Looks to me that Christianity is a mere shadow of what Jesus in the Gospels was about

I attended a private Presbyterian high school, where I heard plenty about the Calvin views of salvation and predestination and the Elect, of which the founder of the school said he believed he was a member. He also said, he and his wife of 60 years had sexual intercourse three times, twice to have children, once for pleasure, and he had regretted the third time ever since. I wondered if his wife had any regrets?

This below was in my Facebook feed this morning. I can't help wonder who, or what, sanctioned "official"?

The Official C.S. Lewis Group (Facebook)

George 

A bit lengthy but helpful in elucidating Lewis’s view on predestination and free-will. 

 

C. S. Lewis, 

“I take it as a first principle that we must not interpret any one part of Scripture so that it contradicts other parts: and specially we must not use an Apostle’s teaching to contradict that of Our Lord. Whatever St Paul may have meant, we must not reject the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matt. XXV. 30–46). There, you see there is nothing about Predestination or even about Faith–all depends on works. But how this is to be reconciled with St Paul’s teaching, or with other sayings of Our Lord, I frankly confess I don’t know. Even St Peter you know admits that he was stumped by the Pauline epistles (II Peter III. 16–17).

What I think is this. Everyone looking back on his own conversion must feel–and I am sure the feeling is in some sense true–‘It is not I who have done this. I did not choose Christ: He chose me. It is all free grace, wh. I have done nothing to earn.’ That is the Pauline account: and I am sure it is the only true account of every conversion from the inside. Very well. It then seems to us logical & natural to turn this personal experience into a general rule ‘All conversions depend on God’s choice’.

But this I believe is exactly what we must not do: for generalisations are legitimate only when we are dealing with matters to which our faculties are adequate. Here, we are not. How our individual experiences are in reality consistent with (a) Our idea of Divine justice, (b) The parable I’ve just quoted & lots of other passages, we don’t & can’t know: what is clear is that we can’t find a consistent formula. I think we must take a leaf out of the scientists’ book. They are quite familiar with the fact that, for example, Light has to be regarded bothas a wave in the ether and as a stream of particles. No one can make these two views consistent. Of course reality must be self-consistent: but till (if ever) we can see the consistency it is better to hold two inconsistent views than to ignore one side of the evidence.

The real inter-relation between God’s omnipotence and Man’s freedom is something we can’t find out. Looking at the Sheep & the Goats every man can be quite sure that every kind act he does will be accepted by Christ. Yet, equally, we all do feel sure that all the good in us comes from Grace. We have to leave it at that. I find the best plan is to take the Calvinist view of my own virtues and other people’s vices: and the other view of my own vices and other people’s virtues. But tho’ there is much to be puzzled about, there is nothing to be worried about. It is plain from Scripture that, in whatever sense the Pauline doctrine is true, it is not true in any sense which excludes its (apparent) opposite.” 

 

Letter to Mrs. Emily McLay Aug. 3, 1953

The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis. Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950–1963. Ed. Walter Hooper. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2007: 354-355.

Sloan Bashinsky 

 

I was raised first in the Southern Baptist Church and then in the Episcopal Church and I  know their views of salvation through Jesus. 

 

After decades of being turned every which a way but loose and upside down and inside out and stood before meany mirrors by angels whose names are in the Bible, and there were a few encounters with Jesus, based on what I saw, felt and heard, I concluded that salvation through Jesus in the Gospels is proportionate to how someone lives and behaves as he lived and taught people to live. For what kind of God would send a good behaving person to Hell, simply because that person did not claim to be a Christian? 

There are other things about Jesus in the Gospels, which I don't see discussed on Facebook, nor do I hear Christians discussing. Here are a few:

Matthew 3:11 “I [John the Baptist] baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Luke 12:49 [Jesus] “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

John 8:31-32

So Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, “If you continue to obey my teaching, you are truly my followers. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus said:

Many are called, but few are chosen; the road to life is difficult and the gate narrow and few enter; the work is great and the laborers are few; turn the other cheek; do good to and pray for your enemies; love your neighbor as yourself; do unto others as you would have done unto you; it is more blessed to give than to receive; take no thought for tomorrow, for each day has enough trouble of its own ...

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com