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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Missy Robertson: "Taking a Stand for Christianity in a Public Way"

By Rick Pearcey • January 22, 2014, 01:00 PM

In an interview with Fox News, Missy Robertson (wife of Jase) is asked what she has "come to learn about the audience that watches Duck Dynasty" following A&E's suspension of her father-in-law, Phil.

Missy replies:

Our fans are truly passionate! I can say personally that I am completely overwhelmed by the outspoken support of our family.

People have called to me from the open windows of their cars, across parking lots, in the grocery store, at the mall, just about everywhere I go in public.

They have gone out of their way to make a point in letting us know that they support our family 100 percent and appreciate our taking a stand for Christianity in a public way.

Missy's emphasis on standing for "Christianity in a public way" is quite to the point. For the Biblical worldview, properly understood, refuses to let itself shrink into a "private value system" or "belief system" (or "my truth" or "my values") but rather has always embraced the concept of publicly verifiable and publicly actionable information from the Creator.   

"Christianity is not a series of truths in the plural, but rather truth spelled with a capital 'T,'" Francis Schaeffer stated in an address at the University of Notre Dame. 

As such, said Schaeffer, what is affirmed is "truth about total reality, not just about religious things. Biblical Christianity is Truth concerning total reality -- and the intellectual holding of that total Truth and then living in the light of that Truth."

Thus the title of Nancy's book Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity. 

In contrast to Schaeffer's affirmation, and to Missy's emphasis, we have the likes of "A&E and other secularists," who "seek to domesticate Biblical content from the Creator by redefining 'faith' as a 'personal matter' for so-called 'religious people'," as I noted in my most recent column.

"This effort reflects the modern reduction of 'faith' to a private 'belief system' or 'religious feeling' and is the product of anti-Christian secularism, not of a robust, pro-verification Christianity. Instead, the Biblical record concerns testable information regarding objective reality and is meant to be acted upon by free-thinking human beings across the whole of life, including public life."

What Missy states directly in this interview was also noted by Korie (wife of Duck Commander CEO Willie) when she said during a New Year's Eve interview on Fox, "At the end of the day we sit down and thank God for our blessings. . . . Hopefully we can spread that message. . . . As a country, if we can come back to that a little bit, maybe we’ll have a great 2014."

Yes, Christianity is so true to reality that its message can properly be applied to the country.

As I see it, the "Christian worldview is decidedly not 'religious' in the dumbed-down modern sense of the term but rather challenges people to 'test everything,' to evaluate truth-claims, and to think and see for themselves." 

Control freaks are right to be wary: Knowing the truth can not only set you free, but it can liberate a nation as well.



Friday, May 31, 2013

From Stephen King to Francis Schaeffer: Cosmos "Suggests Intelligent Design"

By Rick Pearcey • May 31, 2013, 11:16 AM

National Public Radio aired an interview with best-selling novelist Stephen King last Wednesday (May 29), and during the interview King discusses "his belief in God and whether it has changed over time." King said:

"I choose to believe it. . . . I mean, there's no downside to that. If you say, 'Well, OK, I don't believe in God. There's no evidence of God,' then you're missing the stars in the sky and you're missing the sunrises and sunsets and you're missing the fact that bees pollinate all these crops and keep us alive and the way that everything seems to work together. Everything is sort of built in a way that to me suggests intelligent design.

"But, at the same time, there's a lot of things in life where you say to yourself, 'Well, if this is God's plan, it's very peculiar,' and you have to wonder about that guy's personality -- the big guy's personality. And the thing is -- I may have told you last time that I believe in God -- what I'm saying now is I choose to believe in God, but I have serious doubts and I refuse to be pinned down to something that I said 10 or 12 years ago. I'm totally inconsistent."

King might also have mentioned books as evidence of intelligent design. Certainly, a few of these would qualify!

In regard to "having to wonder" about God's "personality," in light of a "lot of things in life," this very reasonable question is discussed by former agnostic Francis Schaeffer is his lecture on "Basic Philosophical Questions," which you can download here.

King's new novel, Joyland, is set to be released June 4.

Hat Tip: David Klinghoffer



Monday, April 29, 2013

Death, Revolt, and Resurrection: A Tribute to Edith Schaeffer

By Rick Pearcey • April 29, 2013, 04:32 PM

I attended the funeral service and graveside ceremony of Edith Schaeffer. Please go here to see, "Death, Revolt, and Resurrection: A Tribute to Edith Schaeffer."

Related
Francis Schaeffer: A Student's Appreciation of a Distinctive Approach 
Edith Schaeffer and the Apologetics of Beauty



Thursday, April 18, 2013

Shock! Christian Ministry Affirms Truth, Not Mere "Belief"

By Rick Pearcey • April 18, 2013, 04:36 PM

In "The Seduction of Relativism," author, blogger, and friend Darrow Miller of Disciple Nations Alliance (DNA) explains why the global ministry he co-founded now publicly "Affirms Truth and Not Merely Belief."

As you will see in his post, Darrow's journey, and therefore that of DNA, has been shaped significantly by his explorations at L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland, which exposed him to the strategic work of Francis and Edith Schaeffer while Darrow and wife Marilyn were living in the chalet of Udo and Debby (Schaeffer) Middelmann.

In his post, Darrow mentions recent dialogue he and I have been having regarding questions of truth versus belief. He concludes: "Rick, thank you for your gentle but clear admonition! Thank you for seeing again the seductiveness of relativism. As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17)!"

My reply: Thank you, Darrow and DNA, for the opportunity to engage in fruitful dialogue! As for my part, I want to say "Thank You" also to the Schaeffers and the Middelmanns for their work and their contribution to our understanding of what constitutes authentic humanness in community with a verifiable and redemptive Creator who acts and speaks in a broken but healable world. 

To explore DNA's "Seven Core Truths We Emphasize," please see this page.

Related 
Edith Schaeffer and the Apologetics of Beauty
How Critical Thinking Saves Faith 
What Can We Learn From Francis Schaeffer?



Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Francis Schaeffer: "Revolution Is Coming and Is Here"

By Rick Pearcey • April 17, 2013, 08:20 PM

Schaeffer writes in The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century:

Christian pastors come to me and say, "Don't you understand? If I begin this, I'm going to be kicked out of my church. If I bring blacks and long-haired kids into my home, if I get really close to them and they begin to love me and trust me and come to church, I may get kicked out." We send martyrs off to the end of the earth and say, Go ahead and die for Jesus Christ. Why not here at home?

A revolution is coming and is here. If we don't have the courage in Jesus Christ to get kicked out of our churches and being ostracized today, what are we going to do when the revolution comes in force? If we don't have the courage to open our homes and begin to bring these things into our churches, slowly begin to make the changes that we can within the polity of the New Testament, then there is no question of having courage when the pressure comes.

I think that if we fail to train our muscles in such little places, when the revolution comes -- especially if it comes violently from the New Left -- most of the evangelical church will just give way beneath it. We had better begin now, because the revolution with all its manipulation is coming.

Related
Francis Schaeffer: A Student's Appreciation of a Distinct Approach
Edith Schaeffer and the Apologetics of Beauty 
Udo Middelmann: "Jesus Came to . . . Argue" (Human Action vs. Religious Passivity)