Screwtape Letters to America 26 -- Urging Caution

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My dear Wormwood,

Prophecy exerts upon us a kind of gravitational pull, as though even we were subject to some celestial law we cannot escape. How often have we found ourselves drawn toward its dreadful magnetism. I confess to mixed feelings about your musings on a rebuilt temple. 

The prospect is, of course, delicious in its possibilities. Think of the seemingly inevitable clash between Muslim and Jew, the intoxicating scent of war rising from sacred ground. The very thought of such destruction is enough to make one twitch in anticipation.

Still, the words of Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians have long haunted our kind on this score. We know, of course, that the apostle wrote with his own age in view. But the lines seem altogether too near to something that might play into the Enemy's designs for my liking. Indeed, both His prevention and our fear of fulfilling some heavenly scheme has held us back thus far.

Yes, your man is precisely the sort of creature who would revel in such a project. He has not the faintest comprehension of the larger currents at work, yet we can readily picture him laboring hand in hand with those double-minded followers of the Enemy of whom we have so often spoken. How triumphantly they would pour their devotion into the task, imagining themselves the most prized servants of the King, while in truth erecting the greatest idol in human history.

Then comes that exhilarating yet haunting line from the Enemy’s book. The man of lawlessness seats himself in the temple, proclaiming that he is God. What an absolutely delectable prospect! To lure the very elect away from the Enemy, all the while persuading them that their champion is the long-awaited Messiah. Can you not see it, my boy? The familiar contortions of Scripture, the gleeful bending of prophecy to fit such a powerful narrative.

So many would be unable to resist. So many would feel the irresistible pull of that heretical gravity, re-forging their whole theology in its orbit. "This," they would cry, "is Christ come again!" And they would unleash such a persecution against the Enemy's authentic followers who would certainly protest in the strongest terms. 

Can you see it, my boy? What a delicious blasphemy! What potential for wholesale persecution of those true followers who would resist!

But then comes the dreadful afterthought, the one that sends a tremor even through the hearts of seasoned tempters. Is this scheme not perilously near the prophetic script itself? Might it not serve as the Enemy’s cue? Could it be the very door through which the true Messiah descends amid celestial trumpets? The delight of the vision is almost irresistible. Yet would we be hastening our own end?

I confess, I have seldom felt such a mingling of infernal glee and eternal terror. I am drawn to it as a moth to flame. I am fascinated, helpless, and trembling at the thought of what our machinations may unleash.

We cannot pray, and we cannot hope. We can only wait.

Your devoted uncle,
Screwtape

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Previous chapters

• 1 -- The Operations
• 2 -- The Veil Technique
• 3 -- The Fog 
• 4 -- Hard Hearts
• 5 -- Focus on Feelings
• 6 -- Blinding Indignation
• 7 -- Spiritual Inoculation
• 8 -- The Fumes of the Enemy
• 9 -- Moral Inversion
• 10 -- Reliable Race
• 11 -- Misdirection
• 12 -- The Very Elect
• 13 -- The Great Wedge
• 14 -- The Revolt
• 15 -- Deepening the Wedge
• 16 -- Church over State
• 17 -- The Great Election
• 18 -- The Great Pestilence
• 19 -- Foiled Plans
• 20 -- A Single Authority
• 21 -- Forgetfulness
• 22 -- The Tribulation Request
• 23 -- The Antichrist
• 24 -- Two Ways to God?
• 25 -- Armaggedon