The Great Divorce - the Process

C.S. Lewis in his book The Great Divorce discusses the afterlife with a rather unique perspective. he presents the idea that "I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road....Evil can be undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it."

The book talks about the journey of those who have passed from this life into the next. Now, the former fundamentalist side in me screams that the point of salvation is to rest forever in heaven with God so that we don't perish in everlasting torment. After all hell is reserved for those who clearly deserve it and those who just didn't get a chance to hear about Jesus. But the point of salvation rested in the 'transaction' of the recieving. I heard and used the prototypical evangelical question. "If you died tonight, do you know if you'd spend eternity with God?" Or I asked, "if you were standing in front of the pearly gates and God asked you why He should let you into His heaven, what would your answer be?"

These questions scared me. And when I used them on others it scared them too...well, the ones who actually cared about being saved. The ones who blew me off were probably destined for torment, so it was their fault for not being scared.

Now, the current me has changed a bit since then. I've grown to learn that salvation is more a journey of relationship rather than a 1 time obeying of the Gospel. I hear that...they 'obeyed the gospel.' Well, good. Are they still obeying it or was it just that once? In 1 Corinthians 1:18, Paul uses the term 'we are being saved.' He also brings up in 2 Corinthians 2:15. This statement was very intriguing to me because I never thought of it as a process. I dealt with absolutes. Right or wrong...no gray areas. But the idea of the grace that this statement presents is very comforting.

I've grown to learn that salvation is a growing process...a relational process. It is not programmatic nor is it committee based. Evangelism doesn't have to be scary. Unless you don't like people...then it might be scary. But more on evangelism later.

C.S. Lewis presents people as completely imperfect. Not in control. The struggle still present after death with those who have found themselves on the frontiers of heaven. How we hold onto things and think for a moment that we know better. In upcoming blogs I'll be talking about certain characters that are revealed and how I find a bit of myself in most all of them.

I'd love to hear your comments...