Our Last Battle (20)

Our Last Battle will always be about Jesus Christ; indeed, it is our ongoing battle. Will Jesus be our all in all? Will He be everything to us? For if Jesus isn’t everything then He isn’t anything. 

How long will we be deceived by dead lion skins? Will we have the courage to look inside ourselves and look for these skins? 

In The Last Battle, those worshipping a donkey in a lion’s skin soon found themselves sucked into worshipping Tashlan, and then Tash. Following caricatures of Aslan leads us into deeper and deeper darkness. When we accept caricatures of Jesus, portrayals of Him that look good, that are religious, that are “Christian” but not Biblical or in character with Him, then we move deeper and deeper into the opium den of murky half-consciousness until finally falling asleep in a stupor – a “Christian” stupor. 

Tirian fought a last battle with his anger, until he came to the end of himself and gave himself to Aslan and his people. Tirian paid a price, as did his people, when he failed to heed the counsel of Roonwit about the evil occurring on Stable Hill. It was only when Tirian offered himself as a sacrifice for others that he was delivered from his anger and found freedom in Aslan. 

The self-centered American church with its emphasis on pleasure and pragmatism, with its political and economic alliances, with its teaching centered on preserving our lives rather than laying them down for Jesus and others, this is a battle that we must fight – for if we surrender then we lose and those around us lose – only in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ will we find enduring freedom, only as the Cross becomes our Way of Life can we possibly share the Life of Jesus with others. 

It frightens and sickens me to see professing Christians consumed by anger, endorsing anger, and justifying anger and lawlessness. Are we not called to be peacemakers as the children of God? Is not the wisdom of Christ gentle? (James 3:13 – 18).

As I’ve pointed out, Aslan does not appear in Narnia during the Last Battle, yet there are Narnians who are faithful to Him, and those Narnians will indeed behold His Face. If Jesus never appeared to us in this life, if this world were dissolved, as Narnia was, would Jesus still be enough for us? Do we love Jesus enough to be faithful to Him, and to Him alone, even though no one stands with us? Are we willing to be alone with Jesus? 

O dear friends, there are more dead lion skins in American Christianity than I can count, but there is only one Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and we are to follow Him wherever He goes (Mark 8:34 – 38; Revelation 14:1 – 5).

I’ll close with words from Jim Elliot, let us remember them as we fight Our Last Battle, “He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” 

Much, much, eternal love in our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Our Last Battle (19)

Only Aslan, Only Jesus

The Last Battle is the only book of the Narniad in which Aslan does not appear in Narnia. Yes, He is of course in the true and eternal Narnia, but He does not appear in the Narnia of the Shadowlands in the seventh book. Or does He?

As we witness the transformation of Tirian, as we see the wisdom of Roonwit, as we behold the love and faithfulness of the King’s cohort, we can see Aslan’s working within His People. In the remnant of Narnians who remain faithful to Aslan and the King, in their faithful deaths, we see the working of the transcendent Aslan, the Son of the Emperor-over-Sea. 

This is a reminder that we don’t know what the immediate or intermediate future looks like, other than we know that Jesus is always and forever with us. Isn’t this what matters? After all, aren’t we citizens of heaven and aren’t we looking for that City whose Builder and Maker is God? (Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 11:8 -16). 

The Stable was a portal of judgment for some, and a portal of heavenly glory for others. The inside of the Stable was greater than the outside. While the Calormenes thought they were driving Tirian into the Stable as an offering to the fearful Tash, Aslan was waiting to embrace Tirian into heavenly glory. Let us recall that as the rocks were falling on Stephen, beating out his life, that he beheld Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. Jesus stands up for those who stand up for Him. The King of kings stood to receive and embrace His brother and His servant Stephen, to welcome Stephen to Stephen’s forever home.

“But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one” (Hebrews 10:32 – 34). 

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation” (1 Peter 4:12 – 13). 

The professing church in America has created a multi-million (billion?) dollar industry out of prophecy, and we have sadly exported it to much of the world. It avoids the Cross of Christ; rather than calling disciples to suffering for Jesus and others, it concocts scenarios in which believers escape from trial, tribulation, and having to faithfully witness for Jesus Christ by laying down their lives as their Way of Life. 

This Babylonian industry often leads to political alliances that soil the garments of believers, teaching them moral and spiritual promiscuity, worshipping Tashlans. 

Jesus is not the center of this industry, but it is too big to fail for it has its claws into the souls of millions of professing Christians. Most pastors (those who are aware) dare not challenge its message, for their people have been seduced by it and they would sooner change pastors than change their thinking. The denominations which are home to these purveyors dare not challenge them because they represent money and membership. Publishers love them because they sell books and other media. They are too big to fail, they are bigger and more profitable than the Gospel. 

If we look to Jesus, if we look for Jesus, then we will learn to see Jesus, and though we may not “see” Him in one sense, we will love Him and we will rejoice with inexpressible joy and glory (1 Peter 1:3 – 9). 

Our message is to be Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2) and the goal and purpose of every faithful teacher and pastor and prophet and apostle and evangelist is to present the People of God as a pure virgin bride to Jesus, wedded to Jesus, wedded only to Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:1 – 3). 

The purpose of Biblical prophecy is to reveal Jesus Christ, and the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). 

Let me try to illustrate what I’m talking about, here is a quote from the website of a popular teacher:

“Every year, _____ and other renowned Bible prophecy teachers unfold hidden meanings and revelations concerning world events. This conference has become a favorite among prophecy enthusiasts, especially as end-time events continue to escalate at a rapid pace. Make plans to join _____ at the __________ or take advantage of these teachings available online.” 

What in the world is a prophecy enthusiast? And isn’t all wisdom and understanding found in Jesus Christ (Colossians 2: 3)?  And where is the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ in all of this? What is the attraction? Who is the attraction? 

This teacher is too big to fail. He takes in too much money and has too great a following for his denomination to ever question his center of gravity – were that group to wake up.

O dear friends, Biblical prophecy unveils Jesus, it calls us to Jesus, it transforms our lives into the image of Jesus, it makes us more faithful witnesses to Him and the Gospel, it humbles us, it makes us agents of peace, it forms us to live sacrificial lives, cruciform lives, it teaches us to lay down our lives for the brethren. 

Biblical prophecy is not entertaining, and it does not appeal to our curiosity, nor does it call us to form alliances (political or other) with the forces of this world. Biblical prophecy is not escapist, preaching a doctrine of avoiding tribulation and pressure. 

For a thoughtful and Biblical approach to prophecy, I recommend Discipleship on the Edge – An Expository Journey Through the Book of Revelation, by Darrell W. Johnson, Regent College Publishing. You can also find some presentations by Johnson on YouTube.

One of the most insidious elements of the “end-times movement” is that it creates a false sense of security among its adherents. It has folks convinced that they will be removed from earth before things get bad, whatever “bad” may mean. This shallow thinking could only gain traction in an affluent society, for our brothers and sisters who are already in difficulties know better. This cotton candy thinking trains people to avoid the Cross, to avoid suffering for Christ and others, to avoid Biblical discipleship.

A poisonous fruit of this thinking is that when the time comes for tough decisions, we take the easy way out – rather than witness for Jesus we align ourselves with the pragmatic, with what we foolishly think is the lesser of evils – perhaps because we cannot conceive that we are called to suffer with Jesus and to suffer on behalf of others. 

If our lives are not formed by the Cross as our Way of Life, then we need not deceive ourselves that we will be faithful when severe times of testing come, we will have become like frogs in a kettle. 

Tirian and his cohort were faithful to Aslan though He did not appear, they loved Him even though they did not see Him…or did they?

What about us and Jesus? 

Our Last Battle (18)

Only Jesus 

I am going to conclude our reflections on Our Last Battle with a quote from Chapter Twelve and a quote from Chapter Thirteen from The Last Battle. After that, I may have an epilogue, one more reflection, in which I summarize what I see in Our Last Battle and why I wrote this series. 

