We know nothing of religion here: we think only of Christ.

"‘We know nothing of religion here: we think only of Christ."
     from "The Great Divorce" by C. S. Lewis

The quote is from a C. S. Lewis book - The Great Divorce.

Spoiler alert - by clicking on the plus sign below, you'll see something about this book that isn't revealed in the book until the end.

I think the best way to read The Great Divorce, if you have the time, is to actually read it twice.

Read it one time, and try to imagine what's going on.  Think about how you would fit in with the scenes being played out in the book.

Then, after you've read the whole thing - and know what's "really" happening - go back and read it again.  It will have a whole lot more meaning to you, and a whole lot bigger impact on your life when you read it the second time.

If you've seen the movie Sixth Sense - you kind of have a feel for what I mean, on a very small scale.  At the end of that movie, I felt like it wasn't possible - it couldn't have been what it turned out to be.  I was certain I would have noticed a clue somewhere - especially when he was talking to people.  I had to watch it again.

This book isn't exactly like that - but the twist is so unbelievable that you won't be able to imagine it.  In fact - while you're reading, you'll be quite sure you got the twist.  I can almost promise you - you don't have it.  And when you do get it, at the end, you'll want to read it one more time.

Just in case your browser / reader doesn't support the spoiler code - stop reading here if you don't want to know more about the book until after you've read it.  

So, here's the spoiler - and you'll see that even for this one little quote - it's huge.

At some point, you'll figure out the person from whose eyes everything is seen is dead.  He's in what's called the "gray city".  It's never really light there, but it's also never totally dark either.  Everything that exists there is more of an image - none of it has any real substance.  For instance, when it rains, the rain comes right through the roofs and walls of the houses - because they don't really have any physical existence.

The character has a chance to go to the City of Light.  While there, he observes someone else from the Gray City talking to one of the residents of the City of Light.  While speaking of God and religion, the one from the City of Light says -

"‘We know nothing of religion here: we think only of Christ."

The main character, in a discussion with another resident of the City of Light, while talking about what the Gray City really is, whether it's Hell or not - gets told that for those who end up in Heaven, it will turn out to have been purgatory (or some such thing, if they aren't Catholic) - and for those that end up in Hell, it will turn out to have been Hell all along.  Further - the same holds true for earth - before they died.  Some will find out, after they've been forgiven and learn to forgive - that earth was a little bit of Heaven all along.  Others, will find out that earth had been Hell all along.

OK - so you probably think you've got it all straight now.

There's only one way to have it right.

And that's if you also figured out that the whole first part of the book was a dream.

What if you found out, before you died - before it was too late - that even the way we look at things here on earth would determine where we went after we left the earth?  Some (many?) already have that figured out.

But, what about the part of "we think nothing of religion here: we think only of Christ"?  Way too many people are so focused on the little details of our religions - especially the ones we think we're good at - that we totally forget the real emphasis was supposed to have been on Jesus.

If we go all the way back to the beginning - 

Ex 34:14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

and then from Jesus -