvania, named Covenant Presbyterian Church, Randy, as if there aren't enough covenant Presbyterian churches. At this time, Priscilla was just 11 months old, so she was just a toddler. Now at that time, Covenant was a very small congregation. It had broken away from the mainline or the Northern Presbyterian Church to establish itself as a more conservative denomination. And the few children that they had in the church were being sent to Sunday school elsewhere which is to say that they didn't have much to offer for the children their covenant. And it's not hard to understand that Fran would be particularly interested in doing something for the children. Interestingly, when Fran began his ministry, Edith began her habit of praying while Fran preached, and not praying for Fran, but praying for the Holy Spirit to apply what Fran was saying to the congregation. She considered that an important aspect of her ministry as a preacher's wife. Fran was able to put his skills as a scout to good work. He would put on hot dog roasts at the park during the summers and drive around town in his Model A Ford, rounding up kids, asking them if they wanted to go to a picnic. And of course, he got plenty of takers. That first year, Edith organized a vacation Bible school, and they were just about overwhelmed with the response. They had initially about 80 show up. By the time it was over, they had over 100 kids. There's a college, a small college in Grove City. They attempted to do a college ministry there, but really did not find any fruitful success with that. Fran, as a minister, wanted to engage everyone in the work of the congregation. And he also put a particular emphasis on the prayer ministry. So even those who could not do, quote unquote, very much in terms of physical work or those kinds of things, could nevertheless be engaged to pray. He felt that everybody had a contribution to make. So in less than three years at Grove City, it went from a congregation of 18 to over 100. So it grew considerably. During that time, they ended up acquiring, as it were, a new building. basically had to relocate a building that was an area that was going to be condemned. So they put it back together in a new place and dedicated a new building. Also during this time, Fran was engaged as a moderator for the Great Lakes Presbytery of the Bible Presbyterian Church, which his biographer says was a pretty big honor for such a young man. He was still just a young graduate out of seminary. In 1940, his father, Frank, had a stroke and was in serious condition. He was summoned back to Germantown very urgently to be at his father's bedside. And during this time, Fran and Edith had an opportunity to minister to Frank and to share the gospel with him. And it seems to be at about this time, or shortly after, Frank received Christ as Savior. Later that year, after his recuperation, Fran's parents come to visit in Grove City, and they surprise the young couple with a couple of electric appliances, a washing machine, and a refrigerator. And again, I like to include those little details to remind you how easily we take those things for granted in our own time. That was a big deal. Now, there was kind of a strange ending or what looks like a strange ending to the ministry in Grove City because after about three years, Fran was approached by one of the elders who suggested to him that three years is about as much time as a pastor ought to spend in one place. And so, you know, I write in your notes here, I'm not sure if this was friendly or hostile. I don't have a good beat on that. With the success of the congregation, it's hard to imagine that that could have been a hostile situation, but you never know. At any rate, they begin to pray for a door to open. And at that time they received a call. Fran received a call as an associate pastor from the Bible Presbyterian Church in Chester, Pennsylvania, which is just southwest of Philadelphia, so very close to their hometown of Philadelphia. And that would put them very close to their parents on both sides, as well as the friends that they had made while they were at Faith Theological Seminary. So Fran took this call as an associate pastor and Chester. It was a pretty big congregation, even by today's standards, 500 people. It was in a working-class neighborhood, but they had all kinds of backgrounds in the church, and of course this appeals to Fran because he comes out of a working-class background, and as we said, that makes it very easy for him to relate to any kind of person, and he takes the attitude that everybody has the same questions anyway. So again, Fran sees each person as having value regardless of whether they come out of a working class background or a professional background. He would later have a book published with the title, No Little People, which was the title of the sermon that he gave on that topic. The point being that there are no little people or no little places. Everyone serves an important purpose in the church. May 1941, their daughter Susan is born. And a little sad to say, but in 1941, Fran gave up his Model A Ford and acquired a used Chevrolet. Later that year, historically, we knew Pearl Harbor. War had been in the air for some time. So America officially joined the war at the end of 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Now we're told that Fran had a soft spot for special needs children and also that he often prayed