Thursday, April 10, 2003

Good Goats?

C.S. Lewis' take on salvation (in The Final Battle):

"The creatures came rushing on, their eyes grew brighter and brighter and they drew nearer and nearer to the standing Stars. But as they came right up to Aslan one or other of two things happened to each of them. They all looked straight in his face. I don't think they had any choice about that. And when some looked, the expression of their faces changed terribly - it was fear and hatred: except that, on the faces of the Talking Beasts, the fear and hatred lasted only for a fraction of a second. You could see that they suddenly ceased to be Talking Beasts. They were just ordinary animals. And all the creatures who looked at Aslan in that way swerved to their right, his left, and disappeared into the huge black shadow, which (as you have heard) streamed away to the left of the doorway. The children never saw them again. I don't know what became of them. But the others looked in the face of Aslan and loved him, though some of them were very frightened at the same time. And all these came in at the Door, in on Aslan's right."

So despite the fact that the Linns cite Lewis in their argument, I don't think he would have agreed with them. Lewis is neither a universalist, nor a pluralist. He really thought that people would go to Hell, and I think I believe so too. I believe that people can look straight into the face of God and still cling bitterly onto the rottenness of this life. And those people will go to Hell. End of story.

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