C.S. Lewis had a great gift for calling things by their right names. Sometimes that meant stating a truth starkly so as to underscore its importance. This gift was much in evidence when he described Christianity as “a fighting religion.” These days, “news” organizations call everything some kind of “war on…” this or that.
Lewis’ word was not, of course, a literal call to arms, but rather a forceful statement of Christianity’s claim to be the source of ultimate truth. So, then people must make a choice to either accept or reject Christianity’s truth-claims.
D.L. Moody, the evangelist, possessed a similar gift for framing memorable phrases as the prelude to a thought-provoking conclusion. In the 19th century, he offered a set of reflections that complement what Lewis meant when describing the necessity and challenge of choice as it relates to Christian belief:
My friends, let us look this question in the face. If there is anything at all in the religion of Christ, give everything for it. If there is nothing in it—if it is a myth, if our mothers who have prayed over us have been deceived, if the praying people of the last 2,000 years have been deluded—let us find it out. The quicker the better.
If there is nothing in the religion of Christ, let us throw it over and eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. If there is no devil to deceive us, no hell to receive us, if Christianity is a sham, let us come out and say so.
I hope to live to see the time when there will be only two classes in this world—Christians and unbelievers—those who take their stand bravely for Him and those who take their stand against Him. This idea of men standing still and saying, “Well, I don’t know, but I think there must be something in it,” is absurd. If there is anything in it, there is everything in it!
In the gospel of John, Christ said “I am the way, the truth and the life—no man comes to the Father, but by me.” Lewis and Moody, each in their own way, said that we go wrong if we lose sight of this essential truth. Everything stands or falls on the basis of our response to Christ.
Reading Moody’s message, I think of our Lord’s word when He proclaimed, rather forcefully: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold or hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth -Revelation 3:15-16
Grace & Peace, John P