The concluding chapters of The Last Battle, which I’m not going to cover, are some of the most beautiful scenes I’ve ever read. I’m not going to cover them because they occur in the real and eternal Narnia and that is beyond the scope of this series. However, just as Revelation chapters 21 and 22, they form the glorious beginning of our glorious never-ending destiny in Jesus Christ. As I have often said, if I had to choose only one book to bring with me to the proverbial desert island (in addition to the Bible), it would be the one volume edition of the Chronicles of Narnia. (If you prefer an audio dramatized version, which I think is exceptional, the Focus on the Family, Radio Theatre series is outstanding. I consider the movies a failure.)

Aslan holds the Narniad together, just as Jesus holds the Bible together. The Narniad reveals Aslan, the Bible reveals Jesus. In the Narniad we are always looking for Aslan, in the Bible, hopefully we are learning to always look for Jesus. 

In Chapter Twelve of the Last Battle, as Jill considers the Stable door and the death she thinks it leads to, Jewel the unicorn says to her, “Nay, fair friend. It may be for us the door to Aslan’s country and we shall sup at his table tonight.” 

In Jesus Christ, all of death’s doors lead to Him and His Table of Communion. 

In Revelation 12:11 we read that we overcome Tash and his minions because of the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony – our testimony being that of the Lamb, and that our overcoming in Jesus Christ encompasses self-denial, even unto death. As Paul writes, “Death works in us but life in you” (2 Corinthians 4:12). 

We can live this Way because Jesus Christ has “abolished death” (2 Timothy 1:10) and brought “life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” In the Gospel we see the present reality of life and immortality, a reality that consumes death and the fear of death, a reality that envelopes us in the Light and Life of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus, our Elder Brother, came to set “free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Hebrews 2:15). He rendered the enemy “powerless” who once had the power of death (Hebrews 2:14). O dear friends, if we only realized the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, that in Him we can cry out “Abba! Father!” and live in freedom as the daughters and sons of the Living God (Romans 8:12 – 25). 

Our quote from Chapter Thirteen occurs within the real Narnia:

“Then he fixed his eyes upon Tirian, and Tirian came near, trembling, and flung himself at the Lion’s feet, and the Lion kissed him and said, ‘Well done, last of the Kings of Narnia who stood firm at the darkest hour.’” 

This is all that I desire for myself, for you, for others, for those close to me, my family, my neighbors; that we would stand firm in Jesus during the dark hour in which we live.

What makes this an especially dark hour, perhaps the darkest hour, is that we have substituted dead lion skins for Jesus, we have forms of Christianity masquerading as Jesus. Some of these forms may have had the testimony of Jesus at one time, just as the Seven Churches of Revelation once did, but now they have substituted other ways of life and thinking for Jesus, while still claiming to be the church.

There are those who think that being “liberal” or “conservative” or having a certain worldview or coming from a certain religious tradition or following a syncretistic American – Christian nationalistic agenda is akin to the Gospel and Person of Jesus Christ, but this simply isn’t true. Jesus Christ is a Person, He is God, and we are to worship and follow Him – not an ideology, not a worldview, not a religious tradition, not a system of thought, not a form of worship – we are to be in a love relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus is to be our passion, our desire, our Friend, our Bridegroom, and we are to love and worship and serve Him with all that we have and all that we are.

An irony for me is that when I was a young Christian I was taught that there is a difference between knowing about Jesus and actually knowing Him – of living in a relationship with Him. I still believe this, and I have shared this truth with many over the years. I have seen others come to know Jesus Christ as they came to see the truth of this statement – we can know about Jesus or we can actually know Jesus.  

The irony is that much of the element of the professing church that taught me this truth has now abandoned this truth. We have been taken captive by sociology and philosophy and marketing and economics and politics – and even those who profess a high view of Scripture now insist that we employ naturalistic methods to interpret the Bible. (I have been making this a point of emphasis because if our starting point is wrong then our trajectory will be off, our ending will be off. What we plant in the ground is what will come from the earth. The seed we plant determines the fruit we will eat.)

If Jesus isn’t everything then Jesus isn’t anything. This is my message. This is the call of Jesus we see in Mark 8:34 – 38. 

God help us return to Jesus…perhaps for the first time. 

Our Last Battle (17)

 Seventeen – “Here I Stand”

Chapter Ten of The Last Battle concludes with Tirian and his cohort coming to the defense of the Boar, for those faithful to Aslan cannot stand by and watch others slaughtered; Chapter Eleven opens with the “last battle of the last king of Narnia,” which continues into Chapter Twelve. 

As Tirian makes his appearance on Stable Hill in defense of the Boar and to defend Narnia he cries, “Here I stand, Tirian of Narnia, in Aslan’s name.”

The declaration, “Here I stand,” may transport the astute reader to both a Biblical exhortation and to a historic trenchant statement and is a critical element of Our Last Battle. 

In Ephesians 6:13-14 we read, “Take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore…”

There is a sense in which all of the glories of Ephesians 1:1–6:9 lead to the Last Battle of Ephesians 6:10 –24. When we know what it is to sit with Christ in the heavens (2:6), and to walk with Him on earth (4:1), we are able to stand in Him in the evil day. We stand not only to resist evil, but we also stand to deliver others with the Good News of Jesus Christ (6:18 – 20). Our lives, just as Tirian’s, must not be about ourselves but about Jesus Christ and the salvation of others. 

On April 17, 1521, Martin Luther, standing before religious and Imperial authorities, placed his life in jeopardy by proclaiming, “I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”

While Luther had faults, cowardice was not one of them. 

When Tirian declared, “Here I stand,” he knew full well that he and his friends would likely die within the next hour; but as Roonwit reminds us, “Noble death is a treasure which no one is too poor to buy.”

How is it that the church in America is centered on the self, on money, on power, on politics, on nationalism? How is it that we have abandoned the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ? How is it that we have exported our narcissistic brand of “Christianity” to the peoples of the earth? How is it that we clothe ourselves in dead lion skins? How have we come to go along to get along? How is it that we have forged golden calf after golden calf, and have transformed Aslan into Tashlan into Tash?

We are called to die, to live cruciform lives, to lay down our lives for others, to allow death to work in us so that life may work in others – and if our congregations and our denominations and our institutions will not accept this message, then that tells us all we need to know – we have denied the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. 

If pastors and teachers and professors refuse to know only Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2), then can we not be honest enough to acknowledge that, whatever we have, it is not Biblical Christianity. C. S. Lewis did not have a problem with people not believing the Bible, but he did have a problem with people not believing the Bible and taking salaries from the church. 

As the last battle of the last King of Narnia swirls around the reader in chapters eleven and twelve, we see faithful dogs and horses killed while standing for Aslan, other Narnians running for their cowardly lives, and yet other Narnians fighting for Tash. We also see the perfidy of the Dwarfs, killing both Calormene and Narnian; their slaughter of the brave horses a shattering of hope. “The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs” is a cry we hear too much in today’s professing church, and in society. 

Inch by inch Tirian’s faithful cohort is forced into the Stable, the Calormenes’ expectation is that they will be destroyed by Tash, but they have another destiny.

As the cohort find themselves in the true and eternal Narnia, they realize that the Stable seen from the outside and the Stable seen from the inside are “two different places.” The inside is bigger than the outside. 

This reminds us that we don’t look at what is “seen,” but rather at what is unseen, for what our natural eye sees is temporal, but what the eye of the Spirit sees is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). How sad that the professing church has been “naturalized” by the present age, it is as if we’ve taken a course on worldly citizenship and taken an oath of allegiance to the world’s ways and thoughts. 

We now teach worldly exegesis, methods which do not need the Holy Spirit. We align ourselves with political, economic, and social agendas to promote our own pleasure and comfort. We rely on marketing and social “sciences” and we promote teachings that appeal to our self-centered interests, rather than modeling and teaching what it is to deny ourselves and take up the Cross of Christ. 

Why is it that many of our most popular teachers trade in the merchandise of “Biblical” prophecy, churning out teaching after teaching to keep their followers entertained, rather than making disciples of Jesus Christ? Is this not akin to reading the entrails of animals or tea leaves or…drum roll…horoscopes? 

The thought that we should know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified seems too small and impractical for us. Yet, as Queen Lucy says, “In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.” 

The professing church in the United States thinks that the stable is too small, too impractical; that Jesus is asking too much when He calls us to deny ourselves and follow Him. We dare not preach a Gospel of self-denial – what would happen to our offerings? Better to develop a theology and message of Tashlan, after all, we don’t really think that Jesus is alive, not really. We don’t really think that He will appear…or that He is appearing. Not really.

