Francis Schaeffer Was Right: America’s Day of Reckoning Is Here
by Brannon Howse
Worldview Weekend
The late Dr. Francis Schaeffer was one of the greatest defenders of the Christian faith in the 20th Century. In the 1960s and 70s, he predicted that “as long as there was ongoing material prosperity to keep filling the dull ache of the soul, the Christian base, which for so long had informed Western thinking and public life, would become only a folk memory as secularism gradually became dominate.” A malaise, he warned, would sweep across America , and unbelievers” ”as well as self-professing believers” ”would take as their primary focus in life the attainment of “personal peace and affluence.”
Now, four decades later, it is clear that Dr. Schaeffer was right. And our national malaise has become a life-threatening illness. Never before in the history of our nation have the American church and Christian families been in such jeopardy.
During the past 24 months, Worldview Weekend has received countless e-mails from pastors, parents, and teens sharing their alarm over the direction our country and churches are headed. Many American Christians are already paying a high price for Biblical fidelity.
Christians have lost life-long friends, or they’ve been told” ”in word or deed” ”that they are no longer welcome at the church in which they were raised, married, brought up their children, or perhaps even buried their parents. Why? Because these godly men and women believe that a Biblical New Testament church dare not compromise and accept any of today’s man-centered “gospels” ” ”easy believism, the mysticism and postmodernism of an emergent church, or the entertainment-driven best-life-now belief systems that are based more on pop culture than on the Bible.
Pastors write us seeking encouragement because they have been fired for refusing to implement the unbiblical doctrines and methodologies of today’s most popular authors and conference speakers.
Many Christians know that America and the American church are at a very dangerous tipping point. Students of history have an eerie feeling that the history of great cultures which self-destruct is about to repeat itself as they watch our nation speeding past all the warning signs of national, spiritual, and economic suicide. Since we whole-heartedly embrace their concern in 2007, Worldview Weekend declared Code Blue for America ’s churches and introduced our free, Code Blue Rally.
We “outdid” ourselves in launching Code Blue Rallies: Worldview Weekend sponsored eight events with a total attendance of more than 10,000 children, teens, and adults” ”all at no cost to the participants. We put on each and every rally for free simply because we could not bear to let money stand between any sincere person and this desperately needed message.
The response and fruit has been so remarkable that between January 26 and April 13, 2008, we will be hosting 15 more Code Blue events” ”and again offering them free to those who attend. You’ll see why when you take a look at some of the testimonies we’ve received:
- We have been youth pastors for about 11 years in the Assemblies of God. This worldview stuff is pretty new to us and when I saw a conference 4 hours away I knew I had to clear a spot on our calendar.
- I was an emerging, relevant, postmodern, purpose driven, self-help minister. ‚ I believed numbers equaled success and so did everyone else. When you shared that testimony about that pastor failing the worldview test my wife looked at me thinking that I emailed you because that was basically what I went though. The bigger testimony is that now our church has changed in a major way from being the place to be entertained to the place to be trained. Imagine that …a place to train believers. We are big into inductive study for all ages and the big youth group is a thing of the past.” ”Ray
- My family and I just returned from the Memphis Code Blue Rally. We were amazed. It was great. I had my children with me and my teenage daughter went in with an attitude that she would absolutely not enjoy it. By the break she apologized to me and told me how glad she was that I’d brought the family. My husband is a great man, but too busy for Bible study, training the children, witnessing, etc. He came away convicted and excited; he even bought the LOGOS Bible study software by his own choice. ‚ Thanks for the great conference and the work already done in my family’s life.” ”Rina
The encouragement we’ve received is great, but the toll the work takes is sometimes staggering. Still, in the next 12 weeks my family and I will pack up our motor coach 15 times, unload it 15 times, and drive it thousands of miles to host the next 15 Code Blue Rallies. Why?
Would a fireman ignore the alarm and sit back in the firehouse recliner to watch the ball game as a burning office building incinerated souls that needed to be rescued?
Would a skilled emergency room doctor lounge in the break room reading the latest hunting and fishing magazine and ignore the hospital alert to save a dying patient?
No firemen or doctors would neglect their calling, and neither will I. And neither will the world-class speakers who are equally committed to the Code Blue cause: David Barton, Ron Carlson, Norm Geisler, Jason Carlson, Sean McDowell, Voddie Baucham, Bob Cornuke, Kerby Anderson, and Frank Harber. None of us are willing to ignore the spiritual alarm bells that scream a clear warning of the crisis for which we have the solution. The solution that we present at each Code Blue rally” ”sound biblical doctrine.
Yet, millions of Christian school administrators, Sunday School teachers, youth pastors, senior pastors, deacons and elders, Christian college presidents and parents are culpable as they ignore all the warnings that shout a spiritual Code Blue” ”the notice of imminent spiritual and eternal death.
Many of them know what is right and what they should do, but they are unwilling to be disturbed. They are too busy entertaining and being entertained. They cannot be distracted because they are consumed with giving pew-sitters what they want” ”not what they need. These leaders are frantic to avoid being offensive so they might be inclusive. They’re committed to unity over truth, customers over converts, donors over disciples, a big tent over the narrow way, and self-aggrandizement over self-sacrifice. They refuse to stir from their malaise because they don’t want to change their priorities or practice. The Christian life of their making offers everything and requires nothing.
Every day, 150,000 people step off into eternity and a frightening percentage are not walking into heaven but into eternal judgment. I am certain that many are shocked when they realize where they are. For you see, they thought they lived a good life by today’s standards. Many went to church, perhaps even walked the aisle and were baptized. Some even taught Sunday school. Jesus Himself told us this would be so. In Matthew 7:21-23 he warned:
Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
But don’t be discouraged. God has never moved and worked among the majority. He has historically and providentially carried out His purposes through a remnant. You are part of that remnant, and there are hundreds of thousands of others that make up this faithful core. I assure you that if we remain true to teaching a Biblical worldview and Biblical doctrine, we will see lives saved.
While we know there are many Christian families and Bible-teaching churches that stand firm on biblical truth, we also know that the challenges have never been greater, and Christians need to be equipped and encouraged. Many pastors thank us for coming. Until then, they were the lone voice proclaiming the need to their local ministerial board.
Many e-mails we receive are from individuals that simply want to thank us for our website and all its free articles, our radio program, books and DVDs. These people tell us that before finding the Worldview Weekend website and/or broadcast, they felt alone in their stand for sound, Biblical doctrine. Now they are encouraged to find that there is a remnant that continues to contend for the faith as we are commanded in Jude 3.
My friends, in this election season, I am all in favor of reclaiming America for Christ, but don’t you think we should be more concerned about reclaiming the church for Christ? I do.
Please join us in praying that the Lord will choose to bless our events and that lives will be transformed for His honor, glory and service.
