CS Lewis, Robert Sloan, and Rahab

This week marked the 74th anniversary of C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, which was released in the United Kingdom on July 7, 1952. Next to the Bible, no book has been as significant in my life as this.

Lewis’s classic work began as talks he gave on the BBC during World War II. They were later collected into separate publications called Broadcast Talks, Christian Behavior, and Beyond Personality. Geoffrey Bles of London then published them together in the book we know as Mere Christianity. In the years since, it has sold more than 3.5 million copies in English alone.

I was given a copy in high school, and it changed my life.

If you’ve heard my story, you know that I grew up in a loving home but one with no spiritual life. My father had been active in church before serving in World War II, where he experienced such atrocities that he never returned to church. As a result, I grew up with no faith but with his questions: Why is there war? Why does God allow evil and suffering? What about science and faith? World religions?

I was invited to church at the age of fifteen and eventually trusted in Christ as my Lord. However, my questions persisted, and I thought there was something wrong with my faith. I somehow got the idea that if you have enough faith, you won’t have doubts. Since I had the latter, I doubted the former.

Then I encountered Lewis’s bestseller and met someone who grappled with his faith intellectually. I soon began reading his other work and continue to do so every day. I have visited and lectured at his home outside Oxford and walked on Addison’s Walk (where he returned to theism under the influence of JRR Tolkien). Over the years, I have written and talked often about his life and thought as well.

When Lewis gave his radio talks in 1941, he obviously could not have known that their content would be so transformative for me so many years later. He was faithful where he was, and God continues to use him in ways he could not have imagined.

A scholar’s mind and a pastor’s heart

I’ve been thinking about mentors and models this week, not only because of the Mere Christianity anniversary, but also because of the passing of Dr. Robert Sloan.

Dr. Sloan was my German professor in my doctoral studies at Southwestern Seminary. He then became dean at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary, president of Baylor, and president of Houston Christian University, my alma mater.

He was one of the most brilliant scholars I have ever known. Conversant in multiple languages, he was a professor, author, and leader of the highest rank. But he also modeled for me a spirit of compassion and personal engagement that marked me in ways he never knew.

His academic focus was New Testament theology, while mine was philosophy of religion, so I never studied under him as did some of my close friends over the years. But I observed him from afar and crossed paths with him occasionally. Every time we met, he was unfailingly gracious and personable. His students tell me he was the same with them. He possessed a world-class intellect, but he never lost his pastor’s heart.

Dr. Sloan had no way to know this time last week that I would be writing about his homegoing this week. He was faithful where he was, and God will use his gifts and obedience to advance his kingdom for generations to come.

Rahab and the providence of location

Everyone knows the story of Rahab, but here’s a thought that occurred to me today: She was used by God because of where she was, not just who she was.

We all know that Rahab was a prostitute, which meant the Israelite spies could go to her home upon entering Jericho without arousing the suspicion strangers would otherwise evoke. Conversely, we know that she believed in the God of Israel and wanted to protect her family from his judgment.

Her decision to shelter the spies led to her survival and eventual inclusion in the Jewish nation as the wife of Salmon, mother of Boaz, and ancestor of Jesus (Matthew 1:5). She is commended by Scripture both for her faith (Hebrews 11:31) and for her good works (James 2:25).

But here’s the verse that struck me when I read it just now: “She let [the spies] down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall” (Joshua 2:15). If she had lived anywhere else in Jericho, with the king and his men on high alert (v. 3), enabling the spies to escape undetected would have been immeasurably more difficult.

Archaeologists tell us that Jericho utilized casement walls—an outer and an inner wall, with room in between for sentry posts and apartments. Rahab lived in one of these apartments. She obviously could not have known when she moved into her room that it would later be used as it was by the God of the universe, or that I would be writing about her all these centuries later.

She was positioned providentially in the present for a future she could not imagine.

“The very lines along which our spirits live”

If CS Lewis had not been faithful with his broadcast talks in 1941, my life would have been immeasurably impoverished. If Robert Sloan had not followed God’s call with his career, our paths would not have crossed, and I would have missed knowing one of the great scholars and mentors of our time. If Rahab had not lived where she did, she could not have done what she did.

Clearly, God has a place for us as part of his providential plan for our lives. Being where we are supposed to be today positions us to be used by God tomorrow. In the words of another wise mentor of mine: Stay faithful to the last word you heard from God and open to the next.

CS Lewis observed,

“Authority exercised with humility, and obedience accepted with delight, are the very lines along which our spirits live.”

Do you agree?