We can tailor our dead lion skins to fit any situation, we can make them look much better than they did on Puzzle the Donkey. 

Now, for those who disagree with me, you only need to do one thing. Show me a people who gather around Jesus, who speak of Jesus, who love Jesus, who follow Jesus, who tell others about Jesus. Show me a people who, when they speak with one another during the week, speak of Jesus; speak of how Jesus is revealing Himself to them, changing their lives, of how they love Him more with each passing day.

Show me a people who love others enough to share Jesus with them, at home, in their neighborhoods, at work, at play, in church, in denominational settings, at school, in seminary. Show me a people whose heartbeat is the Lamb of God.

Show me a people who are citizens of heaven, to whom the politics of this world are dung, who do not call themselves conservative or liberal or capitalist or socialist or by the name of any nation – but who desire to be known as the People of Jesus, the Bride of the Lamb, citizens of the New Jerusalem, disciples of Jesus Christ. Show me a people who declare, “Jesus is not only enough, Jesus is not only more than enough, Jesus Christ is everything.”

Jesus is at the heart of Our Last Battle. He is at the heart of everything.

Is He the heart of my heart?

Is He the heart of your heart?

Our Last Battle (16)

 Sixteen – In His Arms

The conclusion of Chapter Nine of The Last Battle sees Shift telling the Narnians assembled at Stable Hill that a donkey in a lion skin has been masquerading as Aslan, thus knocking the props from under Tirian’s plan to unveil the Ape’s lies by showing everyone poor Puzzle. Tirian realizes that lies can be strengthened by just a little truth.

We see this all around us, lies incorporating truth; religiously, politically, academically, lies and lies and lies…but do we care as long as we get what we want? 

While the story of The Last Battle isn’t finished, in one sense it is, just as Our Last Battle is completed by this point, well, for many of us it is, we’ll get to the rest of us in the next reflection. While a physical battle awaits Tirian and his cohort, their internal battle, the battle of the heart is consummated, for they are willing to follow Aslan and to be faithful to one another even to death, an honorable death, that treasure which no one is too poor to purchase. 

You see, if we haven’t fought the battles of our heart, if we haven’t taken up our cross and followed Jesus, learning to live lives of denial and self-sacrifice, we will succumb to the notion that Aslan and Tash are the same, we will worship Tashlan. It may be from fear, from moral and spiritual confusion and promiscuity, from ego, from peer pressure, from a lust for power and prestige and material gain; I suppose the list is endless. Initially, our Tashlan will probably look good. It will look Biblical and theological and religious and maybe patriotic and political and make social and economic sense and be alluring. Tashlan will appeal to whatever is in us that is not surrendered to the Lamb of God. 

Tirian has taken a journey from anger and murder to self-sacrifice for the sake of his people and for Aslan. I think we all have journeys from the self and the ways of the self to laying down our lives in love for others, which is the greatest love. This means laying down our lives for “the least of these my brethren,” a prospect we seem reluctant to embrace. (Matthew 25:31 – 46). Will we take these journeys? 

In Chapter Ten the Ape then tells the Narnians that Tashlan will no longer leave the stable to appear to them, but that if they wish to see Tashlan that they can come, one by one, into the stable. 

As Tirian and his friends contemplate the unfolding events on Stable Hill, the King says to Jill, “Courage, child, we are all between the paws of Aslan.”

These are not words of resignation; they are words of trust and commitment. These are the words of those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes, those who have the testimony of Jesus, who overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and who do not love their lives even to death. 

These must be our words as we live in a world that has gone mad, and in the midst of a professing church, at least in the West, that is selling itself to the surrounding culture – and make no mistake, I am talking about “us” and not those other people who do not profess to hold Scripture in high regard. We must trust the arms of Jesus, the One who says, “I will never leave you or forsake you. I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.”

When no one volunteers to enter the stable, Ginger the Cat, now a coconspirator with Shift, says that he’ll go in, and with that he primly and arrogantly enters the stable, thinking that nothing will happen to him. What follows are noises of terror, with Ginger bolting from the stable, making unintelligible sounds while climbing a tree for safety, having lost the Narnian gift of speech. Whatever happened in the stable is not what the Cat expected, nor was it what Shift and the Calormene officer, Rishda Tarkaan, expected. 

The Narnians recall the teaching that at the creation of the world, when Aslan bestowed the gift of speech on some animals, that He warned them that if they learned the ways of the dumb beasts that they would lose the gift of speech and become like them. 

When we learn the ways of the world, the ways of false thinking and religion, we also lose the gift of speech, the gift of discernment, of clear thinking and feeling and loving and living. Words no longer have real meaning for we have prostituted them, we now use words for manipulation, we have become a nation, a world, of liars – the great liar must be rejoicing. People who are good at “spin” now make good money as consultants, are now elected to high office, and have great religious followings, including within the professing church. 

Major “Christian” institutions now produce miracles of spin, justifying sexual abuse, greed, political alignments, hoarding wealth while people go hungry and homeless, Tashlan seems to be reigning. If someone questions their actions, they quickly spin a response, using ever more convoluted language – I think these practitioners even confuse themselves. 

When Vickie and I watch television advertising we often look at each other and ask, “What was that about?” There are images and words, but there is no substance. But that is the way of our society, in religion, in politics, in commerce, in education – we have destroyed words and language and coherent thought, and in the process are destroying ourselves. 

We are an example of people living in a strong delusion, for we have not received the love of the truth…we are living in a delusion so strong that only God could have sent it (2 Thessalonians 2:11 – 12; Romans 1:18 – 32).

Amid the deceit and ugliness of the assembly on Stable Hill, an unlikely man of integrity and purity arises, Emeth, a young Calormene officer. Even though Emeth worships Tash, or at least thinks he does, his is a pure heart, a heart of devotion to an image which he thinks is the true God. Tirian and his cohort recognize this in Emeth, and honor and admire the young officer. The faithful Narnians have more in common with Emeth than they do with the Narnians who have abandoned Aslan. 

It is not unusual for those who follow Jesus to have more affinity with non-Christians than with professing Christians. Many men and women who respond to the common grace of God in Christ have a greater sense of compassion and care and concern for others than professing Christians, many of them have a nobler sense of ethics and integrity than professing Christians. Vickie and I have known folks of other religions who have a clearer sense of morality and ethics than professing Christians, and it has been much easier to talk to them about issues of truth and falsehood than with professing Christians.

Perhaps one reason for this is that American Christians tend to politicize and monetize everything, rather than view life through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Of course the core issue is whether we belong to Jesus or not, whether we are following the Lamb wherever He goes. Whether we have determined to know only Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2).

Are we taking the adventure that Aslan gives us?

The adventure from living for ourselves to living for Jesus and others, to surrendering our lives, our hearts and souls, to Jesus Christ. Is this our journey?

Our Last Battle (15)

 Fifteen – Accepting the Treasure

In Chapter Nine of The Last Battle, as Tirian and his cohort process Farsight’s news that Cair Paravel has been seized by the Calormenes and its inhabitants slaughtered, and that the noble Roonwit has been killed, their hope for reinforcements is shattered. They also realize that the Calormene army is on the march from Cair Paravel to Stable Hill, and that the longer they wait to return to Stable Hill and tell the deceived Narnians the truth about Puzzle and the Ape, the more likely the Calormene army will be there to overwhelm them. If they can arrive before the army, and display poor Puzzle for all to see, surely the Narnians will rally to their King and to the true Aslan. 

Jewel the Unicorn is the first to speak amid their anguish, “There is no need of counsel,” they must return to Stable Hill and “proclaim the truth, and take the adventure that Aslan sends us.”

As Tirian contemplates the likely battle ahead of them, he commands Jill and Eustace to return to their own country. Jill, even though she is afraid, refuses to do so. She will remain on her mission, she will be faithful to the end, she will not abandon her friends. Eustace, true to his character, points out that they can’t go even if they want to, they didn’t choose to come and they can’t choose to return – Aslan is the One who transports them from England to Narnia, and from Narnia back to England.  

As Tirian realizes that Jewel is right, that they must yield themselves to the adventure that Aslan gives them, another realization descends upon the faithful few, they will likely be killed in the coming hours, they will purchase that treasure which no one is too poor to buy, an honorable death. 

