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Narnia – Part 3
See also
Warnings – How mysticism & the |
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“‘The Lion, the Witch and
the Wardrobe’… is worthy of support from anyone, whether
conservative or liberal, who believes in classic, humanistic
storytelling. … Aslan, it has been debated, is intended by… to be a symbol for Christ… but of course the lion is also a royal and divine symbol throughout world religion; there are numerous lion-like divine figures in ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Hindu and Buddhist religious symbolism….”[1]
“Narnia’ a Classic Tale for the Ages“
An argument between evangelical and secular
Narnia fans has been raging for decades: Are The Chronicles of Narnia
supposed to be Christian? The release of the Disney movie has added fuel to
this debate. Its director, Andrew Adamson denies the connection to
Christianity and says its spiritual themes are common to the fantasy genre.
Nor does the producer, Mark Johnson see a Christian message. “When I read the
book as a child,” he said, “I accepted it as a pure adventure story. It never occurred to
me Aslan was anything more than a great lion.”[2]
Even Douglas Gresham, Lewis’
stepson, said recently: Churches in Britain and America are promoting the
film as a Christian film, but its not… and the Narnia books arent
Christian novels.[2]
Evangelicals disagree. “We believe that God will speak the gospel of Jesus Christ through this film,”[2] said Lon Allison, director of Illinois’ Billy Graham Center.
A letter C.S. Lewis wrote to one
of his many young fans back in 1961 may close that debate:Supposing there really was a world like Narnia… and supposing
Christ wanted to go into that world and save it (as He did ours) what
might have happened? The stories are my answer. Since Narnia is a world
of talking beasts, I thought he would become a talking beast there as he
became a man here. I pictured him becoming a lion there because a) the
lion is supposed to be the king of beasts; b) Christ is called the lion
of Judah in the Bible…. The whole Narnian story is about Christ.[3]
Narnia’s lion really is JesusIn other words, it’s “about
Christ” as seen from a suppositional perspective. It’s like
“possibility thinking” — an unbiblical twist more recently popularized by
Robert Schuller and
John
Maxwell — the new “Christian” optimism based on human “dreams” and
imagination, not on the certainties of Biblical truth. That letter, sent from
Magdalene College at Cambridge, brings us back to another question: Are his
“supposal” (a word coined by Lewis) stories true to the Bible? Are
they even compatible with Biblical thinking, which is based on God’s
absolutes?
“Lewis was anything but a classic evangelical, socially or theologically,”
wrote in a
Christianity Today article titled “C. S. Lewis Superstar.”
He continued with these thought-provoking statements:“Though he shared basic Christian beliefs with evangelicals, he didn’t subscribe to biblical inerrancy or penal substitution. He believed in purgatory and baptismal regeneration. How did someone with such a checkered pedigree come to be a theological Elvis Presley, adored by evangelicals?
… Part of Lewis’s current appeal… is a postmodern interest in
‘thin places’places where the physical world and the spiritual world meetand for myth that makes sense of life in a way that rational thinking can’t. For their dose of myth, postmoderns turn to The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and, of course, Narnia.“Fantasy allows you to explain and grasp and integrate into your life things that are not logical….