over the sick according to the requirement in James chapter 5. And it was the case in many instances that healing was granted and even one case that seems to be what we would call a miracle of healing, that the child had what was considered a terminal disease and wasn't expected to live. So he believed very much in the power of prayer and the power of God to heal, but he also believed in using the means that God has provided through things like doctors and medicine. So in 1942, they organized a summer camp for all the ages in their congregation. More than 100 turn out, with the exception of the cook. And the cook did not turn out, so Fran became the cook for that summer camp, pressed into duty. As we said, by 1942, Frank had become a Christian, And part of what changed for Frank over the years, as we saw earlier on, he had a pretty strong prejudice against ministers for thinking that they don't do any actual work. I'm sorry, Leland, what is it? You said Fran took over the cooking? No, Edith took over the cooking. Okay. Did I misspeak? Sounds like it, you know, but I am getting older. We'll have to listen to the recording. So you can speak. I may not see you waving. I just happened to look at the computer screen. So Edith takes over the kitchen when the cook doesn't show up for summer camp. So back to Frank, we remember that he had a very negative attitude about pastors. He didn't want Fran to go into the ministry. But as time went by, he was able to see the value of the work of the ministry. especially how Fran and Edith modeled their genuine faith. So that was part of what seems to have softened Frank in his later years. By the fall of 1942, they're conducting air raid drills and blackout drills. Interestingly, it was apparently a pastor's privilege in those days to be able to be out at night with a car driving with the lights on. Because not just anyone could do that. 42 was a rough winter for them. The girls each had chicken pox, whooping cough, and the mumps. So just in case you wonder whether this young family struggled with the same kinds of things that your family struggles with, the answer is yeah. They weren't in Chester for that long, less than two years. Both in Grove City and in Chester, Fran was engaged in the work of building or renovating. And especially in Chester, Fran didn't think that the pastor was taking appropriate action in terms of his building. It sounds like The pastor was very ambitious about his desire to build and may have been building beyond the means of that congregation, even though it was a large congregation. It doesn't sound like it was a particularly rich one. So, Fran had his differences. June of 1943, Frank died. The good news is that when he died, he was in the Lord. The bad news is that Even at this stage, Bessie is still pretty bitter. It's gonna take some more time for her to soften up. So in 43, the Schaffers are called to the Bible Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, where Fran preached twice on Sundays and led a prayer and Bible study on Wednesday nights. He was very busy as the minister of that congregation. While they were here, they started the program that would later become the Children for Christ. And they would put a lot of effort once they moved to Europe into spreading that program throughout the European countries. So, France is already beginning to develop an interest in international youth ministry. And why youth ministry? Why ministry to children? They're the next generation. They're our future. That's true. The concern was, yeah, the concern was that these children were being brought up in the liberalist or liberal or modernist theology. They weren't hearing the truth. They were not being taught that the Bible is true and reliable. So it was a big emphasis for Fran and Edith in their ministry to reach children at a young age, to give them the understanding that scripture is true and reliable. before they get to that age where they start doubting and start searching for questions that they can't find answers to. Their children's ministry started in the basement of their house. They started out by training others to lead it from their homes so that it would multiply quickly and within a short time they had 20 homes in and around St. Louis where this program was being carried out. So they were covering a good portion of the city that way. Children for Christ started to spread to other churches, but Fran wants to make sure that it stays within churches that are true to the doctrine of inerrancy. The way that they did that was by making sure it was with churches that were associated with what's called the American Council of Christian Churches. That was founded by Carl McIntyre in 1941, specifically to oppose the National Council of Churches. So you have the conflict, as it were, between the liberals who are trying to form these organizations with an ecumenical twist to bring more churches together, but with less doctrine. And the response is a group like the ACCC that is designed to be a place for churches to associate without compromising scripture. So Fran, among other things, served on the board for the ACCC. and started a local council there in St. Louis. They spent a lot of time in the cultural enclaves, museums, and places like that. During warmer weather they would make trips to the zoo and to the park. So they enjoyed what the city had to afford in terms of culture. Fran