Final Paper - Plantinga, Lewis, and Heaven

In the first four chapters of his book "Engaging God's World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living" Mr. Plantinga talks about creation, fall, and redemption. Anyone who is familiar with the Bible will see the connection between the three. God created the earth good. Sin and evil were introduced by the disobediance of Adam and Eve in the garden, and the once good creation was filled with death and suffereing. However, from that very first day of the fall, God made a promise to Adam and Eve of one who would come to restore and redeem. Years later, in Bethlehem, the Son of God is born as a baby boy, whose life and ministry brought healing to hearts scarred by sin, and whose crusifiction is the victory over sin and death.

It is not difficult to understand why Plantinga would choose to address the topics of creation, fall and redemption together, but there is one more chapter that is included with these three. Plantinga begins his book with a chapter titled "Longing and Hope". He talks about some of the joys, hopes and desires that we experiance on this earth but goes on to explain that the beauty and pleasure we can expriance on this earth are nothing compared to the glory we will see when our earthly pilgrimage is over. Basically, the idea of this first chapter is to direct our thougts toward heaven. Why did Plantinga think that is was so important to start by considering heaven? I would guess it is because heaven is the fulfillment of the creation, fall, redemption story. Although we can only see heaven "through a glass darkly" as the apostle Paul puts it (I Corinthians 13:12 KJV) we will one day experiance it in its full glory. Our longing for that day helps us understand the purpose of creation, fall and redemption, and it influences how we will live our lives here on earth.

Sadly, because of our old sinful natures, we often look only at the pleasures this world can offer us rather than "laying up our treasures in heaven." Plantinga uses a quote from C.S. Lewis that illustrates this misplaced longing. Lewis declares that when we let our hearts be captured by the things of this earth, we are experiancing a desire that is not too strong, but rather, too weak. We tend to think that we give into temptation because it is to strong to resist, but Lewis says that we give in because we are satisfied with something that cannot even compare to the joy that we should be looking forward to. He gives the example of a child playing in the mud who is unwilling to leave it for a trip to the beach because he does not understand how wonderful the beach will be in comparison. If we are in the right mindset, we will hardly feel the attraction of this world because our hearts will be set on something so much greater.

As I read through several of Lewis' writings, I realized that this theme of heaven appears both subtly and obviously as theme in many of them. Lewis addresses some of the same issues as Plantinga, especially dealing with the effects of the fall, but in the end, heaven is also the hope that he comes back to again and again. I think that this is most clearly expressed in my favorite quote by him that says "Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home." This earth is only a temporary home. We may not become too comfortable with it because we have a home that is much geater with our Father in heaven.

In one of Lewis' pieces, "The Weight of Glory," I found the theme of heaven especially apperant. In this essay, Lewis gave many illustrations and ideas that relate to the christian life and help us to understand what it is to look forward to heaven. He starts with the example of a schoolboy studying Greek. The schoolboy, says Lewis, has no way to understand the joy he will later find from reading Greek poetry. His only experiance is the present struggle of studying the language, but he has the hope that in the end, his study will bring him to a place of enjoyment. Lewis makes a comparison to the Christan life, by acknowledging that we cannot now see the joy of heaven, but we can hope for it, and we can grow in that hope more and more by lives of faithful obediance.

In this piece, Lewis also uses the example of a starving man. Although the man's hunger does not prove that he will get bread, Lewis suggests that it does prove that bread exists. If bread did not exist, the man's body would not need it for sustainance, and he could not therefor hunger for it. Connecting this to the Christian life, Lewis believes that our longing for the kind of joy that we cannot experiance here promises us that this joy does exist, it is simply beyond our reach. This longing is expressed in Psalm 63 where the psalmist says, "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is." He understands that this present life holds nothing that can truly satisfy, and that it is in heaven, when we experiance perfect fellowship with God that we will be satisfied.

From the Weight of Glory, Lewis also brings up the idea that eternity begins now. Although, on this earth, we are unable to experince fellowship with God perfectly, it is something we can strive for and it gives us the beginings of that heavenly joy. We must realize, too, that our fellow human beings will also exist eternally. None of us will simply cease to exist when we die. We are all on the road leading to either eternal life or eternal death. Lewis puts it this way, "But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit-immortal horrors or everlasting splendors." This makes us aware of the seriousness of our actions on this earth. We are not simply interacting with the neighbors of our earthly life, but possibly with our neighbors of all eternity. This gives us some extra motivation to live our earthly lives with the goal of helping eachother along the difficult road to heaven.

I very much enjoyed the glimpses of heaven that C.S. Lewis brought out in his "Weight of Glory", however, there is another work that I prefer in connection to the topic of heaven. This is his seven book series about the fictional land of Narnia. I prefer the Narnia books to the "Weight of Glory" because, taken together, they give the complete picture, not only of heaven, but of creation, fall, and redemption with heaven as their goal. C.S. Lewis said himself that he did not write this series only for the purpose of connecting it to scripture, and we cannot take the comparison too far without finding some errors. However, Lewis does a really beautiful job of showing the relationship of Christ to his church throughout the history of the world and into eternity.

There are some ideas especially from The Last Battle that help us to understand the idea of heaven as it relates to life here on this earth. The Last Battle is the story of the end of Naria. It begins when a false Aslan decieves the people, and they are pursuaded to believe that he is the same as Tash, the cruel god of a different nation. The few who are not decieved are outnumbered, and most of them are killed. This story runs a parallel to the rise of the Antichrist and the final judgment spoken of in Revelation. In the end, Aslan calls the giant named Time to bring the world to its end, and all the creatures who love Aslan are brought into his own land, which, of course, is a picture of heaven.

There were several things I liked about Lewis illustration of the end of time. One is that it helps us to realize that God really is in charge of the end. In the story, Aslan calls on Time to bring the world to its end. Just so, we know that time is only a creature of God. It does not limmit him or bind him in any way. Time serves God and his purpose, and it does not have its begining or its ending outside his will. In fact, in Revelation, God calls himself Alpha and Omega-the begining and end of all things.

I also appreciated the way in which Lewis describes Aslan's country (a picture of heaven.) It is described as beautiful and colorful, but also as something that cannot be quite understood without personally eperiancing it. I Corinthians tells us of heaven that "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." We know that heaven will be wonderful and beautiful, and that the glory of God will be there, but while we are yet on this earth, we cannot fully know what it will be like.

There is one more quote from the end of "The Last Battle" that I think really helps us to understand how the joy of heaven will be perfect and complete, and how we will not wish for the things of our earthly life anymore. After watching the end of Narnia, Lucy is sad and begins to cry for what she believes is lost to her. But she is told by one of her companions, "You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy. All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures,have been drawn into the rea Narnia through the door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream." What we can understand from this is that heaven will be so much greater and more wonderful than anything this earthly life can offer, because this life is only the picture of a reality. In heaven, we will be free of our sins, free of suffering and sorrow. Revelation 21: 4 tells us, "And God shal wipe aay all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any pain: for the former things are passed away." The only things that will be missing in heaven are sin and sorrow. We will no longer feel the effects of the fall. Our sinful nature will be completely defeated. All this is cause not for sorrow, but for joy. Who could miss the pleasant inns of their jouney when they finally reach their destination and are home at last?


Bibliography

Holy Bible KJV. N.p.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print.

Lewis, C.S. The Last Battle. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1956. Print

Lewis, C.S. "The Weight of Glory." Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford. 8 June 1941. Lecture.

Plantinga, Cornelius. Engaging God's World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living . Grandrapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002. Print