C.S. LEWIS & THE FINAL JUDGMENT
DR. JIM DIXON
REVELATION 20: 11-15, REVELATION 21:1-8
OCTOBER 8, 1995
Allahabad is a city in Northcentral India, the city where the Ganges and the Yamuna Rivers come together. For the Hindu, the city of Allahabad is holy. The Ganges and Yamuna Rivers are also holy. The place where the two rivers come together is considered to be the holiest of all places and for this reason, the great festival called Magh Mela, sometimes called Kumbha Mela is held there where the rivers merge in the city of Allahabad. Hindus come from throughout India and throughout the world for the festival of Magh Mela. The festival is held every twelve years and the pilgrims who come receive ritualistic immersion into the holy waters. The last festival was held in the year 1989 and incredibly 12,700,000 people came for the festival of Magh Mela, 12,700,000. The next festival will be held in the year 2001. It is estimated that 15 to 20 million Hindus will come to the place where the waters merge.
Why? Why will millions of Hindus come? They will come because they want to bring an end to the seemingly never-ending process of reincarnation. You see, the Hindu believes in reincarnation and for the Hindu reincarnation is their concept of judgment as through death and rebirth and death and rebirth and death and rebirth. Over time, the soul is judged. If an individual’s karma is good, if their lifeworks are good, then through reincarnation the Hindu believes the soul of the individual will progress to higher conditions, to higher human levels. If, however, the karma is bad, if the lifeworks of the individual are bad, then the soul of that individual will regress to lower human levels, to lower human conditions through death and rebirth.
In some forms of Hinduism, the soul might regress to where it is reborn as an animal or even an insect. But, you see, most Hindus hope that somehow through this almost never-ending process of death and rebirth, through this almost never-ending process of reincarnation, that they might progress towards the Hindu equivalent of heaven. Of course, their fear is that they might regress over time to the Hindu equivalent of hell.
Well, the Bible does not teach reincarnation. Indeed, the Bible clearly tells us there is no such thing as reincarnation. In Hebrews, chapter 9, the Bible tells us that it’s appointed unto people, it’s appointed unto men and women to once die and then the judgment. It’s appointed unto men and women to live once, to die once, and then the judgment. One life, one death, one judgment. Christians refer to this judgment as the last judgment. Christians refer to this judgment as the final judgment.
Of course, Michelangelo portrayed his visions of the last judgment on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. If you really want to know what the last judgment is going to be like, you need to look in the Bible at Revelation, chapter 20; at Matthew, chapter 25; at the gospel of John, chapter 5. You see it’s in the Bible where we discover what the last judgment will be like.
Now the Bible tells us at the last judgment two great things will be accomplished. We’re going to focus on these two things this morning. First of all, the Bible tells us that at the last judgment justice will be accomplished. Justice will be served.
C.S. Lewis, in a letter dated January 31, 1951, made this statement: at the last judgment, all justice will be served. C.S. Lewis really believed that at the last judgment, all justice will be served. Now, of course, we live in a world where justice is not always served. Ten years ago, perhaps you read in the paper about a woman in Mexico City who received the terrible news that her husband had committed adultery and she was so distraught that she decided to take her own life. She went out on the balcony of her fourth floor apartment and she jumped, attempting to take her own life but she did not die. In fact, she was not even injured because, by coincidence it would seem, she actually flew through the air and landed on her adulterous husband who was, as it happens, just walking on the sidewalk beneath her. His life was instantly taken but she was not harmed at all. The newspapers said that perhaps justice was served and perhaps it was. Perhaps it was but if it was it was a fluky kind of justice.
This last week, on Tuesday, October 3, at approximately 11:15 AM Denver time, the 0.J. Simpson trial came to an end and the long sequestered jury rendered its verdict of ‘not guilty.’ After the trial, Ron Goldman’s father, with a certain amount of frustration, with a certain amount of indignation, I think with a certain amount of rage, addressed the media and the nation. He made the statement “Justice was not served.”
Well, you see, God only knows whether or not justice was served but we all know this: we all know that we live in a world, we live in a nation, we live in a society where oftentimes justice is not served. Is that not true? Don’t we live in a world where oftentimes justice just isn’t served?
