The Last Battle

Final Warning: I've told you to go read the Chronicles of Narnia how many times now? So don't get all upset if you read this post and then find out everything about how the series ends. Stop reading my blog and go read the books. The books are far more interesting than me, I promise.

It seems to me that The Last Battle must be one of the most unique books ever written. How often does an author kill off all of his characters, and the reader sees it as a good thing? But that's what happens here. All of the British characters we love die in a freak railway accident (and their parents too, sucks to be Susan...) and then all of Narnia is torn apart before our very eyes. But of course all of this is really a wonderful thing.

"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 here I'd like to share a side story about our wedding rings. The inside of my band says "to the end of their days" which is a fraction of "And they lived happily ever after, to the end of their days." which is how Bilbo ends his book in The Lord of the Rings. LotR is Nick's very favorite series of books. The inside of Nick's band says "this is the morning" which is of course from the quote you just read. And the Chronicles of Narnia are my favorite books. And Tolkein and Lewis were wonderful friends throughout their lives. So we think it all works out rather well :)

Here's a question for all of the Bible sleuth's out there. In one of the final scenes we meet Emeth, a Calormene soldier who has gone willingly into the stable to meet Tash, whom he has loved and worshiped and longed for all his life. Instead he meets Aslan and relates this about their meeting:
"But the Glorious One (Aslan) bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with is tongue and said, Son, though art welcome. But I (Emeth) said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of Thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reason of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious ONe and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook( but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou has done to him, for I and he are of such different kinds that no service whihc is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath's sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. .... Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek."

A long paragraph, I know, even when it is abridged, and told in the Calormene fashion, but I think you get the gist. It's is Lewis's explanation for how (at least in Narnia) those who don't know Aslan by name can still be saved. But what I'm curious about and looking for are biblical passages that either back this up or disprove it, or are related to the subject at all. Any help would be very much appreciated.

"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 thier adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last the were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, whcih no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."