The Last Battle

What Hacker News says

1. throwaway202515Apr 2021
   It it wasn't for the fact that today/tomorrow is Easter, I don't think I would have responded like this to your comment.

   Of course, everyone will have to make their own decision about whether this story is worthy of believing.

   But, I feel I would be remiss if I did not point out that the whole point of Christianity, and especially Easter, is that Death is not the end. Christians believe that God who created the entire universe, took on human form. This man who was God in human flesh, Jesus, did all sorts of miracles. Finally, he was publicly executed by the Romans, and buried in a tomb. However, 3 days later, he rose from the dead!

   That is what Christians all over the world are celebrating today! That death is not the end, that Jesus conquered death, and because he rose, if we trust in him, we will also triumph over death.

   Death is no longer the feared end to everything, but rather just the doorway to enter into a an unimaginably more exciting and fulfilling life.

   I don't think anyone captures that sentiment as well as CS Lewis in the final paragraphs of his book, The Last Battle:

   "There was a real railway accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadow-Lands—dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."

   And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

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2. jbandela1Aug 2020
   > I’m not sure the eternal life to come will eventually be boring either.

   Along these lines, the ending of "The Last Battle" by CS Lewis which ends the Chronicles of Narnia is so beautiful:

   "There was a real railway accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadow-Lands—dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."

   And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

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3. wavefunctionJan 2020
   Last Battle and Magician's Nephew are excellent because they provide insight into CS Lewis as an author and person. Even as a child I recognized the 'problems' with those two books and that flash of insight helped with bringing more nuance into my own thoughts. At least I hope so.
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4. labsterJan 2021
   Or maybe these people will keep believing the lie, even after they die from COVID, like the Calormen at the end of CS Lewis’ The Last Battle. Everyone else will be in Heaven, and they’ll be all like, “Let me out of the hospital, corona is a lie!”
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