Last week I read a book titled “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis (the author of Narnia), it is a good introduction for people who want to adopt Christianity but sceptic about it. To give an objective point of view, let me tell you a little about my belief’s background so you can judge the book yourself. I, myself is a Christian since I was born but I never really participate in Church or call myself a good Christian. I went to Church at elementary school and stopped going there routinely ever since, in the past five years I went to Church less than five times a year. But I do read the Bible, I have read it for over 4 times since junior high school trying to revive the belief I had.

I do however belief in God as Creator of the Universe but there are so many unanswered questions that made me sceptical about my beliefs, questions such as “if God knows it all, then surely He knows where we’ll end up afterlife in Heaven or hell. Then what’s the point of living if our future is known already? It made me feel like a lamb going to slaughter or paradise.” I have been searching for the answer to that question, hoping to find it somewhere for years. Many times I have doubt and conflicting belief about Christianity and I still do now, but in a different way of thinking.

In his book, Lewis guide us to think deeper into Christianity from fundamental to applicative thinking. He elaborate what Christianity is and isn’t in a logical point of view to find the truth. He start with the Law of Human Nature where there is right and wrong, not from social perspective but because it is the fundamental to all of our belief and action, however we are breaking them in life. He also explain Christian’s many way of worshipping God, but he rather think it as a variety instead of one being wrong and the other right.

The first two book (more like chapters actually) he discuss the basic thinking about Christianity, the law of nature and what Christian believe. It require some time for me to think about his explanation and come into conclusion, but it is logically accepted. As you read to book three, Lewis explained about Christian behaviour in daily life, he is talking about how Christianity apply to our life. He talks about psychoanalysis, sexual morality, marriage, forgiveness, faith, hope, charity, and the great sin (pride). He explained that pride is the most evil among other, how it correlate with competitiveness.

“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others.”

In book four, Lewis talks about the different of making and begetting, God made man and beget Christ, just like man made a statue and beget a son. He explained why we owe everything we have to our Creator, just like a child asking his mother money to buy her a birthday present. Of course the mother is pleased by her child action, but the resources actually comes from her. He also talk about pretending to be a good man could turn us into a real good man, the price of being a Christian, etc.

And to answer to my long-unanswered question, he explain that God is not limited by a time frame like us. He doesn’t see past, present, and future like we do because He is able to see anywhere He want to. This might be a hard concept for me to rephrase, but think of us like a two dimensional object trying to understand three dimensional world. God is present in our past, present, and future all in one time. So He is not intervening our action and future, but perhaps I could say that He is able to observe them, and know what will happen to us in the future even when we are limited by our time frame to see our own future. You might want to read Lewis’ word in Mere Christianity where he explain it better than I do here.

C.S. Lewis bring a fresh and logical perspective in approaching Christianity and I would recommend anyone from any religion to read this book, not merely to understand about Christianity but to understand the fundamental truth of life.