PODCAST: An Open Window, Part 4 (A Christian Manifesto Today #36 with Daniel Whyte III)

Welcome to A Christian Manifesto Today episode #36. My name is Daniel Whyte III, president of Torch Leadership Foundation.

Our Christian Manifesto Today Passage from the Word of God today is Judges 21:25 which reads: “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”

Our Christian Manifesto Today quote today is from Melvin Tinker. He said: “Secularism is the process whereby God and religion are pushed to the margins of life and so make no significant contribution at all to the policies and values adopted by society. By and large, politics and education carry on as if God were not there.”

In this podcast, we are using as our text: “A Christian Manifesto” by Francis A. Schaeffer.

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer writes in “An Open Window” (Part 4):

What percentage in the 1980 election voted out of principle and what percentage voted for a change of some sort in order to increase their own affluence? George F. Will is a columnist for 360 newspapers, including the Washington Post, and is a contributing editor for Newsweek. In a February 16, 1981, article entitled “Rhetoric and Reality” in the International Herald Tribune, he wrote: “In 1980, the electorate’s mandate probably was about 20 percent for conservatism and 80 percent for improved economic numbers, no matter how produced.” Notice the important phrase: “no matter how produced.”

Long before I read that quote I said that was what had happened. I would not dare give such exact percentages, but I think what George Will is stating is exactly the case. And if the improved economic numbers are not forthcoming, then what? With the two sociological groups of the join-the-system young people and the affluence-centered older ones supporting each other, do you think the window that is open will stay open?

With the window that is open we must beware of letting a foolish triumphalism cause us to think that all is now won and certain. We hear: “There is a new wind blowing.” True, but often those who say this, or something like it, then forget that this does not mean the new wind will automatically keep blowing. It does not mean we can return to the practice of false views of spirituality. And it does not mean we can withdraw from a struggle for continued reformation, even if it is at great cost to us personally and to our favorite projects.

And if the window does close, if people do not get their “economic numbers no matter how produced,” I do not think there will be a return to the old liberalism of the last fifty years. Rather, my guess is that there will be some form of an elite authoritarianism just as I suggested at the conclusion of How Should We Then Live?

All that would be needed in much of the Western world is even an illusion of what George Will calls “improved economic numbers” to accept some form of an elite to give at least the illusion of these numbers. And as I said in How Should We Then Live? this will be especially so if it is brought in under the guise of constitutionality as it was under Caesar Augustus in the Roman Empire. If it could be brought in in that way I think there would be hardly a ripple.

Lord willing, we will continue looking at the topic of An Open Window in our next episode.

Let’s Pray.

* * * * * * * *

Dear friend, if you are listening today, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, allow me to show you how:

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Now this is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.

Romans 10:9-13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Until next time, my friend, continue to stand for the Lord and his Word. God bless you!

An Open Window, Part 3 (A Christian Manifesto Today #35

Welcome to A Christian Manifesto Today episode #35. My name is Daniel Whyte III, president of Torch Leadership Foundation.

Our Christian Manifesto Today Passage from the Word of God today is John 17:17 which reads: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

Our Christian Manifesto Today quote today is from Jerry Falwell. He said: “If we are going to save America and evangelize the world, we cannot accommodate secular philosophies that are diametrically opposed to Christian truth.”

In this podcast, we are using as our text: “A Christian Manifesto” by Francis A. Schaeffer.

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer writes in “An Open Window” (Part 3):

Now I want to add something to that. In the Nixon era we heard a lot about the Silent Majority, but most people did not realize that there were two parts to that Silent Majority among the older people. There was the majority of the Silent Majority and there was the minority of the Silent Majority.

The majority of the Silent Majority were those who had only two bankrupt values—personal peace and affluence. Personal peace means just to be let alone, not to be troubled by the troubles of other people, whether across the world or across the city. Affluence means an overwhelming and ever-increasing prosperity—a life made up of things and more things—a success judged by an ever-higher level of material abundance.

On the other hand, the minority of the Silent Majority were those who were standing on some kind of principle, and often with at least a memory of Christianity even if they were not individually Christians.