Saddam Hussein reigns in Baghdad. By all accounts, he has butchered more than 100,000 people. He has violated international law. He has violated the laws of his own nation and yet he lives. He lives and since the Gulf War, it is rumored he has actually built ten new royal residences. Justice is not served.
Right here in the United States, in the last few decades, 35 million innocent babies have been aborted. Regardless of your personal view of abortion, you would have to admit this: that abortion has become a national tragedy. Thirty-five million babies aborted in this nation in the last few decades. We all know that 95% of those abortions had nothing to do with danger to the life of the mother, nothing to do with rape or incest, nothing to do with gross fetal deformity. Most of those abortions were simply belated efforts at birth control in a culture, in a society that is becoming increasingly promiscuous sexually. Some of those abortions, many of those abortions, have been undertaken for the simple purpose of personal convenience. I mean, life is cheap. Life is cheap. The carnage continues unabated. Justice is not served.
Of course, we all know, I mean we live in a world where many times criminals just get away with it. Many criminals are never apprehended. The Unabomber is still at large, demanding space in national publications that he might market his twisted philosophy. Our nation waits for his next victim. Justice is not served.
Of course, poverty is pandemic on the earth. Poverty is rampant in the world. One billion five hundred million people will go to bed hungry tonight. Justice is not served. This is true in great things and small things.
The Oakland Raiders lead the AFC West and the Broncos are in last place. Justice is not served.
Maybe you feel like in your life justice is not served. I don’t know what you’re going through. I mean, maybe you’re really in pain today and you feel like life just isn’t fair. Maybe you’ve lost a child. I know some of you have. Just yesterday I was at a Presbytery meeting, a denominational meeting, and a young man was candidating for ordination. His name is Steve Fisher. He’s a youth minister at our mission church, at our sister church Greenwood Community Church. Steve shared with us the very hard story of his wife, Lisa, and her pregnancy. I mean, they were so excited to have a little child on the way and a new life in their family. They went just recently to the doctor and they had an ultrasound. The doctor took them into a back room and gave them the bad news, that there was something wrong with the heart and their child would be born but only live two to four days because the child could not live apart from the mother. That’s hard. That’s painful, so hard, so painful. Maybe you’re going through something like that or maybe you just found out that you have cancer. I know some of you have found that out. Or maybe your husband left you for a younger woman. Maybe your wife left you and you’re feeling so alone. Maybe you lost your job at work. Maybe it was because people lied about you. Maybe you’re really frustrated with life and you’re just tired of the lack of justice.
Of course, the Bible is clear that justice is not served in this age of the world. It is true. I mean, C.S. Lewis experienced this. I mean, he loved Joy Davidman so much. He came to love her late in life, came to marry her late in life. Perhaps for that reason he loved her all the more. Their love was all the more precious and he loved her more than he loved his own life. When she came down with cancer and when she was dying, the hurt was unbelievable for C.S. Lewis. Then, when it looked like she had been healed, the hope was so great but then the cancer came back with all the greater force and her life was taken and he was crushed.
If you’ve read the book by C.S. Lewis called A Grief Observed, you know something of the pain that he was going through and his awareness that life is not fair. But in better times, C.S. Lewis had written a book called The Problem of Pain and maybe some of you have read that book. In that book, C.S. Lewis explains how a loving God is able to use our pain. A loving God is able to use our hurt, even our loss and our tragedy to mold us and to sanctify us and to make us more the people that he wants us to be.
C.S. Lewis knew and believed that God is just, but God is not administering His justice in this age of the world. I mean, there’s a sense in which God has entrusted criminal justice to earthly governments. The Bible tells us that clearly in Romans, chapter 13. There’s a sense in which God has entrusted social justice to His people and God tells us this clearly in the book of Micah. But God is not administering justice in this age of the world. Oh, there are times when God intervenes, times when He intervenes in this age of the world and brings justice. He rescued the children of Israel from bondage and oppression in Egypt and justice was served. He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes for their wickedness and justice was served. He healed the man born blind and justice was served. Sometimes God works for justice in our lives. I mean, He is Jehovah Jireh. He is the Lord who provides and He loves His people. Sometimes He does intervene but we all would agree in the Bible it self-testifies to the fact that God is not administering justice right now and this world is not just and this world is not fair.
