The Last Battle

In the final story of the Chronicles of Narnia, for the first time we see the people of Narnia summon the help of the children from our world. Never before in the stories of Narnia have the kings called out for help but here at the end of the story the last king of Narnia calls out for help from Aslan. Aslan allows him to summon the help of all the people that had entered Narnia. Only the youngest of the group is allowed to go into Narnia, but the truly interesting part of this story is that at the end we see all those who had entered into Narnia as children, are in the end found in the Land of Aslan. It would seem that heaven was a place for many "realities" as we know them, both our world and Narnia.

This book is truly about the end, as C.S. Lewis is bringing his world to it's final chapter. In the end he judges all people, animals and creatures. In this final judgment some are taken to the Land of Aslan and others are swallowed up and destroyed. Aslan then proceeds to destroy the world of Narnia in the reverse order that we see creation occur in the first chapters of Genesis. This is truly an interesting scence for the reader to observe because when Aslan is done, the world of Narnia is only darkness. But as the children that had witnessed the end of the world of Narnia enter into the Land of Aslan they move further up and further in they realize that it is exactly like the Narnia they had always known but it seem to be more vibrant and real. And this seems to be a continuing theme in C.S. Lewis' work. The world in which we find Christ is more real than the reality in which we exist.

Seeing the bookends of this work with the Magician's Nephew at the beginning and The Last Battle at the end reminds me that we are still in the middle of our story that ends with the final judgment with Christ. We are in that stage of remembering the work that Christ has promised to do and it seems that we ought to live with a realization that end will come with our final salvation. You see we are saved in our justification, being saved in our sanctification and we will be saved on that final day in our glorification. We are saved before time, within time and at the end of time. What a blessing!