We must realize that if you take the join-the-system young people and the majority of the Silent Majority, though they may have very different lifestyles, they support each other completely sociologically. They are in exactly the same place. In this respect, we must remember that although there are tremendous discrepancies between conservatives and liberals in the political arena, if they are both operating on a humanistic base there will really be no final difference between them. As Christians we must stand absolutely and totally opposed to the whole humanist system, whether it is controlled by conservative or liberal elements. Thus Christians must not become officially aligned with either group just on the basis of the name it uses.

Terry Eastland in Commentary says:

It is the style nowadays not only among the college-educated but also among many blue-collar workers to be economically conservative but socially and morally liberal. This, translated, means balance the budget but decriminalize marijuana and cocaine and let us have abortion on demand. If the liberalism of the sixties has a definite legacy, it is found in the far more liberalized and hedonistic lives many Americans, including many older Americans, and indeed many political conservatives now, lead.

Lord willing, we will continue looking at the topic of An Open Window in our next episode.

Let’s Pray.

* * * * * * * *

Dear friend, if you are listening today, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, allow me to show you how:

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Until next time, my friend, continue to stand for the Lord and his Word. God bless you!

An Open Window, Part 2 (A Christian Manifesto Today #34)

Welcome to A Christian Manifesto Today episode #34. My name is Daniel Whyte III, president of Torch Leadership Foundation.

Our Christian Manifesto Today Passage from the Word of God today is 2 Timothy 3:1-5, which reads: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

Our Christian Manifesto Today quote today is from Newt Gingrich. He said: “The America in which we grew up is vastly different from the America the secular-socialist Left want to create. And that’s why saving America is the fundamental challenge of our time. The secular-socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.”

In this podcast, we are using as our text: “A Christian Manifesto” by Francis A. Schaeffer.

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer writes in “An Open Window” (Part 2):

We must understand that there is going to be a battle every step of the way. They are determined that what they have gained will not be rolled back. But it is our task to use the open window to try to change that direction at this very late hour. And we must press on, hoping, praying, and working that indeed the window can stay open and the total entity will be pressed back rather than the whole thing ending only in words.

Some of us, however, who have some position of leadership, must unhappily be thinking of the possible Second Track.

The Second Track is, What happens in this country if the window does not stay open? What then?

Thinking this way does not mean that we stop doing all we can to keep the window open. Nevertheless, some people must be thinking about what to do if the window closes. And though we hope it stays open, what happens if it does not?
Now let’s ask ourselves where we are in the sociological atmosphere of our country. Think of the counter-culture people out of the sixties. By the end of the sixties they had given up their hope of an ideological solution on the basis of drugs or on the basis of Marcuse’s New Left. That is, by the end of the sixties they had given up their two optimistic, ideological hopes.

As we consider those who came out of the sixties and seventies we see there are not many anarchists around us in the United States. In Europe, however, there are a growing number of young anarchists—in West Germany, especially West Berlin, Holland, Great Britain, and even Switzerland. These anarchists are there. They have a cry, “No power to nobody!” They paint a large A on the walls of beautiful cathedrals and beautiful old churches and government buildings. Anarchists! They are nihilists. I saw a graffito on the wall of a government building in Lausanne a few nights ago which read: “The State is the enemy. The Church is the collaborator.” What they practice in their lives is exactly what the words of punk rock say. Most people do not listen to the words of punk rock, even if they listen to the music. The words of punk rock speak of nihilism, hopelessness, the meaninglessness of life, anarchy. This group in Europe is now living that way and in practice stands against total society.

But that has not happened in the United States. In the seventies the counter-culture young people who had given up the hope of an ideological solution of drugs and of Marcuse’s New Left began to join the system in order to get their part of the affluence and thus be able to live their own lifestyle. That is what we find in the seventies and the beginning of the eighties. They may continue to use drugs but no longer as an ideological solution. If they use drugs it is now rather as the traditional use of drugs, for personal escape.

Lord willing, we will continue looking at the topic of An Open Window in our next episode.

Let’s Pray.

