Many people would be surprised to know of an important similarity between the Islamic jihadist Osama bin Laden and the Christian apologist C.S. Lewis. That important similarity is that both men wanted society to be based on the word of God. Of course, they each had their own different collection of writings which they considered to be the word of God. Osama had the Koran and C.S. had the Bible.
In Osama's Letter to America which he wrote after the attacks on 9/11 he explains why al-Qaeda attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. Some of the examples he lists, such as the decades long blind U.S. support for Israel and the arming of Israel with powerful deadly American weapons which they then use to kill Muslim men, women and children and to take the land from the Palestinians as well as U.S. support for brutal Middle Eastern dictators, are real and ture injuries and injustices. Any objective person knows the U.S. politicians who are responsible for these injustices were, and are, in fact waging war against the Palestinians and many other Muslims. Osama blamed the American people for these atrocities because he mistakenly believed that American democracy is actually a democracy instead of a plutocracy which is controlled by soulless politicians who live in fear of Israel and its powerful lobby and who prostitute America and her people for their own political careers.
Osama loses all rationality when he writes, "What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you? (1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam." He then drones on with one supposition after another on about why Islam is the true religion and why the Koran is the word of God. He is so subjective in his examination of the Koran that he believes the Koran is such a divine book that no one could ever produce a book of as high quality as the Koran. The Koran itself makes several challenges such as this. One is found at Surah 17:88 which teaches, "Verily, though mankind and the jinn should assemble to produce the like of this Qur'an , they could not produce the like thereof though they were helpers one of another." (Jinn are mythical creatures found in the Koran which are supposed to be evil spirits. This makes clear how useless and anti-God-given reason the Koran is.)
Next he attacks America for separating religion from politics. He writes, "You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator."
If Osama had been open minded and had embraced his God-given reason instead of ancient myths and ignorant Islamic superstitions he would see the irony in his condemnation of America for not mixing religion and politics. The reality is, America does mix religion and politics, just not Osama's Islam. American politicians follow the Jewish Torah in relation to Israel. For example Isaiah 60:10-12 states regarding Israel, "And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." U.S. politicians are very busy ministering to Israel. And they are very generous in the huge amounts of cash they give to the Jewish state at the expense of the American people.
Osama believed the world should be ruled by the Koran and Shariah. C.S. Lewis believed it should be ruled by the Bible.
In his landmark book, Mere Christianity , (For a point by point refutation of Mere Christianity read An Answer to C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity .) C.S. makes it very clear he believed society should be based on the Bible. In Book III under Section 3, Social Morality, he lets us know this in no uncertain terms. He claims the New Testament "gives us a pretty clear hint of what a fully Christian society would be like." This shows he did not know his Bible as well as he pretended to. If he did, he would know the Christian society the Apostles are said to have set-up is nothing but rank Communism. Acts 4:34-5:11 makes this very evident. This part of the Bible tells the story of Christians selling all of their property and going to Peter with the cash. They would give all of the proceeds from the sale of their homes and property to God via Peter and then, it appears, he would divide it up among the faithful as they needed it. They were probably persuaded to do this because they falsely believed what the Bible claims Jesus said at Luke 9:27 among many other places: "But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God." This would probably make many who heard it and who heard of it believe Jesus was coming back within their lifetimes. So why not sell the house and join the Christian commune/cult? Jesus might arrive on the very next cloud!
However, one Christian husband tried to hold back some of his cash for himself and his wife and lied to Peter when he asked him if what he was giving him was the full amount he and his wife received from the sale of their home. God killed him. As the story goes, some Christian men took his body to bury it. While they were gone, the dead man's wife went before Peter not knowing about her husband's fate, and lied to him about the amount of money they sold their home for. God killed her, too! The Bible god seems like he'd be more at home with Joe Stalin than with George Washington!
Describing what a Christian society would be like, C.S. writes, "It tells us that there are to be no passengers or parasites: if man does not work, he ought not to eat. Every one is to work with his own hands, and what is more, every one's work is to produce something good: there will be no manufacture of silly luxuries and then of sillier advertisements to persuade us to buy them." (So much for a free market!) "And there is to be no 'swank' or 'side,' no putting on airs. To that extent a Christian society would be what we now call Leftist. On the other hand, it is always insisting on obedience -- obedience (and outward marks of respect) from all of us to properly appointed magistrates, from children to parents, and (I am afraid this is going to be very unpopular) from wives to husbands. Thirdly, it is to be a cheerful society: full of singing and rejoicing, and regarding worry or anxiety as wrong. Courtesy is one of the Christian virtues; and the New Testament hates what it calls 'busybodies.'"
If this doesn't describe a cult, I don't know what does! It sounds too much like Jonestown where 918 followers of the Christian clergyman Jim Jones committed mass suicide and/or were murdered by their church's "magistrates" and leadership. All cults demand obedience, the surrender of your will and common sense to the clergy/leaders. The only true protection from cults is to never stop using our God-given reason. Of course, if we do that, we will stop believing, or never start believing, the ludicrous teachings of the "revealed" religions. After all, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all cults that just happen to be either believed by or tolerated by the majority of people. To show how true this is, think of someone coming up to you today who is Chinese and they tell you that God has chosen them, the Chinese people, "above all people that are upon the face of the Earth." Would you believe him or her? Or how about a pregnant teenager telling you she's pregnant with the son of God, or an Arab showing you a manuscript that he claims an angel brought to him directly from God, would you believe them? Of course not! Your reason won't let you. And if you objectively apply that same reason to the "revealed" religions, you won't believe them, either.
Regarding obedience from children to their parents, I suppose Lewis might agree with the Bible teachings that disobedient children should be put to death by the government/cult/community, such as Leviticus 20:9 demands. It instructs, "For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him." And Jesus backs this up in Matthew 15:4-6 by calling the Jews "hypocrites" for not following through with this cruel, insane and deadly teaching. Thus in Lewis' Christian utopia, children who curse their parents would be put to death as Bible-based punishment. (If America was under Shariah crimes like this, particularly against women, would be common place.)
It is also apparent from this paragraph that Lewis buys into the inferior position into which the Bible places women. He promotes the idea that wives should be obedient to their husbands and "show outward marks of respect" to them. It's not clear if he's calling on them to bow down before their superior husbands or just to genuflect before them as "an outward mark of respect." The Stepford Wives comes to mind.
When Lewis states that such a Christian society would be "a cheerful society," I can't believe the cheerfulness could possibly be genuine or deep. It would probably be more along the lines of the empty and hollow smiling Moonies.
One part of the New Testament which would be a fly in the ointment of C.S.'s Christian cure-all of a Christian government and society is Romans 13:1-7, which reads, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour." Based on this Bible teaching, the powers that be and the authorities are in their positions because God put them there. It is therefore our duty to obey them with fear! Based on this twisted Christian "logic," who is C.S. to change the current form of government to a Christian Bible-based government? This Biblical teaching seems contrary to the practice of voting since it may remove someone who is "ordained of God" from their position of power. This also makes clear that according to this Bible teaching, America's Founders and everyone who took part in the American Revolution are now suffering "damnation" for not only resisting the established government, but for violently overthrowing it. This Bible teaching really puts a damper on the Fourth of July! But it does make it easier to understand why the government gives huge tax breaks to "revealed" religions!
A Christian nation, as history shows us, would have to do away with the constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and a free press. The Constitution cannot keep people free from Christian/Islamic/Jewish religious enslavement. As the Deist Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Where then is our republicanism to be found? Not in our constitution certainly, but merely in the spirit of our people."
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