had an interest in art throughout his life. We'll see that more when they move to Europe and they take family vacations to places like Italy, where they have opportunities to see examples of great art and architecture. Fran later in life wrote the book, Art and the Bible, as a way of encouraging creative expression. So in 1943, in the middle of the war, and living in a part of St. Louis where there were many Jews, a friend ended up writing a tract on anti-Semitism. That was part of your suggested reading for this week. It's a fairly short piece. It's about two or three pages. And if you haven't read it, I would encourage you to do that. He says this, let us note the command of God in Romans 11 31. It tells us clearly what our attitude in this age should be to natural Israel. We should have mercy unto them. And my friends, mercy and anti-Semitism in any form do not live in the same household. We cannot seek to win them individually to the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior if we despise them as people in our hearts. So what's the significance of him writing a tract like this? Right during the time when the kilns of Dachau were burning. Yeah, and we're going to see very shortly that Fran and Edith are going to make a trip to Dachau. So, think about that and think about also his ministry to the black church and the black children during the time that he was at Hampton, Sydney. This is somebody who is not going to be stopped by racial or ethnic lines when it comes to reaching people. He really does seek to see and to treat everyone as equals made in the image of God. So, May 1945. Their daughter Deborah is born. That was just a few days before Germany surrendered. And then in August is when the bombs were dropped on Japan, ending the war in the Pacific. So the war is now over. Around this time, Fran became active in the International Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, which is the organization that who founded? Randy? Randy. Thank you. So he's part of the International Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions meeting in Philadelphia. So he's having to do some travel for that. Of course, being back in his hometown, I'm sure availed himself of opportunities to spend time with family. This helped to rekindle his desire for missionary work. By this time, he's been in the ministry, pastoral ministry for about seven years. The church was also looking for ways to help those that were recovering from war. You had those who were returning from the battlefield, both in the Pacific and Europe. And you had Christians in Europe. And what we'll see as well is that there were many American soldiers and families who remained in Europe after the war and were a ministry opportunity for the Schaffers when they moved over there. So 1947 is really a very interesting turning point. Fran is sent to take a tour of Europe in order to assess the state of the church. Both the ACCC and the IBPFM, that's a little tricky. Both of them are involved. Fran was the American Secretary of Foreign Relations Department for the American Council of Christian Churches. There's probably not a business card that will fit on. At any rate, any good bureaucrat has to have a big title, and that was certainly true in this case. He basically went without a plan of where he was going to go or who he was going to talk to. So it was very much an opportunity to show confidence in the providence of God that he would open the right doors and lead him to the right people. While Fran was in Europe, Edith made a trip to her sister Janet's in Massachusetts, taking the girls with her. Their sister Elsa also comes for a couple of weeks during that summer. And so the Seville sisters get to enjoy a reunion and time together with their children that summer while Fran was touring Europe. Fran arrived in France first then he went on to Geneva and we might imagine that as someone who has a Reformed blood in the veins, that there are probably few places that you could go that would stir your Reformed blood more than the city of Geneva. So it's here that he feels the connection to the Reformation. I didn't read anything to this effect, but I can't help thinking of Schaeffer as somewhat of an extension of the reformers because of the work that he's doing at this time. It's not the Roman Catholic Church that represents the opposition, but the modernist movement. So he ends up attending the Young People's Congress in Oslo, Norway. And part of the reason I include this is because It almost sounds like something that's going on in the PCA right now. One of the speakers, Vissarthus, calls for driving out the gray heads so that more churches would join the ecumenical movement. Very much of a generational gap between those who wanted to preserve biblical standards and those who wanted to adopt modernism. At that same conference, Reinhold Niebuhr expressed a socialistic interpretation of scripture, and being surrounded by modernism in this way left Fran feeling very lonely for some genuine Christian contact. We can almost feel how discouraging it must have been as he's going through this process and hearing these kinds of things. He ends up visiting several other countries during his trip, Before coming back to the States, he makes a stop in England and has a chance to meet with the good doctor, Martin Lloyd-Jones, who shared Schaeffer's concern for the World Council of Churches, which