Francis Schaeffer and former Surgeon General C. Everett
Koop made a groundbreaking video series Whatever Happened To The Human Race? on abortion, euthanasia and related topics. There is also a book version of this shocking
documentary. Life issues are critical,
but what about the origin of life itself?
Francis Schaeffer (d. 1984) helped popularize the
importance of worldview. Schaeffer,
looking at his teachings overall, falls
into the creationist camp. Schaeffer
held to a non-tranquil Universal Flood, the possibility of man-dinosaur
coexistence and that nuclear decay rates may not be constant. [1] Schaeffer said this in his commentary on
Romans:
There is a tendency in our day to view the first three chapters of Genesis as merely myth or parable, an idea or an allegory. But considering that both Paul and Christ accepted those chapters as real history, if we reject them we are rejecting the authority not only of Paul but even of Christ Himself. ... There was a historical Fall, bringing death to all people, even those who lived before the giving of the law. [2]
That sure sounds like traditional creationism. Genesis is indeed history. Schaeffer
was weak on certain points of the Biblical chronology, but if one takes the
time to read his complete works, he clearly took a very conservative view on
the book of beginnings.
Biographer Colin Duriez states that Schaeffer was
"undoubtedly a creationist"
but the term itself has a number of shades of meaning. [3] Sadly, theistic evolution is still popular
among Christian academics. A better term
would be “Theo Evo.” Francis Schaeffer said Theo Evo is not an
option,
… I will now mention two limits that seem to me to be absolute. … The Bible gives a specific limitation: Adam was created by God, and then Eve was made from Adam by God. … I have never heard anyone holding any form of theistic evolution who follows these two limitations [the 1st was that bara means original creation]. …even if I were still an agnostic, as once I was, I would not accept the concept of evolution from the molecule to man in an unbroken line. …this concept is weak and certainly has not been proven … [4]
Frank Schaeffer, who worked on the fantastic animated
film The Great
Evangelical
Disaster, in contrast, should not be tagged as a creationist.
For another interpretation of Schaeffer's vision for
understanding origins, see the creation statement straight from L'abri itself
(last page).
Notes:
1) Complete Works
of Francis Schaeffer by Francis Schaeffer (Crossway, Wheaton, IL, 1982),
Vol. 2, pp. 94, 95, 132, 134.
2) The Finished
Work of Christ by Francis A. Schaeffer (Crossway, Wheaton, IL, 1998), p. 141
3) Francis
Schaeffer: An Authentic Life by Colin Duriez (Crossway, Wheaton, IL, 2008),
p. 201.
4) The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer,
Vol. 2, 2e (Crossway, 1996), pp. 136, 137.
