Cover Page
The Staff and Sword Ministry
February 5, 2006
MOVIE REVIEW b y : Chuck-JOHNEL and Nancy-TONI Several brethren asked me to do a review of the movie, "The Chronicles of Narnia", and so although I've not done a movie review for some years now, I decided it was worth the effort. Just before seeing the movie I read a report a brother (Dono) in the Lord sent me in which he considered the life and works of C. S. Lewis, Mother Teresa and of the "Star Wars" movies. What I knew about the life and works C. S. Lewis would not fill a thimble so I had no way to weigh the comments by brother Dono. But, inadvertently, we acquired a book on the life of C.S. Lewis (published by "The Leaders in Action" Series entitled, "Not a Tame Lion " by Terry W. Cjlaspey). Over the years I've read several of the books published by "Leaders in Action" and found them to be balanced and well done. So, let us take a look at the issues. Dono started by writing: (Quote) "As a youngster I was never taken in or caught up by comic books. 1 never bought or became addicted to them like some of the city kids I knew...They were boring and had no lasting value to me. Reality and truth always had meaning and worth. Fiction was just fiction. However, I still consider parables a vital means of teaching truth. Webster's dictionary defines a parable as: "A short . fictitious narrative from which a moral or spiritual truth is drawn, as in the parables of Christ." ... My faith in God began when I. was a very young person. Respect and fear of God were
always with me. Knowing truth has been my persistent goal. Christ Jesus, my ideal, is Holiness, Perfection, Beauty, Excellence, Truth, and my loving Savior. I was most fortunate to have been born in 1929 on a farm and to grow up during the 30's and 40's. It was a haven for learning and growth in a Godly atmosphere without all the distractions, encumbrances and influences of the world that are unnatural and false that is so evident today. I was surrounded by reality not fantasy. In my daily life, I did not have to differentiate what was true or false since I lived in the real world, not in make-believe. 1 did not read fantasy books to create my world...I came to understand right from wrong (good from bad) and sin...(and) when I was out of God's order by a loving discipline from my parent or from an inner knowing from my Lord... We said our daily prayers morning and evening and at meal time with folded hands. As we prayed for God's blessings, we also gave thanks to God for all He had given to us. Sunday was a day of rest and church was always attended...
Page 2 The Staff and Sword Ministry February 5, 2006_ ) y Dono started b writin uote continued C. S Lewis said: "Either we are rational spirits obliged forever to obey the absolutes values of the Tao (moral order), or else we are mere nature to be kneaded and cut into new shapes for the pleasures of masters who must, by hypothesis, have no motive but their own `natural' i mpulses." ( Unquote) Here Dono quotes from C. S. Lewis' "The Abolition of Man. " Then Dono writes: (Quote) "1 do not question what Lewis is saying.. .as it is beyond my limited intelligence, but I do object to his belief in Taoism which is defined as: One of the pr inciple religions... of China.. WHICH teaches that happiness could be acquired through obedience to the requirements of'man 's nature in according with the Tao or Way, the basic principle of all nature. " Then Dona quotes an article by David Cloud which asserts that Lewis was a "Universalist"
based on his writing about his book (Narnia) whereby Dono concludes, writing: (Quote) "Lewis is teaching damnable false doctrine here, and it is even more wicked, in that it is intended for the indoctrination of children..." (Quote) Dono goes on to state, briefly: (Quote) "C. S. Lewis denied the biblical doctrine of an eternal fiery hell, claiming instead, that hell is a state of mind. C. S. Lewis believes that Theistic evolution is taking place...C. S. Lewis believed that man is an animal...C. S. Lewis believed there may be creatures in other worlds, and they may be more like God than man. ... C. S. Lewis believed that man evolved from animals and wrote, (Quote Lewis)"For long centuries God perfected the animal form which was to become the vehicle of humanity and the image of Himself." (Unquote Lewis) C. S. Lewis believed the Bible contains myths, (Quote Lewis) "I have therefore no difficulty accepting, say, the view of those scholars who tell us the account of Creation