Tuesday, September 28, 2004

The Road to Whipsnade

Today is the 73rd anniversary of C. S. Lewis' conversion to Christianity:

On September 28, 1931, at age thirty-two, Lewis was "riding to the Whipsnade zoo in the sidecar of Warren’s motorcycle. ‘When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did.’" According to 1 John 5:1 and 5, all those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God are "born of God." To Arthur Greeves on October 1, 1931, Lewis wrote: "I have just passed from believing in God to definitely believing in Christ-in Christianity."

Lewis had been an atheist for many years until 1929 when he converted to Theism and then after a few years and some chats with J. R. R. Tolkien and other members of The Inklings, he made the final step aboard his brother's motorbike.

The Whipsnade Zoo is now the Whipsnade Wild Animal Park.

He later became the greatest Christian Apologist of the 20th Century and died the same day as John F. Kennedy and Aldous Huxley.