Context: Inspired by C.S. Lewis’s classic – The Screwtape Letters, this fictional series features letters from a senior demon to his young protégé, exposing hell’s subtle strategies against believers. These are not meant to amuse, but to awaken.

This isn’t just satire – it’s a mirror. A sharp one. Because sometimes the enemy’s strategies sound uncomfortably familiar.

Wormwood,

You mentioned your patient has been thinking lately about the Enemy’s so-called “return.” A troubling development. There’s nothing more inconvenient to our work than a Christian who actually believes the Enemy is coming back and lives like it.

You must act swiftly.

First, convince them that talk of His return is too mystical. Outdated. For the conspiracy theorists. Suggest it’s not urgent. Distract them with temporal comforts: a promotion, a vacation, a wedding. Make eternity feel far. Make sin feel small.

Or better still shift them to fear. Paint the second coming as something to dread, not desire. Let them imagine a God arriving angry and distant. Keep them guilt-ridden so that the idea of facing Him makes them hide instead of hope.

But be careful. If they begin to understand that His return is about reunion, about the King coming for His bride – we are finished. If they start praying “Maranatha” and living like He could appear at any moment, your assignment is on the edge of collapse.

Our greatest advantage, then, is His delay. Keep them asleep. Let them forget. Numb their sense of urgency. Make them experts in end-time debates, but novices in holiness. Stir arguments about timelines, but not repentance. Let them study Revelation, but not read their Bibles.

Because if they ever truly expect Him, if they begin to trim their lamps, fill their jars, and fix their eyes on Him you will soon lose your grip.

The trumpet has not sounded yet, Wormwood. But when it does, may your patient be too distracted to rise.

Steadily yours,
Screwtape