Eustace asks Jill, “What’ll happen if we get killed?’

She replies, “Well, we’ll be dead I suppose.” 

Upon further reflection she adds, “Even if we are killed. I’d rather be killed fighting for Narnia than grow old and stupid at home…and then die in the end just the same.” 

Later, after the cohort make their way back to the Stable and await evening, when the Narnians will be assembled and they can reveal the truth, Tirian says to Jewel, “Kiss me, Jewel, for certainly this is our last night on earth. And if ever I offended against you in any matter great or small, forgive me now.”

“Dear King,” said the Unicorn, “I could almost wish you had, so that I might forgive it…I would choose no other life than the life I have had and no other death than the one we go to.” 

I wonder, if when Jill and Eustace considered their situation, they might have been looking back into the adventure that Aslan gave them in The Silver Chair, for a certain adventure it was, an adventure in which death seemed more certain than life at times. And I wonder, if when reflecting back on their confrontation with the Queen of the Underland, that they recalled what is perhaps the finest testimony given in the entire Narniad, given by their friend Puddleglum, that included:

“I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia…Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; that’s a small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.”

As Roonwit might say, “Even a Marsh-wiggle can purchase an honorable death.”

The lives of Jill and Eustace, their friendship, had been forged through trials and victories in following Aslan and serving others. They had both made serious mistakes in The Silver Chair, they had been disobedient to Aslan, they had struggled with each other; out of those fires had come a friendship reflecting the glory of Aslan, a friendship unbreakable, a friendship that also bonded them to the others who had served Aslan in Narnia. 

Eustace and Jill, in looking at each other, would not have seen fault, but rather Aslan’s glorious redemption and faithfulness to them and to those around them. This is what friends do, they see Jesus Christ in one another, and together they learn to look to Jesus and take the adventure that Jesus gives them. Where will their friendship take them? 

Jill and Eustace have shared their young lives together in Aslan, and they will die together in Aslan. 

But consider Jill’s thinking, beyond her years, or maybe because of her years. She would rather be killed fighting for Narnia rather than grow old and stupid at home, dying in the end just the same. 

Let me share a little secret with you, most of us are growing old and stupid. Most of us have spent all our lives preserving our lives and we are too stupid to know that we are going to die anyway. 

The essence of Christian ministry is, “Death works in us, but life in you” (2 Corinthians 4:12).

The essence of Christian love and calling is, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12 – 13). 

The essence of Jesus’s call to us is, “If anyone will follow Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever will save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:34 – 35). 

The essence of our overcoming is, “The blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and not loving our lives, even unto death” (Revelation 12:11). 

Falling into the ground and dying produces fruit, this is what Jesus says (John 12:24), and yet we are focused on self-preservation. 

There is a sense in which the essence of our life in Jesus Christ is our death in Jesus Christ. We cannot receive His love, we cannot share His love with others, unless we live lives of dying to ourselves and to the world around us, a world that would seduce us and kill us in so many ways, a world that would deaden us to the suffering of those around us. To the shame of the professing church in the United States, we do not teach this, we do not live this…and yet we call ourselves Christians. 

O dear friends, if we are not living for Jesus Christ, if we are not sharing Him with others, if we are not loving the unlovable and touching the untouchable, if we are embracing other gods than Jesus, including political, economic, and national agendas, including so-called Christian worldviews, if we are not embracing the disenfranchised, including the stranger in our midst, if we are not insisting on Jesus being the sole object of our love and devotion within our churches and seminaries and “Christian” colleges and other ministries…then we are growing old and stupid. Then we are worshipping Tashlan, soon to be revealed as Tash.   

Do not speak to me of self-preservation, speak to me of the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. 

Is it not better to die with a friend or two, than to be swept up in the delusion of the masses, including the Christian masses? 

This question is at the heart of Our Last Battle. 

“But if not…” (Daniel 3:18). 

Our Last Battle (14)

 Fourteen – A Treasure

Chapter Eight of The Last Battle begins with a shadowy creature moving in the forest, grotesque in appearance, sickening in smell. After it passes Tirian’s cohort realizes with shock that it is Tash, the god of the Calormenes. The Ape Shift and Ginger the Cat have called upon Tash in their lust for power and their prayers will be answered. Tirian observes, “It has come to dwell among us.”

The Chronicles of Narnian begin with Aslan dwelling among His People; sometimes His Personal Presence is with them, most often the Spirit of His Presence permeates Narnia. In the final book of the Narniad, Aslan has been replaced by Tash – for most.

What began as an almost laughable deceit by a vain, manipulative, and evil Ape, is morphing into evil incarnate living in Narnia. Who would have thought that a nervous and trembling donkey in a lion’s skin could be mistaken for Aslan? Who would have thought that the commands of the Ape could be mistaken for the righteous and just commands of Aslan? 

But this, my dear friends, is what happens when Jesus is no longer our everything; for if Jesus does not mean everything to us, then Jesus means nothing to us. Biblical Christianity is Jesus, and Jesus is Biblical Christianity. When Jesus is no longer enough for us, we manufacture and merchandise dead lion skins and compete with each other as to who has the most fashionable religious wear. 

It is as if we construct our own Paris fashion shows, parading down the runway to display our methodologies and novel understandings and latest music and worship programs and ploys, and church-growth marketing strategies, and our naturalistic philosophies, and leadership paradigms. O, and let’s not forget how we market Bibles, now producing translation after translation, with one Bible being marketed to this category of people, and another Bible being marketed to another group of people, and yet another Bible being marketed to people of another category. Even the American Bible Society now has a Bible that supports the Imperial Cult (The Faith and Liberty Bible, with 813 articles and quotations from people in American history) – I would have never thought this possible. 

Soon we will have Bibles produced for football fans, baseball fans, hockey fans, and poker players. O my! I just saw that the American Bible Society has a hockey New Testament. 

O friends, we are to hear and see Jesus and only Jesus – we have lost our minds and we have lost Jesus as our center of gravity! The Father says, “This is My Beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; hear Him!” (Matthew 17:5). 

When Jesus is not everything, Jesus is not anything. 

The Christian world in the United States is like one huge trade show, everything is for sale, including the souls of men. 

But there are two more important elements to note in this chapter, one concerning the Lamb and the other Roonwit the Centaur.

As Jewel the Unicorn recounts his experience as a prisoner facing death, we are told that he didn’t know what happened to the Lamb. 

The young Lamb Jewel is speaking of is the one who spoke up to the evil Ape with the question, “What have we to do with the Calormenes? We belong to Aslan. They belong to Tash.” 

What indeed happened to the Lamb?

If only the Narnians had heard the Lamb, “We belong to Aslan.” If only we heard our Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, “We belong to the Father. I have purchased you with My blood.” 

However, we are too sophisticated to accept such a baseline proposal. We have become wiser than God (1 Corinthians 1:17 – 31). We have to keep up appearances within our religious world and also in the world of this age. Let us move on to Roonwit.

The chapter concludes with the cohort meeting Farsight the Eagle who brings tragic news. The first news is of the destruction of Cair Paravel, the capital of Narnia, the throne of the King. Narnians lay slaughtered by a surprise attack by the Calormenes.

The second news is that Farsight came upon a dying Roonwit, with a Calormene arrow in his noble body. 

“I was with him in his last hour and he gave me this message to your Majesty: to remember that all worlds draw to an end and that noble death is a treasure which no one is too poor to buy.” 

“So, said the King, after a long silence, “Narnia is no more.”

“Noble death is a treasure which no one is too poor to buy.”

These words are nonsense in our Christianity, in the West at any rate. 

In the beginning of our collective story as the Church, we rejoiced in suffering for Jesus, we gloried in dying for Jesus and our brethren. Now, in the United States, we hide in the hills as the Israelites of old; worse, we form alliances with elements opposed to the Kingdom of our Father and Lord Jesus…and justify these perfidious covenants. We seduce ourselves and others with terms such as, “The greater good. The lesser of evils. But it works.” 

Can we not hear blessed Polycarp before the Roman magistrate, facing execution, “For eighty-six years I have been His servant, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”

Are the echoes of Hugh Latimer in our ears, as he exhorted, “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as shall never be put out”?

