What is your response to this quote about God by C.S. Lewis?

Question

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. 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 His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." – Mere Christianity, pages 40-41.

Answer 1

He's offered no proof that Jesus existed, therefore, questions about Jesus' attributes are meaningless.
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Answer 2

I would say there is a third option that Lewis has apparently not thought of, (possibly more than three, even). There is the scenario were Jesus is neither a lunatic or a god because he never existed at all.

The Jesus stories were, quite possibly, the fictitious creations of Hellenized Jews that wanted to introduce elements of Greek philosophy into the Jewish religion. These philosophies involved ideas regarding man striving for the divine.

Normally, these types of ideas were expressed in the Greek religion via the use of some minor god, such as Dionysius. However, there were no minor gods available in the monotheistic Jewish faith. So, they used the Jewish concept of the messiah for their character but elevated the messiah character to a divine status, (a status that the Jewish messiah was never supposed to have had).

All of the "great teachings" of Jesus were actually teachings that had come from Greek philosophers.

All of the Old Testament "prophecies" that Jesus supposedly "fulfilled" were only fulfilled in the Jesus story because the writers of the story included elements in the story that could be taken as fulfillments of prophecy. Its not hard to claim that someone has fulfilled a prophecy when you are just making up the story. You can put in whatever details you like that may be related to prophecies.

Although the creators of the Jesus myth probably never intended their story to be taken as literal truth, it ended up being seen that way, unfortunately.

It is fairly obvious that the people who made up Jesus were not actually very knowledgeable about the prophecies in the Jewish scriptures. There are some really ridiculous claims in the New Testament that demonstrate a misunderstanding of certain parts of the Old Testament.

A good example of this is the supposed prophecy that the messiah would be a Nazarene. First of all, this prophecy was actually about Sampson, and not Jesus. Second, the prophecy was actually talking about him being a Nazarite, not a Nazarene. The Nazarites were an order of ascetic mystics that never cut their hair and followed a series of special rules.

The people that made up Jesus mistranslated Nazarite as Nazarene and assumed that the prophecy was talking about the messiah being a citizen of a town named Nazareth.

This screw-up is the reason that Jesus is portrayed with long hair. The Nazarite mystics never cut their hair. This practice was mis-attributed to the supposed inhabitants of a town of Nazareth. So, there is this crazy idea that there is some little village where, for no particular reason, no one ever cut their hair.

Archaeological digs in the modern town of Nazareth have shown that the town was actually founded about 400 years after Jesus was supposed to have lived there. It was probably created by Christians who were rather upset that there appeared to be no actual town of Nazareth, despite the claims of the gospels. So, to fix the problem, they created a village of Nazareth.

The Jesus myths are full of all sorts of ridiculous claims and assertions that go directly against the Jewish scriptures. Its not surprising that so few Jews ever converted to Christianity. Only the gentiles, who were ignorant of the Jewish scriptures, were willing to believe the ludicrous claims the gospels made about the Jewish laws.

C. S. Lewis obviously didn't bother to think outside the box or bother to do any real investigation into history. This left him claiming that people had to choose between two options that were both incorrect.

Answer 3

So, look--there's no reason a man can't be both a madman and a great moral teacher.

Jesus said a whole lot of things. Some of those things, like "I am the Messiah and will bring peace on earth right now," were just bat-**** insane. There was no peace on earth during Jesus's lifetime, and there is no peace on earth now. There is war, and suffering, and injustice. If you put a lion down next to a lamb, and the lion is hungry, the lion will eat the lamb for dinner. So Jesus must have been crazy to believe that he was literally the Son of God.

But Jesus also talked about loving your neighbor more than yourself, and turning the other cheek when someone hits you, and sharing all that you have with the poor of your community, and believing that people of faith can make a big difference just by acting out that faith. These are, without a doubt, great moral teachings. Without them, the civil rights movement of the 1960s would never have succeeded. These teachings may not be for everyone, but they are a wonderful contribution to human wisdom.

