Francis Schaeffer Quotes

The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.

If there is no absolute moral standard, then one cannot say in a final sense that anything is right or wrong. By absolute we mean that which always applies, that which provides a final or ultimate standard. There must be an absolute if there are to be morals, and there must be an absolute if there are to be real values. If there is no absolute beyond man’s ideas, then there is no final appeal to judge between individuals and groups whose moral judgments conflict. We are merely left with conflicting opinions.

The basic problem of the Christians in this country in the last eighty years or so, in regard to society and in regard to government, is that they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals.

I believe that pluralistic secularism, in the long run, is a more deadly poison than straightforward persecution.

Belief does not change what is.

Just because something is beautifully written does not mean it is true.

I am afraid that as evangelicals, we think that a work of art only has value if we reduce it to a tract.

If there is no absolute by which to judge society, society is absolute.

In the flesh rather than the work of the Spirit, it is easy to say we are showing holiness and it only be egotistic pride and hardness.

If Christians win a battle by using worldly means, they have really lost.

To die is to be with the Lord. It is not just an idea, it is a reality.

Some psychological and sociological conditioning occurs in every man’s life and this affects the decisions he makes. But we must resist the modern concept that all sin can be explained merely on the basis of conditioning.