Quotations from Francis Schaeffer's works on the 'final apologetic" || John Pesebre

The phrase "final apologetic" (FA) first appears in Schaeffer books in his 1968 publication The God Who is There. This is Schaeffer's first published book. It fits right in sixth section "Personal and Corporate Living Into the Twentieth-Century Climate" under chapter one, "Demonstrating the Character of God." In this chapter he wants to provide an answer to "the question of a reality which is visible to a watching world."

Here is the pericope of Schaeffer's first ever use in a book of FA.

The world has a right to look upon us and make a judgment. We are told by Jesus that as we love one another the world will judge, not only whether we are His disciples, but whether the Father serent the Son. The final apologetic, along with the rational, logical defense and presentation, is what the world sees in the individual Christian and in our corporate relationships together. The command that we should love one another surely means something much richer than merely organizational relationship. Not that we should minimize proper organizational relationship, but one may look at those bound together in an organized group called a church and see nothing of a substantial healing of the division between people in the present life. (The God Who is There, 161)

The whole idea of the FA is a visible apologetic and one that is characterized by how believers treat each other in front of a watching world.

However, an important and intentional caveat must be emphasized: "First there must be the individual reality, and then the corporate." (162). It has a Weberian social action theory.

FA re-appears again in his 1970 book The Mark of a Christian (you can read the abridged version online here) where Schaeffer devotes one chapter aptly titled "The Final Apologetic."

The following chapter "Honest Answers Observable Love" includes this beautiful paragraph on FA --

Yet, unless true Christians show observable love to each other, Christ says the world cannot be expected to listen, even when we give proper answers. Let us be careful, indeed, to spend a lifetime studying to give honest answers. For years the orthodox, evangelical church has done this very poorly. So it is well to spend time learning to answer the questions of those who are about us. But after we have done our best to communicate to a lost world, still we must never forget that the final apologetic which Jesus gives is the observable love of true Christians for true Christians. (176)

Three chapters later, "Visible Love" this is what Schaeffer has to say,

 The world looks, shrugs its shoulders, and turns away. It has not seen even the beginning of a living church in the midst of a dying culture. It has not seen the beginning of what Jesus indicates is the final apologetic — observable oneness among true Christians who are truly brothers in Christ. Our sharp tongues, the lack of love between us — not the necessary statement of differences that may exist between true Christians — these are what properly trouble the world. (183)

Seven chapters later , "Divided but One," he says,

I want to say with all my heart that as we struggle with the proper preaching of the gospel in the midst of the twentieth century, the importance of observable love must come into our message. We must not forget the final apologetic. The world has a right to look upon us as we, as true Christians, come to practical differences, and it should be able to observe that we do love each other. Our love must have a form that the world may observe; it must be visible. (198)

This book Mark of a Christian is Schaeffer's manifesto for FA.