Francis Schaeffer

Friday (the 15th) was the 25 anniversary of Francis Schaffer's death. A friend gave me a copy of his book How Should We Then Live? while I was in the Army in the late 70s and I read nearly all of his books when I was in college. What a great man and legacy he left behind.

Here's a brief excerpt from his book Death in the City, which had some sticking power with me.

Our generation is hungry - hungry for love, for beauty, for meaning. The "dust of death" covers all. And as in Jeremiah's day, there is with us the unsatisfied longing for a sufficient comforter.

Jeremiah said it well in Lamentations 1:16: "For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve [bring back] my soul is far from me." Why did the Jews in Jeremiah's day seek comfort and not find it, seek satisfaction and not find it? Because they had forgotten the end of man, the purpose of man. I want to commend something to you very strongly. Often when the evangelical and orthodox circles talk about the purpose of man, we quote from the first answer of the Westminster Cathechism: "Man's chief end is to glorify God." And often the sentence is ended there. This completely changes our Reformation forefathers' understanding of the scriptures. If you are going to give the complete biblical answer you must finish their sentence: "Man's chief end is to glorify God , and to enjoy Him forever." That changes the whole view of life.