Does Jim Elliot make sense to us? “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”

We pay lip service to Bonhoeffer, and we make money off movies and books about him, but we dare not take him seriously when he says, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” 

Do we hear Jesus saying, “He who loses His life for My sake and the Gospel’s the same will save it”? “Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies it brings forth much fruit.” 

All worlds come to an end, as Roonwit says. All nations come to an end, all of them. Only the Kingdom of God endures forever. God is shaking all things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain, may be manifested (Hebrews 12:25 – 29). How foolish to seek to prop up that which our Father has decreed for destruction (Daniel Chapter 2, Psalm 2). How very foolish to sell our souls, and the souls of others, in such a futile endeavor. 

We are called to live as the sons and daughters of God, as citizens of the eternal Kingdom. The creation is groaning for us to live as who we are in Christ (Romans 8:18 – 25), and yet we dabble with mud pies, with our hearts and minds and hands making bricks to build the temples of idols. We are even prostituting the Bible with the Imperial Cult. 

In Revelation 21:8, the list of those who have a part in the lake of fire is headed by “cowards.” I suppose this should not surprise us, for Revelation is a book of courage, the courage of the Lamb, the courage of those who trust in the Lamb and who follow Him wherever He goes. The courage to lay down one’s life so that others may live eternally. 

When Athanasius was told that the entire world was against him, he replied, “Say not that the world is against Athanasius, say that Athanasius is against the world.”

This is a critical element of Our Last Battle, one that Lewis elegantly and poignantly portrays on the lips of the dying Roonwit:

“Noble death is a treasure which no one is too poor to buy.”

Are we living this in Christ?

Are we teaching this to our people? 

If Jesus isn’t everything, then He is nothing. 

“Noble death is a treasure which no one is too poor to buy.”

Our Last Battle (13)

 Thirteen – Reality Check

When A False Aslan Means No Aslan

In Chapter Seven of The Last Battle, Tirian’s cohort frees a group of Dwarfs from Calormene slavery. Then Tirian displays poor old Puzzle to the Dwarfs, showing them that they, and others, had been deceived by the Ape. 

When Tirian draws his sword to attack the Calormenes and deliver the Dwarfs, he does so saying, “The light is dawning and the lie is broken,” for he is certain that when the Dwarfs see the lion skin over the donkey that they will rejoice and be glad in the true Aslan. Tirian’s expectation is that it will “be a beautiful moment” when the Dwarfs see the truth. 

Instead he hears the Dwarf Griffle saying, “I don’t know how all you chaps feel, but I’ve heard as much about Aslan as I want to for the rest of my life.” 

When Tirian tries to reason with the Dwarfs, he is asked if he has a better imitation of Aslan and told that the Dwarfs have been fooled once and they are not about to be fooled again. The Dwarfs demand that Tirian show them Aslan.

Then Tirian makes a mistake, for out of his mouth come the words, “He is not a tame lion.” These are the very words Shift used when manipulating the Dwarfs and others, and the Dwarfs instantly recognize it. 

The Dwarfs reject everything Tirian, Jill, and Eustace have to say. They reject Tirian’s motive for rescuing them, they reject Aslan, they reject “silly stories about other worlds,” and from that point on, the Dwarfs will be for themselves, the Dwarfs will be for the Dwarfs. The narrator tells us that the Dwarfs, “tramped off into darkness.” When we reject Aslan, we indeed tramp into darkness.

However, let us acknowledge Poggin the Dwarf, who manages to separate himself from the other Dwarfs and return to stand with Tirian and Aslan. It is better to die with the few faithful than to live in darkness.

Now we come to the crux of Lewis’s warning in Chapter Seven, we come to an excruciating element of Our Last Battle, something we will face time and again…if we are faithful to Jesus. 

“Tirian had never dreamed that one of the results of an Ape’s setting up a false Aslan would be to stop people from believing in the real one…But now, it seemed, he could count on nothing.” 

In The Last Battle, we see some Narnians remaining faithful to Aslan, we see others embracing Tashlan (actually Tash), and we see others, such as the Dwarfs, rejecting all notion of a deity and other worlds. 

In Our Last Battle, those who reject Jesus are not necessarily sarcastic, nor are they necessarily selfish, nor have they ill will toward others. In fact, many who reject Jesus do so with broken hearts, with much pain and sorrow, and even in their pain they seek to serve others, to alleviate the suffering of others. 

Of course, they are not rejecting Jesus as much as rejecting dead lion skins, but they don’t realize it. They see the blatant hypocrisy of the professing church and they can bear it no more. The very idea of “going to church” is repulsive, and the church’s refusal to confront its hypocrisy and sin and its insistence of justifying itself is more than these people can continue to bear. 

The notion that, “Well, the church isn’t perfect,” is seen for what it is, a smoke screen, a ruse so that we don’t have to confront the truth about our departure from the Gospel and the Person of Jesus Christ. 

We know a person, a group of people, a leadership group, by its nature. We know the nature of a thing by the way it behaves, by its actions…not solely by its words. We see the Nature of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. If Jesus is the Head of His Body, the Church, then we will know the true Church when we see that Body displaying the Nature of Jesus Christ. 

A church, any church, which sexually abuses others, be they children, adolescents, or adults can hardly be the Body of Christ. Nor can a church which engages in cover up and facilitates the continuation of this behavior. Have we lost our minds to think otherwise? We see this nefarious behavior across traditions. 

Many whose hearts are broken by dead lion skins see the myth of the Prolife Movement. They see that while many professing churches claim to be Prolife, that they are really Probirth, for once a child is born they care little, if anything, for its actual life. They don’t care about health care, safe housing and neighborhoods, decent education, reasonable employment, healthy food – all they care about is birth – from that point on baby and mom and dad and family are on their own. Why do we not have the courage to see this?

Nor do those who profess to be Prolife advocate for the men and women and young people who have the courage and love of family to seek shelter within our borders. We will send (we say) missionaries to others, we will send (we say) medical supplies to others, but should God send others to us we will send them back to God, and whether they live or die is of no concern to us. 

Others whose hearts have suffered, puzzle at Christian Nationalism, when they thought they had been taught that we are to worship the Trinity and the Trinity alone. When they had been taught that the Kingdom of Jesus is not of this world. When they had been taught that the Kingdom of God is without borders. Many who had been raised in so-called conservative churches which criticized so-called liberal churches for a social gospel, now see conservative hypocrisy in propagating a political and nationalistic gospel. 

 A shocking reality of Our Last Battle is the realization that Christians don’t really care about dead lion skins. They don’t much care if what they believe is true or not, or whether their image of Jesus is true or not. Some will hold onto dead lion skins no matter what, and others will decide that since they’ve been taken in once, they won’t be taken in again. 

In the latter group, some separate themselves because of hurt, others out of anger, perhaps most out of both. In the former group, I suppose peer pressure plays a significant role, from pastors to seminary professors to Sunday school teachers and small group leaders, to those in the pew who are expected to pray and pay and conform.

For many Jesus is only a figurehead, for others the ideal of Jesus is a dream shattered, for a remnant He is the holy Lamb of God seeking to draw humanity to Himself.

Our Last Battle can be discouraging, indeed it can. Let us keep looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).  

We can always count on Jesus. 

Our Last Battle (12)

 

When I first looked at Chapter Six of the Last Battle I saw it as kind of a bridge, a setup to move the story forward...for things accelerate in Chapter Seven. While it is a setup for encountering the Dwarfs and their unexpected response in Chapter Seven, Lewis continues to deal with anger, contrasting Tirian's anger with Jill's mercy and understanding. 

Tirian falls back into the anger of which he has already been convicted. 

Tirian is about to commit another murder in cold blood, of which he has already been convicted.

When we drink the poison of this world, it takes us a while to unlearn our habits, our thought patterns, our self-righteous emotions. 

Most frightening is when we contaminate others with this poison.

Perhaps the greatest danger is that we think, "That can't be my tribe. It's those other people!"

That, my friends, is almost a guarantee that we are wearing dead lion skins.

(I've worn more than one!).

Love,

Bob

Twelve – Which Spirit?

In Chapter Six of The Last Battle, Tirian, Jill, and Eustace arrive at the Stable to rescue Jewel the Unicorn. Tirian captures the lone Calormene sentry, who leads him to Jewel, being held behind the Stable. 

