Francis Schaeffer Trilogy Blog Pt. 4

     In yesterday's blog I wrote about how the new approach to truth as being left up to each individual (loss of external absolutes) and the pick-and-choose-mix-and-match method of truth (loss of logical antithesis) moved from philosophical circles, to high art, to pop culture. In the end the message becomes clearest in John Lennon's popular song loaded with philosophical/religious agenda, Imagine: "Imagine there's no heaven... no hell... people living just for today... no countries... nothing to... die for".  In essence, you'll find peace when you come to terms with the absolute meaninglessness of everything. Nothing worth living for, no hope ahead of you, just 'eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.'

     "Only Christianity, of all the world's religions, has produced a real interest in man...we believe that man, in the presence of the God who is there, is truly wonderful," says Schaeffer. Christians believe the life of a human is so valuable it is worth dying for. In fact, it is so valuable that even God himself considered it worth dying for... why? So that we could live for more than just what we can grab today. So our imaginations could run wild with beautiful possibilities of the varieties of nations, a future habitation of unspoiled beauty and freedom, and an endless life of utterly healed relationship.

     "Christianity is not romantic; it is realistic. [It is] realistic because it says that if there is no truth, there is also no hope and there can be no truth if there is no adequate base, " says Schaeffer. Lennon's Imagine is romantic at best, nihilistic at worst - despite it's seemingly peaceful, hopeful feel. But Christianity makes no bones about the inadequacy that every human being knows is present in humanity. Christianity is not romantic about things magically getting better. It does not even call on its adherents to take a leap of faith and believe based on feelings alone. Christianity is not a blind hope or a blind love.

     In an age wherein we feel like we are flailing in a free-fall because anything more solid than our feelings and romantic hopes has been removed from beneath us, Christianity has a stable footing on which we can rest. But in a culture which has, for the most part, lost its ability to conceive of absolutes and logical engagement with truth, how are Christians to communicate the comfort and relief of Jesus' bestowal of belovedness (a gifted external absolute) both in creation and at the cross to our fellow strugglers?