|
A Voice of Wisdom and "True Truth"
By: Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer
Focus
on Jerusalem Prophecy Ministry, in its continuing endeavor to make available
interesting and doctrinally sound articles associated with Bible Prophecy and
the signs of the Last Days strives to provide the best material in the world
from the best minds and writers on the subject matter. One sign of the Last Days
deals with a moral breakdown of society and a disdain for the laws of God. Why
is America experiencing a moral breakdown in every area of its culture and
society? The titanic freedoms which our people and nation once enjoyed have been
cut loose from their Christian restraints and are becoming more and more a force
of destruction leading our nation down the pathway to chaos. And as this tragedy
happens, there really are very few alternatives. All morality becomes relative,
as the social engineers define it us, law becomes arbitrary, and society moves
toward disintegration. In personal and social life, compassion is swallowed up
by self-interest. Old standards of right and wrong are done away with, and thus
lower and lower levels of immorality become the norm.
Schaeffer's diagnosis of modern popular
culture was that the decline of Western Civilization is due to society having
become increasingly pluralistic, resulting in a “world view shift” away from a
predominantly Biblical world view that was at least vaguely Christian in
people's memory until recent decades". Schaeffer believed that there is a
philosophical struggle between the people of God and the secular humanists. In
Biblical terms, this is a reference to the enmity that the carnal world has
against anything to do with the Almighty God. (James 4:4, know ye not
that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be
a friend of the world is the enemy of God.) (Romans 8:7-8 Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.)
The following words from Dr. Francis Schaeffer
still ring true, and should be more urgently heeded today.
A Voice of Wisdom and "True Truth"
By: Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer
In
our own country, we have enjoyed enormous human freedom. But at the same time
this freedom has been founded upon forms of government, law, culture and social
morality which have given stability to individual and social life, and have kept
our freedoms from leading to chaos. There is a balance here between form and
freedom which we have come to take as natural in the world. But it is not
natural. And we are utterly foolish if we do not recognize that this unique
balance which we have inherited from the Reformation thought-forms is not
automatic in a fallen world. This is clear when we look at the span of history.
But it is equally clear when we read the daily newspaper and see half the world
locked in totalitarian oppression.
The
Reformation not only brought forth a clear preaching of the gospel, it also gave
shape to society as a whole, including government, how people viewed the
world, and the full spectrum of culture. It is clear that through the
Reformation many were brought to Christ and the absolutes of the Bible became
widely disseminated in the culture as a whole. The freedoms which grew out of
this were tremendous; and yet, with the forms grounded in a biblical consensus
or ethos, the freedoms did not lead to chaos. But something has happened in the
last sixty years [87 years now]. The freedom that once was founded on a
biblical consensus and a Christian ethos has now become autonomous freedom, cut
loose from all constraints. Here we have the world spirit of the age, autonomous
Man setting himself up as God, in defiance of the knowledge and the moral and
spiritual truth which God has given. Here is the reason why we have a moral
breakdown in every area of life. The titanic freedoms which we once enjoyed
have been cut loose from their Christian restraints and are becoming a force of
destruction leading to chaos. And when this happens, there really are very few
alternatives. All morality becomes relative, law becomes arbitrary, and society
moves toward disintegration. In personal and social life, compassion is
swallowed up by self-interest."
Taken from "The Great Evangelical Disaster"
written by Francis A.Schaeffer
Ø
ending comments by Darrell G. Young
(Focus on Jerusalem)
Can it not be that the Almighty
Creator God is just as upset with modern America as he was with ancient Israel.
I shudder when I recall the words of our Lord regarding Israel’s backsliding and
whoredom:
"Oh that my people would listen - that Israel would walk in my ways."
The only hope for our society is to once again hear the powerful word of the
Lord and obey I, yes - to hear the word of the Lord and obey it. Today is not a
good time for weak men, preaching weak messages, in weak churches. These Last
Days require bold and powerful, strong, biblical ministries that calls people
back to the word of the Lord, and for a praying people to beseech the Holy
Spirit for enough power from on high to cause people to respond. This is the
only hope for any people - for any individual." It is the only hope for America,
especially now, because our old bulwark of protection from the forces of
darkness have been allowed to erode too far!
Jeremiah 5:21-31 Hear now this, O foolish
people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have
ears, and hear not: Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my
presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual
decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves,
yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? But
this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and
gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God,
that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth
unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away
these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. For among
my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares;
they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses
full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. They are waxen
fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the
cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy
do they not judge. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD:
shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? A wonderful and
horrible thing is committed in the land; The prophets prophesy falsely, and
the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and
what will ye do in the end thereof?
A nation that forgets God, shall be turned into Hell.
Darrell
G. Young
Focus on Jerusalem Prophecy Ministry
June,
2007
|
