C.S. Lewis unbeliever?

[Jim1999]

In a Baptist only section, someone was critical of C.S. Lewis, and out right said he was not a Christian. This happens a lot when one is not a Baptist, or does not follow a specific regimin.

Mere Christianity is one of the greatest books on the Christian religion and has been used to bring many seekers to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

I was pleased to see all the Baptists who came to the defence of Lewis. Living in Anglican circles, I would to God that many Baptists were as solid as those Anglican believers that I have met and fellowshipped with. I understand all those who do not follow the word and follow a religion instead, but do not be deceived, there are so many who do not have the words, but do have the Christ in their lives. Now to teach them the words.

Lewis not only grew up in the Anglican Church, but was an English scholar. He came to a knowledge of the Christ in an academic circle, and met weekly with a group of men in a pub where they discussed Christian matters. It was in this setting he discovered a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible and of his church.

He went on, the rest of his life, to defend Christianity, and live as a testimony to God's saving grace. Thank God for C.S. Lewis. His contribution continues to this day, both in his apologetics and in his fabled writings, that even the newscasters remark about his Christian intentions in his fabled writings.


Cheers, and God bless,

Jim

 

[Doubting Thomas]

Great post, Jim.

 

[tamborine lady]

Here is a link to a story in the Chicago Sun Times about C.S. Lewis, Tolkin and his faith in God. Read and then see what you think.

I'm still in the ???? stage on this matter.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/movies/sho-sunday-lion04d.html

Peace,

Tam

 

[Mark Osgatharp]

Originally posted by Jim1999:
there are so many who do not have the words, but do have the Christ in their lives. Now to teach them the words.

By stark contrast, Jesus said,

"the words that a speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."

And Paul said,

"It please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."

And James said,

"of his own will begat his us with the word of truth."

Having read both threads on C.S. Lewis I must say I am flabbergasted to see how many Baptists defend or minimize such awful heresy.

Mark Osgatharp

 

[KenH]

I don't think that anyone can credibly say that C.S. Lewis was not a Christian. Here's a story in the the latest U.S. News & World Report:

"God's StoryTeller"

 

[natters]

Reminds me of the joke:

A man arrives at the gates of heaven. St. Peter asks, "Denomination?"

The man says, "Methodist."

St. Peter looks down his list, and says, "Go to room 24, but be very quiet as you pass room 8."

Another man arrives at the gates of heaven. "Denomination?"

"Anglican."

"Go to room 18, but be very quiet as you pass room 8."

A third man arrives at the gates. "Denomination?"

"Lutheran."

"Go to room 11, but be very quiet as you pass room 8."

The man says, "I can understand there being different rooms for different denominations, but why must I be quiet when I pass room 8?"

St. Peter tells him, "Well the Baptists are in room 8, and they think they're the only ones here."
---

I'm looking forward to shaking Lewis' hand in heaven!

 

[KenH]

Good one, natters!

 

[Mark Osgatharp]

No one said C.S. Lewis wasn't saved because he wasn't a Baptist. It was said he wasn't a Christian because he denied the most fundamental truth of Christianity:

"For there is none other name given under heaven among men, whereby ye must be saved."

Mark Osgatharp

 

[KenH]

Originally posted by Mark Osgatharp:
It was said he wasn't a Christian because he denied the most fundamental truth of Christianity

And anyone who says such a thing is wrong.

 

[Mark Osgatharp]

So now you can deny the most fundamental truth of Christianity and still be a Christian, or, according to Lewis, you can not even believe in Jesus and still be a Christian.

What utter heresy and hell spawned blasphemy!

Mark Osgatharp

 

[KenH]

Originally posted by Mark Osgatharp:
So now you can deny the most fundamental truth of Christianity

C.S. Lewis was a Christian and did not deny the fundamentals of Christianity. Maybe the fundamentals of what you teach, Mark, but not the fundamentals of Christianity.

 

[Mark Osgatharp]

KenH,

Any man who says that you can belong to God without believing in Jesus Christ has denied the most fundamental truth of Christianity:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever BELIEVETH IN HIM should not perish but have everlasting life."

Mark Osgatharp

 

[KenH]

And how many things have you ever said, Mark, that if known to those of us here on this board might cause us to wonder about your fidelity to the fundamentals of Christianity?

Matthew 7:1-2 (ESV)
"Judge not, that you be not judged. [2] For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

 

[Jim1999]

There is an old saying; :Argument is weak. Pound the pulpit and shout." I just wonder sometimes if that isn't true of those who must always shout so loudly how much they believe. Are they just trying to convince themselves?

I had a man who sat in the back pew. He never uttered a word and left early from each service. I wondered about him for sometimes, and finally got the urge to pay him a visit. He lived alone. When he invited me in, I saw these little notes posted all over his furniture and walls. I asked him what they were. He told me without hesitation that they were his prayer notes. He also said, he was not very eloquent and had difficulty speaking in public, but he could pray because God only cared that he prayed, and not how he prayed.

There are people I have met that were not very good at expressing their faith verbally, but they had tonnes of faith.