It is to say that we can tell each other truth in story.”[4]
But when you communicate “truth in
story,” the truth can be stretched like a rubber band. When the author creates the
context out of the imagination, it takes on new colors and character. Such “truth” is nothing like
God’s absolute truth
which was written for eternity according to the words and inspiration of our
Lord Himself. In fact He warns us repeatedly against any meddling with His
message! He will not let us add or delete anything. His certainty must not be tainted
with our uncertainties. [See
God’s unchanging Word]
The last book written by C. S. Lewis
(published in 1964) shows the author’s view of social change and
ambiguity. In
The Discarded Image: An
Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature, he tells us that
when people no longer like the old
Paradigm or cultural “Model” with its
beliefs and values, they will simply discard it. Nothing is
permanent; everything changes along with human thought, wants, and
speculations. Even “ultimate
realities” must change:
“When changes in the human mind produce a sufficient disrelish
of the old [Biblical] Model and a sufficient hankering for some new one, phenomena
to support that new one will obediently turn up.”[5, page 221]
“We must recognize that
what has been called ‘a taste in universes’ is not only pardonable but
inevitable. We can no longer dismiss the change of Models as a simple
progress from error to truth. No Model is a catalogue of ultimate
realities,
and none is a mere fantasy. Each is a serious attempt to get in all the
phenomena known at a given period…. But also, no less surely, each
reflects the prevalent psychology of an age almost as much as it
reflects the state of that age’s knowledge….”[5,
page 222]
Lewis ends his book with this prediction:
“It is not impossible that our own Model
[including the Biblical worldview] will die a violent death, ruthlessly
smashed by an unprovoked assault of new
facts — unprovoked as the nova of 1572. But I think it is more likely to
change when, and because, far-reaching changes in the mental temper of our
descendents demand that it should. The new Model will not be set up without
evidence, but the evidence will turn up when the inner need for it
becomes sufficiently great. It will be true evidence.’[5,
pages 222-223]
“What Lewis imagined to be ‘not impossible’
some generations away — the death of the modern model or worldview — turns
out to be happening,” wrote the leading postmodern Pastor Brian McLaren, who
has indeed discarded absolute truth.
[A New Kind of Christian, p.37]
If you go to the
Customer Reviews of The Discarded Image
at Amazon.com, you would find other interesting responses to this book.
One reviewer
wrote:
“In this context, it is perhaps fair to warn potential readers coming to the book
directly from Lewis-the-Christian that he displays throughout a remarkable
sympathy for a variety of views (pagan, Neo-Platonic, medieval Catholic, and so
forth) which they may find disturbing. Education, not edification, is his
primary focus….“To use a catch-phrase introduced to scholarship in 1962 by Thomas
Kuhn’s
‘Structure of Scientific Revolutions,’ Lewis is presenting an ‘Old Paradigm’ of
the Universe, the very presuppositions of which have been replaced by a series
of ‘New Paradigms’ during the last four centuries…. It is an effort to equip the student to think and perhaps
even feel in medieval, not modern, terms. I can think of no one who has so
successfully evoked the sensation of living in a Ptolemaic or Aristotelian
cosmos.”[6]
In other words, Lewis has a remarkable
ability to bring Christian readers into new worlds and make them feel at home
in the midst of pagan rituals, occult mysteries and magical forces. In so
doing, he presents unbiblical versions of the most important gifts God has
given us: His unchanging truth, His uncompromising righteousness, His peace
in the midst of turmoil, His unwavering faith, and His eternal gift of salvation.
The Armor of God: Continued from
Narnia Part 2: A Four-legged Creator of Many
Worlds
3. God’s PEACE to have and
share
God’s peace is based on certainty: absolute
confidence that God will be and do what He has promised in His
Word — no matter how difficult our circumstance. This peace is incompatible
with the postmodern belief that everything must change and nothing is absolute.
Likewise, it clashes with the dialectic process,
which is driving the transformation of churches as well as schools, corporations, government and homes. In other
words, there can be no peace when truth (thesis) and myth or opposing
opinions (antithesis) continually merge together (synthesis) into an evolving consensus. In this context, everything becomes uncertain
— even truth itself. Everything is subject to change with each new
thought, feeling or group input. Any new belief or supposition must be
accepted
as another “truth” by a person or group. In this context Narnia can be interpreted
in countless ways. Which brings us back to an old question again:
“USA Today asked: ‘Is the world created by C.S. Lewis a rip-roaring piece of fantasy or a fairy tale suffused with Christian imagery?