in Genesis is derived from earlier Semitic stories which were Pagan and mythical." Dono comments, "Lewis reveals his unbelief by discounting God's Word as Truth and Holy Spirit inspired. He is again caught up in fairy tales. C. S. Lewis believed that Christ fulfilled paganism. ( Quoting Lewis) "...as I believe, Christ... fulfills both Paganism and Judaism..." Dono writes: C. S. Lewis was an occultist. Without going into to much detail, suffice it to say that Lewis was an occultist. An Albert Dager wrote of Lewis, "He was a Theosophist before he turned to the Anglican Church." Texe Marrs writes, ( Quote) "C.S. Lewis was most fond of expressing a belief in Jesus followed by a clarifying exclamation, "Jesus was the fulfilment of myth". According to
February 5, 2006 Page 3 The Staff and Sword Ministry Lewis, Jesus deservedworship because he Dono: exe Marrs Quote continue was, "the myth that had come true." Dono concludes: "I thank the Holy Spirit for allowing me to expose this lie. I had to override the fear of man and realize that it may make some people that I know to become enemies and that I may lose some friends, but I must remain a friend of Christ at all cost...I do not hate C. S. Lewis as some may suppose, I just find him unreliable to be read or quoted and placed high on a pedestal as though he had something to say. I am not his final judge, but I must judge what he believed and has said. He has great influence on many sincere Christians. When we underestimate Satan's destructive power we can fall victim to his deceptions...." (Unquote Dono)
The Movie: "The Chronicles of Narnia" Based on C. S. Lewis' book Comment b y Chuck-JOHNEL: Some brethren who had read the book, " The Chronicles of Narnia" and who also viewed the movie put out by Disney Productions told me that it was true to the book. We went to see the movie because we heard it has strong Christian content. In fact, Hollywood hated the movie and the Disney people were apologetic about the movie (I heard this on a TV Interview with a Disney executive)who failed to see the strong Gospel content when they ok'd making it. Later Disney appeared to be `embarrassed' when it came out and had a powerful draw of Christians at the box office. In any event, because the Gospel was so evident in the movie Hollywood has totally ignored it not even considering it for best movie, best actors, best script, best anything a total rejection by hell's representatives. Well, the Devil sure hates the movie - that is obvious. The Harry Potter books are flying off the shelves, being encouraged reading in the public school system, the movies get rave reviews by Hollywood. One Christian Librarian we know, had bought the book and after reading it actually burned it - it was that vile and evil. Yet we hear nothing about these books and movies and such from the Christian Watchdogs who seem to go out of their way to go after anything that has a Christian message in it - at least those that have views they do not agree with. WHAT DID WE THINK: Both Nancy-TON! and I watched the movie with some delight. Both of us did NOT like seeing the dwarfs and centaurs in the movie (nor did J.R. Tolkien, Lewis's friend) but the Biblical basis of the movie stood out loud and clear. The witch in the movie was named "Jadis" and the Lion (representing Jesus) was named "Asian." I was curious as to where Lewis got the names and we could find nothing on them anywhere but then Nancy-TON! said, "Take the ".4" away from Asian and add an "I" and you have "The Slain" (speaking of Jesus as the Lamb of God). Then the name of the witch, who clearly represented Satan, which was "Jadis" Nancy-TONI said, "Take away the "i"' add "u "and re-order the words and you have "Judas "C. S. Lewis had taken Jesus as the Iamb slain for our sins and formed the name "Asian" for his story and the name Judas, who
Page 4
The Staff and Sword Ministry
February 5, 2006
The Movie: "The Chronicles of Narnia" - WHAT DID WE THINK: (Continued) betrayed Jesus as inspired by Satan, and farmed the name "Jadis" for his story. The movie, once we got past the drawfs and other mythological creatures, was both soundly Biblical (mostly New Testament) and uplifting, and it stirred me deeply in many parts. The acting was really excellent, the story moved along as a good pace, direction was superb and the story line was right out of the Gospels. We recommend the movie highly as it is filled with Jesus' Love and Light and is equally entertaining as well as suitable for children.