had just recently been founded, again, by the liberals, for the purpose of advancing the liberal ecumenical movement. He also expressed concern about the tone of the separatists, so the two of them were in accord in both of those respects. Lloyd-Jones later, a couple of decades later, would give a call to the evangelicals to leave those churches that belonged to the World Council. Matt ended up at that time putting him at odds with John Stott. So I throw some of those details out there, not just for quiz material, but to help show some of the connections between some names that are, in many cases, familiar names to us. So that October friend returns to the US, but he's feeling the pull of a call back toward Europe. Again, that missionary spirit is welling up. He comes back with a greater appreciation for the connections in Christianity, that it is not just a national kind of thing, but it crosses all borders and boundaries. Unfortunately, he discovered that the church was in worse condition than he had expected. So by the time he's back, he's even more adamant about separating from the liberals. and making a way for the true churches to associate together. And along those lines, he wanted to start an international council to help unite those Bible-believing churches. By the time he gets back, he is in a state of burnout. He is physically exhausted from his journey. And he spends the next several months recuperating his strength. But by late 1947, He's already being asked to return to Europe the following year to help with the launch of what will be the International Council of Christian Churches. And they were hoping for him to do a speaking tour ahead of the first Congress to help gin up support. So the ICCC was to be the international extension of what was first the American Council of Christian Churches. And here's where Edith expressed some hesitation. And the reason for that was that she did not want Fran to simply be caught up in administrative work and to be pulled away from the work of the ministry. Now it turns out that of course, besides the administrative responsibilities, he's able to carry out considerable ministry work. So it was nevertheless a concern on Edith's part at that point. So in 1948, they took their leave from the church in St. Louis, more or less bringing Fran's pastoral ministry to a conclusion. They spent the next few months in Germantown staying with Bessie And the biographers tell us that that was a trying experience. Presumably Bessie is still unhappy. And you'll recall that when they were courting years earlier, that Bessie was pretty mean towards Edith. Now here's an interesting side story. That before they were preparing to leave for Europe that summer, Priscilla had taken ill. She was violently ill. So they went to a place called Philadelphia Children's Hospital. The first doctor they saw was not able to diagnose her illness. She continued to get worse. And then they saw a young pediatrician, a 32-year-old pediatrician, who very quickly diagnosed her with something called mesenteric adenitis. which required removing her appendix, which that young doctor subsequently performed the surgery, and she made a quick recovery. And that young doctor's name was C. Everett Koop, who had only recently, just a couple of weeks before that, been converted to Christianity under the ministry of Donald Gray Barnhouse at 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. So again, another very interesting providential connection. And why is C. Everett Koop going to be important later on, 30 years later? Under President Reagan. I can't remember the title, but they did a movie together. Whatever Happened to the Human Race, was that the one? That was the one. So the first movie that was made was what, Leland? See if he's awake. The first movie that was made? I don't know. Honestly. Meet Shapers? Yes. How then shall we live? How shall we then live? And then... Was that the first one? Yes. Okay. And then that was... Hey, you know why the credits on that movie? There's a person by the name of Billy Ziole, the son of Anthony Ziole, who was the preacher at the tent meeting where Fran happened to walk into in August of 1930. Another one of those connections. Thank you for stealing my thunder, Leo. I wonder if Francis Schaeffer had a goatee before he met Everett Cooper. I don't know. That's an interesting question. Maybe you can find out for us. So, interesting connection. Yes, they would later collaborate together. What we're also going to see on the very next page is another person that Fran meets upon arriving in Holland who becomes a very important collaborator for him as well. So, hold that thought. So things have improved. They're ready to set sail for Holland in August. Edith would later say of this moment that our nomadic life had begun or had started. So off we go. And what a life it was. Another interesting tidbit is while they were in Holland preparing for the first ICC Sea Congress, Edith was taking typing and shorthand lessons so that she could help serve as Fran's secretary in the work that he would be doing. Fran happened to be the secretary for the ICCC Congress that year, so he was busily taking notes and minutes of the meetings. So during their time in Holland, Fran met and befriended someone named Hans Ruckmacher. They became friends for life because of their mutual interest in art and culture. And here's one of those