‘The answer is both, and that raises a related question: Can Disney succeed by selling the movie on two tracks as a sort of cross between The Lord of the Rings’ and The Passion of the Christ’?”[6]
That’s not God’s way to peace. Unlike the
ways of human nature, His message doesn’t waver between two worlds. But
human nature continually tries to compromise. The apostle Paul knew that. “I
fear,” he wrote to the Corinthians, “lest somehow, as the serpent deceived
Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we
have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have
not received, or a different gospel which you have not acceptedyou
may well put up with it!” 2 Co 11:3-4
Jesus never marketed his message with
entertaining thrills or dialectic compromise. Nor should we! Like Him, we
must bring true light “into the world,” even though “men
[have always] loved darkness rather than light.”
[John 3:19]
Some will hear and others will hate that truth. “For we are to God the
fragrance of Christ among those who are saved and among those who
are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and
to the other the aroma of life leading to life.” But “thanks be to God who
always leads us in triumph in Christ!” [2
Corinthians 2:15-16, 14]
Peace to you! As the Father has sent
Me, I also send you. John 20:21“These things I have spoken to you, that
in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be
of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
John 16:33 [See
PEACE]
4. The shield of FAITH — absolute confidence that God’s word is true and
right.
When C.S. Lewis wrote about Narnia half a century
ago, the actual practice of witchcraft and ancient occultism was generally out of reach.
In an era of politically correct cultural Christianity, few knew the Bible
well and even fewer knew much about other religions. The stories seemed safe,
yet exciting and far from reality. People enjoyed them but didn’t
believe them.
This is a different era. Magical powers are
now both real and
tantalizing. Among teens, witchcraft is said to be the fastest growing
religion, accessible to all through the Internet. And children in public
schools are trained to view all religions through a pluralistic filter that
rules out any claim that one “God” is better than any others.
“Faith is in the eye of the beholder,” declared Tilda Swinton who played the
part of the Witch.
“Lewis’ original book is more ‘spiritual’ than religious…. You can make a religious allegory out of anything if that’s what you’re interested in.”[2]
Like many today, Lewis had, early in his life, been captivated by the mythical worlds that filled
his mind and heart. As he wrote in Surprised by Joy, the possibility
that “the visible world” might conceal huge “uncharted realms”–
“started in me something with which, on and off, I have had plenty of
trouble sincethe desire for the preternatural, simply as such, the
passion for the Occult. Not everyone has this disease; those who have
will know what I mean. … 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. It is probably this
passion, more even than the desire for power, which makes
magicians….“The vagueness, the merely speculative character, of all this
Occultism began to spread–yes, and to spread deliciously — to
the stern truths of the creed. The whole thing became a matter of
speculation: I was soon (in the famous worlds) altering ‘I believe’ to
‘one does feel.’ And oh, the relief of it!… From the tyrannous noon of
revelation I passed into the cool evening of Higher Thought, where there
was nothing to be obeyed, and nothing to be believed except what was
either comforting or exciting.[7]
A similar obsession apparently drove ancient Israel from God’s loving care.
Fascinated with the beliefs and practices of their pagan neighbors, they put
their faith in their own imagination and ignored His warnings:
“There shall
not be found among you anyone who… practices witchcraft, or a
soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who
conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the
dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord…”
(Deuteronomy 18:10-12)
It may be tempting to let fantasies confuse magic with the mighty power of
God, but the two are incomparable. God reigns over all! He alone is worthy
of our faith.
“I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much
trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words
of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should
not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
1 Corinthians
2:1-5
5. The helmet of SALVATION —
a steady hope in God’s promised victory
The Last Battle, the final book in the Narnia series, gives us a
glimpse of Lewis’ view of salvation and eternal life. The idol of the
neighboring nation is Tash, a large, frightening creature who walked like a
man but had a head like a vulture. After the final destruction of the
worlds, the evil characters have all died. But Emeth, one of evil Tash’
faithful servants, ends up in the new heavenly Narnia along with Aslan’s loyal
subjects.
