I’ve always liked CS Lewis, I’ve admired his way of writing, his level of thought, and I’ve always had some reservations about him saying “Jesus was wrong.” So I found the source of the claim, because I wanted to read it for myself.
Here is some of what I found.
In 1960 he wrote a book, “The World’s Last Night: And Other Essays”. In the book, he asks the question, “What if last night was the world last night – Jesus returns today?”
I’ve not read the whole book, but the ideas contemplated are most interesting! He deals for several enjoyable pages on the idea of life being discovered on other planets and our interaction with other beings. He concludes:
The supposed threat [of life on other planets] is clearly directed against the
doctrine of the Incarnation, the belief that God of God
"for us men and for our salvation came down from
heaven and was . . . made man." (page 83)
And from there he goes on to develop five points of interesting speculation about these ‘other beings’ interacting with us as fallen beings in need of a savior. I do him a disservice by quoting only select passages but this seems, to sum up his treatise on ‘other beings’:
What we believe always remains intellectually possi-
ble; it never becomes intellectually compulsive. I have
an Idea that when this ceases to be so, the world will be
ending. We have been warned that all but conclusive
evidence against Christianity, evidence that would de-
ceive (If it were possible) the very elect, will appear
with Antichrist.
And after that there will be wholly conclusive
evidence on the other side.
But not, I fancy, till then on either side.
From here he abandons the idea of ‘other aliens’ and concentrates on the second coming of Jesus. Rather than summarizing such noble thoughts that Lewis develops I’ll copy him:
.HERE are many rea-
sons why the modern Christian and even the modern
theologian may hesitate to give to the doctrine of
Christ's Second Coming that emphasis which was
usually laid on it by our ancestors. Yet it seems to me
impossible to retain in any recognisable form our belief
in the Divinity of Christ and the truth of the Christian
revelation while abandoning, or even persistently neg-
lecting, the promised, and threatened, Return. "He
shall come again to judge the quick and the dead/' says
the Apostles' Creed. "This same Jesus/' said the angels
in Acts, "shall so come in like manner as ye have seen
him go into heaven." "Hereafter/' said our Lord him-
self (by those words inviting crucifixion) , "shall ye
see the Son of Man . . . coming in the clouds of
heaven." If this is not an integral part of the faith once
given to the saints, I do not know what is. In the follow-
ing pages I shall endeavour to deal with some of the
thoughts that may deter modern men from a firm belief
in, or a due attention to, the return or Second Coming
of the Saviour. I have no claim to speak as an expert in
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THE WORLD S LAST NIGHT
any of the studies involved, and merely put forward the
reflections which have arisen in my own mind and have
seemed to me (perhaps wrongly) to be helpful. They
are all submitted to the correction of wiser heads.
The grounds for modern embarrassment about this
doctrine fall into two groups, which may be called the
theoretical and the practical. 1 will deal with the theo-
retical first.
Following page 93 he develops several ideas about the Second Coming from the doubter’s and naysayers point of view.
Then on page 97 comes the quote where Lewis supposedly calls Jesus wrong. He is postulating about what the doubters might say:
But there is worse to come. "Say what you like/* we
shall be told, "the apocalyptic beliefs of the first Chris-
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THE WORLD S LAST NIGHT
tians have been proved to be false. It is clear from the
New Testament that they all expected the Second
Coming in their own lifetime. And, worse still, they
had a reason, and one which you will find very embar-
rassing. Their Master had told them so. He shared, and
indeed created, their delusion. He said in so many
words, 'this generation shall not pass till all these things
be done/ And he was wrong. He clearly knew no more
about the end of the world than anyone else."
End of quote – these are not Lewis’ words, but a conjured quote for the sake of argument.
Lewis acknowledges these are difficult verses and then goes on to show how they are basic proof that the New Testament writers and their copyists were honest men:
And unless later copyists were equally honest
they would never have preserved the (apparently) mis-
taken prediction about "this generation** after the pas-
sage of time had shown the (apparent) mistake. This
passage (Mark 13:30-32) and the cry "Why hast thou
forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34) together make up the
strongest proof that the New Testament is historically
reliable. The evangelists have the first great characteris-
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tic of honest witnesses: they mention facts which are,
at first sight, damaging to their main contention.
I don’t see from these passages where Lewis thought Jesus was ‘wrong’. Lewis understands us to be fallen people, Jesus is Incarnate, and he’s coming again.
The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that
we do not and cannot know when the world drama will
end. The curtain may be rung down at any moment:
say, before you have finished reading this paragraph. Page 105
The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that
we do not and cannot know when the world drama will
end. The curtain may be rung down at any moment:
say, before you have finished reading this paragraph.
Lewis understands the Bible says we too are to be ready for his coming at any time:
Note the therefore. Precisely because we cannot pre-
dict the moment, we must be ready at all moments. Our
Lord repeated this practical conclusion again and again;
as if the promise of the Return had been made for the
sake of this conclusion alone. Watch, watch, is the bur-
den of his advice. I shall come like a thief. You will not,
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THE WORLD S LAST NIGHT
I most solemnly assure you you will not, see me ap-
proaching. If the householder had known at what time
the burglar would arrive, he would have been ready for
him. If the servant had known when his absent em-
ployer would come home, he would not have been
found drunk in the kitchen. But they didn't Nor will
you. Therefore you must be ready at all times. The
point is surely simple enough. The schoolboy does not
know which part of his Virgil lesson he will be made to
translate: that is why he must be prepared to translate
any passage. The sentry does not know at what time an
enemy will attack, or an officer inspect, his post: that is
why he must keep awake all the time. The Return is
wholly unpredictable. There will be wars and rumours
of wars and all kinds of catastrophes, as there always are.
Things will be, in that sense, normal, the hour before
the heavens roll up like a scroll. You cannot guess it. If
you could, one chief purpose for which it was foretold
would be frustrated. And God's purposes are not so
easily frustrated as that. One's ears should be closed
against any future William Miller in advance. The
folly of listening to him at all is almost equal to the folly
of believing him. He couldn't know what he pretends,
or thinks, he knows.
I‘ll quit here – my temptation is to quote the whole book – Lewis is interesting reading.
His lines at the end of the book don’t read like he thought Jesus was wrong:
We always hope that those who so clearly think us cowards or bullies are
ignorant and malicious; we always fear that those who
trust us or admire us are misled by partiality. I sup-
pose the experience of the Final Judgment (which may
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break in upon us at any moment) will be like these lit-
tle experiences, but magnified to the Nth.
For it will be infallible judgment. If it is favorable
we shall have no fear, if unfavorable, no hope, that it is
wrong. We shall not only believe, we shall know, know
beyond doubt in every fibre of our appalled or delighted
being, that as the Judge has said, so we are: neither
more nor less nor other. We shall perhaps even realise
that in some dim fashion we could have known it all
along. We shall know and all creation will know too:
our ancestors, our parents, our wives or husbands, our
children. The unanswerable and (by then) self-evident
truth about each will be known to all.
https://archive.org/stream/worldslastnighta012859mbp/worldslastnighta012859mbp_djvu.txt
