The Anglican Church Today

[St_Michael]

[Holy-Fool-P-Zombie]

C.S. Lewis said of hell,

“There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason” (The Problem of Pain).

Lewis also said,

“I have met no people who fully disbelieved in hell and also had a living and life-giving belief in Heaven” (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer).

You need to look at 3 things:

When did Lewis make those statements?
In what context?
Did he later make statements to supersede them?

There’s an interesting article at the Christian Research Institute entitled C. S. Lewis on Hell.

Lewis does not teach universal salvation, but he does suggest something that comes very close to postmortem salvation, the belief that we will have chances (or a chance) to accept Christ after we die.

And, Yes. Rev. R.W. Wright, does take the P-Zombie approach. But other clergy in the Anglican Church, do side with annihilation. And I even seen one clergy (Episcopal Church), openly describe himself as a universalist - before a sermon.

[St_Michael]

Of course we have chances but because people are separated from God’s mercy they are fixed in their attitudes. As C.S. Lewis states in “The Joyful Christian” on hell and it’s timelessness or temporality":

THAT THE LOST SOUL IS ETERNALLY FIXED IN IT’S DIABOLICAL ATTITUDE WE CANNOT DOUBT. But whether this eternal fixity implies endless duration - or duration at all - we cannot say. page 226

[St_Michael]

In The Problem of Pain he said,

“The doors of Hell are locked on the inside. I do not mean that the ghosts may not wish to come out of Hell, in the vague fashion wherein an envious man ‘wishes’ to be happy: but they certainly do not will even the first preliminary stages of that self-abandonment through which alone the soul can reach any good. They enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved: just as the blessed, forever submitting to obedience, become through all eternity more and more free.”

[anon47460357]

But it [Hell] has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason” (The Problem of Pain).

Incorrect, incorrect, incorrect, and incorrect. Perhaps the single worst line that Lewis ever wrote?

“I have met no people who fully disbelieved in hell and also had a living and life-giving belief in Heaven” (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer).

Ha! Lewis never met me. (He has an excuse on this point, since I wasn’t born until 7 years after his death.)

[St_Michael]

Here’s the GREATEST line of C.S. Lewis:

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14064291_288089441570444_5548286862564688074_n.jpg?oh=1a5039405d8255904ac91e2d23cae795&oe=584A830F

[Holy-Fool-P-Zombie]

@Geoffrey

Ha! Lewis never met me. (He has an excuse on this point, since I wasn’t born until 7 years after his death.)

Scientists need to hurry up and invent time travel, Geoffrey, so you can rectify that situation with C.S. Lewis