Francis Schaeffer: A Christian Manifesto

The late Dr. Francis Schaeffer (1912-84) delivered this particular message at Thomas Road Baptist in Lynchburg, Virginia sometime probably in the early '80's.  I first started reading books authored by Francis Schaeffer at the end of the year 1992.  I first became acquainted with the works of Dr. Francis Schaeffer through a book I read by John W. Whitehead entitled, "The Second American Revolution."  In that book he made mention of Dr. Schaeffer's thoughts on the decline of American and Western culture.  I believe I was reading the index of Whitehead's book and I found one of the documented sources which came from Schaeffer's book, "How Then Should We Live?"  That was the very first book I read by Schaeffer.  Since that time, I've read almost all his books.  His books were very inspirational.  Even though there were a number of points which I didn't agree with him on, I felt he was very prophetic and on target concerning the decline of American culture.

Schaeffer spoke of the humanist forces which removed God from the cornerstone of our society.  He mentioned how government moved to fill in the vacuum as a result of rejecting God.  Government was usurping authority over man in areas in which it had no Biblical right to do so.  Either God will be the supreme authority in our lives or the state will be the supreme authority.  If the state or Caesar becames the supreme authority, then we'll have a totalitarian state.  Schaeffer spoke of how important absolutes are.  It is absolutes which gives meaning to man.  Remove the absolutes which gives life meaning, then truth becomes arbitrary.  Under secular humanism, man is the measure of all things.  Man is at the center of the universe instead of God.  The only hope of mankind is to return to the God of the Bible who gives meaning to life.

Saturday I had the privilege to watch a movie sponsored by the local chapter of the Tea Party and it was entitled, "Agenda: Grinding American Down."  It was a great movie which is a must-see.  That movie lists the humanist influences that have destroyed the Judeo-Christian foundation in American society.  One of the things you learn by watching that movie was that the removal of God in our public schools, the destruction of the nuclear family, and the destruction of capitalism aren't mere accidents.  They were part of the communist playbook.  There's nothing accidental about what we see taking place in American society today.  It was all planned.  I was hoping to download the entire film on this particular blogpost, but there are only excerpts of the movie on YouTube. 

Instead, I thought about linking the YouTube clips where Dr. Schaeffer preached "A Christian Manifesto" before the crowd at Thomas Road Baptist Church years ago.  He implores Christian in that message that American must return back to its Christian heritage or America will be destroyed.  He mentions that God is the ultimate authority, not Caesar.  I hope you enjoy watching the YouTube videos.

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3