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Opening
To live for Christ is to endure constant spiritual warfare.
Spiritual warfare is the battle between good and evil in the unseen realm.
Know your enemy
Scripture indicates that we have a chief opponent, named “Satan.” The name Satan means adversary.
Satan's many names and calling cards
Satan may have many names, but one purpose: to oppose everything that God is for… including us.
Ephesians 6:10–18
Be strong — to be enabled and rendered more capable for a task.
Wiles — a deceptive way of doing something, especially in a systematic way; implies an orderly, logical arrangement.
Satan is orderly and organized in his deception.
Four levels of demonic organization
This verse reveals at least four levels of demonic organization in the spirit realm:
- Principalities — any preternatural being acting in a ruling or commanding capacity.
- Powers — authorities who exercise administrative control over others.
- Rulers of the darkness of this age — any influential, governing authority over the inhabited world understood in terms of physical control, including both human and preternatural authorities.
- Spiritual hosts of wickedness — forces that specialize in perverting virtue and morals to evil ends.
The Screwtape Letters
Why assign The Screwtape Letters? It gives us a fictional illustration of how the unseen realm may work.
What it is
- Written by C.S. Lewis.
- 31 letters from Screwtape, a senior demon, to his nephew Wormwood, a junior tempter.
- Wormwood is assigned to one young Englishman, called only the patient.
- Ran weekly in The Guardian, an Anglican paper, from May to November 1941.
Who is C.S. Lewis?
- Born in 1898. An atheist at age 15. Converted to Christianity in 1931.
- A scholar and writer: The Chronicles of Narnia, including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
- A friend of J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit).
C.S. Lewis is widely regarded as one of the most influential Christian apologists of his time.
Note: reading this book doesn't mean we fully embrace all of C.S. Lewis's ideas. For example, he believed in purgatory.
How to read it
Rule 1: Everything is reversed.
| Screwtape writes | Decode as |
|---|---|
| “The Enemy” | God |
| “Our Father Below” | Satan |
| Whatever he praises | is dangerous |
| Whatever he fears | is good |
Rule 2: It is fiction, not a study of demons.
- This book shows how temptation works in the human heart.
- It should not be read as a doctrine of how demons are organized.
- The “Lowerarchy” is simply an illustration that makes you think about the tactics of the adversary.
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”— C.S. Lewis
Key themes
Early on, the patient becomes a Christian, which means Wormwood has failed in his first task. Screwtape changes strategy: make the new believer's faith dull and useless.
Screwtape rarely tempts his patients with dramatic evil. His methods are mostly ordinary. Check the ones you have seen in your own life:
The book trains us to spot these quiet dangers in ourselves and in the people we disciple.
Debrief: three questions for personal reflection
Screwtape says “the safest road to Hell is the gradual one.” He mostly uses small distractions and slow drift, not big sins.
How do we identify and address spiritual drift within the body of Christ?
Screwtape's best work happens inside the patient's religious life. He makes him proud of his humility, critical of his church, and part of a “we few” crowd.
Where does pride hide in our own faith or service? How do we guard against pride within ministry?
Think honestly about which of Screwtape's strategies you have encountered over the course of your life, before conversion and after salvation.
Which truths from Scripture can override the tactics of the tempter?
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
EPHESIANS 6:10