But, you see, justice is going to come. At the last judgment, justice will come. We have that beautiful passage in Isaiah, chapter 11, where the prophet describes the coming Messiah and His judgment and the justice that He will bring to the earth. The prophet writes “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots and the Spirit of the Lord shall be upon him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what His eyes see or decide by what His ears hear, but with righteousness He will judge the poor and He will decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He will smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness will be the girdle of His loins and faithfulness the girdle of His waist. In that day, the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the kid and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall lie down together and their young shall feed together. A suckling child shall play over the hole of a venomous snake and a weaning child shall place his hand in the adder’s den and they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the oceans cover the sea.” Justice will be served.
In Revelation, chapter 22, Jesus Christ says “Behold, I’m coming soon, bringing my recompense to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” Justice will be served. The Bible says “Behold, He is coming with the clouds. Every eye shalt see Him. Everyone who pierced Him and all the nations of the earth will cry out on account of Him.” Justice will be served.
Jesus said “The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son that all might honor the Son in the same way that they honor the Father. Do not marvel at this. The day is coming when all who are in the tomb will hear My voice and come forth. Some to everlasting life. Some to everlasting death.” Justice will be served.
We have that great passage in Revelation, chapter 20, where through apocalyptic language the Bible describes the second coming of Jesus Christ for justice. The Bible says “Behold, I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse, and He who sat upon it was called Faithful and True. In righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are like a flame of fire. On his head are many diadems, many crowns. He has a name inscribed that no one knows but He Himself. He is clad in a robe dipped in blood. The name by which He is called is the Word of God. The armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, follow Him on white horses. From His mouth issues a sharp two-edged sword with which to judge the nations, with which to smite the nations, and He shall rule them with a rod of iron. He shall tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty and on His robe and on His thigh, a name is inscribed: King of Kings and Lord of Lords”…Jesus Christ! Justice will be served at the last judgment.
But that’s not the only purpose of the last judgment. I mean something else that is greater is going to be accomplished at the last judgment. At the last judgment, justice will be served, but also at the last judgment mercy will be served. You see, God has two great purposes at the last judgment. Justice and mercy.
In that little letter that C.S. Lewis wrote, dated January 31, 1951, Lewis actually made this statement: “At the last judgment, all justice and all mercy will be served!” All mercy will be served. I tell you, when you come to the judgment day and you stand before the Lord, the last thing in the world you want is justice. I promise you, when I come to judgment day and I stand before the Lord, the last thing in the world I want is justice. What I want is mercy. What I desperately need is mercy and what you desperately need is mercy.
You know, a few weeks ago our son, Drew, got a ticket for not making a complete stop at a stop sign. He was leaving Heritage High School and he made a ‘California stop’ at one of those stop signs. I mean, he slowed down but didn’t quite come to a stop. A cop pulled him over and gave him a ticket, a 4 point ticket. Drew came home. He was a little frustrated, but he understood. He wasn’t going to let it happen again. The very next day, Drew was leaving school. He stopped at a fast-food place and got one of those soft pretzels and some melted cheese. He’s on a very strict diet. He put the melted cheese and the soft pretzel on the floor of his Jeep beneath the passenger seat. He was coming up to another stop sign and he was going to stop at it. Everything was fine. As he was coming to a stop, the cheese fell over and began to pour on the floor. He reached down for the cheese as he was stopping and he went over the line at the stop sign. He just went over the line by two to three feet. A cop pulled him over. Drew explained that he had just received a ticket at a stop sign the day before and Drew explained that if he gets another 4 points that’s 8 points, and he could lose his license. Drew explained that this melted cheese had fallen on the floor. He even showed the cop where the melted cheese had fallen on the floor. The cop basically said “Life is tough,” and gave him another ticket. But, you see, what Drew was looking for, I mean he wasn’t looking for justice. I mean, by the letter of the law, Drew was guilty. He hadn’t made a complete stop the first time and the second time he had stopped but over the line. By the letter of the law, he was guilty. But Drew wasn’t looking for justice, He was looking for a little mercy.