connections. Ruckmacher would later contribute to the production of How Should We Then Live? So interesting how we see through the course of his life how some of these early encounters lead to lifelong connections. At the time, Rookmacher was a grad student at the Free University of Amsterdam, writing his dissertation on Gauguin. His then-fiancee, Anke, was the secretary at the ICCC office. So there's the connection. In September, after that first Congress, they left from Holland on their way to Lausanne, Switzerland. going through Belgium and France. When they got to Lausanne, they hired a French tutor and began learning the language. Now I was doing an accounting the other day as I was listening to one of the earlier lectures from the class and thinking, how many languages did Fran learn? Who wants to take a guess? I'll get us started. English Now he's going to be learning French. What else has he learned? I don't think he was conversational in Hebrew and Greek. Well, he certainly had to take Hebrew and Greek during his seminary years. And there's nothing that indicates that he did anything but excellently in all of his classes. That's right. So maybe he was not what we would call conversational in Hebrew and Greek, but he certainly had to know Hebrew and Greek. So there's those two. What were the two languages that he took in preparation for Hampton Sydney? Latin and German in the spring of 1931. So this is somebody I have enough trouble with English and I have nothing but admiration for those who are gifted in languages because that is certainly not my gift. So interestingly they're going to be living in a French speaking part of Switzerland so they hire a French tutor and that becomes important later on because it's going to be that French tutor who suggested them to move from Lausanne to Champery for the summer. And they only ended up staying for several years in Champery. It was a long summer. And it wasn't until later that year when they rented this chalet, chalet de Frenes, is that how to pronounce it? Frenes? Where they were able to finally get their belongings that had been packed and kept in storage for more than a year. They hadn't had room during their time in Lausanne to unpack their stuff. And either said it was something like Christmas with the sounds of happy screams from the girls opening the packages and remembering what they had put into storage. So as they're in Champery at the urging of their girls, they had been helping set up chapters of Children for Christ around Europe and their girl said, why aren't you setting up one here? And so they went about that. And that becomes significant because this was a predominantly Roman Catholic town. And what we're going to find out is that in a couple of years, their Protestant influence is going to be turned against them. So that Christmas, Fran is invited to conduct a Protestant service in English. 150 people came to that very first service, including young people who were in the country from England and Scotland. Afterward is when he discovered that he could preach on a weekly basis. And then he continued to lead the Christmas Eve services for just the next 32 years. So it turned out to be a fruitful ministry. And again, we see that even though He's not officially the pastor of a church. He is still engaged in pastoral and preaching ministry. I have to include this little detail that after their first Christmas, they took a trip up to the Alps for a family ski trip. And I have to say that because I just got back from my own little family ski trip last week. I was skiing at Monarch and thinking, how much fun would it have been to ski with the Schaffers? We see that the seeds of Labrie are already starting to sprout in Champery. They have enough space to entertain guests, and so they start entertaining more and more guests. And many of those are people who are delegates to the ICCC Congress who are on their way through. So they're already starting to kind of set the stage for having lots of people in their home and some intense discussions. Also, pretty early on, as I understand, they befriended a doctor who did not want to take time to read his Bible at Fran's encouragement. So Fran took it upon himself to develop what he called basic Bible studies. And interestingly, we forget about how easily we take these things for granted today. The basic Bible studies were written up and typed by Edith using carbon copies. Some of you might be old enough to remember that. This was before the days even of the dot matrix printer, where you could simply print out more copies of the same thing. Everything had to be typed. So Edith had a particular contribution in that regard of helping type and distribute. things like these basic Bible studies. The happy conclusion to the story is that a couple of years after their first encounter and beginning to send this doctor the basic Bible studies, that Fran was able to lead him to Christ. So by this time we're now in the early fifties. Fran is starting to write articles. And I include the title of this one because it seems to be pretty significant, where he says, the balance of the simultaneous exhibition of God's holiness and love. And this may have marked the beginning of what will be his spiritual crisis in the following year. And we'll save that discussion until Next time. I just realized my watch stopped at 425. That won't do any good. 609. I can look at the computer