Posted on 07/29/2020 9:32:37 PM PDT by Cronos
By now regular readers know that I am a fan of C.S. Lewis, and I was a fan of him before becoming Orthodox. In fact, I consider him one of the influences that led me to Orthodoxy, though I would not have thought of it that way before I became Orthodox. You see, it was not until I became Orthodox that I realized just how much of C.S. Lewis’ thinking reflected a more “Eastern” viewpoint, or perhaps, I had better say a more “universal” or catholic viewpoint.
One of his statements has to do with the whole issue of theosis or deification. Most people in “Western” churches think that it is merely this odd little idea that the Orthodox have and that perhaps it is just a little too “Eastern.” That is, some people suspect that perhaps we had a little too much traffic with Persia and India, to the east of the traditional Orthodox lands. But, many of you have read C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity without realizing just how much Orthodox theology was embedded in this book. In fact, it is Lewis’ capability to take complex theological language and turn it into mere Christianity that makes him so beloved by so many.
This time, let’s take a look at two quotes from that book and see what he says is the goal of a Christian:
“He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has – by what I call ‘good infection.’ Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else”
“The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were ‘gods’ and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him – for we can prevent Him, if we choose – He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.”
Finally, there is this quote from him about God: “turning you permanently into a different sort of thing; into a new little Christ, a being which, in its own way, has the same kind of life as God; which shares in His power, joy, knowledge and eternity”
Let’s look at that first line, that he came to this world and became a man in order to spread His life and that we are to become a little Christ. Notice that he says that, “The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.” Look closer at how he says it. He does not say that we are to be “declared” to be little Christs. Rather he uses the word “infected.” That is, Christ’s incarnation had a purpose, and according to C.S. Lewis it sounds just like several of the Church Fathers said:
I could go on with more quotes, but that should suffice. But, I must admit that I like the way that C.S. Lewis puts it, “He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess . . . a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness.”
C.S. Lewis puts it in a way more understandable to us. He writes with the cadences of the West, and his examples are good solid Celtic/Anglo-Saxon examples. More than that, he has a sensitivity to the Western emphasis on God’s amazing grace that shines through his writing. I am not in the least saying that the East did not. However, C.S. Lewis inherits both the catholic sensitivity of the Early Church Fathers and the protestant sensitivity of the great Anglicans like Fr. John Newton, ex slave trader, and eventual Anglican priest. If the East often points us to the heights to which God shall take us, the West often points to the depths from which we have come.
As a Latino who is Orthodox, I can identify with both sides. On the one hand, the Orthodox icons always picture the saints in glory, having won their battles. On the other hand, the Latino holy images are often suffering images, reminding us, as did C.S. Lewis, that “?The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.” We need to be in for the long haul. Sadly that is what is so often lacking in all too much of modern American theology. Latinos have never come from rich countries nor from stable societies. We all too well understand the process, and our holy images reflect that.
Do you remember the words to Amazing Grace? Reflect on them, and commit yourself to the great process of becoming a god, a little Christ.
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believ’d!
Thro’ many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promis’d good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.
Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.
You are correct to have that concern.
Nothing in Scripture says we become gods. It does say we were made in His image. That does not mean we are or will be gods.
“He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess” — I don’t quite follow this. Isn’t this veering into Mormonism?
Not at all. It’s a way of saying we share in divinity through Christ and because of Him. It’s grappling with great theological concepts which are difficult to describe. We must use mere words to wrestle with these truths! Lewis was terrific at doing so.
“He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess” — I don’t quite follow this. Isn’t this veering into Mormonism?
= = = = = = = = = = =
Some information on the issue here:
“Lupus Occultus: The Paganised Christianity of C. S. Lewis”
https://www.jamesjpn.net/religion/lupus-occultus-the-paganised-christianity-of-c-s-lewis/
Article by Jeremy James quotes:
“The C S Lewis version of Christ “
“What most Christians don’t seem to realise is that this ‘Christ’ – the C S Lewis version of Christ – is not the Messiah Redeemer, but an archetypal figure revered by pagans since ancient times, the perfected man or god-man, the pinnacle of human evolution.
In light of the evidence that I present in this paper, I submit that Lewis chose Christ, rather than Apollo, say, as his god-man archetype because he wished to draw a great many others into his system of belief. While the small circle of committed pagans whom he knew and with whom he met regularly – known as the Inklings – were already in step with his philosophy, there was enormous potential for spreading his ideas by linking them directly to just one ‘mythology,’ that of Judeo-Christianity.
This is why I was surprised to learn that millions of Bible-believing Christians in the US were looking to Lewis for guidance and edification. Most members of the New Age, especially those who have read widely and met with representatives of its various branches, know that C S Lewis is simply a vehicle for drawing new converts into paganism and the New Age movement. He does this by the time-honoured method – pretend to be a friend, use the right terminology, and slowly draw your audience in another direction.. .”
also a Person.”
