Francis A. Schaeffer
This book is the natural outgrowth of the books which have gone before. The earliest books, The God Who Is There, Escape From Reason, and He Is There and He Is Not Silent, dealt with the Lordship of Christ over all of life-philosophy, theology and the church, art, music, literature, films, and culture in general. The books that followed dealt with and extended areas of Christ's total Lordship in all of life, and my wife Edith's books added to that extension and expansion.
With the most recent books and their accompanying film series, I, and all of us working together on these, carried the Lordship of Christ in the whole spectrum of life further. How Should We Then Live? dealt with the area of history and with the shifts which have come in society, government, and law. Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, written and filmed with Dr. C. Everett Koop, dealt with how modern, arbitrary law and modern and humanistic medicine have met at the crucial point of human life.
That led to the demand of the next logical step: What is the Christian's relationship to government, law, and civil disobedience?
At that point, Jerry Nims, who with his family had come to study in L'Abri, began to ask penetrating questions concerning these things. We had long talks and he urged me to put my answers into written form. Without that impetus there would have been no book.
Then Franky Schaeffer V entered and put together the basic publishing package as well as providing ideas and concepts in long times of talking and adding to the early draft of a possible text.
During this same period Franky, Jim Buchfuehrer, Edith, and I had been working on a new film series, Reclaiming the World (Franky Schaeffer V Productions). As Franky, Dr. Jeremy Jackson, Edith, and I discussed the pressing questions of the day before the camera, ideas about the Christian's relationship to government and law (among many other subjects) were sharpened and focused.
Then John Whitehead, an attorney-at-law, gave certain invaluable suggestions and ideas for which I am deeply appreciative.
Finally, the skeleton of the book emerged on the basis of a talk I gave at a plenary session of the Chris tian Legal Society Conference in South Bend on April 24, 1981. The discussion period following the lecture with the attending lawyers stirred my thinking further. Since the talk I have read many legal briefs and records of specific cases. The talk I gave at the Conference is enlarged into the present form and includes all I have been reading and thinking about in this area for many years, the material I have been especially gathering over the last year, and the input I have spoken of above.
The book is written not as a theoretical exercise but as a manifesto.
For additional reading, do pursue the books and films mentioned in the text. They are listed at the end of this book. A film entitled The Second American Revolution, being made by Franky Schaeffer V Productions, will be a special help.
Of course, there are many helpful books, but I would especially suggest these:
The Second American Revolution by John W. Whitehead documents in detail the root causes of the humanist dominance in the West while focusing on the emergence of the judicial and governmental authoritarian elite in the United States. It also discusses Christian resistance in light of unbiblical state actions.
No Other Foundation by Jeremy Jackson offers a solid study of church history which is not a series of dry facts but which relates past history to lessons to be learned for the present problems facing the church.
to Mediocrity by Franky Schaeffer V speaks practically concerning the truncated view of culture which a false and unbiblical pietism has caused.
These last two books, and this volume as well, are published by Crossway Books. We appreciate Lane Dennis at Crossway, who has worked closely with us on format and design to produce books not only of beauty, but books that deal with the hard areas where Christians will or will not confront today's increasingly broken and inhuman world.
And I do want to say thank you to my wife, Edith, for her sensitivity concerning the many difficult balances involved in this present book; to Udo Middelmann for his positive criticism; to Jeremy Jackson for help concerning historical details; and to Jim and Gail Ingram, without whose help I never could have made the publisher's deadline.
Francis A. Schaeffer
Switzerland, 1981
The Communist Manifesto 1848
Humanist Manifesto I 1933
Humanist Manifesto 11 1973