“Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” – The Screwtape Letters
“Pride precedeth the fall”, is a proverb that warns against arrogance and its rightful path to destruction. Yet, Satan would heed no such warning. His delight in his own beauty would lead to his downfall when God cast him out for his vanity. A fallen angel, Satan began to exact his revenge by seducing souls to the dark side. Through lies and distortions, he enters our thoughts and exploits our emotions. He whispers to our frail human nature to encourage evil.
In C.S. Lewis’s 1942 book, “The Screwtape Letters”, Lewis tells the story of temptation through a series of letters between an experienced devil to his novice nephew. With the intent to win souls for hell, the devils collude to turn a Christian patient away from God. It is a story of how best to attack the faithful, entice them to give up their spirituality, and woo them into hell by corrupting their humanity. The idea for the book sprung from a Hitler radio address, that had Lewis nearly persuaded by his appeal, or so Lewis wrote in a 1940 letter to his brother. Thus, from one devil to another, Lewis decided to look at temptation from the point of view of evil. Written during World War II and Germany’s attack on Britain, Lewis included the ongoing war to mimic the spiritual war waged against Christians. Both would require courage, conviction, and resistance.
In a 2013 series on the Screwtape Letters, Dr. Jerry Root, a Senior Fellow with the C.S. Lewis Institute discusses Lewis’s conception of hell. Since people have free will, hell may very well be its consequence. A permanent solution for those who continue to disobey, hell is a place for the eternally incorrigible who perpetually choose to exclude God. While hierarchy refers to a body where power resides closest to the top, Lewis described hell as a lowerarchy, where it was better to be a bottom-dweller than cede one’s principles to a higher power. An establishment of the damned, hell was nothing more than a collection of rebels, where its inhabitants reap the solitude and isolation that their selfishness sowed. But even after the fall, God allowed Satan to exist, because God saw the good that could come from it.
Since it was pride that ended the splendor of an angel, Satan uses the same pride that produced his fall to woo others into their own end. By encouraging more of self, and less of God, pride leads to false spirituality and the idolatry of self. The faithful come to think of themselves as better than others, a soul-burdening sin that results in spiritual pride. Above all, it corrupts everything it touches, as pride is built on the identity of self-conceit. Because being proud lacks humility, it is a masterclass in ego and hubris.
Since we are to be of the world, but not in the world, one of the best weapons in the devil’s toolbox is our contentment in it. Give a man prosperity, and you will have a man pleased with life on earth. After acquiring a level of esteem, a large network of friends, and growing success, a man will find satisfaction in worldly endeavors. It is here that the Devil focuses his allure. While God wants us to be thinking about eternity and what we can accomplish in our present situation, Satan wants us to look for pleasures on earth.
For those inept with worldly conquests, Satan hopes to increase their impatience over undesirable outcomes and fill them with false hope. To accelerate disappointment, the devil regularly fans despair, anxiety, and fears. And when that doesn’t work, constant discord fills the bill. Demons use the drip of distractions to cause us to wander from our journey by provoking quarrels over unimportant matters. Men must be kept uncertain about the future, believing that their hard times are permanent. Most of all, men must be kept detached from themselves, and finally, from God.
Like war, suffering and hard times can lead us to God. Trials and tribulations are good for building resilience and fortifying us from future troubles. Then over time, men become accustomed to their ups and downs and are better equipped to react to new difficulties. Sealed with the Holy Spirit that provides guidance and protection, we must remain vigilant of demonic forces working against us. To recognize temptation is to make it easier to avoid the traps that Satan lays to influence our choices and ultimately steal our souls for hell.
It is the slippery slope of seduction that robs us of our faith, often without even realizing it. To overcome temptation, C. S. Lewis ultimately showed us the devil’s weakness and limits. Temptations may be great, but with God, all things are possible.
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