Quotessence
Home / Authors / Francis Schaeffer
Francis Schaeffer

Francis Schaeffer Quotes

Theologian

Filter quotes by topic

AllChristianMenSpiritualityGodIfsShouldWorldChristPeopleMadeWayChristianityChurchMeanArtDoeHumansImportantJesusReality

Famous Francis Schaeffer Quotes

“We [Christians] have the dilemma of using a symbol system that was not made for our worldview, to give our worldview... I think the thing we're waiting for is a genius to come forth who can either make a new symbol system which is still modern, or more properly, as symbol systems don't come overnight, a group of people to modify the symbol systems of our day, so that we can use them for our Christian message without a disadvantage.”

PeopleThinkingGivingMadeStillsUseChristianCultureWaitingChristianityGroupsModernGeniusMessagesSymbolsWorldviewDilemmaDisadvantages
Author:Francis Schaeffer
Create image

“The value of the things is not in themselves autonomously, but that God made them, and thus they deserve to be treated with high respect. The tree in the field is to be treated with respect. It is not to be romanticized as the old lady romanticizes her cat (that is, she reads human reactions into it). This is wrong because it is not true. When you drive the axe into the tree when you need firewood, you are not cutting down a person; you are cutting down a tree. But while we should not romanticize the tree, we must realize God made it and it deserves respect because He made is as a tree.”

NeedsShouldHumansPersonsMadeValuesRealizingCuttingTreeFieldsDeserveCatReactionsForestsTreatedMade ItOld LadyFirewoodCutting Down
Author:Francis Schaeffer
Create image

“Modern man has no real "value" for the ocean. All he has is the most crass form of egoist, pragmatic value for it. He treats it as a "thing" in the worst possible sense, to exploit it for the "good" of man. The man who believes things are there only by chance cannot give things a real value. But for the Christian the value of a thing is not in itself autonomously, but because God made it.”

MenGivingBelieveMadeRealChristianFormValuesWaterChanceModernWorstHe ManOceanTreatsEnvironmentalMade ItExploitsPragmaticModern ManReal ValueCrass
Author:Francis Schaeffer
Create image

“We have the right to rid our houses of ants; but what we have no right to do is to forget to honor the ant as God made it, out in the place where God made the ant to be. When we meet the ant on the sidewalk, we step over him. He is a creature, like ourselves; not made in the image of God, it is true, but equal with man as far as creation is concerned. The ant and the man are both creatures.”

MenMadeHouseForgetStepsCreationHe ManHonorCreaturesEqualConcernedEnvironmentalMade ItStewardshipAntsSidewalkGod Image
Author:Francis Schaeffer
Create image

“Technologically, modern man does everything he can do-he functions on this single boundary principle. Modern man, seeing himself as autonomous, with no personal-infinite God who has spoken, has no adequate universal to supply an adequate second boundary condition; and man being fallen is not only finite, but sinful. Thus man's pragmatically made choices have no reference point beyond human egotism. It is dog eat dog, man eat man, man eat nature.”

MenHumansDoeMadeChoicesCan DoPrinciplesSeeingModernConditionsDogUniversalFunctionInfiniteEnvironmentalBoundariesFallenFiniteAdequateStewardshipEgotismModern ManAutonomous
Author:Francis Schaeffer
Create image

“With the Fall all became abnormal. It is not just that the individual is separated from God by his true moral guilt, but each of us is not what God made us to be. Beyond each of us as individuals, human relationships are not what God meant them to be. And beyond that, nature is abnormal - the whole cause-and-effect significant history is now abnormal. To say it another way: there is much in history now which should not be.”

WayShouldHumansMadeWholeFallIndividualCausesMoralEffectsGuiltSignificantAnother WayCause And EffectHuman RelationsHuman RelationshipsAbnormal
Book:The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian view of spirituality
Create image

“Man is indeed lost, but that does not mean that he is nothing. We must resist humanism, but to make a man a zero is not the right way to resist it ... [The] Christian position is that man is made in the image of God and even though he is now a sinner, he can do things that are tremendous - he can influence history for this life and the life to come, for himself and for others...From the biblical viewpoint, man is lost, but great.”

MenWayMeanDoeMadeChristianLostCan DoInfluencePositionHumanismThis LifeSinnerZeroBiblicalRight WayViewpointsGod Image
Author:Francis Schaeffer
Create image

“But the dignity of human life is unbreakably linked to the existence of the personal-infinite God. It is because there is a personal-infinite God who has made men and women in His own image that they have a unique dignity of life as human beings. Human life then is filled with dignity, and the state and humanistically oriented law have no right and no authority to take human life arbitrarily in the way it is being taken.”

MenWayHumansMadeStatesLawLife IsHuman BeingsExistenceTakenAuthorityUniqueMen And WomenDignityInfiniteFilledHuman LifeBeing HumanLinked
Author:Francis Schaeffer
Create image

“If man is not made in the image of God, nothing then stands in the way of inhumanity. There is no good reason why mankind should be perceived as special. Human life is cheapened. We can see this in many of the major issues being debated in our society today.”

IfsMenWorldWayShouldHumansKindChildrenMadeReasonTodayPoliticalLife IsIssuesViolenceSpecialMankindCrimeMajorsAbuseIncreaseAll KindsHuman LifeReason WhyTortureAbortionOur SocietySurroundRoutinePrisonerChild AbusePornographyExplosionsGod ImageInhumanityEuthanasiaPolitical PrisonersSociety TodayInfanticideAbuse And ViolenceRandom Violence
Author:Francis Schaeffer
Create image

“Christianity is not just involved with "salvation", but with the total man in the total world. The Christian message begins with the existence of God forever, and then with creation. It does not begin with salvation. We must be thankful for salvation, but the Christian message is more than that. Man has a value because he is made in the image of God.”

MenWorldDoeMadeChristianValuesExistenceChristianityForeverCreationInvolvedMessagesSalvationBeing ThankfulGod ImageExistence Of God
Book:Art and the Bible
Create image

“Ignorance is in relationship to content; it is not just a spirit of ignorance. In verse 21 it speaks of "the truth in Jesus." Truth is content, truth has something to do with reason. Truth has something to do with the rational creature that God has made us. The dilemma here in the internal world is not just some sort of grey fog, it is in relationship to content.”

WorldMadeReasonGodSpiritSpiritualityJesusSpeakIgnoranceTruth IsCreaturesRationalInternalsVersesGreyFogDilemma
Book:True Spirituality
Create image

“We should not view men with a cynical eye, seeing them only as meaningless products of chance, but, on the other hand, we should not go to the opposite extreme of seeing them romantically. To do either is to fail to understand who men really are--creatures made in the image of God but fallen.”

MenShouldMadeHandsEyeChanceViewsFailingSeeingProductsCreaturesOppositesExtremesFallenMeaninglessCynicalGod Image
Book:The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian view of spirituality
Create image