While Tirian is freeing Jewel, Jill goes into the Stable and makes a startling and, to her, a funny discovery, “Aslan” is nothing but a poor old donkey draped in a lion skin.

For his part, Puzzle is ready to be released from his captivity in the Stable and gladly goes with Jill.

When Tirian, Jill, and Eustace are reunited, along with Jewel, and Tirian is confronted with Puzzle, the King reaches for his sword to “smite off the head of the accursed Ass.”

Here we see that Tirian has not yet learned to fear his anger, for he is on the verge of making what would be another costly and sinful mistake. Once again we see how anger clouds our thinking and poisons our hearts. He murdered a Calormene, and now he is about to murder Puzzle. 

Jill’s quick plea for Puzzle saved his life, and may have saved Tirian’s soul, for what happens to a man’s heart when he descends into hatred, anger, and murder? And consider how merciful Aslan had been to Tirian up to this point. 

To begin with, Tirian mercifully realized his sin when he and Jewel killed two Calormenes without warning. This was a double sin, for not only did Tirian commit murder, but as King, he led Jewel into murder. Yet here he is about to murder once again. 

Aslan was merciful when Tirian prayed for Aslan to take his life, but to save Narnia – a work of mercy and grace and servant – leadership was working in his soul.

Aslan was merciful when He sent Jill and Eustace in answer to Tirian’s prayer. 

Aslan was merciful when Tirian rescued Jewel.

Aslan was merciful when Jill rescued Puzzle.

Yet Tirian was about to commit murder, he was about to murder a foolish and frightened donkey. What blood would have been on his hands had he done so? Had he done so, how might the story have unfolded? Tirian would have been transformed into the image of Tash rather than the image of Aslan.

O my dear, dear friends, when we drink of the cup of the world and Satan, our souls are warped, our hearts poisoned, our minds confused – we forget who our Lord Jesus is and who we are in Him. It may be that Satan’s most subtle and toxic temptation is for us to respond in kind, forgetting that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal or natural (Ephesians 6:10 - 17; 2 Corinthians 10:10 – 5; 2 Timothy 2:24 – 26). 

Is it possible that there is blood on the hands of the professing church in America today? Is it possible that our anger and alliances with political powers and our humanistic systems of thought (across the theological spectrum) have wrought spiritual death on those around us, to the point where many unbelievers are saying, “If this is Christianity, then I want nothing to do with it”? Is it possible, that as James and John, we do not know the Spirit which we are of, but have rather adopted the spirit of this age and the ruler of the prince of the air (Luke 9:51–56)? 

O dear friends, there is a heresy of the mind, but there is also a heresy of the heart – we can’t really separate the two, one will poison the other. 

As Jill points out regarding Puzzle, “He didn’t know any better.” 

As Jesus prays, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 

So we are to live.

When we were God’s enemies, Christ died for us, to reconcile us to Himself (Romans 5:8 – 11), demonstrating His love for us. This is our calling, to love others as our Father and Lord Jesus love us. 

Often people do not know what they are doing. They have been taught to wear dead lion skins; the skins are often tailor made, and I imagine that all traditions and movements have their own style of lion skins. They have been taught that Jesus wants them to wear their special skins. Then they are taught that Aslan and Tash are really the same person.

So let’s not be too harsh on the Puzzles of the professing church, in one sense they don’t know any better. Even their pastors, I think, often don’t know any better. Even those who have taught their pastors may not know any better. After all, we’ve been at this a long time. This is what we know.

An element of Our Last Battle is whether we will live by the Spirit of Christ, or by the spirit of the enemy. Will we give life, or will we take it? Will we live in anger or in peace and merciful love toward others? 

If all Jill Pole did in this book, The Last Battle, was to save poor Puzzle from the lion skin and from the tyranny of Shift the Ape, hers would be a story worth telling. 

Do we have such a story?

Our Last Battle (11)

 Eleven – More Real Than Ever

“The wonder of walking beside creatures from another world made him feel a little dizzy: but it also made all the old stories seem far more real than they had ever seemed before…anything might happen now.” The Last Battle, C. S. Lewis, page 694, One Volume Edition.

A while back my friend, Michael Daily, introduced me to the writings of Geerhardus Vos (1862 – 1949), through a collection of six of his sermons preached at Princeton Seminary chapel, titled, Grace and Glory. While I appreciate all six sermons, Vos’s message on Hebrews 11:9 – 10, Heavenly Mindedness, captured my heart and mind, and resulted in me doing a blog series on it. This was one of the longest series I’ve written over the years, with the current Upper Room series, an early series on C. S. Lewis, and one on Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, probably being the only ones of greater length over the past 15 years. 

As we’ll hopefully see later in our reflections on The Last Battle, there are places in which the inside is greater than the outside. We see this in the manger, the Cross, the Upper Room, and I experienced this with Vos’s Heavenly Mindedness, as he experienced it with Hebrews 11:9 – 10. Vos took me on a transcendent journey with him, a journey of communion with the saints, a journey that captured the essence of not only Hebrews 11: 9- 10, but also of Hebrews 12: 22 – 24:

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angles, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.” 

Heavenly Mindedness was an expression of Jesus’ words to the Sadducees, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” To Vos, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not only living, but we can also experience the communion of the saints with them, we can experience Hebrews 12:22 – 24, we can live within a heavenly mindedness in Jesus Christ and with one another. 

As I worked through Heavenly Mindedness I was continually amazed at the experiential transcendence of Vos’s message and I wondered what his original audience heard and saw as they listened to him. It also struck me that his preaching departed from what most of us find acceptable in today’s Evangelical circles, for it is most certainly not the product of the historical – grammatical method. This is not to say that Vos didn’t do his homework, far from it; it is not to say that along the way Vos did not do his grammatical or his historical work, but it is to say that the life and vision and trajectory of Vos’s preaching far exceeded any method which, at its core, is humanistic. 

I couldn’t help but wonder if Vos, had he been a seminary student, would have received a passing grade for his sermon. 

(My apologies if you are not quite following me, I will try to follow this up with some posts that try to flesh this out, but I do have a point, so please be patient. And besides, it doesn’t hurt to touch on things difficult to grasp.)

To Vos, Hebrews 11:9 – 10, was not a text, it was a life, and that life led him to the City of Hebrews 12:22 – 24, a City that was as real to him as the city or town where you live is real to you. Except, that City to Vos was more real, more permanent, and more assured that any of our earthly cities and towns and villages – for its Builder and Maker is God. 

So much of our theological education, and our Bible teaching material, Sunday school and small group material (whether printed or video), our commentaries, our preaching and teaching, is akin to people reading cookbook after cookbook, recipe after recipe, looking at photo after photo of dishes on a table – but without ever preparing and eating the food. 

What may be worse, is that we look at folks who prepare delicious meals that their grandparents taught them to make, using recipe cards with faded pencil on them, or instructions on old notebook paper which is disintegrating, and we think that they don’t know what they are doing – even though they are making tasty food and we are simply reciting recipes again and again without ever producing anything that gives life. We may even have fancy kitchen gadgets while others may have old cast iron skillets and muffin pans and hand-powered eggbeaters – and we think we are better equipped…even though we produce nothing to give life to others, nothing to truly feed the souls and spirits of others. 

There is joy in their cooking…there is taste…there is texture. People eat their food with conversation and smiles. 

These unrefined (to our thinking) folk can look at a recipe in a popular best seller and see the errors and instantly know what makes sense and what doesn’t. 

(And again with apologies, but I want to make this point; Vos’s preaching reminds me of the Fathers, it sees Scripture holistically in Christ, it is transcendent, lifting us above the earth and its humanistic gravity. You cannot teach someone to preach and teach like Vos and the Fathers, you can model it, but you simply cannot teach it, there is no method to it, it is born of the Spirit, and it requires a marriage of the Word and the man or woman – the two become one in Christ. It is organic.)

Now, what about Tirian? 

“The wonder of walking beside creatures from another world made him feel a little dizzy: but it also made all the old stories seem far more real than they had ever seemed before…anything might happen now.”

We are called to live in the reality of “anything might happen now.” Isn’t it time we live in the awe of the “old stories” being more real than ever? 

