First-hand Faith

June 9

Was C. S. Lewis a heretic? By Dr. Jim Denison

The "five second rule" isn't a rule: if you drop food on the floor and it lands on germs, the germs will stick to it immediately. We've been told that lightning never strikes twice in the same place, but the Empire State Building is struck 25 times a year. We don't really use only 10 percent of our brains—MRIs reveal that we use most or all of our brains in one way or another. And being in the cold doesn't cause colds—catching the virus from other people is how we get sick.

In other words, we don't always know what we think we know. This fact was reinforced for me today by an article on the Relevant website: "Six Heretics Who Should Be Banned From Evangelicalism."
According to the writer:

• C. S. Lewis was an inclusivist (believing that people can go to heaven without knowing about Jesus).
• Martin Luther apparently rejected an inerrantist view of Scripture.
• St. Augustine rejected a literalist view of the Genesis creation account.
• William Barclay was a universalist (believing everyone will eventually be in heaven).
• John Stott thought that the unrepentant might cease to exist rather than spending eternity in hell.
• Billy Graham once said in an interview that people who don't know Jesus' name can be saved by responding to the only light they have.

The writer's tongue-in-cheek point is that we can be too swift to brand people as heretics. He's right.

C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity changed my life when I first encountered it in high school. After years of intellectual struggles with Christianity, I was encouraged greatly by his reasoned approach to the faith. I don't agree with Lewis' belief in Purgatory, but I remain grateful to God for his mind and influence.

I disagree with Martin Luther on church polity, but admire his wisdom and courage. I disagree with St. Augustine on infant baptism, but marvel at his genius. I disagree with William Barclay's non-literalist view of the virgin birth and his universalism, but have found his commentaries to be extremely helpful with biblical history and context. I disagree with John Stott on hell, but aspire to be more like him in character and spirit. I disagree with Billy Graham on the book of Revelation, but will always admire his godly character and heart.

The Corinthian congregation's immaturity caused Paul to give them "milk, not solid food," I Corinthians 3:2). Milk is digested food, nutrition taken second-hand.

So it is with some of us—our faith is the product of our pastor's sermons, Bible study teacher's theology, or the last book we read. By contrast, the Berean congregation "received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so" (Acts 17:11). As I said to every church I pastored, measure everything I say by what God says. Seek meat, not milk.

Is yours a first-hand faith today?


Dr. Denison's encouragement to believers is sound. We must make our faith a 'first-hand' faith that emanates from our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is the Solid Rock on whom we may build our lives for time and eternity. If we endeavor to build our future on words that express the opinions of mere men we will place ourselves on a very shaky foundation.

As we establish our heart-felt beliefs, we must be sure that we do so with sound teaching and prayer as part of the building blocks of our commitment to the Lord and we must be sure that the conclusions we reach are those that His Holy Spirit within us have sanctioned to be the bulwark of our belief system.

We would not be "like winds of the sea, driven and tossed," James 1:6, but we would be like the patriarchs described in Hebrews 11:

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”[a] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[c] 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.[d]
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

May we stand unwavering on the Solid Rock of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and arisen to glory in order that “we may live and move and have our being, “Acts 17:28, fully established in the One who is “the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE,” John 14:6.

May our commitment to Him be unshakable through time and may it be our portal to Glory.