As a family we are making our first full run through The Chronicles of Narnia. Near the end of book seven, The Last Battle, Aslan has a curious conversation with Emeth, a Calormene who has served the rank idol Tash his whole life.

“So I went over much grass and many flowers and among all kinds of wholesome and delectable trees till lo! in a narrow place between two rocks there came to meet me a great Lion. The speed of him was like the ostrich, and his size was an elephant’s; his hair was like pure gold that is liquid in the furnace. He was more terrible than the Flaming Mountain of Lagour, and in beauty he surpassed all that is in the world even as the rose in bloom surpasses the dust of the desert. Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honor) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I 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 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 (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 hast done to him. For I and he are such different kinds that no service which 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 this 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. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me now wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.”

C. S. Lewis was an historic Protestant and would affirm with the fathers that ordinarily extra ecclesiam nulla salus, there is no salvation outside of the church. This passage reveals that sometimes things are extraordinary. Emeth isn’t quite dead, or truer, his world ended before he could die, but in that world, he never made it into the company of those who believed in Aslan. Still, he was an unknowing devotee of Aslan all his life, and Aslan received it as such. There are people in false religions and the haze of the unchurched who are known to God and on their way out. Some will never make it into the visible church in this life, but many will and are helped along their way by those who seek them.