Our Last Battle includes the battle of living in presence of Jesus Christ and His saints today; not looking back at history as simply history, and not looking forward to a future that may or may not unfold in certain ways, but living in communion and friendship with Jesus Christ and His saints today – living in the reality of Hebrews 12:22 – 24, living in connection with “creatures from another world.” 

Yes, it can make us dizzy, and the numinous ought to do that. Yes, it ought to humble us. Yes, it means that the Word of God must master us, instead of us being so foolish as to think that we can master the Word. 

Yes, if we live as strangers in this world, we will be a bit strange. 

Ah, but what joy we will have with Jesus, with Abraham, David, Paul, Peter, Augustine, Fenelon, Vos…and with one another.

Our Last Battle (10)

 Ten – Children?

In Chapter Five of The Last Battle, Jill and Eustace appear in Narnia to help the King. They arrive as Aslan’s response to Tirian’s cry, “Let me be killed. I ask nothing for myself. But come and save all Narnia.” 

God moves when we place others before ourselves. He moves when we take the place of others, when we enter into intercessory prayer and when we live intercessory lives. This is the Way of Jesus, and there is no other Way to live than by Him and His Cross.

Our prayers are often answered through others. When Daniel prayed God sent messengers in response to his prayers. When Paul and Silas struggled over what direction to take in their mission, God gave Paul a vision of a man saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." When the Ethiopian wrestled with reading the Prophet Isaiah, God sent Philip to him. God answered Cornelius’s prayerful alms by sending Peter. Jesus sent Ananias to heal Paul’s blindness, confirm Paul’s commission, and baptize him. 

Jesus seemed to always be directing Paul to new friends and new friends to Paul, his letters are full of reference, praise, thanksgiving, and prayers for coworkers – men and women. Doesn’t this make sense? For didn’t’ Jesus surround Himself with followers who became disciples, with disciples who became apostles, and with apostles who became friends?  

The very nature of life in Christ is the nature of Divine relationship in the Body of Christ, the Bride, the Church, the Temple, the Family of God. We want others to have koinonia with us so that they may have koinonia with the Trinity (1 John 1:3). Are we living in the reality of Hebrews 12:22 – 24? Is the “communion of saints” the fabric of our lives, or is it only a phrase of the Creed that we hopefully recite? 

One challenge of praying is receiving, and I don’t think we do this very well, at least I know that I don’t. We want to define and shape and qualify the answers, and if we don’t see what we want then we think God has not answered us. (I have explored this more fully in our Upper Room series). 

Aslan sent two children in answer to Tirian’s intercessory prayer for Narnia. Were it not for the fact that Tirian had heard stories of children coming from another world, time and again, to save Narnia, would he have immediately accepted Jill and Eustace? 

Are there times we reject God’s provision and His answer because we don’t like the form they take? When Jesus says that we ought not to reject children, for of such is the Kingdom of God, maybe, embedded within His words, is the instruction that we can learn from children and from things that seem “below” us. 

As I think about my formal theological education, I naturally see areas of deficiency, areas in which there maybe should have been fewer electives and more requirements. However, I realize that one can only accomplish so much in 96 credit hours and so I think, by and large, my seminary did the best it could in most respects. 

However, I do think a 19th hole should have been added to the golf course. We should not have been given diplomas until we had served at least six months cleaning toilets as a living. Pride and reliance on methodology and humanistic epistemology and hermeneutics are dangerous things, and a reminder that we aren’t as smart as we think we are would be good for most of us, and I think quite beneficial for the people we serve. (Maybe refresher courses in toilet cleaning should also be required.)

In Narnia, children from earth grow quickly, it’s one of those strange Narnian dynamics, much like the difference between the way time is experienced in Narnia and on earth. Sometimes, if we can see God coming to us in simple things, in basic things, and if we will accept those things and seek to learn from them, those things will grow quickly from children to adolescents to adults and we will see value in them that we never considered. 

On the other hand, if we dismiss out of hand what God sends to us as being beneath us, then we will miss treasures of Christ. This is especially true of people, often the people we can learn the most from are those who are the most different from us. One of the tragedies of the American church is that we are segregated racially, economically, educationally, politically (shame on us, shame!), to name but a few barriers. We build and maintain our own prisons…and proud we are of it.

When we see anyone as beneath us, then we have risen too high. 

I once worked with a wealthy man (we’ll call him Sam) who was an executive in an international firm. He was chairman of the board of directors of a ministry I was serving. He was kind, tenderhearted, loved Jesus, and was a true friend to others. He cared about people. He was also an elder in his church. I used to meet with Sam once a week to review ministry operations and enjoy fellowship in Christ.

One week he excitedly told me about a family that had been visiting their church. After the Sunday evening service, he asked the family if he could take them to get something to eat, and they suggested McDonald’s. My goodness, what a great time my friend had, enjoying being with this family at McDonald’s, getting to know them, listening to them, sharing a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder with them. It was truly a Happy Meal (sorry, couldn’t resist). 

Most of us reading this are probably thinking, “That’s nice, but why am I reading this?” After all, most of us have been to McDonald’s more than once. 

Sam lived in a very expensive metropolitan area, and his church was in a suburb without much economic diversity. This family was of modest economic means and educational background. Yet, they had not only been welcomed by Sam’s church, Sam asked them  to dinner. When they suggested McDonald’s, Sam went right along with the idea, even though he had never been to a McDonald’s. 

Sam loved being with the family, and he was fascinated with McDonald’s. (I worked with another executive who had never been to McDonald’s.)

Let’s be honest about this, as James tells us (James Chapter 2), we do have a tendency to dismiss people who are not like us, people we think are beneath us. This is ugly but it is true. (I should note that I have seen the reverse of this, I’ve seen folks on the lower end of the spectrum dismiss folks who have more material things or education than they do, often attributing attitudes to them that are not true.)

Aslan answered Tirian’s prayer by sending children to him. 

Are we above the people that Jesus chooses to answer our prayers? 

Are we missing out on the treasures of Christ in others? 

Our Last Battle (9)

 Nine – The Turn

Alone, abandoned, tied to a tree, struggling with doubts and fears, reflecting back on all he had ever heard about Aslan and the history of Narnia, pondering the tales of children from another world, Tirian arrives at a forlorn hope. Even hopes that are forlorn are nevertheless hopes. 

The King cries, “Aslan! Aslan! Aslan! Come and help us now!”

The narrator tells us that, “The darkness and the cold and the quietness went on just the same.”

Tirian continues, “Let me be killed. I ask nothing for myself. But come and save all Narnia.” 

We are told that things on the outside stayed the same, but that inside the King a kind of change began to occur, and that a flicker of hope moved within Tirian. 

“O Aslan, Aslan. If you will not come yourself, at least send me the helpers from beyond the world. Or let me call them. Let my voice carry beyond the world.”

Here, my friends, we have the crux of Our Last Battle. This is the nexus of the book, The Last Battle, and it is the nexus of Our Last Battle. All of life either flows to this point, or from this point. This is our life in Christ. Without coming to this point, and without continuing from this point, our lives have no point. 

Tirian not only had to come to the end of his anger, he had to come to the end of himself. He not only had to come to the end of himself, he had to offer himself on behalf of others. 

This, my dear, dear friends, is the Christian Life, and there is no other. 

This is what it means to follow Jesus. It is to belong to Another and to live for others through Him. It is to leave our agendas and anger behind, surrendering ourselves to Jesus, laying down our lives for others as He laid down His life for us (John 15:12–13; 1 John 3:16). 

Had the Narnians known the character and Nature of Aslan they would not have been deceived by the Ape, by dead lion skins, and by the blasphemous notion that Aslan and Tash are the same. Had Tirian not been disoriented by his anger, he may have recalled the true Nature of Aslan and realized that, as Roonwitt said, the reports of Aslan appearing were lies. 

Tirian’s selfish anger blinded him to the True Aslan and to his call to serve others. 

In order to find freedom, Tirian needed to be beaten and tied to a tree. Then his heart could grow tender as he considered the welfare of the Mice, the Rabbit, and the Moles. Then his pride could be humbled as he put others before himself, and he remembered his People. Then, and only then, the King could cry, “Let me be killed…but come and save all Narnia.” 

