A Christian Manifesto - Part 2 — Francis Schaeffer

Human Life and Arbitrary Standards

The January 18th Time Magazine says the national polls shows that 76 of the people want both creation and evolution taught, 76 throughout the country, if the poll is accurate. But the courts don't seem to care what the people want.

In spite of 76%, think what any man who got elected by 76 would feel that he had in the way of a mandate. But the courts don't care. The courts force this other view with absolute, absolute authoritarian force on everybody who goes into the public schools today.

And at the same time, we are facing on the same base a medicine, a medical profession, which now asks, in many cases, not how can we save this life, but should it be saved? A total flip over from what the medical profession held as recently as 30 or 40 years ago.

Abortion, Infanticide, and the Quality of Life

Now this is not only true before birth and abortion, but it's true after birth in the thousands of babies that are being allowed to starve to death or killed in other ways after they're born because they don't come up to somebody's arbitrary concept of some quality of life.

The medical profession's completely flipped over. Human life now, the question is asked, should we save it even after the baby is born if it doesn't come up to someone's concept of a certain level of quality of life?

And it's boiling over into the question of what can we do to help the old people commit suicide? England is further ahead unhappily in this than we are. What can we do to help the old people commit suicide?

What we can do to help them get off quickly so they'll not be a social and economic embarrassment. All this flows along as night follows the day. The January 11 Newsweek has an article about the baby in the womb entitled, the baby now in the womb entitled, but is it a person?

Is it a person, the baby in the womb? Its conclusion is the problem is not determining when actual human life begins, but when the value of that life begins to outweigh other considerations such as the health or even the happiness of the mother.

They had five pages before that proving that the baby in the womb is human life. But then they say the question is not that anymore, but now simply when does the happiness or something else to the mother outweigh the fact that this is human life?

In other words, they acknowledge the baby is human life, but is it still an open question as to whether it is not right to kill that human life if it makes the mother unhappy? Are you following? Do you understand what you're listening to?

The Historical Consequences of Arbitrary Killing

Basically, this is no different from Hitler's, Stalin, and Mayo's killing human life because they thought that life that they were killing was for the good, the happiness of society. The boundary is gone.

The boundary is gone. Once it is acknowledged that it is human life that is involved, and this issue of Newsweek shows that there is no question that this is the case. Once it is acknowledged that this is human life that is involved, the acceptance of the death of human life in babies born and unborn opens the door to the arbitrary taking of any human life.

It's somebody's arbitrary choice. It was this view that opened the door to all the murders of Hitler's Germany and in communist countries. If I were a member of a minority, if I were a member of a minority group, I would be fearful.

If I were a member of a minority group in this country, I, not ten years from now, right now would begin to be fearful. And with the door open, Christians should be recognizing the danger. Christians should be recognizing a danger.

And I cannot understand why even the humanist lawyers of the American Civil Liberties Union are not afraid. Once the door is open, everything is open to chance, or open to choice, arbitrary choice by someone.

Liberal Theology and Secular Humanism

I fear both they, and too often the Christians, do not just have relativistic values, but we're just plain stupid in the light of the teaching of history. That's what bothers me at this given moment. We cannot be surprised that the liberal theologians come down on the side of the secular humanists and on almost every issue.

They do. They come down on the side of the secular humanists at almost every issue. We cannot be surprised by that because liberal theology is only humanism using Christian theological terms rather than secular terms.

Grind that into your thinking and never forget it. It's an important factor in the whole struggle in our country at this particular time. Liberal theology is only humanism using religious terms rather than secular terms.

So we shouldn't be surprised when they come down in every, almost every case, and they are on the side of the secular humanists. But that is not our problem. But where have the Christians been? Where have the Bible-believing Christians been?

In this country 80 years ago, none of this other side had any power. Up to 40 years, none of the great traumatic things had occurred. Where have the Bible-believing Christians been in the last 80, in the last 40 years?

As we've moved from a Christian consensus in this country to the horrors and the stupidity of the present moment in this country, where have the Bible-believing Christians and the Bible-believing leadership been?

This country has come close to being lost. Not first of all because of a humanist conspiracy, although there is a humanist conspiracy. But that's not the chief reason this country is being lost. But because the Bible-believing Christians, often for their own comfort, or so is not to rock the boat concerning their own projects, have been silent as Christians.