(p.175) :Anyone familiar with oriental philosophy and eastern mysticism will immediately recognise the pagan origin of Lewis’s completely non-Biblical definition of the Holy Trinity. All of these ideas – Zoe, spiritual light and heat, the divine cosmic dance, pulsating union, evolution and projection – are fundamental to occult philosophy and pervade both New Age thinking and Gnosticism, as well as such paths as Theosophy, Anthroposophy and the higher degrees of Freemasonry. . .”
from the article previously referenced:
“The ‘good infection’”
“How does Lewis get away with this? Simple – he turns Christ into the match that sets you on fire: “He [Christ] came into this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has – by what I call ‘good infection’. Every Christian is to become a little Christ.” (p.177)
This is such a gross distortion of Christianity that it makes one wonder how any Baptist preacher or Presbyterian minister could ever recommend such heresy to his flock. Lewis has turned Christ into a pagan deity like Apollo or the Hindu god, Krishna – both of whom are associated with music and dance. In fact practitioners of high level witchcraft boast that the figure which Lewis is really depicting here is Lucifer, the Light Bringer (just like Aslan in the Narnia series). . .” . .
If you’ve read any amount of C.S. Lewis’ Christian writings, you’d know this is totally ridiculous, and very sophomoric analysis.
From the article referenced above, continued:
” . . .The Narnia Chronicles are plain celebrations of white magic and its power to defeat black magic. They are occult throughout. And the number of magical ideas and pagan deities which they portray is quite extraordinary. These are dressed up and presented in such a jolly British fashion, and carefully geared towards the mind of a child, that our critical faculty fails to register the obvious – that the power of white magic and the power of Christ are NOT the same thing. Readers fall into an appalling trap when they confuse the two. However, it is precisely this confusion that Lewis is exploiting. “ . . .
” “The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.” “
So good!
We’re like a virus the media/government can’t contain.
Thank you for an excellent post.
One of my favorite scriptures is John 14:
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
He is already here with us. We must just look within ourselves to find, see, and experience Him.
John 10:34 NIV Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”?
Jesus quoting a Psalm answering his Jewish critics who called him a blasphemer for claiming to be the Son of God. note the little “g” though.
in my experience reading CSL, i’ve never known him misquote the Bible.
One of the best clues is in Matthew 13, in the Tares in the wheat explanation.
The Parable of the Weeds
24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
The Parable of the Weeds Explained
36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.
38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom.
We are the “Good Seeds” planted here on earth to grow. Seeds of what?
” “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.”
We are the good seeds, but we are still asleep. It is time to awaken.
I have, and it totally changed my life. I began to perceive directly with my consciousness, beyond my physical body. The consciousness of others, i.e. their souls and their soul contents became physical to me. When I walk through their soul, all the stored memories of their life experiences back to conception and prior became physical to my perception.
When I walk into a person’s sin, I feel it just as you would when walking into a physical object.
These things are not done by me, but by the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and Our Father within me.
I am within Them, and They are within me. We are ONE. We just need to awaken to see and become aware of this. (I use Russian Nesting Dolls as a model to explain this, where I am the little doll in the middle and God is the big outer doll)
I’ve spent the last 20 years studying neuroscience to understand how I am able to do these things. It is all as the Bible explains to us. The Bible is the Truth.
We live in the “Flat Consciousness Society.” When we awaken and become whole, we then can tune the operational frequency of our consciousness to higher levels and begin to perceive as Jesus did. We can then see and experience Jesus.
The “raised up” in rapture is this being raised up in frequency of consciousness. It is an awakening of who and what we really are, and why we are here on earth.
It is time.
Blessings.
The white magic is the “Light of God” that shines through me.
It is not me, but what exists within me and I within the Light. It is the source of the words that my ears hear flowing from my mouth, that are not mine. These words have cast out demons and healed. It is not me.
These words are not mine.I merely listen to them flow through me. I just continue to be amazed and extremely grateful that a sinner like me could experience these events.
To those who say that it is satan doing these things, I can only point to the results and feel the extreme Love and Bliss of Him who is actually doing the work. Evil is Live spelled backwards. God’s goodness gives us life, evil is anti life and tries to take it away from us. By these fruits we can sort the good from the bad.
The great sin is to reject the Holy Spirit.
I challenge each person to invite the Holy Spirit, the Advocate that teaches us the Way to Our Father, to awaken within them. Do this alone in prayer, not in a group.
If your body starts physically shaking like a dog that just exited the water of the stream, don’t become fearful. It is merely the Holy Spirit shaking the sin from your soul to prepare it so that God’s Love can enter.
You use words as tools to twist the perception of Truth to appear as darkness. The warmth of the Fire that kindles in the heart can discern Truth from non-truth.
This is why the Pharisees prayers were just words falling upon deaf ears. You can fool the thinking mind, but not the heart.
Reading the Bible with your mind without the Holy Spirit within you is blindness.
It’s like reading a manual on how to ride a bicycle, but never actually getting on and riding the bike. It’s all in the experience.
“The white magic is the “Light of God” that shines through me.”
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The god of this world, yes.
Lucifer/Satan/Prince of the power of the air/dragon/ etc.
Not the heavenly Father, the Creator.
Or His only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Deuteronomy
Chapter 18
“10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. “
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Clive Staples Lewis was not a Christian, but an occultist.
According to what you wrote above, then most likely you are as well. It does not appear to me that you are a Christian, but then, you do not appear to claim to be.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
“If your body starts physically shaking like a dog that just exited the water of the stream, don’t become fearful. It is merely the Holy Spirit shaking the sin from your soul to prepare it so that God’s Love can enter.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Wrong.
That is a hindu spirit known as the kundalini, those shakings are called creas/krias. They are involuntary and one has now been invaded by a powerful hindu spirit.
Has nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is One God, perceived by many in different ways.
You are like the blind man who gets the tale of an elephant and argues that elephants are like snakes or ropes. Your blindness limits your perception of the greater being.
““10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_l5ntikaU
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