The Great Divorce

'But what of the poor [people] who never get into [heaven] at all?'

'Everyone who wishes it does. Never fear. There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.'

-C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

I've been thinking about C.S. Lewis' book The Great Divorce, which I've been almost done with for a while now. It's a vision of heaven and hell, which is interesting, but it's mostly valued because it's a fascinating insight into Lewis' eschatology and soteriology.

All throughout the book there is this idea of dragging people kicking and screaming to heaven. I mean, not literally, but that's the idea. Supposedly the people in heaven try over and over and over again to convince the people in hell ("ghosts") to come to heaven, but it's extremely rare that they stop thinking about themselves and their selfishness long enough to agree. So they get chance after chance, plea after plea, to come and live with the Lord in paradise, but most of them fight it eternally, for various reasons.

Fascinating concepts, really. I don't think heaven and hell will be like that, but since I have no way to know (and also since I'm not anywhere close to the caliber of C.S. Lewis), who am I to argue?

At any rate, it's an interesting idea to apply to what we do as believers on earth.

Cory and I were walking in Hillsboro Village last weekend, with the 70 degree air around us and the sun on our faces. Before I knew what was happening, Cory had stopped walking and started talking to a homeless man on the street. This is not unusual.

But a few minutes into listening to the conversation, I realized Cory had met this guy, Mike, previously, when he had taken him to Walgreens or something. So Mike started to tell Cory he needed to get to a hotel that night...or something. The conversation wasn't really clear. But the main thing is that Cory asked Mike if he would meet up somewhere later that day, so that he could give him a ride to his hotel. Mike said yeah.

Later that night I get a text from Cory that Mike never showed up. And I found myself really sad, really worried about Mike and where he was going to sleep. I thought about Cory's question - Can I pick you up and take you to your hotel? All Mike had to do to get off the street that night was show up, but he didn't, for whatever reason. It reminded me of The Great Divorce, of the people in heaven just begging the people in hell to come with them.

A famous atheist named Penn Jillette recorded a video once about a man who gave him a Bible. It's been played around Fellowship a couple times and every time I see it my jaw drops. At the end of the video, this is what he says:

"I don't respect people that don't proselytize, I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there's a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it's not worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward...how much do you have to hate someone to NOT proselytize? How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you, and you didn't believe it -- that truck was bearing down on you -- there's a certain point where I'd tackle you, and this is more important than that." -Penn Jillette

I want to be the kind of Christian that loves people so much that I beg them to come with me.