That's the only reason there's any trouble of this nature, this total nature in our country today. There is no other reason. If the Christians of this country had even spoken up to the level in which they're speaking today, 40 years ago we wouldn't have been in the difficulties we're in.

Where have the Christian leaders been? Where have the Christian lawyers been as law has changed? Where have the Christian doctors been? Where have the Christian business people been? And all the rest, as the change has taken place.

This is our problem. Something to pray about, something to think about, and say, God, if you'll give us some more time, we're going to do something about it. This country was founded on a Christian base, with all its freedoms for everyone.

And now it is largely lost. We're a long, long way down the road. I was saying to Jerry last night, I don't think even he and I know how far we're down the road. We're a long, long way down the road. We live in a humanist society, and we're rapidly moving to a totally humanistic society.

Secularization of Public Schools

For example, by law, our public schools are now secularized and shut to all religious teaching except the humanist religious teaching, and influence as completely as the socialist union shuts its schools.

I don't know if you realize that, but Christianity is completely shut out of the, and all religions, shut out of the public schools in this country as completely as it is in Soviet Union. Marxism isn't taught, but as far as secularization goes, it's just as complete.

Congress opens with prayer, because it's always open with prayer, because the founding fathers opened Congress with prayer from the very beginning, acknowledging God as the creator. And yet the public schools and the children cannot pray.

Congress prays out of a memory of the past, but our children cannot pray in the public schools. I will repeat, we're not only immoral, we're stupid. This, and I use the word now again with tremendous force, linking it back into the Reformation and all that is involved, the writing of Samuel Rutherford and everything, this is tyranny.

Tyranny, Liberty, and Hidden Censorship

And it must be called nothing less than tyranny. It's tyranny. And the founding fathers acted to defeat such tyranny in their day. And Christians and others who love liberty and human life should be acting in the same way as they acted in our day.

If we do not act now to use every means and get rid of such tyranny, and then the next part of the sentence, and the hidden censorship we face on every side, the hidden censorship we face on every side, and in the Christian Manifesto, I go into some of the details, and the hidden censorship we face on every side, I do not think we're going to get another opportunity.

I think it's now or never for the Christian people, and anybody of goodwill, but especially the Christian people in this country. In the present so-called conservative swing in the last election, we have an opportunity.

Rejecting Conservative Humanism

But let us never forget this, a conservative humanism is no better than a liberal humanism. And we must use every means available to us, to use the open door, to roll back the awful and inevitable results brought forth by the other worldview of final reality, being material or energy, shaped by chance.

We must not be satisfied only with words at the present moment. We must demand and struggle for real change. It's no minute moment to be sleeping. We must struggle with everything that it is in every way we can for real change at this moment, and not for just words.

True Spirituality and the Lordship of Christ

It is now or never. This is true spirituality. Are you surprised? What is true spirituality? True spirituality is looking to Christ for my strength, the resurrected Christ, every moment of my life. But it means that Christ must be the Lord of everything in my life, and not just something called religion.

That must not be separated. Christ being the Lord of my whole life means that Christ is Lord of not just my religious life, but down into my profession, and also into my duties as a citizen of a country that was founded upon the fact that he's given us the freedoms which we have.

Revival, Individual Salvation, and Social Change

The great revivals of the past called for individual salvation. But in every case, the great revivals also brought forth social change. A lot of the evangelical leaders seem to have forgotten that. They called for individual salvation, and thousands were saved, thank God.

But there was no revival from the great awakening in America back through Wesley, back through Whitefield, back through the Scandinavian revivals that didn't bring forth individual salvation, but a resultant social change.

And we must stand in that stream with courage today, even if the price is high in the profession in which we live. What is the loyalty to Christ worth to you? There is no other question. That's it. That's it.

We must smash the lie of the new and novel concept of the separation of religion and state which now exists. This is a lie totally against the original meaning of the First Amendment. Now with that, we must make plain that we're totally opposed to any form of a theocracy, either in fact or in name.

We must not confuse patriotism with loyalty to Christ. What we want and what we must fight for with all that is in us as citizens of this country but also as citizens of the heavenly country, which is opposed to all tyranny, and Samuel Rutherford was not wrong, tyranny of all sorts comes from the devil and not from God.