I’m reminded of a story, a true story from years ago in the time of Napoleon, when a soldier in Napoleon’s army fled in the midst of war. He panicked and he was afraid and he just ran away. He was later apprehended and he was brought before Napoleon. Napoleon sentenced him to death because of his lack of courage. It’s a fact of history that this young man, this soldier’s mother, came and requested an audience with Napoleon and it was granted. She begged for her son’s life. “Let him live. Spare his life.” Napoleon said “Ma’am, it just wouldn’t be just,” and she said “Sir, I’m not asking for justice. I’m asking for mercy.” And it is true that Napoleon spared that young man’s life.
Isn’t that what you’re going to be asking for on judgment day? Mercy? How can you find it? How can you find mercy at the last judgment? Well, you see, the Bible’s message is absolutely clear: mercy is found through Jesus Christ and through Jesus Christ alone. The Bible says “There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we may be saved.” No other name.
John 3:16 is known to all of you. “God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Mercy is found through Jesus Christ. That’s why Christ went to the cross you know. That’s why He shed His blood. That’s why His body was broken, that He might die for you and that He might die for me, that He might pay the penalty for your sin, that He might pay the penalty for my sin through substitutionary atonement. That He might atone for our sins in our place, substitutionary atonement.
Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, King of Kings. It is true. He is also the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” I mean, it is a fact that C.S. Lewis portrayed Christ as a lion in the Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan the Lion. But Lewis understood that Christ was also a lamb. In fact, as you read the Chronicles of Narnia, when you read the voyage of the dawn trader, you come to that point where Lucy and Edmund and Eustace are on King Caspian’s ship and they’re traveling towards the end of the world and they find Aslan. They see him first as a lamb and then as a lion because Lewis understood Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and He is also the Lion of God, the Lion of the tribe of Judah and He will judge the world.
Now Lewis’ image of the last judgment is a beautiful image, and, you see, his description of the last judgment in the seventh book in the Chronicles of Narnia, a book called The Last Battle. If you’ve read the Chronicles of Narnia, you’ll remember that scene when Christ, who is the great lion, when Aslan is standing and all the creatures of Narnia are brought before him for judgment and some look at him and though they might fear him, they love him. They pass by on Aslan’s right side through a door and into heaven. Others of the creatures of Narnia, as they approach Aslan, as they approach Christ, they look at him and they fear him and they hate him. They view him as a threat to their own sovereignty, to their own reign and rule and they pass by at Christ’s left hand, into what Lewis calls his dark and terrible shadow.
Of course, C.S. Lewis’ description of heaven and hell and his understanding of heaven and hell is largely revealed in his book called The Great Divorce. At this point, I would like to focus for a second on perhaps a delicate subject relating to the last judgment, relating to salvation, relating to heaven and hell. Sometimes people ask, “Well, what about those who never hear about Christ? What about those who lived in America before the gospel came? What about those who lived on the earth before Christ came? What about those who live in other nations today where the gospel has not yet gone? What about those even in our nation today where the gospel has not yet gone? What about those even in our nation today who don’t fully understand the gospel? Is there any mercy for them?”
Well, Lewis believed that the Spirit of Jesus Christ is mightily at work in this world and has always been mightily at work in this world, even before Christ was born in Bethlehem. And he believes that there are people in other nations and people long ago who responded to the Spirit of Christ without even knowing the name of Christ, people who Lewis said “believed in Jesus Christ without knowing it.” That’s what Lewis said.
