Jesus, the son of God, or not. c.s. lewis's take?

Question

For those of you that don't know, c.s. lewis was not only the mind behind The chronicles of narnia, he was also a well respected theologian. On top of that he is a well respected man, who was considered, as far as I know to be one of the most brilliant minds of our time.

"Either this man was, and is the son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

Although raised in a churchgoing family in the Church of Ireland, Lewis was an atheist for much of his youth. His separation from Christianity began when he started to view his religion as a chore and as a duty. He also gained an interest in the occult as his studies expanded as to include such topics. Lewis quoted Lucretius as having one of the strongest arguments for atheism:

Nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam
Naturam rerum; tanta stat praedita culpa

Had God designed the world, it would not be
A world so frail and faulty as we see.

When he later wrote an account of his adult reconversion to Christianity, under the title Surprised by Joy, he said that he had been "very angry with God for not existing". Some interpret this to mean that he did not so much reject the existence of God as harbour anger at God for the unfairnesses in life. This interpretation appears to be contradicted by a letter to a friend, in which he said: "all religions, no, mythologies to give them their proper name, have no proof whatsoever!" Later in his life, however, he began to believe in a deeper experience of some fundamentals of Western thought.

Influenced by arguments with his Oxford colleague and Roman Catholic friend J. R. R. Tolkien, and by G.K. Chesterton's book, The Everlasting Man, he slowly rediscovered Christianity. In 1929, he came to believe in the existence of God although he fought greatly against it. He describes his last struggle in Surprised by Joy:

"You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."

In 1931, after a lengthy discussion with Tolkien and another close friend, Hugo Dyson, he reconverted to Christianity and (to the regret of Tolkien) joined the Church of England. He noted, "I came into Christianity kicking and screaming."

Although an Anglican, Lewis' Catholic leanings appeared to influence his beliefs; he accepted the Catholic doctrine of mortal sin, implying that he believed a Christian could lose their salvation, a belief somewhat at odds with reformed views on justification. This opinion was thoroughly explored in Lewis' book The Screwtape Letters. Lewis was also sympathetic to the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory.

He has become popularly known as The Apostle to the Sceptics because he says he originally approached religious belief as a sceptic but was converted by the evidence. Consequently, his books on Christianity examine common difficulties in accepting Christianity, such as "How could a good God allow pain to exist in the world?", which he examined in detail in The Problem of Pain.

Lewis also wrote an autobiography entitled Surprised by Joy, which describes his conversion. (It was written before he met his wife, Joy Gresham; the title of the book came from the first line of a poem by William Wordsworth.) His essays and public speeches on Christian belief, many of which were collected in God in the Dock and The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, remain popular today.

Lewis held that for Jesus to be a liar or insane would contradict his position as a "great moral teacher", and the remaining option would make Jesus both a great moral teacher and divine. This was aimed against a specific line of reasoning which accepts the Jesus portrayed in the gospels as a great moral teacher, but not as a divine being. Lewis maintained that they are failing to deal with the logical consequences of their position.

Lewis's argument was later expanded by the Christian apologist Josh McDowell (in his book More than a Carpenter) to serve as a logical proof to Jesus' Divinity. It is from this latter development that the term "trilemma" actually comes. The term is often used to refer to both arguments, assuming that in fact they are one and the same. Various versions of both Lewis's argument and McDowell's have been extensively debated and frequently attacked on the truth of their premises as well as the validity of their structure.

Answer 1

I don't know alot about C.S. Lewis except that he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, but it sounds like to me that he is irritated with people who try to call Jesus no more than a good man and teacher. He is saying you have to examine Jesus more than that. Once you do, you'll find He is God.

Answer 2

God didnt kill, He gave...
Under the Old testament, people lived by the law, the law of Moses, the ten commandments.
(the 10 are expanded in deuteronomy and numbers) (boy are they). Under the law, blood had
to be shed in the form of sacrifice to atone for sins. The hebrews were released from
bondage in Egypt after they were saved by the blood that was applied to their door posts.
The holiday celebrated is Passover in remembrance of their release. Throughout the
Old Testament, mankind continued to do bad. After the flood, after Sodom and Gomorah,
mankind failed to turn to God. God is all, power, knowledge, love etc. He is omni
everything. The ten commandments tell us the He is a jealous God. All He wants is mankind
to follow his laws and love Him. Since we never changed, He knew the law was not going to
work. So they (God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit) came up with another plan.
To end the Law and give a New Testament under grace. In response to the "party" answer,
without a sacrifice and shedding of blood for atonement, and solution would be a sin, and
that which is so pure cannot sin. So Jesus came in the form of man, to live "under the law"
and become the Supreme Sacrifice for our sins. His death accomplished several things.
When He cried My God why has Thou forsaken me, He was carrying the burden of the worlds sin,
and as such, God HAD to turn away from His Son, because of the sin. When Jesus cried
It is Finished, He was talking of the Old Testament being completed. And the new testament
beginning. Up until that point, the law was in full effect, and had Jesus ended the law any
other way He would have sinned. At His death, the veil that separated the holy place from
the holy of holies was "magically" ripped in two, and for the first time common man could
look into the Holy of Holies, (another question to be answered). You see Jesus died at the
time the Annual High Passover sacrifice was taking place. The 15th of Nisan or Abib. Before
He was arrested, He prayed that God's will be carried out not His own. So He died willingly
per the original plan between Him and His Father. To finish and tie in my first statement,
God the Father, GAVE His first fruits, His firstborn Son as sacrifice to fulfil His own law,
otherwise He would have sinned. (more info available email)

So YES Jesus is the Son of God

Answer 3

well good for c.s.lewis. There is no evidence apart from the bible that Jesus existed, so he was obviously using that as a reference. You shouldn't make statements based only on one source. If he was so brilliant he should have known that

Answer 4

CS Lewis was a Christian apologetic.

What else would you expect him to say?

Answer 5

Nobody is God's sons nor daughter. Jesus or in Islam we called Isa is just one of the prophet of Allah. and who is c.s lewis? sorry... i just dont know who he is.

Answer 6

we are all sons of god