ABOUT C. S. LEWIS HIMSELF In reading about C. S. Lewis' life I found that he came out of a human dungeon as opposed to Dono who was surrounded by loving Christian parents and had a strong Christcentered life - Lewis had little of this and later the opposite kind of influence. (Quotes from the book. " Not A Tame Lion ") "Lewis was born November 29, 1898, the second child of Albert and Florence Lewis...H1s mother, Florence Hamilton, or "Flora" as she was known was a highly intelligent woman. She had earned an honors degree in mathematics at Queens University in Belfast, Ireland, an uncommon achievement for a woman at that time. The Hamilton family tree was made up of a string of clergymen. Flora's grandfather and great grandfather had both been clergymen, the latter attained the office of bishop. His father... became a vicar in the Church of Ireland. ... Lewis was, by his own admission, of a romantic temperament from his earliest days...he had an inconsolable longing he could not understand.. .in the reading of a Beatrix Potter story, `Squirrel Nutkin', an old Icelandic epic...Lewis found he was drawn to these kind of stories. At this time, this was the closest thing to a religious experience he was to have, since the family religion of his childhood meant little to him. This experience, similar to that described by William Wordsworth and Thomas Traherne, was in reality a desire for, and a sense of, the presence of God, though only later in life would this realization dawn upon him." "In Lewis's childhood, in long hours in their rooms, Jack and Warren (his older, by 3 years, brother) imagined a land called "Boxen," where chivalrous frogs came to the aid of King Bunny of Animal-land... Jack Lewis's mother developed stomach cancer and would die when Lewis was 9 years old, of these days he wrote, (Quote) "We lost her gradually as she was gradually
Face 5
The Staff and Sword Ministry
February 5, 2006
ABOUT C. S. LEWIS HIMSELF - ( Quotes from the book. " of A 'tame Lion ") [Continuedl withdrawn from our life into the hands ofnurses and delirium and morphia, and as our whole existence changed into something alien and menacing, as the house become full of strange smells and midnight noises and sinister whispered conversations." (Unquote) His father, Albert, sent his old brother Warren off to school at Mynyard House, leaving Jack alone in his secret world. Though Jack continued to develop Boxen stories, Jack began to spend an increasing amount of time reading...Many of the books he read at this ti me would be considered very advanced for his age, but he digested and enjoyed such books as Gulliver 's Travels, the E. Nesbit stories and even Paradise Lost. Albert's (Jack Lewis's father) beloved brother Joseph died ten days after his wife Flora died. Withdrawn deeply into his own grief, becoming moody and distant, he determined to send Jack to Wynyard...It marked the end of an era in Jack's life. He wrote of this, (Quote Lewis) "With my mother's death all settled happiness, all that was tranquil and reliable, disappeared. from my rife. There was to be much fun, many pleasures, many stabs of joy; but no more of tl^e old security. It was sea and islands now; the great continent had sunk like Atlantis. " (Unquote) Following his mother's death, Jack was abruptly sent off to boarding school in England, It was, according to Lewis, a nightmarish experience, so much so that in his autobiography he referred to the schools as "Belson" (A Nazi death camp). As Warren (Lewis's brother) later put it, (Quote) "With his uncanny flair for making the wrong decision, my father had given up helpless children into the hands of a madman. "(Unquote) Worse of all, the school was marked by cruelty and lack of feeling...Wynward was an unsanitary facility, with only one bathroom and a single washbasin for the entire student body. The headmaster