Truth with Love | Bryan A. Follis

Bryan A. Follis. Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer. Crossway 2006. 208 pp.

Is Schaeffer Still Relevant?

The question now arises, given the fundamental changes in cultural and intellectual attitudes over recent years, as to whether apologetics (with its stress on rationality) has a meaningful part to play in evangelizing people in a postmodern age. . . .

What are relevant to our discussion are the differences in approach and outlook brought about by postmodernism and how these changes impact Christian witness in general and apologetics in particular. . . .

It is quite clear that there has been a genuine and fundamental cultural change. So, do the apologetics of Francis Schaeffer still have relevance? Without hesitation I would argue yes. Indeed, I would suggest that in a postmodern age Schaeffer’s approach is even more necessary.

Postmodernism: Friend or Foe?

I am convinced that his apologetics provides a model that enables us not only to condemn but to oppose postmodernism. And not only to oppose it for the sake of opposing it, but to minister to individuals influenced by postmodernism (and thus blinded to their true spiritual state) so they will be led to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

A Love for the Individual

Schaeffer had a love for people that underpinned and inspired his apologetics. He had a concern for the individual person and a real burden for those separated from the saving love of Jesus Christ. It was a love that led Schaeffer to inconvenience himself and his family time and time again for the sake of the other person. . . . This concern for individual people continued throughout his ministry, and even in the 1970s when he addressed meetings of four thousand and five thousand people, individuals mattered. . . .

This sort of love and compassion speaks volumes to people. And people are quick to recognize whether it is genuine or merely a mask we wear while on duty doing our professional Christian ministry or engaged in apologetics. Schaeffer loved people, he cared deeply for individuals, and he was passionate about reaching them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. . . .

For Schaeffer, having love for the lost also meant confronting them about their sin and the need for repentance. . . .

For those of us living in the West during the twenty-first century, with all its biblical illiteracy, philosophical pluralism, and moral relativism, having a real love for the individual is an essential prerequisite for effective evangelism.

Yet even during the late 1960s, which was the heyday of intense philosophical discussion at L’Abri, it was Schaeffer’s love and compassion that often won over many individuals.

Love Made the Difference

What has been called their “pastoral touch” was not merely some professional skill they exercised as part of their paid ministry. The love they displayed for individuals sprang from deep within their hearts, and that gave it an authenticity that was compelling. . . . Love and truth went together, and truth was never to be an abstract intellectual concept. Indeed Schaeffer argued that Christians must not merely speak about truth—they must practice it. He knew that in a skeptical age influenced by relativism, Christian apologetics with its claim to absolute truth would not be taken seriously if Christians did not live out the truth.

Again, we need to emphasize that the love being displayed by the Schaeffers was not just a tool being used to commend their apologetics. Indeed I would maintain that the apologetics of Francis Schaeffer flowed from his love for people. Furthermore, it is clear that long before he engaged in a ministry of apologetics he (and Edith) had a deep love for individuals. . . .

Do we see compassion and love like this today in many churches? Can the outsider visit your church and experience the reality of Christ’s love and truth both being taught and lived? And what of our individual lives-do they reflect the love of Christ, and do we, in an age of doubt, commend His truth? We each have to start where we are, and for many that may initially involve asking the Lord to give us a greater love for other people and a willing spirit to serve and care for others. As churches, before we can meaningfully reach out with the love of Christ, we may need to learn how simply to welcome people, to have a concern for others that enables us to leave our comfort zone and reach out with a word of welcome to the stranger, to be willing to be inconvenienced for the sake of others and above all for the sake of the gospel. It has now been over twenty years since Francis Schaeffer died, but there is still much we can learn from how he and Edith manifested Christ’s love with a real compassion for individual people. And given the growing cynical selfishness of secular society, there is an even greater need for an authentic display of sacrificial love from the followers of Christ.

Honest Answers to Honest Questions

Schaeffer believed that loving a person involved being willing to give honest answers to honest questions. Conscious that each generation had its own particular questions and aware, from his own experience, that not every intellectual question is a moral dodge to avoid responsibility for sin, Schaeffer argued that there was a real need for somebody to provide an answer. . . . Schaeffer did not confuse providing answers with salvation in itself, for he recognized the necessity of the Holy Spirit’s bringing the person to accept Christ as Savior. Nevertheless, he believed that answering questions helped clear away the obstacles preventing persons from seeing their need of salvation. . . .

Whatever else the critics may say about Schaeffer, his ministry, or his apologetics, no one can suggest that he lacked compassion or a willingness to do hard work. He made himself available to people, he sought to understand their difficulties (be they intellectual, emotional, or relational), and he attempted to share the truth of Christ in a relevant way And we should do likewise. In the 1950s when Francis and Edith Schaeffer began the ministry at L’Abri, their approach to individuals was literally revolutionary. It was quite unique to have a place where you could ask any question, where doubt could be handled sensitively, where personal problems could be addressed and the gospel of Jesus Christ applied in a faithful manner. With the radical social upheavals of the 1960s, the rejection of traditional values, the questioning of all authority, and the widespread disillusionment among young people, Schaeffer’s approach struck a chord with many. No wonder that from 1968 L’Abri was almost constantly overwhelmed with a throng of young people who despaired of institutional religion but who still sought some meaning to life. . . .

Willing to Listen?

For those of us living and witnessing outside the L’Abri community, a willingness to engage with individuals and to seek to deal with their questions, doubts, and problems still has much to commend it. I never cease to be amazed at just how unwilling many Christians are to engage outsiders, refusing to consider their questions or even to attempt to understand why they have problems with trusting in Christ. I recently attended a major Christian conference in my home province of Northern Ireland. About two thousand people were present, and the Bible teaching by the visiting speaker was excellent. On the last day he conducted a seminar where people could ask questions on any subject. Most questions came from Christians and were about living out the faith, but then one non-Christian queried the biblical account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The visiting speaker was outstanding in his handling of the question and followed through with an invitation to chat with him afterward on a one-to-one basis. What was so sad was the way many Christians openly disapproved of the question, murmured, “tut-tut,” or even said, “shame.” It was clear that for them the conference was a nice religious club of like-minded individuals, and they had no time for outsiders’ questions. How different from the ministry of Francis Schaeffer, and how different—more importantly—from the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ!

If we are serious about reaching the lost (and that perhaps is the first question many Christians need to consider), then we must engage with individuals and the particular questions and problems (be they intellectual or emotional) with which they struggle. Even in what was once religious Northern Ireland, the so-called Bible belt of the United Kingdom, large segments of society now have real doubts about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, questioning the historical reliability of the Bible accounts of His life, death, and resurrection, rejecting the need for absolute truth as revealed in the Bible, and struggling with the exclusive claims of Christianity as being the only way to salvation. To those who say that we now live in a postmodern society where most people don’t ask such questions or seek rational explanations, I want to say, get close to individuals and listen carefully. As you come alongside individual people, as they see that you care about them, as they grasp that you are open to free discussion (and will not think any less of them for raising difficult questions), you will discover that the questions will pour out.

From Truth with Love by Bryan A. Follis copyright © 2006, pp. 131-40. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.

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