Then [in times of distress and trouble] they [those who reject wisdom's call] will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me (Proverbs 1:28)

I wonder, sometimes, what really -- ultimately -- happens to people who deny the existence of God for their whole lives.  When this life ends, I mean, what do such people actually experience?  The Bible makes it clear that the afterlife will not be pleasant for those who do not respond to God's invitation to the "Kingdom Banquet," but it seems to me that there's a lot of figurative language used to describe the difficulty and despair of an unbeliever's afterlife.  The actual realities, I find, are a good bit harder to envision.  Throughout the years, several great thinkers, theologians, and writers have attempted to describe the possibilities for these situations, drawing from Biblical resources; but of all the various scenarios for Hell, Sheol, Hades, and the Inferno, I've long been particularly intrigued by an analogy posed by the British author C.S. Lewis.

His analogy can be found in a children's book, of all places:  the seventh and final installment of the "Chronicles of Narnia" series, entitled "The Last Battle."  In this book, the end of the world is described as a battle at the doorway to an old stable which had been set up as the headquarters to a great deception perpetrated against the good citizens of Narnia (a magical country with dwarves and centaurs and animals who can talk).  In the climactic scene of the story, the Narnians were offered the chance to go into the stable to meet with Aslan (the legendary, supernatural creator and king of Narnia).  But while the stable had previously been occupied by nothing more than a donkey dressed in a lion's skin, on this evening the deceivers had placed guards waiting with drawn swords inside the stable, ready to kill whomever walked through the stable doorway.  However, instead of their plan furthering their cause and making the Narnians more fearful of their power; it turns up that the real Aslan shows up and -- unbeknownst to any of the people outside of the stable -- turns the doorway of the stable into the doorway to an eternal paradise known simply as "Aslan's Country."  When the assembly realizes that something truly mystical and magical has happened to the doorway, a battle commences around the stable.  Throughout the course of the conflict, different people are cast through the doorway with differing outcomes on the other side of the doorway.  When the good and honest citizens of Narnia were cast through the doorway, they were shocked to discover the exact opposite of the dim and dingy stable they had been expecting -- a large lush land of green grass and blue sky, trees bearing the most succulent fruit imaginable, and sweet reunions with old friends.  When those who had planned the original deception and oppressed the people of Narnia with their lies were forced through the doorway, they were immediately gobbled up by a hideous monster -- much like the one they had been insinuating their Aslan / Tashlan would be.  And as for the dwarves who had been doubters and skeptics -- who had never been "taken in" by neither the stories of the good and loving Aslan or the stories of the grim and gruesome Tashlan -- when they were forced through the stable door, they found themselves, well... in a stable.

While the loyal subjects of Aslan were strolling through their paradise, they could see the dwarves amongst them, the sun falling on their faces, the sweet fresh air of Aslan's Country blowing through their hair and their beards.  But the dwarves didn't seem to notice their surroundings like everyone else did.  They just sat in one spot, oblivious to their surroundings.  And even when the loyal Narnians tried to engage with the dwarves and open their eyes to the beauty around them, they were unable to see anything.  They only experienced the darkness, dankness, and cramped quarters of a crummy old stable.  When the Narnians tried to convince Aslan -- whom they could now see face-to-face -- to do something about the dwarves ignorance and Aslan complied by providing them with a lavish feast laid out at their feet, the dwarves only experienced that they were eating hay and thistles and stale old water from a feeding trough.  They argued with each other and with anyone else who tried to get them to see any other reality than the stable-prison that they imagined for themselves, to the point that they eventually fell into all-out brawling over the arguments.  In the end, it was decided that nothing could be done to help the dwarves.  As far at they were concerned, they were locked in a crummy old stable; and thus, they experienced Aslan's country exactly in such a way.

To me, it seems that the point of Lewis's analogy is simple, relatively unarguable, and remarkably consistent with Proverbs 1:28.  The consequence for atheism and godlessness is atheism and godlessness.

It's sad to see people who persist in such disbelief and doubt.  But when someone has made up his or her mind, it's very difficult to make them see anything else.  So even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the stubborn disbelief remains.  Even if they suddenly decide that they want to experience the goodness and grace of God, they're so conditioned to doubt and disbelief that even the most awesome, undeniable, heaven-sent signs will be ignored and slotted into the pre-established conceptual framework that denies the possibility for God's existence.  I personally don't believe that there's any such thing as a truly "lost cause" -- where a person is so trapped in one's brokenness that God can never break through to establish a connection.  That's what Jesus was all about after all, wasn't it?  With God, all things are possible!  But it's hard when God is given so little room in which to work.  And a lot of times, practically speaking, it becomes simply impossible.