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Francis Schaeffer God’S Spokesman for a Christian Worldview

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Francis Schaeffer God’S Spokesman for a Christian Worldview Observations by the Editor Memories n April 1st we celebrated the 37th Oanniversary of this ministry, and I am praising God for it. The Lamplighter The Lord called me into ministry is published bi-monthly when I was 20 years old. But unlike by Lamb & Lion Ministries Isaiah who said, “Here am I, Lord, send me,” I responded by saying, “Here am I Dave with the ministry’s first staff member, Mailing Address: Billy Jack Smith, in 1981. P.O. Box 919 Lord, send anyone but me!” McKinney, TX 75070 I had definite plans for my life, and from the Lord, He was preparing me for the Telephone: 972/736-3567 they did not include full time ministry. ministry He would ultimately entrust to me. Email: [email protected] After all, I spent those years focusing on Website: www.lamblion.com So, I ran from the Lord for the next international politics, and that is what end b b b b b b b b b 20 years while I built a career as a univer- time Bible prophecy is all about! sity professor of international law and Chairman of the Board: Thirty-seven years later, I find it hard to Buddy Cain politics. I earned many accolades during those 20 years, but I was inwardly miser- believe what the Lord has accomplished Founder & Director: with this ministry. Today, we have access to Dr. David R. Reagan able because I was trying to conduct my life outside of God’s will. 110 million homes in America through our Web Minister & Evangelist: TV outreach, and we have access to the Nathan Jones The Lord has His ways of getting our whole world through our Internet website. Assistant Evangelist: attention, and He succeeded in getting We are publishing a magazine, books and Tim Moore mine — a story I have told in detail in my videos. And we are heavily involved in both Chief Operating Officer: book, Trusting God: Learning to Walk by domestic and international missions. Rachel Houck Faith (3rd edition in 2015). So, on April Director of Finance: Fool’s Day in 1980, I gave up my aca- I am just overwhelmed when I turn into Reva Frye demic career, stepped out in faith, estab- the driveway of this ministry each morning Director of Services: lished this ministry and became a “fool and see a parking lot completely full of the Leo E. Houck for Christ’s sake” (1 Corinthians 4:10). cars of our staff members! Again, I can vividly remember the days when I was the Media Minister: It was a scary step. I quickly learned Trey Collich only staff member. I had to do everything, it is one thing to teach and preach about from vacuuming to keeping the ministry’s Media Associate: living by faith, but it is a whole other Brett Everett financial records. Each month, my wife and thing to actually live by faith. Media Assistant: I would sit down and hand address several Heather Jones I have vivid memories of those early hundred newsletters. Today, I am surround- Finance Associate: years. I worked alone in a bedroom of our ed by 14 people who are dedicated to hold- Kay Bien duplex for the first six months. And for ing up my arms, assisting me in every way Finance Associate: the first six years, I took a salary of only possible, so that I can focus on Bible study, Todd Hutchinson $1,000 per month because I used most of research, writing books, editing this maga- Ministry Associate: the income of the ministry to reinvest in zine and producing our TV program. Cathie Grubb the ministry to purchase equipment and My greatest regret is failing to yield to Ministry Associate: hire staff members. the Lord when He first called me. If I had Jana Olivieri It was very tough to get a ministry done so, we would be celebrating 57 years Ministry Associate: going back in those days before access to of ministry. Joyce Shurtleff the Internet became accessible to the gen- Many thanks to all of you who have Web Associate: eral public in 1995. Today, if you have Steven Stufflebean helped make this ministry a success. something valuable to say, you can start Ministry Assistant: a ministry relatively easily because you Maranatha! Amber Todd can become known overnight via the Internet. But not back in the decade of the The cover painting is by John Robinette and The Lamplighter can be viewed free of 80s. I labored in obscurity for years — charge on the ministry’s website at www. but God used those years to fine tune me is used with his permission and the permis- lamblion.com. It can also be received free of and my message about His Son’s soon sion of Tyndale Publishers. Mr. Robinette’s charge via email. The printed version is return. website is located at http://johnrobinetteart. available by subscription. Contact us for com. information on rates and the publication It also occurred to me during that schedule by calling 