Let me read you a little passage from Mere Christianity, and I want to say this is controversial but as we conclude this C.S. Lewis festival, I want us to seek to understand how C.S. Lewis understood the Bible. Lewis wrote these words in Mere Christianity, “There are many people, great many of them who are slowly ceasing to be Christians but who still call themselves by that name. Some of them are clergy. There are other people who are slowly becoming Christians though they do not yet call themselves so. There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted to Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves could ever understand. There are people in other religions who are being led by God’s power to concentrate on those parts of their religion that are in agreement with Christ and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it. For example, a Buddhist of good will may be led to concentrate more and more on the part of Buddhist teaching that concerns mercy and is in agreement with Christ and may be led by the Spirit of Christ to leave in the background the Buddhist teaching on other points. Many of the good pagans long before Christ’s birth may have been of this position and always, of course, there are a great many people who are just confused in mind and have a lot of inconsistent beliefs all jumbled up together. Consequently, it is not much use trying to make judgments about Christians and non-Christians in the mass.”
Well, you can see where that’s theologically a controversial statement. Is it not? And yet, you see, Lewis really believed that the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the power of Christ was and is at work the world over. He really believed that some people were responding to the Spirit of Jesus Christ without even knowing it.
Now, Lewis has been accused of being a religious pluralist, a religious synergist. “Many pass to God. Jesus is just one of the ways.” It isn’t true. Lewis was not a religious pluralist. He was not a religious synergist. He did not believe there were many ways to God. He did not believe that Jesus was just one of the ways. He believed that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Him. He believed that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we may be saved. He didn’t believe Buddha was anything. He didn’t believe Mohammed was anything. He didn’t believe Krishna was anything. He believed Jesus Christ was everything. It’s just that he really believed that sometimes people were responding to the Spirit of Christ without even knowing the name of Christ. He really believed that.
He didn’t want to undermine missions. Some people say “Well, if you believe that, doesn’t it hurt world missions? Do you still have a compulsion to take the gospel to the nations?” C.S. Lewis’ response was “Yes. By all means, take the gospel to the nations in obedience to the scriptures and also because even if there are people in Buddhist cultures, for instance, who are responding to the Spirit of Jesus Christ, they still need to meet Christ. They need to know Christ. They need to have the Word of God and they need to learn what it means to walk fully in the Christian life.”
Also, Lewis believed there are people in cultures all over the world who are not responding to the Spirit of Christ in any sense. You see, when the gospel is taken to those nations, it has power to change their hearts. When the full light of the gospel comes to those nations, it has power to change hearts. It is the power of God unto salvation. Of course, Lewis believed that there were some people nominally Christian who will not be saved. I mean, maybe they believe Christian doctrine. Maybe they can recite the Apostles Creed, but they haven’t really responded to the Spirit of Jesus Christ. They don’t really love Jesus Christ. They have no real desire to be like Christ. At the last judgment, that will be made known.
Now, Lewis has been accused of downplaying Christian doctrine. He did not. In fact, Lewis firmly believed in orthodox Christian doctrine. Lewis believed that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, the Son of God come into the world. Lewis believed in the virgin birth. He believed in Christ’s sinless life. He believed in His atoning death. He believed in His resurrection from the dead in power and glory. He believed in Christ’s ascension into heaven and that He is interceding at the right hand of the Father. He believed that Jesus Christ is coming again in power and great glory to judge the world, the living and the dead. He believed all these things, but he also believed that somebody could affirm these things intellectually and not really have Christ in their heart.
Well, because of his firm orthodox belief in Christian doctrine, Lewis is separated from liberalism but because of his mercy, he’s separated somewhat from fundamentalism. I mean, there’s no question that if Lewis was going to err, he wanted to err on the side of mercy. I must say that there is speculation in what C.S. Lewis taught and in his understanding of the Bible. I mean, there’s nothing in Lewis’ teaching concerning the last judgment that is explicitly denied in the Bible. But not all that Lewis teaches is explicitly affirmed in the Bible either. Some of it is speculation.
As we come to a close this morning, as we approach the end of this C.S. Lewis festival, and as we end this message on the last judgment, I know that God doesn’t want any of you to be unprepared for the judgment that is coming. I know that God wants all of you to come into the realm of His mercy and God has clearly said in His word that mercy is given to all who believe. You must hold to commitment to Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life and a commitment to Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin. You need to decide this day that you want to live for Him and you want to be like Him. Let’s close with a word of prayer.