After my eloquent dinner of Easy Mac, Star Kist tuna and a pear, I walked to the park down near the lake. Between phone calls from Stan,
I finished reading C.S. Lewis’s The Problem of Pain. Most of his writing I’ve read has been very good and provides a clear explanation of important Scriptural Doctrines, but he seemed to drift slightly from God’s Word in his chapter about animal pain. It appears that science slightly influenced Lewis’s strong stance on the with regards to his interpretation of Genesis. On page 137, he writes,
The origin of animal suffering could be traced, by earlier generations, to the Fall of man – the whole world was infected by the uncreating rebellion of Adam. This is now impossible, for we have good reason to believe that animals existed long before men. Carnivorousness, with all that it entails, is older than humanity.
Last time I checked, Genesis 1:24-31 all occurred on the sixth day of Creation, thus contradicting Lewis’s errant suggestion that “animals existed long before men.” Additionally, if you look simply at Lewis’s choice of words, his assumption makes no sense. First, he said it is impossible that Adam’s rebellion infected the whole world. Then he gives as a reason for that the notion that there is “good reason to believe” animals came before men. My friends, Lewis has no grounds for taking what he feels is a “good reason to believe” and turning it into a suggestion that God’s clear, inerrant Truth is impossible, could not have occurred.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
1 John 4:1-3 NKJV
I do not post this quote from John in order to suggest that C.S. Lewis is a false prophet or is from the Devil. Rather, I encourage you to test everything you read with what the Bible teaches, as it is God’s Word that is a foundation for our lives, He is our rock and fortress. Men distort God’s word, desiring to have their ears tickled (2 Timothy 4:3-4), while God’s Truths are everlasting (c.f. Psalm 119:160).