Cheers,

Jim

 

[Eliyahu]

I think, if Paul and/or Peter come to this world today, they will express the same opinion as Mark Osgatharp says. God is extremist in His own way.
Paul judged the salvation of the people when he said that Clement and other women's names are written in the book of life.(Phil 4:3)
Paul asked us to examine ourselves as well, whether Jesus Christ is in us or not ( 2 Cor 13:5)
Again Paul admonish us to discern the false teachings ( 2 Cor 11:4).
On this world today, there are strong movements to recognize and teach that the other religion may have the salvation therein too, saying that we are serving the same God.
For example some Christians found that Buddhism Nirvana is very similar to "being born again" in Christianity and their 12 stem-origins are similar to the Words of God or God himself. But onething that we have to check is that all the other religion in the world except true Christianity teaches the Way thru Human efforts, while Christianity teaches we are saved by faith and grace, not by our works (Eph 2:8)
So, if you check further on Buddhism you can find they depend on human efforts entirely, even for the Nirvana.

What about Roman Catholicism? When we think about them, their Purgatory concept is based on the human fabricated theory that human efforts can purge out the sins.

However, one thing I make the reservation is that one should be very careful in judging and discerning people without talking to the person in person, or we have to hear or read his own confession about the salvation and his own belief in the words of God. So, as I do not know very much about CS Lewis very much, I would refrain from any judgment but the articles posted above shows quite negative or poor aspects of his faith.

 

[Doubting Thomas]

C.S. Lewis never denied that Jesus was the only way to heaven. He was just optimistic that by God's grace there could be some "saved" who may have never had a chance to hear the name of Christ. (A universalist he was not.) God in His mercy would presumably judge them based on their response to the revelation that they did receive. (cf Romans 1:20, 2:5-16)

 

[padredurand]

However, one thing I make the reservation is that one should be very careful in judging and discerning people without talking to the person in person, or we have to hear or read his own confession about the salvation and his own belief in the words of God. So, as I do not know very much about CS Lewis very much, I would refrain from any judgment but the articles posted above shows quite negative or poor aspects of his faith.

Then by all means read Lewis' work. There are few Christians whose life is laid before you as clearly as C. S. Lewis. We can know him as an agnostic, a Theist, an Inkling and finally as a man who kneels during the Trinty Term of 1929 and ..."gave in, and admitted God was God, and knelt and prayed..." Surprised by Joy

“What are we to make of Jesus Christ? There is no question of what we can make of Him, it is entirely a question of what He intends to make of us. You must accept or reject the story. The thing He says are very different from what any other teacher has said. Others say, “This is the truth about the universe. This is the way you ought to go,” but He says, “I am the Truth, and the Way, and the Life.” He says, No man can reach absolute reality, except through Me. Try to retain your own life and you will be inevitably ruined. Give yourself away and you will be saved.” He says, “If you are ashamed of Me, if, when you hear this call, you turn the other way, I also will look the other way when I come again as God without disguise. If anything is keeping you from God and from Me, whatever it is, throw it away. If it is your eye, pull it out. If it is your hand cut it off. If you put yourself first you will be last. Come to Me everyone who is carrying a heavy load, I will set that right. Your sins, all of them, are wiped out, I can do that. I am Re-birth, I am Life. Eat Me, drink Me, I am your Food. And finally, do not be afraid, I have overcome the whole universe.” ~C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock: What are we to Make of Jesus Christ

Conversion requires an alteration of the will, an alteration whicj, in the last resort, does not occur without the intervention of the supernatural" ~C. S. Lewis The Decline of Religion

It costs God nothing, so far as we know, to create nice things: but to convert rebellious wills cost Him resurrection ~C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity

Having read both threads on C.S. Lewis I must say I am flabbergasted to see how many Baptists defend or minimize such awful heresy.

I am equally flabbergasted to see how many are so quick to condemn him. Stop reading newspapers and third hand sources. Read what the man wrote about his own coming to Jesus Christ and accepting Him as Lord and Savior.

The Christian knows from the outset that the salvation of a single soul is more important than the production or preservation of all the epics and tragedies in the world ~C. S. Lewis Christianity and Literature

 

[Mark Osgatharp]

Originally posted by Jim1999:
There is an old saying; :Argument is weak. Pound the pulpit and shout." I just wonder sometimes if that isn't true of those who must always shout so loudly how much they believe. Are they just trying to convince themselves?

I had a man who sat in the back pew. He never uttered a word and left early from each service. I wondered about him for sometimes, and finally got the urge to pay him a visit. He lived alone. When he invited me in, I saw these little notes posted all over his furniture and walls. I asked him what they were. He told me without hesitation that they were his prayer notes. He also said, he was not very eloquent and had difficulty speaking in public, but he could pray because God only cared that he prayed, and not how he prayed.

There are people I have met that were not very good at expressing their faith verbally, but they had tonnes of faith.

Cheers,

Jim

Empty rhetoric which doesn't even touch on the question at hand.

The question at hand is the C.S. Lewis said that a man could be saved without believing and Christ and the Bible still says that any man who does not believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will burn in hell!

Mark Osgatharp

 

[padredurand]

The question at hand is the C.S. Lewis said that a man could be saved without believing and Christ and the Bible still says that any man who does not believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will burn in hell!

You have a reference for that Mark? What Lewis said, not the Bible part. What I found on Lewis seems to contradict your statement.

 

[Mark Osgatharp]

Padredurdand,

Here is the quote from the thread in "General Baptist Discussions" which started this debate about the exclusivity of salvation by faith in Christ.

In chapter 10 of Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote, "There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. There are people in other religions who are being led by God's secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it."

Mark Osgatharp