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.

My dear Wormwood,

You have made one of the oldest mistakes in the book.

You allowed the Patient to begin thinking that the Enemy is… good.

Not just “nice,” not just “moral,” not just “loving in theory” but good in the kind of way that makes men surrender. Good in the way that dismantles pride, demands trust, and births worship in the dark.

Fool!

You let the Patient walk through pain and still believe. You let him feel confused and still kneel. You allowed him to experience delay, denial, disappointment and still come away muttering, “But God is good.”

This is dangerous.

If they believe the Enemy is good when life is not, they become untouchable.

Let me remind you of our tactics:

We do not tempt them to believe that God does not exist. That’s far too obvious. No, we simply whisper that He is not who He says He is.

We twist the truth with just enough theology to sound like faith, but not enough to anchor it.

Here’s the lie: “God is good… but only when I understand Him.”
“God is good… if He gives me what I asked for.”
“God is good… unless He delays too long.”

The Enemy, of course, sees right through this. His Book is filled with declarations of goodness not just in green pastures, but in the valley of the shadow of death.

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good…” (Psalm 107:1)
“Taste and see that the Lord is good…” (Psalm 34:8)
“The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all He has made.” (Psalm 145:9)

Infuriating.

If they believe He is good even when He says no, they stop bargaining.
If they believe He is good even when the diagnosis is bad, they stop panicking.
If they believe He is good when they cannot trace Him, they begin to trust Him.

We cannot allow that.

So here’s what you must do: tether their idea of goodness to their circumstances. Let their definition of divine goodness shrink to the size of their own comfort.

Let their prayers sound like, “If you were good, you would’ve…”

Let their praise depend on feelings. Let their theology depend on traffic lights, job offers, and monthly bank statements. If they don’t see “blessing,” convince them He’s withholding something.

And above all, make sure they define good by their standards, never His.

Because if they ever stop measuring His goodness by their comfort and start measuring it by the Cross… we’re finished.

Do not underestimate the threat of a human who can say through tears, “Yet I will rejoice.”

Do not allow him to echo Job: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
Do not let her say with confidence, “All things work together for good.”
Do not let them sing, “You are good and Your mercy endures forever.”

Because when they believe He is good, Wormwood… they give Him everything.

Permanently panicked,
Screwtape