"Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle." C.S Lewis (1941 Preface, The Screwtape Letters. Lewis' books are available at Amazon.com)
It is well to point out that The Screwtape Letters is a fictional account of Screwtape, an experienced devil. And, through a series of 31 letters, written to his nephew, Wormwood, a junior tempter, regarding his first assignment, we get an intimate view into the psychology of temptation. For the Christian, having the eyes to see and the ears to hear, it may be considered a well constructed psychological profile of satan, himself. The below text includes several excerpts from The Screwtape Letters followed by a brief commentary with verses from Scripture taken from the NIV translation.
"One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself--creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct."
"He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs -- to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with, the better. He cannot "tempt" to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."
"The humans live in time, but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point as which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered to them. He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present -- either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure."
"Our business is to get them away from the eternal and from the Present. With this in view, we sometimes tempt a human (say a widow or a scholar) to live in the Past. But this is of limited value, for they have some real knowledge of the Past and it has a determinate nature and, to that extent, resembles eternity. It is far better to make them live in the Future. Biological necessity makes all their passions point in that direction already, so that thought about the Future inflames hope and fear. Also, it is unknown to them, so that in making them think about it we make them think of unrealities. In a word, the Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most completely temporal part of time -- for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays."
My dear Wormwood, the real trouble about the set your patient is living in is that it is merely Christian. They all have individual interests, of course, but the bond remains mere Christianity. What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call "Christianity And." You know -- Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Psychology, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Psychical Research, Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and Spelling Reform. If they must be Christians, let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian colouring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing."
"You no longer need a good book, which he really likes, to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep; a column of advertisements in yesterday's paper will do. You can make him waste his time not only in conversation he enjoys with people whom he likes but also in conversations with those he cares nothing about, on subjects that bore him. You can make him do nothing at all for long periods. You can keep him up late at night, not roistering, but staring at a dead fire in a cold room. All the healthy and outgoing activities which we want him to avoid can be inhibited and nothing given in return, so that at last he may say, as one of my own patients said on his arrival down here, "I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked." The Christians describe the Enemy as one "without whom Nothing is strong." And Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man's best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off."
"You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one -- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts" From pp 37, 38, 39, 55, 56, 67, 68, 116 The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
The real question we need to ask ourselves is can we resist Screwtape?
Virtually all meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous are opened with a reading from their Big Book. And, from the chapter, "How It Works", a volunteer will read aloud, "Remember, that we deal with alcohol -- cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power -- that One is God. May you find Him now!" So, the Christian might say the same of Satan, the Enemy. Without any doubt this Enemy of all true Christians -- those who love the Lord and have established an intimate and loving relationship with His Son, the second person of the Godhead and our Savior, Jesus Christ -- is certainly cunning, baffling and powerful. But, Holy Scripture states the matter of the Enemy, along with warnings and instructions for us, in such a way that we should certainly take serious note about what is really going on in this world; and what exactly has been the case from the very beginning since The Fall of Man.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ tells us to "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1Peter 5:8. We're told to be steadfast in faith and resist him. The True Christian knows that in weakness of faith, this is often easier said than done -- and we are certain that it cannot be done alone, apart from God--for as AA'ers say of alcohol, we can say of satan that he is cunning, baffling and powerful and without God, he is too much for us. But, we can only truly know God and expect His Mercy through His Grace, alone, by knowing Jesus Christ who became our sin bearer.
Simply put, without faith in and love for Jesus Christ we are without any hope. This is true not because of who we are, individually, and what we do, either good or bad, but because of what we are -- a race of fallen, sinful people who "...like sheep, have [all] gone astray, [and] each of us has turned to his own way...." Isaiah 53:6; and what we ultimately cannot do, on our own, is make ourselves presentable before a Holy, Sovereign God. Scripture says that " There is no one righteous, not even one..All have turned away, they have together become worthless..." Romans 3:10,12
We need a Savior and He has made Himself known in the person of Jesus Christ. Not only can Jesus save us from our sin, He already did accomplish it for us some 2000 years ago by becoming sin on our behalf and suffering death on the cross--"he was crushed for our iniquities [and] the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5. But we need to realize that, and then believe it and surrender our will and lives to Him Who made provision for us on the cross.
"So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Genesis 3:14, 15 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." Micah 5:2 [And, in the end, when all was said and all was done] "...the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever." Revelation 20:10
We get no further than the third chapter of Holy Scripture, and we are told that Satan was cursed to humiliation and utter degradation for tempting man into disobedience to God's command to "...not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Genesis 2:17. And, following in verse 3:15, we read the first preaching of the gospel -- It was called by the early church fathers the Protevangelium. It is the clearest promise, first appearing in the Bible, of the coming of a Redeemer who will wash away the sins of the world. And, somewhere between 750-686 BC, the prophet Micah announces that in the town of David's birth, God would raise up a ruler from David's family who would reign forever -- our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Later, in the New Testament, we read Matthew's well known account where Jesus is tempted by Satan:
"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil." Matthew 4:1
"The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."
Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
" ' He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' "
Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' "
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splender. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.' " Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him." Matthew 4:3-11
"A Holy character does not avert temptation. Jesus was tempted. When Satan tempts us, his sparks fall upon tinder; but in Christ's case, it was like striking sparks on water; yet the enemy continued his evil work. Now, if the devil goes on striking when there is no result, how much more will he do it when he knows what inflammable stuff our hearts are made of. Though you become greatly sanctified by the Holy Ghost, expect that the great dog of hell will bark at you still."
"In the haunts of men we expect to be tempted, but even seclusion will not guard us from the same trial. Jesus Christ was led away from human society into the wilderness, and was tempted of the devil. Solitude has its charms and its benefits, and may be useful in checking the lust of the eye and the pride of life; but the devil will follow us into the most lovely retreats. Do not suppose that it is only the worldly-minded who have dreadful thoughts and blasphemous temptations, for even spiritual-minded persons endure the same; and in the holiest position we may suffer the darkest temptation. The utmost consecration of spirit will not insure you against Satanic temptation."
"Christ was consecrated through and through. It was His meat and drink to do the will of Him that sent Him: and yet He was tempted! Your hearts may glow with a seraphic flame of love to Jesus, and yet the devil will try to bring you down to Laodicean lukewarmness. If you will tell me when God permits a Christian to lay aside his armour, I will tell you when Satan has left off temptation. Like the old knights in war time, we must sleep with helmet and breastplate buckled on, for the arch-deceiver will seize our first unguarded hour to make us his prey. The Lord keep us watchful in all seasons, and give us a final escape from the jaw of the lion and the paw of the bear." Charles Spurgeon
Jesus was pushed to the very limit of endurance. Physically, He had gone 40 days without food, and Satan, so subtly, tempted Him to turn the stones into food for His starving body. But, our Lord insisted on walking in the Will of God, despite the intensity of His hunger. Then, Jesus was tempted to reveal Himself. And, don't we all through the dominate passion of our souls want to reveal ourselves, express ourselves and who we really are and what we can do. Such temptation really plays upon the urge for status, for manifesting within us the pride of life. But, Jesus, once again, proved Himself true to God.
Finally, he was tested in the deepest, most essential part of his humanity -- the spirit. And, the dominant passion of the spirit is to worship. The spirit is always looking for something to worship. That is why man, everywhere, is essentially a "religious" being. Because, the spirit in him is craving, crying out, for an idol, someone to follow, a hero, something, anything to worship. It was on this level that the devil came to him and said, "All this I will give you, if you bow down and worship me." and our Lord's answer was, "...For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.' " So, Jesus passed the test of those three temptations. He revealed himself fully and adequately to be man as God intended man to be. Jesus being fully God, was also a man who knew no sin.
The real question we need to ask ourselves is can we resist Screwtape? Well, the answer is yes, and we can by knowing Jesus Christ as our Redeemer and by studying God's revelation about Himself in the Bible and living in His Perfect Will -- coming to Him in Prayer and keeping short accounts through our confession of sins. But not just by casually knowing about Him. We need an intimate relationship with Him Who lives; and, we establish this life giving relationship by realizing our need for Him, believing upon His Name and Who He is through faith -- "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for." Hebrews 11:1
But, still there's more. Jesus, our Advocate in Heavan, promises the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; the Comforter come to speak to our hearts and open up His Word to us as we study the Bible -- For, "All Scripture is Godbreathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2Timothy 3:16-17 This is why Evangelicals and Theologians, anyone who trusts in Christ are in total agreement that after surrendering our lives and wills to Jesus Christ, they tell us we need to read the Bible, find a good church, get involved in a regular Bible Study, in short persevere in knowing Him.
But, this directive, "we need", may not fully capture what actually happens when we truly come to Him. Charlotte Elliot, writes, "Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come." When you come to the Fountain in this realization, truly seeking the Lamb of God, Jesus the gracious one who welcomes the weary, in whom and without any money, you can buy what is given without any cost; when you come to Him in this way, you'll have nothing stand in your path blocking you from the Truth of His Word; no thing keeping you from Fellowship with other believers, and no obstacle, too high, will prevent you from finding another Brother or Sister to grow with in pursuit of the Glory and Grace that awaits you in the study of Holy Writ.
Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord? If you don't, today, is when you need to ask yourself that question. Don't wait until tomorrow, because tomorrow may never come. And, then it will be too late. Sadly, it is then that you will discover that everything you've heard all during your life was true. Scripture says that "Just as man is destined to die once.....after that [he will] face judgement." Hebrews 9:27 C.S. Lewis wrote, "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in Hell choose it." And, Scripture says it this way; "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" Matthew 7:21-23
So, once again, Jesus says as He did to the church in Laodicea, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20 Do you hear Him knocking, now? Do you hear His voice calling to you? Well, if you do, you need to get up and go open the door -- and you need to do that, right now -- don't wait because your eternal life depends on your decision. "Seek the LORD while he may be found; [and] call on him while he is near." Isaiah 55:6
"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world" 1John 4:1-4
"We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." 1John 5:18-21 [And] "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1Thessalonians 5:16-18 "If you love me, you will obey what I command." John 14:15 "Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." John 14:19-21
[And, it is] "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. [But] I do not give to you as the world gives. [So] Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27 [For] "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." Revelation 4:8 "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." Revelation 4:11 "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" Revelation 4:12 "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" Revelation 4:13 [For] "He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen." Revelation 4:20- 21