of the school was a cruel tyrant named Robert Capron, who gave ready evidence of mental instability. He practiced discipline and enforced teaching by humiliating the boys and caning them in public. A boy could earn such dire punishment for as small an infraction as refusing to consume the infamously inedible food. Jack and Warren pleaded with their father to remove them... Eventually the father listened to their pleas for help and transferred them, Jack to Campbell College in Belfast for half a term... In this time he came to develop a taste for the arts and good writing. He also discovered the music of the great Romantic composer Richard Wagner and grew to love its transporting power and its 'northernness," the quality of intense longing for the unknown which it evoked.., it was at this time he formed friendships with whom he shared a love of Norse mythology. Jack became increasingly disappointed with his school with its bullying prefect... He
Page 6 The Staff and Sword Ministry February 5, 2006 ABOUT C. S. LEWIS HIMSELF - (Quotes from the book. " Not A Tame Lion ") I Continuedj begged his father to let him study with William Kirkpatrick, his father's old tutor, a man who once helped Warren at a time when his grades were plummeting... As Jack prepared to meet his new tutor, William Kirkpatrick, he met a tall, muscular and shabbily dressed gentleman with a mustache and sideburns on his wrinkled face. From the start he taught Jack that he had no right to have any opinion whatsoever without facts. Such was the teaching style of William T. Kirkpatrick, who would have a profound influence on the life of C. S. Lewis. He was a convinced rationalist, who loved to ferret out
inconsistencies and logical shortcomings. As Warren Lewis once said, "You could not say something about the weather without being pounced on. " Kirkpatrick taught Lewis a love of argument, intellectual disputation, the search for facts, and logical thinking. ...The downside of Kirkpatrick's influence was that it took Jack some years to learn to use his analytical skills in a gentler manner... Kirkpatrick had high
expectations and Jack found the challenge inviting. Two days after his arrival at Bookham he was put straight to work translating Homer, though he had had no previous experience with the Epic dialect of the Greek language... Lewis was a fast learner and quickly memorized the necessary vocabulary...until he could quite literally think in Greek. Probably the greatest gift which Kirkpatrick bestowed on Lewis was that of helping him to learn how to teach himself. ATHEIST: Kirkpatrick was a convinced atheist, and no doubt his influence on Lewis extended to the weakening of Lewis's already tenuous beliefs. Reading Frazer's "The Golden Bough" convinced Jack that all religion should be placed in the category of mythology, he wrote: (Quote) "You ask me my religious views: You know, I think, that
1 believe in no religion. There is absolutely no proof for any of them, and from a philosophical standpoint Christianity is not even the best. All religions, that is all mythology to give them their proper name, are merely man's own invention." (Unquote) Interestingly, at the same time that Lewis was becoming more convinced of the falsity of religion, his fascination with Romanticism was growing. His letters to his friend Arthur were filled with enthusiasm for Norse mythology - the tales of Odin, Thor, and the other gods.. .The young atheist, so confident in the world of materialism, could not suppress the longings that welled up in his heart and caused him to value things which his rationalism could not explain. Lewis wrote, at this time, (Quote) "Such, then was my position, to
care for almost nothing but the gods and heroes, the garden of Hesperides, Lancelot and the Grail, and to believe in nothing but atoms and evolution and military service.
