C.S. Lewis On Hell and How to Get There.

In Lewis’s brilliant philosophical look at the problem of pain, as seen from a Scriptural worldview and experienced by each and every one of us, he tackles the issue of Hell and those who choose it as a final destination.  “The pain which alone could rouse the bad man to a knowledge that all was not well, might also lead to a final and unrepented rebellion.  ...Man has freewill and ...all gifts to him are therefore two-edged.  From these premises it follows directly that the Divine labour to redeem the world cannot be certain of succeeding as regards every individual soul.  Some will not be redeemed.”

The doctrine of human freedom, to choose or not to choose {which is, in itself, a choice}, “has the full support of Scripture,” writes Lewis, “and specifically of our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason.  If a game is played, it must be possible to lose it.  If the happiness of a creature lies in self-surrender, no one can make that surrender but himself... and he may refuse.  I would pay any price to be able to say truthfully ‘All will be saved.’  But my reason retorts ‘Without their will, or with it?’  If I say ‘Without their will’ I at once perceive a contradiction.  How can the supreme voluntary act of self-surrender be involuntary?  If I say ‘With their will,’ my reason replies ‘How if they will not give in?’....

This doctrine is one of the chief grounds on which Christianity is attacked as barbarous, and the goodness of God impugned.  ...The problem is not simply that of a God who consigns some of His creatures to final ruin.  ...Christianity, true, as always, to the complexity of the real, presents us with something knottier and more ambiguous-- a God so full of mercy He becomes man and dies by torture to avert that final ruin from His creatures, and who yet, where that heroic remedy fails, seems unwilling... to arrest the ruin by an act of mere power.  I said glibly a moment ago I would pay ‘any price’ to remove this doctrine.  I lied.  I could not pay one thousandth part of the price that God has already paid to remove the fact.  And here is the real problem: so much mercy, yet still there is Hell.”  So much mercy indeed, and yet Hell awaits.  As we’ve often said: Grace always precedes judgment... but when grace is ultimately spurned, judgment will inevitably come!

Of those ‘Lost and Loving It’ {my term}, Lewis say’s, “The demand that God should forgive such a man while he remains what he is, is based on a confusion between condoning and forgiving.  To condone an evil is simply to ignore it, to treat it as if it were good.  But forgiveness needs to be accepted as well as offered if it is to be complete: and a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness....

In the long run the answer to all those who object to the Doctrine of Hell, is itself a question: ‘What are you asking God to do?’  To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help?  But He has done so, on Calvary.  To forgive them?  They will not be forgiven.  To leave them alone?  Alas, I am afraid that is what He does.”  Eternally.  “They enjoy the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved: just as the blessed, forever submitting to obedience, become through all Eternity more and more free.”