Here' s a little intellectual candy cane for the Christmas season. A piece that C.S. Lewis wrote some 73 years ago, which was lost until last year. As such you will have to excuse the computerised voice/text reader used here, but enjoy the brand-new material! See notes below...
(4:41, 9:53) See Lewis' Moral Law summary here: [ Ссылка ]
(6:44) “The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed...Man is on the Bench & God in the Dock." (God in the Dock,1948).
(7:29) “The astronomers hold out no hope that this planet is going to be permanently inhabitable. The physicists hold out no hope that organic life is going to be a permanent possibility in any part of the material universe. Not only this earth, but the whole show, all the suns of space, are to run down. Nature is a sinking ship” (On Living in an Atomic Age, 1945, [ Ссылка ]). See also [ Ссылка ]
(8:18) In 1946 British food supplies were more heavily rationed than during the Nazi siege, as now many continents were suffering from droughts, & the prospect of a “global starvation” was in all the newspapers. I should point out, that humanity had not put anywhere near enough CO2 into the air to have any possible effect in 1946 (see Dr. Patrick Michaels on this issue). It turns out that the threat of famine was not quite so bad as thought with big harvests in other regions (ironically world obesity was to be the real future threat). See article below for a taste of the panic:
"14 Feb 1946–FAMINE THREAT TO LIVES OF 1000 MILLION
Foreign Secretary Bevin Tells World Diet Will Be Very Monotonous. Question of Survival. Civilisation at Stake. Food must be the world priority #1. This was the key note of an urgent call to all food producing countries voiced at the United Nation Organization last night. Mr Ernest Bevin led the debate. He appealed to the Governments of the world to wage war on famine, which threatened a 1,000 million lives…"
(8:36) In Britain, with cooking fats & soap still rationed, the nation looked to whale hunting to supply the large shortage. Whale hunting had been suspended for 5 years during WW2, & it was thought the whale stocks would be plentiful. The hunting fleets failure of 1946 describes exceptionally bad weather, a decrease in sightings of whales, a decrease in the age of whales caught, but also the “slimming” of similar aged whales caught - due to some sort of undersea plankton famine occurring in 1946.
“23 March 1946–WHALING SEASON WORST ON RECORD. The first post war whaling season has proved the worst on record. It was expected that the suspension of whaling during the war years would mean that 'the ships would be hardly able to move for whales.' But on the contrary few whales have been found, & they are small & thin. Whale oil now stands at £45 a ton compared with £25 before the war.”
(8:47) The earth vomits out its corrupt inhabitants–see Lev. 18.24-25: “Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things...for the land itself vomits out her inhabitants.” See also Amos 4.7-8 (one field had rain, another...).
The earth groans with old age: “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, & the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; & they will all grow old like a garment” (Heb. 1.11, Psa. 102.26, Isa. 51.6).
The earth is in "travail" as it waits for its ultimate purpose: “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God…for we know that the whole creation groans & travails in pain together until now.”
Famine can also be caused by misuse: “Only the trees which you know are not trees for fruit, you shall destroy & cut them down…” (Deut.20.19).
(8:52) See the 'Abolition of Man' chapter three: [ Ссылка ]
(8:55) Sic Volo Sic Jubeo: Thus I will, thus I command. Let my feelings take reason’s place.
(12:39) See John 6.60-71: So Jesus said to the twelve disciples, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, & we have believed, & have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
(12:43) “...as Jesus ever lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7.25). “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Rom. 8.33-34).
(14:51) "a sign to note": a swaddled baby meant 'loved' (Ezek. 16.4). A baby in an animal trough meant 'hated' ("no place" Luk. 2.7). So the sign was "a loved baby in an unloved position". A similar kind of sign as "Christ crucified" (=chosen by God, rejected by men or 'the Saviour, unsaved' or 'the deliverer, delivered up & handed over').
