Book Review: Death in the City

Talk about relevance! Schaeffer wrote the first edition of this book the year that I was born and I am astonished at how directly he speaks to my life and ministry today, over 37 years later. In Death in the City, the church is called to a Spirit-wrought reformation, revival and constructive revolution. “There cannot be true revival unless there is reformation; and reformation is not complete without revival”(28). While many in my local church may not be inclined to listen to Schaeffer because of his cessationist doctrine of the Holy Spirit, his prophetic gifts have much to say to us and to Boulder’s postmodern culture. This review will consist of selected quotes from Death in the City, followed by my personal reflections on them.

“Ours is a post-Christian world in which Christianity, not only in the number of Christians but in cultural emphasis and cultural result, is now in the minority…When we begin to think of [Boulder, or anywhere else in America] and preach the gospel to them, we must begin with the thought that they have no clear knowledge of biblical Christianity” (30-31). When the building that my church meets in was built in the early 1960’s, evangelists and preachers might safely assume that many of their South Boulder hearers possessed some understanding of the Biblical storyline. But it is no longer safe to assume so. Whether church visitors or others I meet in places like the Southern Sun Pub, people are not thinking of God in terms of creation, fall, redemption and the glories of heaven. The truth of God as divine creator (which may be seen daily by the sublime beauty of the changing light on the flatirons) continues to be suppressed in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). Schaeffer is right. Our country is under the wrath of God. It has been under the wrath of God since he spoke and wrote these words the year that I was born. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all our ungodliness and unrighteousness. Lord, have mercy.

“Jeremiah…is called the ‘weeping prophet,’ for we find him crying over his people. And his attitude must be ours: we must weep over the church as it has turned away and weep over the culture that has followed it…if you are a Christian looking for an easy ministry in a post-Christian culture, you are unrealistic in your outlook” (49-51). When was the last time I wept over the state of people’s souls in Boulder County? Lord, please soften my heart. Ministry is not easy here, nor is it easy anywhere. We live among people who reject any propositional revelation of God, the church has ceased to use words like apostasy, and we are reticent to speak against the prevailing sins of the post-Christian world. We are not following Jeremiah’s example. “Our generation needs to be told that man cannot disregard God, that a culture like ours that has had such light and then has deliberately turned away stands under God’s judgment” (60).

“It is not possible [to avoid cultural pressure] whether one [proclaims the Word of God] with his music or with his voice, whether one plays an instrument or speaks out behind a pulpit, whether one writes a book or paints a picture. To think that one can give the Christian message and not have the world with its monolithic, post-Christian culture bear down on us is not to understand the fierceness of the battle in such a day as Jeremiah’s or in such a day as our own” (77). “But if one really preaches the Word of God to a post-Christian world, he must understand that he is likely to end up like Jeremiah” (81). Weeping. Sinking in the mire of a dungeon. “If you love God and you love men and have compassion for them, you will pay a real price psychologically.” (84) Frankly, there have been many days when I have desired to quit the ministry. One of my shepherding gifts seems to be that people trust me with their secret stories of guilt and pain and sorrow. In myself I have nothing to help them with. All I can do is cry with them and point them to Jesus and encourage them to keep trusting him, even when nothing makes sense. I have paid a real price psychologically in recent years. Thank you, Father for not allowing me to quit when I have wanted to. “The world is lost, the God of the Bible does exist; the world is lost, but truth is truth. Keep on! And for how long? I’ll tell you. Keep on, keep on, keep on, keep on, and the KEEP ON!” (92).

“When modern man (whether he is educated or not) thinks he needs salvation, usually he is not thinking of salvation from moral guilt, but rather relief from psychological guilt-feelings” (107). Perhaps this is why so many who make “decisions for Christ” or are baptized are no longer found among the fellowship of believers. The salvation they experienced was not real conversion of the soul, instead it was therapeutic religious pragmatic solutions for guilt-feelings they once had but no longer experience. “God is holy. There is a moral absolute. I am significant. I have deliberately sinned. I am under the wrath of God. Note it well: unless by God’s grace I have taken advantage of this unexpected and totally surprising answer to the dilemma [namely, the person and work of Jesus], I am under the wrath of God” (133).

Thank you, Father, for the prophetic ministry of Francis A. Schaeffer that still bears fruit today through his writings to the church. Help us to hear the words of Jeremiah and Paul so that Spirit-empowered reformation and revival may revolutionize your church and our culture. In Jesus name, Amen.

Death in the City, Francis A. Schaeffer, Crossway Books, 2002