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"We must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world -- and might even be more difficult to save. For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine." - C. S. Lewis
INTRODUCTION
This December, a multi-million dollar film version of C. S. Lewis's "Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" will be released to be seen by many millions of people worldwide. This rendition will focus on just one of seven stories that Lewis composed with a Gospel analogy in mind (watch for annual sequels).
THE SUPERNATURAL STING
The 'Narnia' movie will perpetuate a message that makes no sense to the logical mind, but is spoken of as a mystery in 1 Corinthians 2:6-8: "However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." This scripture suggests that God conducted a massive 'sting' on the dark powers, completely outwitting them in the process, with Jesus overcoming all sense of self-preservation for the sake of others. The 'Christ' character in 'Narnia' is a lion called Aslan (Turkish for 'lion'), who dies so that one of the main characters might live. Aslan is resurrected and returns to lead the good forces to victory.
HIDDEN WISDOM
The 'hidden wisdom' of Corinthians goes to the heart of one of the Bible's main themes, that the shedding of blood is necessary for the forgiveness of sins. That is the way it was described under the 'Law' in the Old Testament, but at a predestined time, there came into the world a Perfect Sacrifice, whose atoning death and triumphant resurrection showed a better way. He died once for all! He now can offer a 'gift' to everybody - one that cannot be earned but can only be received by faith!
ABOVE REPROACH
Colossians 1:19-23 wraps it all up: "For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight — if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister."
NICE NOT GOOD ENOUGH
America is full of 'nice' people. One of the central themes of post-modern thinking concerning spiritual things is that people are basically good and God would never exclude 'nice' people from Heaven. Unfortunately, this notion does not line up with the biblical description of the fallen nature of humanity, which is described as having a desperately wicked potential. As C. S. Lewis says, being nice is not enough to guarantee redemption. You have to buy into the 'mystery!'
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