Screwtape Letter #12 – Discussion Guide is article #26 in the series: Screwtape Letters. Click button to view titles for entire series
Letter #12
Is there such a thing as things going too well?
My dear Wormwood,
Obviously you are making excellent progress. My only fear is lest in attempting to hurry the patient you awaken him to a sense of his real position. … He must not be allowed to suspect that he is now, however slowly, heading right away from the sun on a line which will carry him into the cold and dark of utmost space.
For this reason I am almost glad to hear that he is still a churchgoer and a communicant. … And while he thinks that, we do not have to contend with the explicit repentance of a definite, fully recognised, sin, but only with his vague, though uneasy, feeling that he hasn’t been doing very well lately.
12.1) This series of letters talk about the friends we have / the things we do – how we can be influenced by them. Why is it important for the patient to not realize his true place with his various friends? Also think about the song “What a friend we have in Jesus”. Where is His friendship in all of this?
Friends, personal experience, and Jesus
What a Friend We Have in Jesus | Joseph M. Scriven
1. What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
2. Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
3. Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.
4. Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised
Thou wilt all our burdens bear;
May we ever, Lord, be bringing
All to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright, unclouded,
There will be no need for prayer—
Rapture, praise, and endless worship
Will be our sweet portion there.
This dim uneasiness needs careful handling. If it gets too strong it may wake him up and spoil the whole game. On the other hand, if you suppress it entirely …He will want his prayers to be unreal, for he will dread nothing so much as effective contact with the Enemy. His aim will be to let sleeping worms lie.
12.2) Screwtape now gets into something he calls the “dim uneasiness”. It’s something he doesn’t really understand – something he is a little worried about – something not under his control.
What is this “dim uneasiness”? (See John 14:15-17)
What are these verses from John really about?
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
Jn 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 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.”
Why won’t God let it die?
God's relationship with Moses, Joshua and Solomon (for example)
Dt 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Jos 1:5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
1Ki 8:57 May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our fathers; may he never leave us nor forsake us.
The Great Commission from the New Testament
The Great Commission
Mt 28:16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Why are we sometimes afraid of “it”?
Jesus and the rich you man. -- promises & expectations
The Rich Young Man
Mt 19:16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life ?”
Mt 19:17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
Mt 19:18 “Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, “ ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’’”
Mt 19:20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
Mt 19:21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Mt 19:22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Mt 19:23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Mt 19:25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Mt 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
As this condition becomes more fully established, you will be gradually freed from the tiresome business of providing Pleasures as temptations. … 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.
12.3) Screwtape assumes that Wormwood will accomplish the suggestions he has given up to now. If he does – we see where Screwtape see this ending.
Screwtape talks about wasting time – and even reaching the point of wasting a life. Given that God probably won’t let the “dim uneasiness” completely die out – is Screwtape’s analysis necessarily a forgone conclusion? What does your answer mean to whether or not all that time is wasted?
At what point is a life 'not wasted'
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.
Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE
12.4) We tend to think of sin in terms of relativeness. It’s like murder is worse than stealing and both are worse than gossip. Screwtape is afraid Wormwood may have the same idea. Why is Screwtape’s statement in the final paragraph of this letter so dangerously true? Given that it’s from Screwtape – which parts are untrue?
The narrow & wide gates
The Narrow and Wide Gates
Mt 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
Mt 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
The high cost and infinite value of following Jesus
In Matthew 7:13–14, Jesus mentioned the narrow gate twice and the wide gate once. From the intersection, both roads look as if they lead to salvation. Both promise the pathway to God, to the kingdom, glory, blessing, heaven. But only one of the roads really goes there. The other is paved with self-righteousness as a substitute for the perfect righteousness God demands in Matthew 5:48: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Either you accept the truth that salvation comes from what God has done for you in Christ, or you will be left with nothing but your own sinful self-righteousness.
The main characteristic of the way of life Jesus pointed to was its narrowness. The broad way had all kinds of tolerance for sin, for laws beyond the law of God, and standards below and beyond the standards of God. Every man-made religious system is part of the scenery of the broad way. But Jesus didn’t look for ways to compromise. He simply said, “You’ve got to get off that broad road. You must enter this narrow way. If you’re going to be in the kingdom, you’ve got to come on these terms.”
It is not enough to listen to preaching about the gate; it is not enough to respect the ethics; you’ve got to walk through the gate. And you can’t come unless you abandon your self-righteousness, see yourself as a beggar in spirit, mourning over sin, meek before a holy God, not proud and boastful, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and not believing you have it. Hell will be full of people who thought highly of the Sermon on the Mount. You must do more than that. You must obey it and take action.
You can’t stand outside and admire the narrow gate; you’ve got to drop everything and walk through it. There’s that self-denial again. You come through, stripped of everything. But isn’t that narrow-minded? Does that mean Christianity doesn’t allow room for opposing viewpoints? No compassionate tolerance? No diversity?
That’s exactly right. We don’t do it that way because we’re selfish or prideful or egotistical; we do it that way because that’s what God said to do. If God said there were forty-eight ways to salvation, I’d preach and write about all forty-eight of them. But there aren’t: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,” Acts 4:12 reminds us, no other name but Jesus.
In John’s gospel, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” (6:35); “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6); “He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door…is a thief and a robber…I am the door” (10:1, 7). Paul affirmed these words in 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” There’s only one: Christ and Christ alone. That’s a narrow viewpoint. But that is Christianity. And it is the truth. You have to enter on God’s terms, through God’s prescribed gate. Christ is that gate. Holy God has the right to determine the basis of salvation, and He has determined that it is Jesus Christ and Him alone. You can enter only through Him, by faith.
Things we don't want to think about
Vocabulary:
communicant – For this reason I am almost glad to hear that he is still a churchgoer and a communicant. I know there are dangers in this; but anything is better than that he should realise the break he has made with the first months of his Christian life.
communicant – someone who takes communion in church
roistering – 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 out-going activities which we want him to avoid can be inhibited and nothing given in return, so that at least 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.’
roistering – to party noisily or without restraint.
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