My eldest son asserted to me yesterday that C.S. Lewis was an Armenian.
(As if he thought that he would shock me with this news. It’s funny sometimes how your own child doesn’t seem to listen when you lecture on such topics.)
With Lewis – the thing that is apparent is that at times he agreed with Whitefield and others with Wesley. Personally – I like his “juke-ing” about. The question of God’s control and man’s will is a bit of a mystery in the way in which they work together. Like two sides of a coin, both exist and both are of concern to the human. All are bid “come,” and yet all who come are “not of their own strength,” but by Grace alone through Faith alone.
Lewis can be maddening on this point if you don’t understand his logic – I often say it’s as if someone asked Lewis ‘are you a Calvinist?’ And his reply is, ‘absolutely, not at all.
Here is a quote from Lewis on the matter which does nothing to clarify it for those that want an “either-or,” – but only to prove that he took it as a mystery beyond the capability of man to discover.
“I take it as a first principle that we must not interpret any one part of Scripture so that it contradicts other parts . . . . The real inter-relation between God’s omnipotence and Man’s freedom is something we can’t find out. Looking at the Sheep & the Goats every man can be quite sure that every kind act he does will be accepted by Christ. Yet, equally, we all do feel sure that all the good in us comes from Grace. We have to leave it at that. I find the best plan is to take the Calvinist view of my own virtues and other people’s vices; and the other view of my own vices and other peoples virtues. But tho’ there is much to be puzzled about, there is nothing to be worried about. It is plain from Scripture that, in whatever sense the Pauline doctrine is true, it is not true in any sense which excludes its (apparent) opposite. You know what Luther said: ‘Do you doubt if you are chosen? Then say your prayers and you may conclude that you are.'” (pp.354-355).