* * * * * * * *

Dear friend, if you are listening today, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, allow me to show you how:

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Until next time, my friend, continue to stand for the Lord and his Word. God bless you!

An Open Window, Part 1 (A Christian Manifesto Today #33 with Daniel Whyte III)

Welcome to A Christian Manifesto Today episode #33. My name is Daniel Whyte III, president of Torch Leadership Foundation.

Our Christian Manifesto Today Passage from the Word of God today is Zephaniah 2:1-3, which reads: “Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.”

Our Christian Manifesto Today quote today is from Keith O’Brien. He said: “Perhaps more than ever before, there is that aggressive secularism and there are those who would indeed try to destroy our Christian heritage and culture and take God from the public square. Religion must not be taken from the public square.”

In this podcast, we are using as our text: “A Christian Manifesto” by Francis A. Schaeffer.

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer writes in “An Open Window” (Part 1):

What is ahead of us? I would suggest that we must have Two Tracks in mind.

The First Track is the fact of the conservative swing in the United States in the 1980 election. With this there is at this moment a unique window open in the United States. It is unique because it is a long, long time since that window has been open as it is now. And let us hope that the window stays open, and not on just one issue, even one as important as human life—though certainly every Christian ought to be praying and working to nullify the abominable abortion law. But as we work and pray, we should have in mind not only this important issue as though it stood alone. Rather, we should be struggling and praying that this whole other total entity—the material-energy, chance world view—can be rolled back with all its results across all of life. I work, I pray that indeed the window does stay open. I hope that will be the case.

Now the window is open and we must take advantage of it in every way we can as citizens, as Christian citizens of the democracy in which we still have freedom. We must try to roll back the other total entity. It will not be easy to roll it back because those who hold the other total world view of reality have no intention that it will be rolled back. Those who hold this view are deeply entrenched, they have had their own way without opposition for a long time, and they will use every means to see that the momentum they have achieved, and the results they have brought forth in all fields, will be retained and enlarged.

For example, all you have to do is to consider the way the media treated Dr. C. Everett Koop. Dr. Koop is one of the foremost pediatric surgeons in the United States, and among other honors, he was given the highest honor of the French government for his pioneering work in pediatric surgery. But when he was nominated for the position of Surgeon General, he was attacked by the secular media with total disregard for objective reporting—and with total disregard for his brilliant humanitarian record as a surgeon. Those in the media holding the humanist world view could not tolerate Dr. Koop’s voice to be heard—they could not tolerate his articulate defense of the sanctity of human life to be expressed.

Lord willing, we will continue looking at the topic of An Open Window in our next episode.

Let’s Pray.

* * * * * * * *

Dear friend, if you are listening today, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, allow me to show you how:

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Until next time, my friend, continue to stand for the Lord and his Word. God bless you!

Revival, Revolution, and Reform, Part 5 (A Christian Manifesto Today #32)

Welcome to A Christian Manifesto Today episode #32. My name is Daniel Whyte III, president of Torch Leadership Foundation.

Our Christian Manifesto Today Passage from the Word of God today is Exodus 20:13, which reads: “Thou shalt not kill.”

Our Christian Manifesto Today quote today is from John Hagee. He said: “‘Be fruitful and multiply’ is both a blessing and a command. The union of one man with one woman is intended to produce children. This command is the antithesis of the pro-abortion and pro-homosexual agenda.”

In this podcast, we are using as our text: “A Christian Manifesto” by Francis A. Schaeffer.

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer writes on “Revival, Revolution, and Reform” (Part 5):

We must see then that indeed the cry has not been given. We must see that here, on such a central issue as abortion, the true nature of the problem was not understood: Christians failed to see that abortion was really a symptom of the much larger problem and not just one bit and piece. And beyond this as the material-energy-chance humanistic world view takes over increasingly in our country, the view concerning the intrinsic value of human life will grow less and less, and the concept of compassion for which the country is in some sense known will be further gone.

