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THREE THINGS MORALITY IS CONCERNED WITH (my December 2001 post on our session's CS Lewis discussion group)



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This analogy (I believe it's on page 71, but I have a slightly different version than most of you) makes a lot of sense to me but illustrates the difficulty non-Christians have with the absolute nature of the Christian faith. Honestly, I struggle with this truth as well.

Lewis says that a fleet of ships is concerned with 1) not knocking into each other 2) each ship running smoothly 3) all the ships heading in the right direction. So morality is concerned with 1) harmony between individuals 2) each person right with himself 3) the general purpose and direction of humanity.

But most of the world finds this to be the major stumbling block against the Christian faith. Almost all would agree that it makes sense that we are in harmony in others. Less but still a significant proportion of the general population could see that it is important to be right with yourself.

But Christians, say these non-Christians, have the audacity to say that their way is the only true way to real living. How can Christians possibly have a monopoly on everything eternally meaningful? Maybe Christianity is a good set of behaviors and beliefs that keeps us in harmony with others and helps us be true to ourselves. But can Christianity possibly be the only true purpose and direction that has been ordained for all of humanity?

Lewis somewhat skirts the issue by assuming at the end of this chapter that this preposterous claim is true, and works backwards to why it makes sense. But I am still wrestling with how to present this to an unbeliever. It is the #1 hang-up I get from those I witness to, whether it be my own father or a complete stranger.

Maybe there is no intellectual reasoning that enables this claim to make sense. To a fallen world, it is indeed a preposterous claim. Perhaps it takes God's irresistible call in our lives to awaken our spiritual side to understand such a truth.

Or maybe we have forgotten just how depraved and hopelessly lost we are as individuals and as a collective humanity. After all, if we believe in our hearts that we're essentially morally OK, we can banter about such philosophical things and wonder how one set of people can harbor such a claim that their way is the only way.

But if we are seized with the reality of judgment before a righteous God, of the multiplying and festering effects of sin in our lives, our relationships, and our world, perhaps this news doesn't seem so preposterous after all. Maybe instead of getting hung up on the notion that Christianity is the only true purpose and direction and way to salvation, we might marvel that there is a true purpose and direction and way to salvation at all.



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