Dr. Schaeffer, in this vintage lecture from 1983 (project info), deals with the matter of terminology and connotations. How often have we seen the Biblical Christian characterized and marginalized in our culture? Yet, how often have we seen the very believers who supposedly hold such positions, abuse the terminology as well? In the eyes of our culture, the Fundamentalist is often defined by both real and perceived legalism. Likewise, the later term Evangelical, is often characterized by a salesman salvation, lack of intellectual standing, moral hypocrisy, and what may be construed as purely negative political views.
Names like these, have not only become buzz words for slander, but their stereotypes have also remained a feature in the church and a model for many, even under criticism. Schaeffer warns us not to live up to the stereotypes as the world defines them, but to be the type of Christians that stand for change that the world truly needs. A change that demonstrates Truth. Truth that demands loving confrontation, but honest truth nonetheless, with a spirituality not based on a false pietism.
This video is from the 1983 L'Abri Conference in Atlanta recorded by Soundword Associates. The lecture, is one that Schaeffer previously had given on May 11, 1983 in Minneapolis at the Evangelical Press Association Convention. A transcript of this lecture is available here: http://edmontonbpc.org/wp/2012/02/names-and-issues-by-francis-schaeffer/
We have released this video in it's full form with the rather lengthy Q&A intact, as Dr. Schaeffer's answer to the questions are perhaps even more valuable than the lecture itself, which many already know of. It is our plan to release these in smaller segment forms in the future, so watch for these! May you be stirred by this powerful lecture!
Without much fanfare, a month ago, we quietly released the second of the Sound Word L'Abri Conference Videos. This time we were privileged to release Edith Schaeffer's lecture on Common Sense Christian Living (Nehemiah). The lecture is on the last chapter of her book entitled Common Sense Christian Living.
Edith mentions in the first portions of the video that the book is based on a film series by the same title. This films are now rare and hard to find, but was reportedly a five part series divided into the following sections: Part 1. & 2.) Continuity in Family. 3. & 4.) What is Real Spirituality? 5.) What is Prayer. The book is organized differently but expands on that content.
The book release and this lecture take place in the early part of 1983 in which Edith Schaeffer was 68 years old. The last chapter of the book, that Edith reads from and discusses in this lecture, is entitled "Sensible Balance in Building and Battle" and speaks in regard to the example of Nehemiah.
The story of Nehemiah is of course the return of Israel to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the walls wherein the Israelites found themselves performing the dual task of rebuilding for the future and fighting off those trying to thwart their efforts. I can think of very few illustrations that so parallel and typifies the life of the Christian in a post-Christian world. For while we seek to rebuild and reform culture, we often find ourselves battling on every side, with forces who wish to tear down. While the illustration is not literal, in the sense that we are not doing physical battle, we are however to strive to apply Christian principles, and resist the ungodly spirit of the age. At times we feel torn between building and battling, but both must be our task. We must have a true basis of spirituality and foundation in Christ or else we might find ourselves in despair, seeing only losses and not seeing the spiritual victories that are won amidst even the darkest of circumstances, and being true to the truth of scriptures and our savior's message of hope.
Edith here speaks with much wisdom, to relevant matters to Christians in our time. How do we live the Lordship of Christ in the whole of life, when our culture is categorized by many, including Francis Schaeffer, as post-Christian?
There was another age in which war was constantly on the church's doorstep, while the church was trying to reform, and that was the Protestant Reformation. For this reason, I think one possible summary for the book, might be "Common Sense Cultural Reformation."We hope you will enjoy the video and take this very relevant message to heart!
We are pleased to announce the first release of the 1983-84 Soundword L'Abri Conference Videos. If you would like more information on this project please select one of the two following links.
Our first release is entitled The Question of Apologetics by Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer. In this lecture Dr. Schaeffer reads from and discusses Appendix A of the first volume of hisComplete Works.
Dr. Schaeffer opens with an explanation about the Complete Works and a fascinating clarification about his apologetics. He states that, "When I wroteThe God Who Is There, I had no intention of writing a book on apologetics. It took me by surprise, the furor it made in some sections [of the church]." This tells us much about Dr. Schaeffer's core desire for writing his first works. It seems quite clear that although these first works have apologetic value, his interest was one of speaking the historic Christian position into the twentieth century (the subtitle of his first work and the 1965 Wheaton lectures), as an evangelical message. In fact, we know from the Francis Schaeffer Collection manuscripts at SEBTS that "Speaking the historic Christian position into the twentieth century" was the title of The God Who Is There before the name was changed during the editing process. So Schaeffer's first work was not written out of an academic desire to produce his first work as an apologete, but simply to challenge culture with the historic Christian position. Nevertheless, we know from from his history, that his work inspired and enabled many an apologist. This is all part of the enigma that is Schaeffer and what fascinates so many of us.
At the end of the lecture, there is a short Q&A time where he fields a question in regard to his old teacher Cornelius Van Til. It is a fascinating answer, yet in watching you will note Schaeffer's fatigue is showing a bit at this point, as in all of these videos he is dealing with the difficulties of cancer in these late years of his life. Dr. Schaeffer nevertheless answers the question, although perhaps not at the length or depth many of us would have desired. You'll want to make sure you catch this part!
This video is largely uncut. There was a pre-lecture segment that we cut, which we will utilize in a later video. Our reason for this cut was to get the viewer directly into the lecture content which is one hour and 10 minutes long with the Q&A section that followed included. The camera work is rather rough at times and we did not take time to do adjustments to compensate for them as we were content to leave the video in it's more vintage original form. Our methodology was to capture at the highest possible resolution from the original tapes and then make slight adjustments to the lighting to best bring out the original composition. The graphic footer overlays and production additions are part of our agreement for distribution.
We would again, like to thank Soundword Associates and L'Abri Fellowship for entrusting us with this task. We hope you enjoy the video and seeing Dr. Schaeffer once again!
Work continues on the Soundword L'Abri Conference videos and we are over half way through the capture process! We are already making some major discoveries that are sure to stir up interest. Some of these are just a greater realization of what we are working with. However, others are more significant in relation to understanding Schaeffer's thought.
Firstly, as we anticipated, we are finding that there is slightly more content that was originally described on the labels. In the case of one of the Introductions to L'Abri tapes we found, for example, we also had material from L'Abri workers such as Dick Keyes, Richard Winter, Hank Hervormddussen of Dutch L'Abri and Udo Middelmann. So we were really overjoyed to see these "young men" speaking on the work of L'Abri.
Dick Keyes
Hank Hervormddussen
Dr. Richard Winter
Udo Middlemann
Yet, the other category of findings are in relation to common questions asked in regard to Schaeffer even today. These come out in the Q & A segments, where Schaeffer fields these questions. Here are just a couple:
Is Schaeffer a Reconstructionist? You'll be able to hear him answer this question in his own words!
How is Schaeffer's apologetic different than Cornelius Van Til? Schaeffer fields this question as well.
What should we do to evangelize our culture and stand for truth? What role does spirituality have in this? (Note: That Schaeffer's lecture was in relation to politics.) Schaeffer's answer is pretty much a lecture within itself... and we can tell you that you will not want to miss this one!
Next Steps?
Our plans are to begin to release a few of the more significant segments such as the ones mentioned above and then release items in both larger portions and also the full un-cut videos that have been selected by our Facebook Group.
However, some of the Q & A content is so substantial, that we have decided to launch a new project called Schaeffer FAQ, in which we answer common questions we are regularly asked about Schaeffer with video from Schaeffer himself.
Expect some more immediate small segment releases shortly!