972-736-3567. time that even during the 20 years I ran page 2 The Lamplighter May - June 2017 Francis Schaeffer God’s Spokesman for a Christian Worldview Francis Schaeffer in 1974 at age 62. (http://engagingmedia.info) Dr. David R. Reagan Francis Schaeffer spent his life advocating a Christian worldview. In the process he fiercely defended the inerrancy of Perhaps no intellectual save C. S. Lewis af- the Scriptures and the existence of God. He also proclaimed the fected the thinking of evangelicals more pro- sanctity of human life and constantly warned the Western World foundly; perhaps no leader of the period save about the dangers of Humanism. Billy Graham left a deeper stamp on the movement as a whole.1 Much of what he had to say was highly theological and philosophical in nature and difficult to comprehend, but in his t the end of his life in 1984, at age 72, Francis Schaeffer had final years, he brought his message down to earth through books established himself as the leading Christian spokesman A and documentary films that were aimed at the layperson. against theological Modernism, philosophical Humanism and political Pragmatism. On the positive side, he had become Chris- Early Life tendom’s foremost spokesman in behalf of a Christian world- Francis August Schaeffer, IV was born in 1912 in German- view. town, Pennsylvania. Neither of his parents were Christians, and ! U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop, called him, neither of them were well educated. His father was a common “God’s man for the era.”2 laborer with only a third grade education. ! Billy Graham said of him, “He was truly one of the great Francis became a Christian at age 17 after his interest in evangelical statesmen of our generation . More than Greek philosophy ultimately led him to read the Bible. Later in virtually any other thinker, he had a keen insight into the life, he observed: “What rang the bell for me was the answers in major theological and philosophical battles of our time.”3 Genesis, and that with these you had answers — real answers — and without these there were no answers either in philosophy or ! President Ronald Reagan wrote to his family, “He will in the religion I had heard preached.”7 long be remembered as one of the great Christian think- ers of our century.”4 When he told his parents of his plan to attend Hampden- Sydney College in Virginia in order to study for the ministry, ! Time magazine described him as “a missionary to intel- they strongly opposed the idea. But he went anyway, not lectuals.”5 knowing how he would be able to afford it.8 The college was an ! Schaeffer said of himself, “I really am a country preach- all-male school affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. er. But I had to develop my philosophy to speak to a At the end of his freshman year in 1932, Francis met the world that no longer believes that truth exists.”6 woman who would become his wife. She was Edith Seville, who May - June 2017 The Lamplighter page 3 was a student at Beaver College for Women in Pennsylvania. and pastors.12 He quickly discovered that the European churches Both had returned home for the summer, and they met at the were caught up in apostasy.13 Presbyterian church where they were attending. After reporting back to the missions board about what he Edith had a radically different background. Both of her par- had discovered in Europe, the board decided to send him and his ents were college graduates and were Christian missionaries to wife to Europe as missionaries. So, in 1948, they departed the China, where Edith was born. She was two years younger than States and settled in Lausanne, Switzerland. Francis. Shortly before their departure, one of their daughters became Despite the fact that Francis had a hot temper and Edith had seriously ill and required surgery at Philadelphia Children’s a strong will, they fell in love and were married in 1935.9 One of Hospital. Her surgeon was Dr. C. Everett Koop, who had just the key elements that drew them together was the fact that both become a Christian a few weeks before. The Schaeffers hit it off were Fundamentalists who strongly believed in the inerrancy of with Dr. Koop, and they became life-long friends, laying the the Scriptures. groundwork for a very important collaboration that would take place 29 years later in 1977.14 Francis proceeded on to the newly established Faith Theo- logical Seminary in Wilmington, Delaware, from which he Three years after his move to Switzerland, Schaeffer ex- graduated in 1938.10 He then became the first graduate to be perienced a crisis of faith during which he “rethought every- ordained in the Bible Presbyterian Church, a new denomination thing.”15 The experience proved to be a major turning point in his that had broken away from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church life.
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