You may recognize from the title of this installment the language often used by Christians to describe aspects of our human souls as we interact with God, the world, and the devil.
No one can steal us from God’s kingdom once we are saved and secure in Christ. Jesus himself declares to those who believe in him, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand” (Jn. 10:28).
However, demons, often using human operators, circumstances, and systems, can sabotage our spiritual growth, keep us in fruitless struggles against sin, or trap us in emotional torments that sometimes become lethal.
C.S. Lewis credentials
C.S. Lewis possessed one of the towering intellects of the 20th century. He displayed his erudition and scholarship as a professor at Oxford and as a founding member of The Inklings, an elite group of England’s most brilliant writers and thinkers.
It appears that when Lewis was converted from atheism to Christianity, and later fell in love with Joy Davidman, he added to his high intelligence a deep understanding of the human soul. Lewis began writing about pain, pleasure, sin, grief, longing, heaven, and hell. His writings help us understand how our souls perceive and interact with God, his created order, and his enemies.
Lewis generously provided insight into God’s will for human beings and Satan’s efforts to oppose God’s will at every turn. The Screwtape Letters masterfully portrays this spiritual contest in the life of a believer.
In an afterward to the book, Lewis admits,
“Though it was easy to twist one’s mind into the diabolical attitude, it was not fun, or not for long…The world in which I had to project myself…was all dust, grit, thirst and itch. Every trace of beauty, freshness and geniality had to be excluded.”
As we go forward with our study, you may use this as a heuristic: anything our souls encounter that is good, beautiful, wholesome, healthy, or godly is a gift from God (James 1:17). If it ultimately brings lust, shame, harm, or enmity toward others, we recognize that Satan has been at work to ruin God’s good gifts.
The Mind
A principal target for satanic attacks is the mind. If demons can keep our thoughts conformed to a worldly view (Rom. 12: 2), they can subvert us from manifesting the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).
Screwtape points out that European and Western cultures in the 1940s were replete with dozens of “incompatible philosophies” that were constantly “dancing about together” in the head of their patient (1). He encourages Wormwood to ensure that this continues, constantly exposing him to philosophical jargon, political arguments, intellectualism, and modern cultural trends that distract him from the pure, simple truth of the gospel.
This is even more true in the 21st century, when technology delivers to us a constant barrage of competing thoughts about every topic imaginable. The mind, as many wise teachers have pointed out, is the battlefield. But we are not without weapons.
Paul provides an eloquent biblical response to Lewis’s observations about attacks on our thought life. Paul instructs believers to test all thoughts against this standard:
“…brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Phil. 4:8).
Paul doesn’t claim that this is a quick and easy fix to the problem of being born with a carnal mind. But with practice and much meditation on the word of God, we can gradually be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2).
The Emotions
The Screwtape Letters was first published in 1942, in the middle of World War 2. Lewis appropriately has Screwtape speculate on how Wormwood’s patient might respond emotionally to the war and how the demons could capitalize on the fear and dread of those terrible times. The nuances of the satanic plan are to:
- fan the flames of fear, but not so much that he draws closer to God for strength and comfort.
- stir up nationalistic pride, but not so much that he is inspired to true heroism.
- ramp up the anger and hatred he already feels toward the Nazis, but not so much that he feels greater love and desire to protect the people close to him.
- keep him focused on his uncertain future, which he cannot control, and not on the present, where he does have some control.
Later in the book, the man falls in love with a Christian woman. Much more will be said about love and relationships in the next installment, but in this context, the demons want the man to believe (as has become the norm in Western cultures) that the feeling of being in love should be enough to sustain a romantic relationship and that the feeling should last forever. This way, when romantic feelings and lust start to cool, he will feel dissatisfied and disappointed. This will either embitter him toward his partner or cause him to abandon the relationship altogether and go in search of the feeling again.
Emotions are the most volatile aspect of the soul. They influence our choices and actions but can be unreliable information, and therefore an inadequate guide for righteous actions. Demons want to keep as many believers as possible emotionally weak and unstable, rendering them ineffective witnesses and ambassadors for Christ.
An important biblical response is to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit elucidated in Galatians 5. This cluster of fruit is not only emotional in nature, but it does represent the perfect, wonderful, emotive attributes of our God and Savior: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). These develop by consistently walking by the Spirit.
Pleasures
As noted in the introduction to the series, demons are limited in their power, knowledge, and abilities. Screwtape laments one of these limitations that is pertinent to examining their limitations against the human soul.
“He [God] made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy [God] has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which his has forbidden.”
Screwtape acknowledges that demons have no creative powers. They can only take the good gifts God provides for humans to enjoy and corrupt and twist them until they become tools of sin and depravity. We witness countless contemporary examples of this.
God provided a very good gift of sexuality, designed to join a man and woman in a lifelong covenant that ideally produces offspring. When sexual practices occur outside of these purposes, they twist into lust, exploitation, and perversion. What was meant to honor and celebrate God’s goodness becomes a degrading, immoral, idolatrous activity that dishonors God.
Screwtape also discusses gluttony, which he expands far beyond merely the aspect of excess we usually associate with the word. He observes that any extreme preoccupation with food is useful to demons in derailing a person’s life and witness. He instructs Wormwood:
“What do quantities [of food] matter, provided we can use a human belly and palate to produce querulousness, impatience, uncharitableness, and self-concern.” (87)
An array of eating disorders and food obsessions are rampant in our culture, as they have been in many cultures. Pickiness, peevishness, snobbery, legalism, excess, and anorexia—all of these attitudes and behaviors regarding food bring discontent to individuals and conflicts between them.
Paul warns in Romans 14 that we should never “for the sake of food, destroy the work of God” (v.20); that is, we should never let disagreements about food come between us as believers. He also states plainly in 1 Tim. 4:4-5), “Nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:4-5). In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul instructs believers to consider our influence on weaker believers when choosing what to eat, being careful to never cause others to stumble in their faith over issues of food and drink.
Conclusion
This is only a small sampling of concepts from The Screwtape Letters about the strategies Satan employs to subvert the minds, emotions, and natural appetites of human beings, including believers.
He manipulates and deceives us, if our guard is down, into thinking unproductive, sinful thoughts, letting our emotions lead us into unholy actions, and misusing God’s good gifts of food and sexuality. From Screwtapes pen: “Everything has to be twisted before it’s any use to us.” (118).
Lewis provides a startling metaphor for the satanic agenda. Music and silence, where God’s presence can be felt most intimately, must be changed to only ugly, jangling, discordant noise.
What a fantastic rationale for filling our lives with beautiful music and times of sweet silence in God’s presence.
