FRANCISSCHAEFFERSTUDIES VIDEOS

The Francis Schaeffer Collection - The L. Rush Bush Center for Faith & Culture The Schaeffer Legacy Project - An Interview With Dr. David Calhoun of Covenant Theological Seminary True Spirituality Class Francis Schaeffer at International Congress of World Evangelism, Lausanne, Switzerland, July 1974 Whatever Happened To The Human Race? - Playlist The Mark of A Christian Class - Playlist The Question of Apologetics A Christian Manifesto - Playlist
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Saturday, December 29, 2012

NEW ACQUISITION! CONGRESS ON THE BIBLE PRESS PHOTO

Newly Acquired Press Photo
From time to time francisschaefferstudies.org acquires materials related to Francis Schaeffer, Edith Schaeffer or L'Abri from public vendors in order to archive and study the history behind them. In the past we have acquired a copy of Schaeffer's Wheaton Lectures, numerous books and videos (some in other languages), audio-recordings and photos. We will be doing a series of blog post on various findings in the coming new year. However, we wanted to take a moment and  tell you about a special photo we just recently acquired.

This is a photo of Francis Schaeffer giving a keynote address at the "Congress on the Bible," which met in San Diego March 3-6, 1982. The event was sponsored by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. According to the inscription, "Schaeffer strongly affirmed the importance of Christians' holding to confidence in the complete trustworthiness of the Bible. He added, however, that they must also be willing to accept the Bible's authority in all areas of their lives."

The picture is a wonderful glimpse into the history of Schaeffer's speaking career. It is a 5X7 black and white photo, and here he is pictured with his glasses and an ascot with his trademark chin-beard.

The  conference itself was a "convocation concerned with the power of God's inerrant Word: God's Word affirmed, understood and applied in such a way that the individual, the Church, the community and the world will be transformed." according to the ICBI information on the event.

The content of Schaeffer's lecture entitled What Difference Does Inerrancy Make? can now be found in volume 4 of Schaeffer's complete works as Appendix B to The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century.
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Schaeffer was one of the first major and popular Christian teachers to raise awareness on the need for a more public response affirming Biblical Inerrancy. Jason and I spoke with Dr. Norman Geisler, who was on the advisory board with others such as R.C. Sproul, John Gerstner, Greg Bahnsen, at the last ISCA conference where he affirmed as much, crediting Schaeffer's influence on Biblical Inerrancy and apologetics. Both ICBI and ISCA and The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, which Schaeffer signed along with Packer, Boice, Sproul and Henry to name a few, owe a debt to Schaeffer's influence. Schaeffer's ability to bring into the forefront of discussion for the "man on the street" the deeply important concepts around vital issues such as Biblical Inerrancy, has had significant results that are still being felt today. Furthermore, this picture shows that Schaeffer was not consumed with merely politics in the latter years of his life, but that he was working on multiple fronts with many, many others to try to halt, or at least postpone the monolithic advancement of secular humanist thought in our culture.

Yet, we should see something else when we look at this picture. We should see a "real" human being, not one built up by hype or accolades, but one with frailty, but nevertheless drive. Schaeffer was diagnosed with cancer in 1978, by 1982 when this picture was taken, the greater health struggles were already apparent and upon him. Edith notes in her Family Letters (See: Dear Family, pg 339) that Fran was already feeling heavy fatigue in the fall of 1981 where he was regularly speaking and wrapping up writing on A Christian Manifesto. Fran was further wrapping up his writing career and was preparing to release or had already released his Complete Works in 1982 which would only be followed by a publication of a speech he made in Washington D.C. in May of 1982 (almost two years exactly before his death), published in 1983 with other contributors as Who Is For Peace? and his final work The Great Evangelical Disaster published in 1984. Several other works would be published in different forms posthumously (Who is for Peace, The Trilogy, The Finished Work of Christ and Corruption vs. True Spirituality... see our "Works Spreadsheet" for more information on these).

Schaeffer knew he was making a significant contribution in an important time and knew very well his time was nearly up. David Malone of Wheaton College mentions that "Schaeffer felt that he had accomplished more in the last five years of his life than he had in all the years before he had cancer." One can only speculate that the cancer became just another form of fuel for him, to further do and say what God had called him to. When one is confronted with a life or death experience, very often what results is a clarity about what is really important (I mention this from experience). In the end, what I see in this photo is simply a thoughtful man speaking with conviction. Just what you might expect to see of a man like Schaeffer, and that to me, says it all. However, it makes me ask myself a question... "What would you do if you knew your time was limited?"

Dan Guinn

Monday, December 17, 2012

ON THE RAZOR SWIFT - WED. DEC. 19TH 2012

This Wednesday, Dec. 19th, 7 PM Central, we'll be on The Razor Swift, an edgy Internet-radio show that seeks to "open hearts and minds through the platform of apologetics" and desires to approach "issues from a different perspective... than just preaching to the choir in the Christianese dialect." The Razor Swift further states that they, "maintain that faith and reason mustn’t necessarily be at odds with each other."
(We can identify with that!)

Now before you get too comfortable, The Razor Swift is not EVEN your daddy's apologetics show... they deal with both the typical and the fringe, so it's likely that if you listen to other shows you could have a "close encounter" with a show on aliens or discussion about whether a Christian can consult a Yogi or not. So with that, we have to say that we both find the show interesting (as in... "They really went there?") and we also want to state that "the views expressed on the show may not necessarily be the views of francisschaefferstudies.org."

Now nevertheless, despite the disclaimer, one should not forget that there is something very much in line with Schaeffer here...open discussion in the public square on nearly any topic imaginable! The new public square is on-line, and blog-radio is a hot bed. So while subjects may touch the extreme on The Razor Swift at times, we have been asked to give some input on why Schaeffer's works might be helpful, and you know we can't wait to answer that question!

Join us for what is sure to be an enriching and entertaining show!

Check out the facebook event here.

The show will be hosted on Grok Radio at:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/grok558
OR LISTEN BELOW!

Listen to internet radio with Minister Grok on Blog Talk Radio
Call in number: (714) 242-5180

Free Downloads for Callers:

Schaeffer's Apologetic Handout 1
Schaeffer's Apologetic Handout 2
Schaeffer's Apologetic Handout 3

The Works of Francis & Edith Schaeffer Spreadsheet





Sunday, December 2, 2012

NEWS: NEW SOCIAL LANDING PAGE!

Francis Schaeffer Studies launches it's new social landing page! We are currently upgrading our site, and the social page will serve as our new landing page in the interim. (Note: You can still get to the old site if you need to by clicking on the link in the top menu.)

The social landing page is the beginnings of a special social media dashboard that allows you to easily follow us on your favorite social media without having to search for us on these separate sites. You can easily watch many of our YouTube channel video play-list, read the most recent blog post, and follow our Twitter post straight from the page. Likewise, you can will find the links you need to join us on Facebook and Google+ if you haven't already. In the future we are planning even more ways for interaction that are sure enhance your experience on francisschaefferstudies.org.

In the new site we will release a more extensive Schaeffer database and interactive features that will allow you to interact around the works. We would appreciate your prayers, while we work on these changes in the next year. We've very excited to release this first step in the process.

Providence!
Dan