Salvation checklist
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:38 am
Do you love the Chronicles of Narnia? Are you looking forward to having a chat with CS Lewis about its most intricate and personal details? Then stop focusing on it before you'll be too disappointed. In Did C.S. Lewis go to Heaven?, John W. Robbins asks that very question, and ultimately answers: 'Not if he believed what he wrote in his books and letters.'
That is a radical claim to make -- but it is not unsubstantiated, and Robbins writes with a lot more moderation than, say, Mary Van Nattan, writing at a website which calls Lewis 'the Devil's wisest fool'. No, Robbins is no raving biblicist; he comes over as clear-headed. He lists the following points about Lewis:
- Lewis did not believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. [This is of course not required for salvation, although it's the only way to get a good theological basis.]
- Lewis characterized some of the Psalms as fatal confusion, devilish, diabolical, contemptible, petty, and vulgar. [Again, this does not necessarily lead to exclusion from Heaven]
- Lewis's faith centers on the acceptance of Jesus as being the Son of God; however, this is not the only thing involved in salvation, as Matthew 7:21-23 testifies.
- Lewis did not believe in justification by faith alone, whereas Paul seemed to regard it as the central Christian doctrine.
Mr Robbins closes the article thus:
That is a radical claim to make -- but it is not unsubstantiated, and Robbins writes with a lot more moderation than, say, Mary Van Nattan, writing at a website which calls Lewis 'the Devil's wisest fool'. No, Robbins is no raving biblicist; he comes over as clear-headed. He lists the following points about Lewis:
- Lewis did not believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. [This is of course not required for salvation, although it's the only way to get a good theological basis.]
- Lewis characterized some of the Psalms as fatal confusion, devilish, diabolical, contemptible, petty, and vulgar. [Again, this does not necessarily lead to exclusion from Heaven]
- Lewis's faith centers on the acceptance of Jesus as being the Son of God; however, this is not the only thing involved in salvation, as Matthew 7:21-23 testifies.
- Lewis did not believe in justification by faith alone, whereas Paul seemed to regard it as the central Christian doctrine.
- Lewis believed the 'new life' was spread by the sacrament.CS Lewis wrote:Humanity is already 'saved' in principle. We individuals have to appropriate that salvation. But the really tough work -- the bit we could not have done for ourselves -- has been done for us. We have not got to try to climb up into spiritual life by our own efforts; it has already come down into the human race. If we will only lay ourselves open to the one Man in whom it is fully present, and who, in spite of being God, is also a real man, he will do it in us and for us. Remember what I said about 'good infection'. One of our own race has this new life: if we get close to Him we shall catch it from Him.
Of course, you can express this in all sorts of different ways. You can say that Christ died for our sins. You may say that the Father has forgiven us because Christ has done for us what we ought to have done. You may say that we are washed in the blood of the Lamb. You may say that Christ has defeated death. They are all true. If any of them do (sic) not appeal to you, leave it alone and get on with the formula that does. And, whatever you do, do not start quarrelling with other people because they use a different formula from yours.
Mr Robbins closes the article thus:
This thread is actually more intended for a 'CS Lewis Salvation Debate' than for a general debate about what is required for salvation.John W. Robbins wrote:Time will not permit me to discuss many other doctrines that Lewis believed and taught that contradict the doctrine of justification by faith alone, but a brief list is in order. Lewis taught and believed in purgatory (despite the fact that Article 22 of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England describes the doctrine of purgatory as 'repugnant to the Word of God'), said prayers for the dead, believed in the physical presence of Christ's body and blood in the bread and wine, a sacrament that he came to call 'Mass', practiced and taught auricular confession, believed in baptismal salvation, and free will. As we have seen, he rejected the inerrancy of Scripture and justification by faith alone, as well as the doctrines of total depravity and the sovereignty of God.
So we ask again: Did C. S. Lewis go to Heaven? And our answer must be: Not if he believed what he wrote in his books and letters.