Book Reveiw

I decided you might appreciate a break from my marriage saga, so I wanted to share some points from a really great book I read this weekend. The God Who Is There by Francis Schaeffer really gave me some meat to chew on over the weekend.

The back of the book reads, "More than ever, this book demonstrates how historic Christianity can fearlessly confront the competing philosophies of the world. The God who has always been there continues to provide the anchor of truth and the power of love to meet the world's deepest problems."

I read this book for the first time, and it is definitely a book to read over and over again, so my review will be sketchy, I'm sure. The parts that I want to focus on today are the last two sections. For the first part of the book Mr. Schaeffer focuses on the different philosophies that have pervaded our thinking since the turn of the 20th century. He has detailed quotes from philosophers, artists, writers and how their thinking turned the tide of modern man's thought processes. The fifth section, titled "Pre-evangelism is No Soft Option" and the last section titled, "Personal and Corporate Living into the Twentieth-Century Climate" really gave practical evangelic tools and really hit home with me about a lot of things that have been on my heart lately.

Recently I was privileged to judge a regional homeschool speech and debate tournament and I heard some amazing, well-articulated speeches given by teenagers. It truly gave me hope for our country's future to hear these young people so well-researched and so sure of themselves. One speech I heard that was particularly good was by a young man in the persuasive category. The topic of his speech was "Lifestyle Evangelism" and his premise was that this "style" of witnessing is not Biblical and that it is wrong of Christians to think that this is enough. Of course, our lifestyle should reflect Christ, but he argued that we have an obligation to not only show Christ's actions in our lifestyle, but actually say something. He cited the Great Commission which says, "Go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel..." among other verses. I was very impressed by his speech and for the most part I agree with him. He ended with a very poignant poem written from the point of view of a man in hell who is crying out to his friend who was a believer but never shared the gospel and asking, "Why?" Why didn't you tell me before it was too late? We may not get another chance.

However, as with a lot of things in life, there is not always one formula to deal with all people. True, we have an obligation to actually share the gospel with people and not assume that because we are such "nice" people that someone will ask us about our God. That does not always happen. There are some very "nice" people who will not be in Heaven because they have not accepted the shed blood of Jesus as payment for their sin. However, if we come on too strong with some people, we are liable to either push them away altogether or have them repeat a prayer that means absolutely nothing to them, thereby giving them a very false sense of security. Now, I realize that it is God who saves and not us, therefore, it is only our responsibility to share the gospel, not to save the people. I also believe though, that we have a huge responsibility to love others.

1John 4:20 says, "If anyone says I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar, for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, can not love God, whom he has not seen."

Loving someone takes time and effort. Some people are easy to love, but God does not command us to love the lovable, He commands us to love everyone. So, investing in the lives of people who are unlovable is our work. Mr. Schaeffer makes the assertion on page 173 that, "No one can become a Christian unless he understands what Christianity is saying." He claims, rightly so, I believe, that many modern churches, pastors, and Christians in general seem to be helpless when speaking to the people around them, not realizing that it is our job to speak to our own generation. The past is gone, the future is not here, therefore we must present the gospel to those around us in terms that they can understand. If we can not communicate what we believe in love to those who live now, we are not understood and our message is lost.

We live in a world with no moral absolutes. "Be good" means nothing to a truly modern young person today. They don't have a basis for right and wrong. Young people being raised in Christian homes today are walking away from their faith at alarming rates. This is happening among those in public, private, and even home schools. We must ask ourselves as parents why this is happening and what we can do about it. This book was first written in 1968 and Mr. Schaeffer went to be with the Lord in 1984, but he had a truly prophetic view of what the world would look like at the turn of this century. This book has been in print for 30 years now, and it has not lost its relativity for our current generation.

If it is true that we as Christian parents "have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in Truth.." (3John 1:4) - and if it is true that we are commanded to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth - then we must figure out how to reach our generation with the Truth of God. As is obvious by the title of the book, the main theme that I got from reading Mr. Schaeffer's work is that everything hinges on the fact that our God is there! If He is not there, then we must be willing to say, with Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:32 , "if the dead are not raised, then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

I want to end with something else from the book that really stood out to me. On page 177, Mr. Schaeffer is talking about the importance of true spirituality. Truth is a word in our culture that has a very vague definition these days. In this section of the book, Mr. Schaeffer talks about what truth is not. Truth, he says, is not ultimately related to orthodoxy, the Creeds, or even the Holy Scriptures. Though these things are important, and though the Holy Scriptures are God's own inspired words, the reason that these things are of any importance at all is because
God is there. If He is not there, then all of this, in fact, all of life is meaningless.