Preface
Preface
As you begin reading this book, I would like to mention that I have something of a dilemma, and I have had this now for a number of years. Let me try to explain what this is: During the last two decades I have written twenty-three books. My early books dealt especially with the intellectual questions of philosophy and matters in the area of culture. Then there were the books dealing with the Christian life and the church. More recently my books have dealt especially with the area of civil needs and the needs of law and government.
Throughout all of my work there is a common unifying theme, which I would define as "the Lordship of Christ in the totality of life." If Christ is indeed Lord, he must be Lord of all of life-in spiritual matters, of course, but just as much across the whole spectrum of life, including intellectual matters and the areas of culture, law, and government. I would want to emphasize from beginning to end throughout my work the importance of evangelism (helping men and women come to know Christ as Savior), the need to walk daily with the Lord, to study God's Word, to live a life of prayer, and to show forth the love, compassion, and holiness of our Lord. But we must emphasize equally and at the same time the need to live this out in every area of culture and society.
This book which you are reading now needs to be seen, then, within the context of my work as a whole. My dilemma is that many will not have had the opportunity to be familiar with the full range of my work, and it would be impossible to review or cover all of this within the pages of this book.
At the same time, however, this book stands on its own, in speaking to the critical issues of the day. Thus, for the person reading my work for the first time this book really does provide a good place to begin. On the other hand, those who are already familiar with my work should see that this new book grows out of the critical situation in which we live today, but also that it is a direct extension and application of what I have written over the years.
And if you find what I say in these pages interesting and helpful, I would encourage you to go back and study through my earlier work. This is now available in a five-volume set of my Complete Works, published by Crossway Books. The set is arranged so as to best follow the flow of my thought, and it includes twenty-one of my books, revised throughout for this new edition, with a comprehensive index.
One of the purposes of this present book was to reaffirm and restate some of the ideas and themes from my earlier work, as well as to make extensions and application of these to the situation in which we live today. The notes at the end of the book should be consulted to see where in my other works many of these themes and ideas are developed in greater detail. I would also mention that my booklet The Mark of the Christian has been included as an appendix to this volume. I would ask you to read the rest of this book first, but also read The Mark of the Christian, since the principles expressed in this booklet will be needed especially in the difficult days that lie ahead. I am grateful to InterVarsity Press for granting permission to include this here, and would mention that this is also available from InterVarsity as a separate publication.
Finally I would say that the statement which I am making in the pages of this book is perhaps the most important statement I have ever written. It concerns what I call "The Great Evangelical Disaster" and the greatest problem we who are Christians face in our generation.
FRANCIS A. SCHAEFFER
February 1984