and see. Nine minutes after the hour. So, where was I? This article gives us an indication that Fran is starting to struggle with this question. Remember what was his What was his issue with the separatist movement, even going back to an earlier time in his life? Bitterness. Bitterness of those who left. Yeah, so Eli says the ones who didn't leave. I think it could go a couple of ways. Randy, did you want to throw something in? I think there was unkindness or bitterness. Plenty to go around. There was a lot of infighting within the, well, you had the OPC. The Bible Presbyterians also tended to fight quite a bit. Carl MacIntyre, I think, was known for his pugnacity. And I remember some of Schaeffer's letters, it just tore him up that there was so much bitterness and fighting between everybody. Yeah, so he is upholding the importance of separation and doctrinal purity in affirming the inerrancy of scripture, but he's... Sorry, there's a very loud motorbike going by. He is upset with the rancor that he sees, that there is less than the kind of Christian charity that you would expect to see, especially towards those who have left, towards those who stayed. So that's where a big part of, you know, he's looking at it from the standpoint of somebody who left the Northern Presbyterian Church. So he is seeing among the group that left on charity towards those who stayed. So that's something that's already brewing, I'll put it that way. Yeah, Leland. So when Machen was defrocked, I mean, okay, false doctrine. I mean, that's something that has to be dealt with. But what were they saying when they defrocked him? I heard that it was over his missions His ICC... It was the International Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions. He founded that in 1933. I think it was due to some of the things that were tenets of faith with that and the style of missionary work that sought to convert people from some of their cultural practices. Go ahead, Randy. It actually began as the Independent Board of Foreign Missions, and he did stir the pot. He separated from the BCUSA Mission Board because they were not teaching gospel. They were just going out there and basically being Cultural. Social gospel? Yeah. Pearl S. Buck was a missionary's daughter, but she was saying, well you can be as Chinese as you were born. Yeah, there you go. No conversion involved. That's what it was. Mason was diffract because he did set up this independent board, but it was a kangaroo court. He did break ranks. But he didn't have an opportunity to present an offense. They didn't follow trial procedures or anything like that. It was a foregone conclusion, almost like Christ's trial before Pilate, before the Pharisees. So there was an equal amount of animosity on both sides. What side actually warranted some of the ill treatment? It's always hard to keep your composure when things are dissolving like that. Yeah, so that brings us back to where Fran was in what I'll call his dual concern regarding the separatist movement. That there was on the one hand among those who had separated and were trying to preserve biblical inerrancy, a sense of discouragement that it was a losing battle, but on the other hand a sense of coldness. So all of that to say we're kind of setting the stage even in early 1950 of what in 1951 will become, I'll call it a full-blown spiritual crisis that Fran undergoes. And that's going to be my hook for next week. That's where I'm going to leave off this evening. But we have a little bit more to cover in the year 1950. So summer of 1950, the Shapers make a trip to Dachau to teach Vacation Bible School for Children of American Servicemen. And of course, again, another connection is that they later returned to dock out a film part of whatever happened to the human race. Fran, early on, saw those connections that were evident in the German culture between abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and of course, ultimately, genocide. 1950 was a busy year. He lectured throughout France, Germany, and in Scandinavia, all four countries. The girls, if you're wondering where the kids were during this time, were old enough to be in boarding school while they were on their longer trips together. Now we're getting ready for the International Congress, I'm sorry. Thank you. I need some prompting from time to time, too many acronyms. The International Council of Christian Churches is getting ready for its second Congress, this time 1950, and this year it's going to be in Geneva. Fran is going to be one of the speakers at that Congress. Before the Congress they had an opportunity, Fran and several others, including Oliver Buswell, to go and meet with Karl Barth in person. He was in Basel, so they made the trip to see him and sit down with him for a couple of hours Fran was determined to make sure that he understood what Bart was saying before he got up at the ICCC and spoke against this new modernism. The meeting was described as very cordial, but that Bart, in answering the questions, was elusive and hesitant in many cases. For Schaefer, it was a confirmation for what he was going to say in the New Modernism. And the article that I linked for you was printed the year after, but that was his speech at this ICC Congress. And if you haven't read it, I would encourage you to do so. It's not quiz material, but it will give you a good idea of what Fran was thinking even this early