Truth with Love

We're reading Truth with Love, The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer by Bryan Follis. It's the History Book Club selection, which a group of us from Antioch will get together to discuss one night soon at the Eastside (Bend, Oregon) Starbucks.

I really enjoyed chapter 2, "Arguments and Approach." Schaeffer was always ready and able to meet rational objections to Christianity, but considered compassion, hospitality, and love to have a place of primacy in any apologetic endeavor. Follis writes,

Indeed Schaeffer went as far as to say that the love of Christians "must have a form that the world may observe; it must be visible," for it is "the final apologetic." Drawing upon John 13 and 17, Schaeffer noted that "Jesus gives the world the right to judge whether the Father has sent the Son on the basis of whether the world sees observable love among all true Christians." Living in an age that did not believe truth existed, Schaeffer asked Christians whether they expected young people to take seriously the truth-claims of the gospel if Christians did not practice truth. Although he did not minimize the need to give honest answers to honest questions, Schaeffer also believed that "unless Christians love one another, the world cannot be expected to listen, even when we give totally sufficient answers."

I recommend Truth with Love and, hey, if you're in Bend on the evening of July 5th, come to Starbucks and chat about it with us.