Does this not take us back to the Stone Table of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? Aslan gave His life for Edmund and Narnia, and now Tirian learns to give his life for his People.

And so Paul writes, “Death works in us, but life in you” (2 Corinthians 4:12). 

Do we know what it is to experience Galatians 2:20?

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 

Our lives are to be living sacrifices, and once placed on the altar they are to remain there, every moment of every day, into eternity (Romans 12:1–2). 

Our Last Battle is about the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross. Will our lives be irrevocably cruciform? Will they be in the image of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2)? Will our congregations be collectively crucified with Christ? Will our arms be outstretched to suffer with Christ, to suffer for others, and to embrace the suffering of others? Will we bear the burdens and sorrow and heartache and sin of others, that they may know Jesus Christ and His healing and wholeness and Life and Love? 

Will we cry out to our Father, “Take me, not them!”? Will our churches cry out, “Take us, not them!”? 

O friends, can we see the dead lion skins that entice us with promises of our best life now, with promises of safe religious lives that require nothing of us, that allow us to continue in our self-centered pursuits, that make Jesus a concierge rather than acknowledging Him as our Lord and our God, that would make Jesus a show horse rather than the Lamb of God slain for our sins and raised from the dead, the Victor over sin and death? 

Can we not see that just as the Ape made the Narnians slaves to his agenda, that just as Shift propagated the lie of Tashlan, that we are being enticed to serve the agendas of this world, a world opposed to our Lord Jesus Christ? How is it that we have been made captives of Tashlan? 

Our Last Battle is whether we will say, “O Jesus. Bring me to the Cross, bind me to the Cross, let the Cross be embedded in my soul, and let Your Cross radiate from my life.”

Our Last Battle is whether we will daily cry, “Take me. Save others!”

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the koinonia of His sufferings, being conformed to his death” (Philippians 3:10). 

Our Last Battle (7)

 Seven – He Will Eat You

We have seen how the idea that Aslan is not a Tame Lion was used to deceive and manipulate people, and how it was misunderstood by those who did not understand Aslan’s immutable character and Word (the stars). Now let’s consider what the idea might actually mean, what it is intended to convey to us.

One of the richest scenes in the Narniad is Jill’s encounter with Aslan in Chapter Two of The Silver Chair. I consider this scene and Chapter Twelve of The Silver Chair not only two of the most glorious scenes in the Narniad, but two of the greatest pieces of writing from the pen of C. S. Lewis. Chapter Twelve of The Silver Chair stands alongside the crescendo of The Last Battle and its glorious concluding chapters as having a texture beyond the earthly, reaching back to the Stone Table and the Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. 

In Chapter Two of The Silver Chair, Jill has just been the reason Eustace has fallen over the cliff into who knows where. While Eustace is falling, a lion appears next to Jill, but rather than roaring it is blowing over and beyond the cliff. After its final blow, the lion walks back into the forest. 

Soon Jill realizes that she is terribly thirsty, and upon hearing running water she decides to find it, moving carefully, mindful of the lion. When she locates the stream, she also finds a problem, the lion is lying between her and the stream. What to do? She reasons that if she runs the lion will catch her, and if she goes forward, she’ll be in the lion’s mouth. 

The lion speaks and says, “If you’re thirsty you may drink.” After the lion repeats this statement, it then asks, “Are you not thirsty?”

Jill then asks the lion if it would mind leaving while she drinks. The lion makes no reply. Jill’s thirst is driving her crazy, so she asks, “Will you promise not to – do anything to me, if I do come?”

Here we come to the heart of Jill’s encounter with Aslan, and I suppose of our encounter with Jesus Christ. Here we come to the realization that Aslan is not a Tame Lion, and that Jesus is more than an image on a wall, a picture in a book, or a purveyor of cotton candy. For Aslan replies, “I make no promise.”

While in her thirst Jill unwittingly takes a step nearer to the lion, she asks another question, “Do you eat girls?”

“I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms.” The narrator observes, “It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.” 

When Jill says that she dares not come and drink, the lion says, “Then you will die of thirst.”

When Jill then says that she’ll have to find another stream, the lion informs her that there is no other stream. 

I hope you will read this entire section in The Silver Chair to witness this remarkable scene in its fulness for there is no substitute to actually being there. 

As we ponder Jill’s encounter with Aslan (and there is much more to it in the chapter), what do we see in Aslan? Is He a Tame Lion? 

Would not a tame lion have honored Jill’s request to go away while she drank? 

Would not a tame lion have assured Jill that he would not eat her? 

And what of the lion’s declaration that it has eaten girls and boys and women and men and kings and emperors and cities and realms? 

What do we make of the lion’s matter-of-fact statement that Jill will die of thirst? 

An element of Our Last Battle is whether we know the real Aslan (Jesus) or whether we have bought into a caricature of Him. A caricature can have many forms. One form is what we’ve seen in The Last Battle, it is a depiction of Aslan as a self-serving, harsh, enslaving tyrant. 

We see this in the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ time. A severe merciless legalism in which the people serve the religious system, in which God demands sacrifice above healing on the Sabbath, and which compromises with Caesar in the interest of self-preservation. This is a system and a leadership that will murder Jesus Christ and persecute His disciples. 

We see this same caricature in that flavor of Christianity today that perpetuates guilt and shame and sin – consciousness in the Church. We see it in those leaders who amass wealth and fame and position and influence, manipulating others to give, give, give to them in the name of Christ Jesus. We see it in those who may have a form of godliness but deny its true source – the Vine Jesus Christ. We see it in those who teach and employ a syncretism with political and economic and cultural powers.

But we also see caricatures of Jesus in those systems that teach that we need no longer conform to His Word, nor expect Him to be consistent with His Word. Here we are taught that the image of God portrayed in the Bible and affirmed by Jesus has been superseded by our greater learning and understanding. Here we are also taught that Jesus is the Walt Disney of life, that Christianity is a Disney Land, that Sunday morning church is an entertainment venue, that Jesus is the way to prosper materially and grow rich and eat cotton candy. Christianity is a place to have fun and pastors are playground monitors, and if the playground monitors don’t cooperate we will ignore them, fire them, and find monitors to cater to our whims and fancies. And make no mistake, we expect our offerings to be used to purchase new playground equipment, we want the latest and greatest. 

The Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus that walks and talks among us today, within His Body today, is the Jesus who will not agree to our request not to do anything to us, He will not make us such a promise. Jesus will make no promise to not swallow us up. 

In fact, Jesus makes it clear that if we desire to follow Him that we must take up our cross, lose our lives rather than seek to save them, deny ourselves, and witness to others of Him (Mark 8:34–38). Jesus teaches us that since the world hates Him, the world will hate us (John 15:18–16:4). Jesus commands us to love as He loves, and He is clear that this love means laying down our lives for Him and for one another (John 15:12–13; 1 John 3:16). 

Jesus does not beg us to remain so that He may have crowds around Him (see John Chapter 6 and John 8:30–59), nor is He concerned that offerings diminish and that bloated budgets and campuses cannot be maintained. Jesus is not concerned whether we have to invade our endowments to fund operating deficits (why do we hoard money and yet keep asking for more, more, more?) Jesus desires those who will say, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (John 6:68). 

How can I write these things? Because I know, in some modest measure, the character of the Jesus of the Bible – the Jesus who gives and gives and gives again, whose relationship with His Father, and His love for us, is everything. Can you envision this Jesus hoarding funds in His bank account while people, created in His Father’s image, are hungry, homeless, sick, and hurting? Have we not exchanged the dollar sign for the Cross in our thinking and decision making? 

Do you know any church that obeys 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9? (Pay particular attention to 8:12 – 15). Do you know any church that even talks about this passage? Any church that aspires to it? 

Now I don’t know how you are responding to what I’m writing, but here is the thing, if you aren’t feeling some tension in this, some tension in wanting to know the true Aslan, the true Jesus, as opposed to a caricature, then I have made my point. 

We are called to a pilgrim’s progress, to a journey of knowing Jesus as individuals, as marriages, as families, and as brothers and sisters in Him. However, if we don’t encounter Jesus as Jill encountered Aslan, if we insist that He is a Tame Lion that we can control, then we are deluding ourselves and others. 

For to be sure, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will swallow us up and our lives will never be the same.