A girl who has been working with the Somalian refugees has just been in our home and told us their story and shown us their pictures. One million⁠—and especially little children⁠—in agony, pain, and suffering! Can we help but cry? But forget it! In the United States we now kill by painful methods one and a half times that many each year by abortion. In Somalia it is war. But we kill in cold blood. The compassion our country has been known somewhat for is being undermined. And it is not only the babies who are being killed; it is humanness which the humanist world view is beating to death.

The people in the United States have lived under the Judeo-Christian consensus for so long that now we take it for granted. We seem to forget how completely unique what we have had is a result of the gospel. The gospel indeed is, “accept Christ, the Messiah, as Savior and have your guilt removed on the basis of His death.” But the good news includes many resulting blessings. We have forgotten why we have a high view of life, and why we have a positive balance between form and freedom in government, and the fact that we have such tremendous freedoms without these freedoms leading to chaos. Most of all, we have forgotten that none of these is natural in the world. They are unique, based on the fact that the consensus was the biblical consensus. And these things will be even further lost if this other total view, the materialistic view, takes over more thoroughly. We can be certain that what we so carelessly take for granted will be lost.

Lord willing, we will begin looking at the topic of An Open Window in our next episode.

Let’s Pray.

* * * * * * * *

Dear friend, if you are listening today, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, allow me to show you how:

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Until next time, my friend, continue to stand for the Lord and his Word. God bless you!

Revival, Revolution, and Reform, Part 3 (A Christian Manifesto Today #30)

Welcome to A Christian Manifesto Today episode #30. My name is Daniel Whyte III, president of Torch Leadership Foundation.

Our Christian Manifesto Today Passage from the Word of God today is Acts 3:19, which reads: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”

Our Christian Manifesto Today quote today is from Colin S. Smith. He said: “Human life is created in God’s image, and that makes it sacred.”

In this podcast, we are using as our text: “A Christian Manifesto” by Francis A. Schaeffer.

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer writes on “Revival, Revolution, and Reform” (Part 3):
Finney in his book Systematic Theology on page 158 has a heading: “I propose now to make several remarks respecting forms of government, the right and duty of revolution.” Do note his phrase “The right and duty of revolution.” On page 162 he says: “There can scarcely be conceived a more abominable and fiendish maxim than ‘our country right or wrong.’” He then goes on to stress that not everything the government does is to be supported, and he includes the Mexican War and slavery. On page 157 he says: “Arbitrary legislation can never be really obligatory.”
And we must not forget that Jonathan Kaufman was right when he wrote in the Wall Street Journal: “…[it was the] Great Religious Awakening two and one half centuries ago that helped sow the seeds of the American Revolution….”
Our evangelical leadership seems to have forgotten its heritage. When the book and film series Whatever Happened to the Human Race? came out we observed something very instructive. The call for a public stand against abortion, infanticide euthanasia, and against the general eradication of the unique dignity and worth of all human beings was not widely accepted at first. Many of the evangelical leadership either were totally silent about abortion, or qualified what they did say about abortion to such an extent that they really said nothing, or less than nothing, as far as the battle for human life was concerned.
The seminars for Whatever Happened to the Human Race? were marvelous seminars certainly. My wife and I both agree we have never seen people go out of seminars or meetings so committed to action. People went out from those seminars and there was a change. Prior to that, to our shame, across the United States and Great Britain as well, there were very, very few evangelicals involved in the movement against abortion. We had left it to the Roman Catholics to such an extent that the battle for human life was being lost by the simple tactic of its being called “a Roman Catholic issue.” After this project, happily, there were more evangelicals who saw the importance of the issue of human life and bringing the Lordship of Christ concerning law into this very important area.

Lord willing, we will continue looking at the topic of Revival, Revolution, and Reform in our next episode.

Let’s Pray.

* * * * * * * *

Dear friend, if you are listening today, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, allow me to show you how:

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Until next time, my friend, continue to stand for the Lord and his Word. God bless you!

Revival, Revolution, and Reform, Part 2 (A Christian Manifesto Today #29)

Our Christian Manifesto Today Passage from the Word of God today is James 1:27, which reads: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Our Christian Manifesto Today quote today is from Majid Michel. He said: “We hear people talk about Renewal and Revival. if you want a Renewal and a Revival, it’s based on how you treat the afflicted, the oppressed and the poor.”