February 5, 2006 The Staff and Sword Ministry Page 7 - (Quotes from the book. " iNot A 'fame ABOUT C. S. L] Lion ") f Continued Chuck-JOHNEL COMMENT : At this point in time I note a considerable difference between Dono's early life and experience and the early life and experience of Jack Lewis. It was obvious that Dono's was wrapped in the gentle world of Christian light and love while Lewis was lodged in a hostile cold world and fed a diet of Atheism by his tutor whom he greatly admired and appreciated. It is perhaps no wonder that in this barrenness of soul that Lewis, already a romantic at heart, escaped into mythology in this environ. Back to the book: "Lewis ended up at Oxford University where he was able to pursue an intellectual challenge, history and the beauties of architecture. This blissful time was cut short when Jack Lewis was called into service to fight in the First World War. Spending fewer than eight weeks at Oxford, Lewis was called up and made a second lieutenant. On November 29, 1917, his nineteenth birthday, Lewis arrived on the battlefields of France and on April 15, 1918 Lewis was wounded during a battle and hospitalized. In this time Lewis, while recovering from his injuries, compiled a collection of his poems. In 1919, during his first year back at Oxford, his work was published. The poems in this collection reflected Lewis's religious views at that time. He wrote, "I believe in no God, least of all one that would punish me for the lusts of the flesh'; but I do believe I have in me a spirit. The trouble about God is that He is like a person who never acknowledges one's letters and so, in time, you come to the conclusion either that He does not exist or that you have got the address wrong." After a time Lewis became a Professor at Oxford University and it was here he met J.R.R. Tolkien, who became one of Lewis' closest friends. It was Tolkien who in discussions with Lewis brought him to accept Christ and Christianity. Tolkien reached Lewis through his love of mythology, showing him how God has spoken through the ancient poets and seers about the coming of Christ before the Bible was ever written. Comment b y Chuck-JOHNEL: For a briefperiod of my life I entertained mythology and remember that in some mythology the theme of God becoming a man, dying for our sins and being resurrected appears in the ancient myths. Tolkien evangelized Lewis and reached hirri through his acceptance of mythology to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior. Thus Lewis would write that Jesus Christ was the myth that became true. This observation was hardly a point to condemn Lewis by as this is where he came from to find and receive Christ in his life. Lewis was a prolific writer producing over 60 works in his lifetime. How many of these were written BEFORE he became a Christian and how many AFTER he became a Christian is not something I know. But I do know that "after" he became a Christian he
Page S
The Staff and Sword Minis
February 5, 2 006
(Quotes from the book. " Not A Tame ABOUT C. S. Li Lion ") [ Continued ] wrote the works that ended up being collected in a book entitled "Mere Christianit y ." Nancy-TONI told me that Charles Colson (former Nixon aid sent to prison for his part in the cover-up) became a Christian after reading Lewis's "Mere Christianit y " and to this day uses this book to reach other prison inmates with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to win them over. THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: As biographer and long-time friend of Lewis, George Sayer wrote this, (Quote) "His idea, as he once explained it to me, was to make it easier for children to accept Christianity when they met it later in life. He hoped that they would be vaguely reminded of the somewhat similar stories that they had read and enjoyed years before, Lewis stated, "I am aiming at a sort of pre-baptism of the child's i magination (In the story, The Chronicles of Narn ia)." On Page 116 of "Not A Tame Lion" it states: (Quote) "Under the pressure of a growing secularism worldwide, many theologians in Lewis' day had given up on the orthodox interpretation of the nature of Jesus. They saw Him as a great teacher and a wise man, but certainly not as God in the flesh. Lewis believed, however, that this was the key doctrine of the Christian faith. Lewis stated, "The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. It is the Grand Miracle. And the purpose of this Grand Miracle is to do for us what we could never do for ourselves..." Perhaps Lewis best summarizes his views on Jesus Christ in his response to the important question, "What are we to make of Christ?" Lewis replied, "There is no question of what we can make of Him, it is entirely a question of what he intends to make of us. You must accept or reject the story." (Unquote)
Conclusion : I do not believe that Dono saw the movie "The Chronicles of Narnia" and probably never read any of Lewis' written works but based his views on the comments of others who did not like Lewis or who falsely accused him. From what I have read of and by Lewis, I find no fault in the man but have compassion for his early life experience that was pretty dark and depressing. I'm in no position to make a judgment of his written works in that I've not read them nor would I presume to judge at all; but from what I have read I see that Lewis wrote like one who knew and loved Jesus. More. I was moved by the movie ("The Chronicles of Narnia") because the author, Lewis, touched on Jesus Christ in a way that only one who loves Him can do. I love Jesus and my soul resonated with Lewis's portrayal of Christ via the character Asian. Only God can see the heart of a man or woman, but from what I've seen in the movie, "The Chronicles of Na rn ia" and in this book about Lewis I see a brother in Christ. Lewis died in the 1960's. End of movie review. lal Cl-t^tsia ^v"