C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was a college
professor... an atheist, who converted to theism, and later
professed Christianity. His most notable work, for which he has
won much acclaim, is Mere Christianity. The author
basically describes the book’s intent as an effort to set forth
the fundamentals that form the basis of Christianity, excluding
all doctrines and opinions that are not integral to Christianity
(or, at least his definition of Christianity), thus, the name
Mere Christianity. The exclusion of all such doctrines allows
for the inclusion of all faiths....
Mere Christianity is basically a treatise on the rightness and
wholesomeness of behavior of the individual as prescribed by
Christian precepts. Mere Christianity continually instructs us
that our thinking processes about our behavior are either
becoming good or becoming evil, and that a creature with good
thinking processes will go to heaven, and one with evil thinking
processes will go to hell. It is stunningly logical, and keenly
accurate and intuitive into proper behavior and improper
behavior, man’s sinful reasons for improper behavior, and the
logical reasons for proper Christian behavior. However,
Christian behavior is not the point of Christianity. Absolute
faith in, and a personal relationship with, Jesus Christ are the
point....
Lewis appears to be the modern-day precursor of the current wave
of Christian philosophers and psychologists who mention Christ
but exalt Christian behavior. The effect of the teachings of
this persuasion is to unite people under a belief system of
Christian behavior patterns. It is to draw them to large groups
or churches that help reinforce such behavior patterns, in the
name of Christ.... Such persuasions also stress the
importance of spreading Christian behavior patterns through
activism, legislation and other means, propounding the idea that
“we are all in this together and we are all the same.”
However, we are not all the same....
Lewis’s claim that doctrines are immaterial is an age-old
ploy used to unite people under a “good, Christian” set of
behaviors. The same purpose is shared by those who wish to
combine all “Christian” faiths in efforts to combat sociological
ills. The next step, which we already see taking place, is to
unite them as one large religion or one large group that is far
more controllable than many individual, dissimilar groups.
In this country, the behaviorists have combined efforts to merge
everyone who uses the name “Christian” into one mass by forming
popular movements which stress love, unity, and brotherhood.
They also stress the world’s “desperate need” for such unity
over the truth of Scripture....
Behavioral psychology is powerful, especially when intertwined
with the term “Christianity”.... Lewis cites many behavioral
truths, but they do not equate to being redeemed. They simply
equate to natural laws of behavior. ...
Again from
The Inklings Handbook—“The earliest hints of Narnia
come very early in CSL’s life, long before he became a
Christian; the common assumption that he wrote the whole series
as an extended allegory of the Christian faith, with a strong
evangelistic motive, is one that CSL always denied and which is
not borne out by the facts.”
So, who are we to
believe—scholars who wish to justify their untenable
positions favoring exploration into occultism, or the
author himself? ...
Lewis knew that the work was no where near parallel to sound
theology, and he knew that in that day people were not so
willing to accept such surreal imaginations as “Christian.” He
knew that it was much too early to present his New Age,
miracle-working animals as actual doctrine, such as they are
being hailed today. Aslan and Tash are obvious New Age
manifestations, even without being placed within any context of
religion.
Aslan is not a Christ as the authors of The Inklings
Handbook would too eagerly suggest. He is a hermaphrodite
image—an intangible copy—designed to capture hearts and
minds—the hearts that God says He wants to be captured only by
Himself....
Is this business about allegories really good counsel? It comes
from the right sources and movements. These people are pro-life.
They are conservatives. They are in the “Christian government”
movements. However, here is what Screwtape says. “Once you have
made the World an end, and faith a means, you have
almost won your man, and it makes very little difference
what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that
meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and
crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments
and charity, he is ours—and the more ‘religious’ (on
those terms) the more securely ours...."
It is truly baffling that any real Christian should think that
Lewis was a Christian. It seems that most have only heard the
advertising rhetoric, but few have taken the time to read the
works that expose his personal views or biographical works
chronicling his habits. Lewis did not consider all of the Bible
the inerrant Word of God (Reflections on the Psalms). He did not
believe that faith in Jesus Christ was all that was necessary
for salvation (Screwtape Letters). He believed that one could
lose one’s faith in a moment through commission of a mortal sin
(Screwtape Letters). He believed in Limbo as a place (neither
heaven nor hell) of temporary punishment (Screwtape Letters). He
believed that church sacraments are part of salvation (Mere
Christianity, Screwtape Letters). He believed that pagans may
belong to Christ without knowing it (Mere Christianity). He had
a participating interest in the occult (The Inklings Handbook).
And, regardless of his reputation and his “great swelling
words,” his outlook on death was not that of a Christian. This
from C. S. Lewis, A Biography: “Like many (most?) religious
people, Lewis was profoundly afraid of death. His dread of it,
when in the midst of life, had been almost pathological and
obsessive. Physical extinction was a perpetual nightmare to him
and, whatever his theological convictions and hopes, he was
unable, before his wife’s death, to reconcile himself to the
transition which death must inevitably entail.”
The idea of Lewis as a “great Christian mind” has been
thoroughly impressed upon so many for so long that he has become
a very real “angel of light.” It was Hitler who said, “If you
tell a lie often enough and long enough, the people will believe
it.” So, now that we know what The Chronicles of Narnia is not
(a Christian allegory), what is it? The concept of God’s enemies
going to heaven is not theologically sound, and is by no means
Christian. It is theosophical. Theology is the study of relating
to God. Theosophy is the study of relating to God’s opposite or
archenemy. The Chronicles is full of theosophical beliefs. The
idea that God’s enemies go to heaven is a distinct theosophical
tenet. This only makes sense. Those who serve and worship the
devil do not expect to spend eternity in hellfire and brimstone
for doing so.
Most theosophy is thrust upon the world today as its
opposite—theology. The reason is obvious. Most people would not
accept it for what is at face value, but disguised as religion,
church, faith, etc, it is readily acceptable to those who have
less care for being discerning. The American Theosophical
Society met in 1901 to discuss how to plan and implement the
goal of propagating theosophy throughout this nation and the
world. The conclusion drafted at that convention stated that
such propagation was only possible through the churches—that
theosophical values must be disguised as Christian or religious
to be accepted popularly. So what are we being taught by these
scholars that tell us that all this theosophy is actually
Christian?
And what about Lewis? Are we still not ready to believe his
connection to the occult? Why? It is public fact. The following
excerpt from a letter to a religious magazine.
“Kudos to Roberta green for deftly summarizing the trouble with
Harry Potter. C. S. Lewis himself experienced the dangers of
“crossing the line” into obsession with the occult. In Surprised
by Joy, he writes that, partly because of a school matron who
dabbled in the occult, “for the first time, there burst upon me
the idea that there might be real marvels all about us, that the
visible world might be only a curtain to conceal huge realms
uncharted by my very simple theology. And that started in me
something with which, on and off, I have had plenty of trouble
since—the desire for the preternatural, simply as such the
passion for the Occult. ... It is a spiritual lust; and like
the lust of the body it has the fatal power of making everything
else in the world seem uninteresting while it lasts.”
Some children will read Harry Potter and never struggle
with such a lust; but for others, it will open the door
for a maleficent obsession. ...
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