“Do tell us who you are and what’s happened to you,” begs Jill,
a “saved” human who has been reunited with King Peter, King Edmund and Queen Lucy. So Emeth
begins his long story: “…always since I was a boy I have served Tash, and
my great desire was to know more of him…. But the name of Aslan was
hateful to me.” He then describes the events of the final battle between the
evil forces of Tash and the faithful followers of Aslan. Finally he shares
his surprise at finding himself in the new world — face to face with Aslan:
“…the glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my
forehead with his tongue and said, ‘Son, thou art welcome.’ But I said,
‘Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash.’ He answered,
‘Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done
to me.’…“I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, ‘Lord,
is it then true… that thou and Tash are one?’“The lion growled so that
the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, ‘It is false.
Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to
me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of
such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me,
and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man
swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath sake, it is by me
that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I
who reward him.’“But I said also, ‘Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days.’
‘Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou
wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they
truly seek.”
What does this passage suggest? That a person who serves Satan faithfully
will reap eternal blessings if he does some “good” things? That those “good deeds” will save you, even if you
trust in a false god and reject the true gospel? That Rick Warren is right
and those who resist his “Second Reformation” are wrong? Remember,
his Reformation calls for a change in Christian focus from doctrine
and beliefs to deeds
and behavior.[9]
Don’t believe it! God’s Word tells us that –
“…this is eternal
life, that they may know You, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
John 17:3
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest anyone should boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9
…this gospel of the
kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all
the nations, and then the end will come.”
Matthew
24:14
6. The Sword of the Spirit: The
WORD OF GOD.
Never have our children been surrounded by so many spiritual
counterfeits, seductive suggestions, digital delights and occult images. And seldom has
the Christian community been less prepared to resist such spiritual
temptations. We can’t trust Christian
schools or youth pastors to fulfill our God-given assignment. But when
we — as families — trust God, memorize His Word, wear
His armor, follow His way, and praise
Him together, we will know a fellowship in our
families that far exceeds the fleeting fantasies that the world
offers.
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you
have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit,
according to the tradition of men, according to the basic
principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are
complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”
Colossians 2:6
See also
The Abolition of
Man |
Mere Christianity
Truth,
Myth or ‘Discovered Reality’? |
C. S.
Lewis Timeline
Lewis, Tolkien and Barfield
explore Reincarnation and Theosophy
Emphasis added throughout
Endnotes:
Jason Apuzzo &
Govindini Murty, “Narnia’ a Classic Tale for the Ages,”
(12-05)
at
http://view.e.newsmax.com/?ffcb10-fe8d1679716d067d7d-fe2515797d610678701271-ff2c1d70746d
“Disney’s ‘Narnia’: Christ Need Not Apply”
(12-9-05)
at
www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/12/8/204407.shtml
3. Narnia’s lion really is Jesus“
(12-4-05)
at
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1903338,00.html
C. S. Lewis Superstar,
Christianity Today,
11/23/2005
at
www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/012/9.28.html
5.
C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image
(Cambridge University Press, 1964), pages 221-223.
Customer Reviews of The Discarded Image
at
www.christianity-books.com/The_Discarded_Image__An_Introduction_to_Medieval_and_Renaissance_Literature_0521477352.html
C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (C.S. Lewis PTE limited, 1955), pages
60-61. In this passage, Lewis goes on to explain something the
experience-driven Emergent church should take to heart: “One reason why the
Enemy found this so easy was that, without knowing it, I was already
desperately anxious to get rid of my religion…. I [had] set myself a
standard. No clause of my prayer was to be allowed to pass muster unless it
was accompanied by what I called a ‘realization,’ by which I meant a certain
vividness of the imagination and the affections. My nightly task was to
produce by sheer will power a phenomenon which willpower could never
produce… and which, even when it did occur, was of very mediocre spiritual
value. If only someone had read to me old Walter Hilton’s warning that we
must never in prayer strive to extort by “maistry” [mastery] what God does
not give!” 61-62
C.S. Lewis, The Complete Chronicles
of Narnia (Harper/Collin Publishers), page 517.
9.
Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. Plan & UN Goals
at
www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/peace-un.htm
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