Perhaps CS Lewis had some mystical experience in which Jesus personally visited him and told him not to think of Jesus as a great human teacher. I have not had any such vision, though, and I feel free to form whatever thoughts about Jesus that seem reasonable to me. Have you had a personal vision of Jesus? If not, perhaps you should think about what seems reasonable to you.

Answer 4

Being a former southern Baptist turned Wiccan, I've taken a very non-partial view on many religions. I believe, after reading the bible, that Jesus was a very good man. His helping the poor and sick is something everyone should do. He never turned anyone away. He was an incredibly moral person. I do not believe his claims to be the Son of God. I honestly do not believe much of what was said in the Bible. If these miracles happened all the time in the Bible, why haven't they happened now when we need them? The wars, famine, the plagues, the constant pain of people around the world. Now, when we most need proof of God, of his love and the promise of something better than this, why is there no proof? Sure, some people may say they have witnessed many small miracles, but what about the starving 7 year old boy in Africa whose mother died from AIDS?

So, in short, I do not agree with the quote. I believe Jesus was a very moral, kind man. A Prophet even. But Not the Son of God.

Answer 5

It's a decent quote by a good writer, but it's silly in a way. Because to make the statement that somebody is not a teacher, doesn't understand learning. We learn from all things, we evaluate evidence, emotion, feeling. An uncle in prison can be a good teacher. Jesus can and has been. CS Lewis is trying to paint a picture of people sitting on a fence when there's no reason to paint that picture. He was a religious person I think and probably felt that people used that statement that you can learn from Jesus and not believe in everything in the bible. Well I think the bible has a lot of knowledge in it. But I don't think it's perfect.

And I don't think there's any reason to believe that either. There are a lot of bad things to learn from the bible. We need to reason, think rationally and look at evidence.

Answer 6

C.S. Lewis was a brilliant philosopher. He had many great ideas, and can often be quoted because of his brilliance. But I disagree with him where he limits the possibilities of reality.

I am a Christian, and I believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. But I don't believe him where he states those three options as the only three possibilities. For example, if it were me making those bizarre claims, perhaps I merely tricked my mind into believing that I was God. Or perhaps someone else convinced me beyond doubt. Or perhaps I was just gifted beyond normal human gifts and people claimed that I was God and I just never refuted them or didn't know how to.

There are many alternatives to the possibilities, which is why so many people have so many claims as to who Jesus was.

Answer 7

It's about as accurate of a picture of Christ as a man on Earth that I've ever seen. He was a great human teacher, but so much more! Very literally, He was God manifested in the flesh! Had He not been a good teacher, His example would've been lost in time.

Answer 8

I wonder how many in here actually understood his logic... I'm afraid not many.

If you read the quote objectively, you will see how the conclusion about him has to be made. Ether you must accept him as a lier, lunatic or what he claims. For those who says they don't believe he existed. Jesus is THE most documented person in the history of mankind. He is mentioned in all 3 major religion and Secular Roman and arabic documents.

Answer 9

He makes a reasonable point, except for one thing: he is assuming--erroneously, I believe--that what Jesus actually said and what is written in the bible are the same thing.

I find it likely that Jesus was a nice man with some nice ideas; I don't know whether he himself actually claimed to be God. If he didn't claim that, well, problem solved. If he DID claim that, then either (a) he was well aware that he wasn't, and wasn't as nice a man as I'd like to think, (b) he actually thought he was, and was a bit more delusional than I'd like to think, or (c) he actually was, and I'm off base in claiming that he wasn't.

Who really knows? Not me.

Answer 10

I would say that it is neccesary to accept Jesus and Monotheisem, but Jesus himself never claimed to be God in the direct sense. As such, a view of Jesus as a prophet, Messiah (But not God himself), or a Second Adam are all things that make sense.

C.S. Lewis' point is vague in response to non-trinitarian Christianity. I feel he was aiming more towards Atheists than those with alternative interpretations of Jesus.

Answer 11

He sure used a lot of words to say little......

I am a Christian, I do believe Jesus is Lord, but I am not a fan of C.S. Lewis. He seems to rattle, whereas I prefer more of a 'get to the point' approach.