Legitimized syncretism under the guise of Christian unity: This phrase describes what is happening today among evangelicals, and it is a key to understanding the destruction that C. S. Lewis has brought to Biblical Christianity.
The Gospel is the ONE Gospel—it’s not one of many. Under the guise of Christian unity, Lewis has brought in syncretism—many gospels. For instance, he believed in purgatory (a Roman Catholic invention), which necessarily follows from another gospel—a form of Pelagianism. This view holds that one must be purified to come into the presence of the living God, but purgatory is not by the righteousness of Christ. That is another gospel, but Lewis doesn’t have any problem holding and promoting that view. That’s one reason why people who follow Lewis can blithely become Roman Catholics (e.g. Peter Kreeft, Sheldon Vanauken, Thomas Howard, Joseph Pearce) and can become syncretists with Eastern religions (e.g. Dom Griffiths).
Lewis also preaches that God speaks through myths and that pagan myths are actually precursors to the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ. He believes in universal revelation. And he extols George MacDonald, whom he called his “master,” who believed that eventually all will be saved—even Satan.
The gospel that C. S. Lewis preached was not the same Gospel that Paul preached. This is why I consider C. S. Lewis so dangerous for Biblical Christianity.