In this podcast, we are using as our text: “A Christian Manifesto” by Francis A. Schaeffer.

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer writes on “Revival, Revolution, and Reform” (Part 2):

The Wesley and Whitefield revivals were tremendous in calling for individual salvation, and thousands upon thousands were saved. Yet even secular historians acknowledge that it was the social results coming out of the Wesley revival that saved England from its own form of the French Revolution. If it had not been for the Wesley revival and its social results, England would almost certainly have had its own “French Revolution.” We should sound the names of some of our Christian predecessors with a cry of pride and thankfulness to God: Lord Shaftesbury (1801-1855), who dared to stand for justice for the poor in the midst of the Industrial Revolution; William Wilberforce (1759-1833), who was the greatest single personal force in changing England from a slave-owning country to a country that turned away legally and totally from slavery long before the United States did. These men did not do these things incidentally, but because they saw it as a part of the Christian good news. God used those involved in the revivals to bring forth the results not only of individual salvation, but also social action.

Jeremy Rifkin, whom some of you will know as a leading counter-culture figure of the sixties, in 1980 wrote Entropy. In this book he shows that he understands, far better than the evangelical leadership often has, that the old revivals resulted in social action. He quotes Pollution and the Death of Man—The Christian View of Ecology at length in the chapter he calls “The Second Reformation,” pointing out that there is a different possibility for a Christian answer in regard to ecology. He really understands something, though not as a Christian (for he continues in his pantheistic framework). But he really comprehends that in the days of the revivals and today there are Christian answers for social action and answers in areas such as ecology. Christianity does have answers.

Now when we come nearer to home, Wheaton College stands out as a great Bible-believing college. But it is no longer; it is liberal. Happily Wheaton is not. But what most people do not realize is that Jonathan Blanchard (1811-1892), who was the founder and president of Wheaton College, and Charles Finney (1792-1875), who was the president of Oberlin College, were tremendously interested in the question of social action concerning slavery. They were two great voices in America calling out for social action, and both of them said something very firmly: If a law is wrong, you must disobey it. Both of them call, when it is necessary, for civil disobedience.

Lord willing, we will continue looking at the topic of Revival, Revolution, and Reform in our next episode.

Let’s Pray.

* * * * * * * *

Dear friend, if you are listening today, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, allow me to show you how:

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Until next time, my friend, continue to stand for the Lord and his Word. God bless you!

A Christian Manifesto Today

Pastor and Christian philosopher, Francis A. Schaeffer, warned us and created the war plan that we as Christians need today to deal with a society that is increasingly moving away from God, the Bible, and moral principles. He wrote “A Christian Manifesto” 33 years ago and its words are just as relevant today as they were back then. Dr. Schaeffer shows how the United States began as a nation built on biblical principles, but slowly became more pluralistic and humanistic in its ways. Since humanism places man above God, this thought pattern pushed society into a downward spiral that we have not begun to recover from. He further warned that the decline of preaching objective, biblical truth to every aspect of society would be the result of the church of Jesus Christ forsaking its responsibility to be the salt and light in the world. This podcast is aimed at showing Christian pastors, leaders, and individuals the devastating consequences of sitting quietly by and letting society continue to go against God and His Word. This podcast also aims to encourage Christians to be courageous, to speak up, and to resist this present day evil by standing up for God and His truth in an age when truth is fast fading away. As Peter and the apostles declared in Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than man.”

Listen now on the following platforms:
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The Humanist Religion, Part 5 (A Christian Manifesto Today #24)

This podcast is aimed at showing Christian pastors, leaders, and individuals the devastating consequences of sitting quietly by and letting society continue to go against God and His Word. This podcast also aims to encourage Christians to be courageous, to speak up, and to resist this present day evil by standing up for God and His truth in an age when truth is fast fading away from the public square. As Peter and the apostles declared in Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than man.”

Our Christian Manifesto Today Passage from the Word of God today is Psalm 14:1 which reads: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”

Our Christian Manifesto Today quote today is from Shelton Smith. He said: “The secularists, the humanists, the liberals–those who have no use for God–continue to do what they want to do, not realizing that their philosophy is flawed and will fail. One day it will be too late for many of them.”