in his ministry. And I think he was very lucid in his arguments. So at the end of this meeting with Bart, Fran offered to send him a copy of the address. Bart was receptive. Fran sent the paper with the hopes of being able to sit down and discuss more with him because again, they're within a day trip of each other. So there's an opportunity for them to talk face to face. But Bart's response was curt and dismissive. And if you read that letter, you might think that I'm being a little too kind. Schaefer has this to say in the New Modernism, Calvin and Luther could speak with authority and clarity concerning the things of the faith because their feet were fixed on the Bible as the word of God. And therefore they had an objective and absolute standard. The modernist cannot speak with clarity or true authority because his basis of judgment is subjective. Because these men work in the subjective realm, differences in doctrine are unimportant to them. And I want to share a short quote of a transaction that took place during that meeting, where Schaefer is asking Barth, did God create the world? And Barth answers, God created the world in the first century AD. And then Fran, waving at the forest, says, this world? And Bart responds, this world does not matter. So Fran had his answer. And this is from Sam Wellman's book. Bart had separated the physical world from the spiritual world into two unconnected realities. The creation in Genesis was completely irrelevant to Bart. And so there you have, in a nutshell, the new modernism. And part of what's interesting to me about that article is what Schaefer says about science, and he repeats some of those same ideas in the book that we will discuss after our break. Here's what Barth said, partially in reply. Rejoice, dear Mr. Schaefer and you calling yourselves fundamentalists all over the world. Rejoice and go on to believe in your logics. as in the fourth article of your creed, and in yourselves as the only true Bible-believing people. Shout so loudly as you can, but pray, allow me to let you alone. Conversations are possible between open-minded people. Your paper and the review of your friend Buswell reveals the fact of your decision to close your window shutters. I do not know how to deal with a man who comes to see and to speak to me in the quality of a detective inspector or with the behavior of a missionary who goes to convert a heathen. No thanks. And so that becomes the substance of the interaction between Bart and Schaefer. So with that, Whatever Fran was starting to question in his mind about his own beliefs was probably, it's hard to think otherwise, was probably aggravated by that letter. Whatever nagging doubts he might have had would have been aggravated by that. So have that letter in mind when we start to talk about Fran's spiritual crisis in next week's lecture. Later that year, Fran attended the Assumption of Mary proclamation in Rome. That was the year that Rome instituted this idea that Mary was assumed. And was it the case that her dead body was assumed or that she was assumed without dying? I can't recall. I believe I have heard that she was taken up almost like Jesus without dying. So Rome adopts that doctrine this particular year. And part of Fran's interest, besides visiting some of the historical and artistic sites in Rome, was that he sees the same kind of influences in the Roman church that modernism is having in the Protestant churches. And so It turns out that by the 1960s, what became called Vatican II is going to be reflecting the influences of modernism in the Roman Catholic Church. And if you've been listening to the assortment of things coming from the Roman Catholic Church in recent years, it's just a massive confusion. One pope says one thing, the next pope says something else. And that may be part of what we're seeing there in terms of that influence. Hard to pin down. OK, last questions or comments before we finish this session. Do you know what part of the Presbyterian Church, 10th Presbyterian Church, is that Donald J. Barnhouse and James Montgomery Boyce What is the affiliation? It's currently PCA. But I'm not sure when it affiliated with the PCA. Obviously not before 1973. If I had to guess it would probably be part of the Northern Church at that time. Does anybody know? Another motorcycle. Well, that's something to look into. Also, how much agitation on the part of Harry Emerson Fosdick was there in this breakup? Was there any part to play in that with Hannum? Or was he pretty much an outsider in another type of denomination? I mean, he was put in the center of things, but he was from another background. Yeah, I don't know what his affiliation was. It was in 1923 when he preached his sermon, Shall the Fundamentalists Win? And that was used, apparently, as a propaganda piece to help bring ridicule against the fundamentalists. So there's bound to be some influence in there, but what exactly that looks like, I do not know. Okay, all right, let's bring this to a conclusion. We will reconvene in 10, and I will talk to you then.
Schaeffer Lecture 4A: 1938-1950
Series Apologetics of Schaeffer
Lecture for ST 540 The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer, New Geneva Theological Seminary, Colorado Springs.
Sermon ID | 6823128595400 |
Duration | 55:18 |
Date | |
Category | Teaching |
Language | English |
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2025 SermonAudio.