25+ Francis Schaeffer Quotes About God, Life And Love

Francis August Shaeffer was an evangelical theologian, philosopher and Presbyterian pastor.

Francis August Shaeffer co-founded the L’Ábri community in Switzerland with wife Edith Shaeffer. Francis Shaeffer was the first to graduate and ordained in the Bible Presbyterian Church, which was more in line with Fundamentalist Christianity and premillennialism.

Francis August Shaeffer’s son describes him as a multidimensional personality who was more interested in arts and culture than just the Bible and theology. After 1948 Francis August Shaeffer, along with his family, moved to Switzerland and established the community L’Abri which served as a philosophy seminar and a spiritual community. Francis August Shaeffer’s community attracted many young people which led to its expansion in Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Canada, United Kingdom and the United States too. Francis August Shaeffer, despite his non-religious upbringing, grew up with the willingness to understand reality in all its complexity and the tragedy of it, too. Francis Shaeffer was a family man, involved in his children’s lives till the very end.

Along with Francis August Shaeffer’s quotes you can also read Francis Chan quotes and worship quotes here.

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Francis Shaeffer was greatly influenced by Herman Dooyeweerd, Edward John Carnell and Cornelius Van Til,  but he made sure his philosophy was free flowing and easily understood. Here are some Francis Schaeffer “The God who is There” quotes.

1. “Man, made in the image of God, has a purpose - to be in relationship to God, who is there. Man forgets his purpose and thus he forgets who he is and what life means.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

2. “Truth carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

3. “We as Bible-believing evangelical Christians are locked in a battle.  This is not a friendly gentleman's discussion.  It is a life and death conflict between the spiritual hosts of wickedness and those who claim the name of Christ.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

4. “Most people catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society, the way that a child catches the measles. But people with understanding realize that their presuppositions should be chosen after a careful consideration of which worldview is true.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

5. “If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, the society is absolute.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

6. “That this God exists and that he has not been silent but has spoken to people in the Bible and through Christ was the basis for the return to a more fully biblical Christianity in the days of the Reformers. It was a message of the possibility that people could return to God on the basis of the death of Christ alone.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

7. “A Christian should use these arts to the glory of God, not just as tracts, mind you, but as things of beauty to the praise of God. An art work can be a doxology in itself.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

8. “How should an artist begin to do his work as an artist? I would insist that he begin his work as an artist by setting out to make a work of art.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

9. “If there is no final place for civil disobedience, then the government has been made autonomous, and as such, it has been put in the place of the living God.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

10. “There is a flow to history and culture. This flow is rooted and has its wellspring in the thoughts of people…The results of their thought world flow through their fingers of from their tongues into the external world.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

Francis Schaeffer was credited with inspiring political activism among Protestant Evangelicals in the late 1970s and 1980s, especially with regards to the law of abortion. He initially thought that the issue was being politicized. Here are some Francis Schaeffer quotes about Christianity.

11. “State officials must know that we are serious about stopping abortion, which is a matter of clear principle concerning the babies themselves and concerning a high view of human life.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

12. “Truth always carries with its confrontation. Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation nevertheless. If our reflex action is always accommodation regardless of the centrality of the truth involved, there is something wrong.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

13. “When man fell, various divisions took place. The first and basic division is between man who has revolted and God. All other divisions flow from that. We are separated from God by our guilt—true moral guilt.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

14. “If man has been kicked up by chance out of what is only impersonal, then those things that make him man—hope of purpose and significance, love, motions of morality and rationality, beauty and verbal communication—are ultimately unfulfillable and are thus meaningless.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

15. “Things, things, things. Always more things, and success is seen as the abundance of things.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

16. “We must not only be True. We must be Beautiful.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

17. “The beginning of men's rebellion against God was, and is, the lack of a thankful heart.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

18. “Thank God for the reality for which we were created, a moment-by-moment communication with God himself.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

19. “Each generation of the church in each setting has the responsibility of communicating the gospel in understandable terms, considering the language and thought-forms of that setting.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

Francis Schaeffer two expressed his view in his book  'A Christian Manifesto' and the book and film  series 'Whatever Happened  to the Human Race?'.  'A Christian Manifesto' was intended to be the answer to the 'Communist Manifesto' of 1848 and 'Humanist Manifesto' of 1933 and 1975. Here are some more Francis A Schaeffer quotes about human life.

20. “There is no use of Evangelicalism seeming to get larger and larger, if at the same time appreciable parts of Evangelicalism are getting soft at that which is the central core, namely the Scriptures.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

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

- Francis Schaeffer.

22. “Doctrinal rightness and rightness of ecclesiastical position are important, but only as a starting point to go on into a living relationship - and not as ends in themselves.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

23. “In passing, we should note this curious mark of our own age: the only absolute allowed is the absolute insistence that there is no absolute.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

24. “Biblical orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

25. “Yet, without true Christians loving one another, Christ says the world cannot be expected to listen, even when we give proper answers.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

26. “This is the whole point: The world is going to judge whether Jesus has been sent by the Father on the basis of something that is open to observation.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

27. “The world must observe that, when we must differ with each other as true Christians, we do it not because we love the smell of blood, the smell of the arena, the smell of the bullfight, but because we must for God’s sake. If there are tears when we speak, then something beautiful can be observed.”

- Francis Schaeffer.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for these Francis Schaeffer quotes about God, life and love then why not take a look at faith in god quotes, or Smith Wigglesworth quotes.