In this podcast, we are using as our text: “A Christian Manifesto” by Francis A. Schaeffer. If you enjoy this podcast, please feel free to purchase a copy of this book from our website at: http://www.TorchLeadershipFoundation.com.

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer writes on “The Humanist Religion” (Part 5):

Here is public tax money being used not only in favor of abortion but to teach the whole view of a materialistic, mechanistic universe, shaped only by chance, with no final purpose and with morals (and law) purely a matter of social choice. The Judeo-Christian view is pushed into the category of “fairy tales.”

How much this sounds like the Humanist Manifesto II, page 13, which said:

“As in 1933 [the date of the Humanist Manifesto I] humanists still believe that traditional theism, especially faith in the prayer-hearing God, assumed to love and care for persons, to hear and understand their prayers, and to be able to do something about them, is an unproved and outmoded faith. Salvationism, based on mere affirmation, still appears as harmful, diverting people with false hopes of heaven hereafter. Reasonable minds look to other means for survival.”

…

The Humanist Religion, Part 4 (A Christian Manifesto Today #23)

Our Christian Manifesto Today Passage from the Word of God today is Genesis 1:1 which reads: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Our Christian Manifesto Today quote today is from Dave Hunt. He said: "To reverence the impersonal creation instead of the personal God who created us is a perversion designed for escaping moral accountability to the Creator. God indicts those who worship the creation instead of its Creator (Rom 1:18-23); and warns of the corruption of morals and behavior which results."

In this podcast, we are using as our text: "A Christian Manifesto" by Francis A. Schaeffer. If you enjoy this podcast, please feel free to purchase a copy of this book from our website at: http://www.TorchLeadershipFoundation.com.

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer writes on "The Humanist Religion" (Part 4):

The Study Guide which accompanied the series Hard Choices speaks clearly for the total view of a materialistic final reality:

The vast majority of people believe there is a design or force in the universe; that it works outside the ordinary mechanics of cause and effect; that it is somehow responsible for both the visible and the moral order of the world. Modern biology has undermined this assumption. Even though it is often asserted that science is fully compatible with our Judeo-Christian ethical tradition, in fact it is not….

To be sure, even in antiquity, the mechanistic view of life – that chance was responsible for the shape of the world – had a few adherents. But belief in overarching order was dominant; it can be seen as easily in such scientists as Newton, Harvey, and Einstein as in the theologians Augustine, Luther, and Tillich. But beginning with Darwin, biology has undermined that tradition. Darwin in effect asserted that all living organisms had been created by a combination of chance and necessity – natural selection.

In the twentieth century, this view of life has been reinforced by a whole series of discoveries….

Mind is the only remaining frontier, but it would be shortsighted to doubt that it can, one day, be duplicated in the form of thinking robots or analyzed in terms of the chemistry and electricity of the brain.

The extreme mechanistic view of life, which every new discovery in biology tends to confirm, has certain implications. First, God has no role in the physical world….

Second, except for the laws of probability and cause and effect, there is no organizing principle in the world, and no purpose. Thus, there are no moral or ethical laws that belong to the nature of things, no absolute guiding principles for human society….

The mechanistic view of life has perhaps only one tangible implication for ethics: we should feel freer to adapt our morality to new social situations. But we are already fairly adept at that….As a result, ethical choices are likely to become more difficult, not because people are less moral but because they will be unable to justify their choices with fairy tales.

Lord willing, we will continue looking at the topic of The Humanist Religion in our next episode.

Let’s Pray.

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Dear friend, if you are listening today, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, allow me to show you how:

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death…”

Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Now this is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.

Until next time, my friend, continue to stand for the Lord and his Word. God bless you!

Listen now on the following platforms:iTunes | SoundCloud | Stitcher | iHeartRadioOvercast | Google Play | Spotify | TuneIn

Listen now on the following platforms:
iTunes | SoundCloud | Stitcher | iHeartRadio
Overcast | Google Play | Spotify | TuneIn