A Christian Manifesto

Schaeffer's prophetic interpretation of scripture in the 1980s is just as true today as it was then (that's how timeless truth works). A must-read for Christians to understand how we got here and what we should be doing in response.

I highly recommend this work. It is similar to other Schaeffer works, that is to say, exceptional, brilliant, thought-provoking. Explains Romans 13 so that Erastian Christians can stop their state-worshipping and get on with serving the Lord more Scripturally, less worldily. The Scottish Covenanters had it right; Jehoiada had it right; Schaeffer had it right.

Francis Schaeffer had amazing insight into the world around him. He looked around and made predictions that others thought impossible to ever come true. He tied together causes that others disregarded. He described a coming world view that others comsidered extreme and alarmist.Now . . . it has come to pass. Many today will read this book and have trouble believing that Schaeffer's world ever existed. To others, Schaeffer's words will seem as if they were penned only yesterday. Some will probably call him immoral. Others will call him a prophet. He is certainly politically incorrect.And all of this change happened in the span of about 20 years. This book was penned in 1981. You owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of this book and look around at the change that has happened to society. It is sobering. Schaeffer wrote his Christian Manifesto as an antithesis to the Communist Manifesto. He imagined the logical progression of a world built upon a morality other than God. Imagine if you will, what a world would be like if the government totally removed God as the basis for law and morality. It might be like a snowball rolling down a long hill with nothing to stop it. What would be the results way down the hill into the far future? How could the snowball ever be stopped once it reached critical mass? How long before it reached critical mass? How should Christians react to this changing world?

Seldom do I read many things that peak my attention such as the works of Francis Schaeffer. "A Christian Manifesto" reads as though it were written today. One can imagine it was a book before its time as the idea of "post-modern" Christianity has now become a forward-moving trend. Above all, I believe what this book succeeds in doing is calling Christians to serious reform in worldview; linking the problems of our society today to a humanistic view of total reality that has lost its morality and spiritual roots. He renounces dualism and admonishes us to look at issues in their totaliy as symptoms of a greater problem. In this book, Schaeffer sites some of the top legal decisions that will affect the people of faith in the coming decade. The issues still stand even today. He challenges the censorship of the open marketplace where people should be able to decide for themselves whose "god" is God. This is perhaps one of the most profound reads in quite awhile. You will be challenged, if not changed.

This book is not only for God-fearing Christians, but was written also for the relativistic humanists. Some of Schaeffer's points made me jump out of my seat. Are you tired of the moral decay in this world? Are you tired of the attacks on Christian ethics? This book will make you want to get off your "hiney" and do something about it. Schaeffer backs up his points with historical insight and biblical truths.

I am just coming to read the books of Francis Schaeffer, and what has impressed me initially is his holistic perspective of Christianity. Schaeffer insists that Christian belief and God's reality necessarily pervade the whole of life, and he justifies his insistence with Biblical/theological evidence that is both reasonable and practical. This book focuses on how Christian belief should extend into the realm of government. He persuasively argues that not only is the United States founded upon the Christian belief in an ultimate truth, God, but also that this is the only foundation upon which a government can truly stand. "A Christian Manifesto" is essentially a warning cry about the encroachment of humanism, but rather than being an alarmist writing (although at times it ventures dangerously close to that ground), "Manifesto" is instead a reasonable, logical presentation of predictable results of the humanist world view. If there is anything alarming about "Manifesto" it is the realization that the humanist world view cannot compel a person to obey the law for any other reason than force.Equally interesting is Schaeffer's discussion of a Christian's proper response to government, the basis of a government's authority, and the Christian response to government that usurps it's authority. In all of these discussions Schaeffer undergirds his arguments with the ultimate reality of God and the implications of this reality.I found myself uncomfortable at times as I made my way through this book because I came at it from a liberal Christian perspective. However uncomfortable I felt, I found his arguments difficult to deny.