Screwtape Letters to America 22 -- The Tribuation Request

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Uncle Screwtape,

I continue to ponder what the master's request of the Enemy might be. The more I reflect, the more I wonder about building on the scheme of the end times that is so popular here in the States. As you know, so many followers of the Enemy here hold to a great narrative of signs and dates. They hold to a map that makes the future into a script we might try to follow. 

If we can persuade even the very elect that we are on that map, might we use their sentiments as an instrument? Might we appeal to their sense of prophecy as a kind of instruction manual? It would be a great feat of fiendish ingenuity to turn their expectations into a self-fulfilling prophecy -- and great a world crisis of our own making!

You may know components of the script since it originated on that side of the Pond. But it never took hold there. It found its triumph on these shores over a century ago, spreading with the ferocity of rumor. What’s fascinating to observe is the craft: fragments drawn from the Enemy’s own book welded into an arrangement beyond what any single author intended.

The broad outline is familiar. A man of lawlessness will appear who so convincingly mimics goodness that even the very elect are nearly deceived. In time he is revealed as the Antichrist. We have exploited that image often, persuading the one tribe to see the rival candidate as that very figure.

Then there is a scene involving Israel. Some presumptuous enemy advances and is met with humiliating defeat. Once upon a time, we fed rumors that the aggressor would be the Soviet bear. Then later we pressed the specter of Islam. They call that battle Armageddon. The debate over its schedule is our advantage giving wiggle room for us to weave more than one storyline.

And of course the temple returns to center stage. A rebuilt Jerusalem temple is now expected by so many that it is an offering on a plate to our scheming. The climax is of course the Antichrist enthroning himself there as god. 

Then comes the vaunted Rapture, the moment every pious heart waits on with equal parts hope and dread. All the Enemy’s people will be snatched from the earth and the Antichrist will then have his splendid season of havoc. It would be a tall order to counterfeit in full, though I confess a certain pleasure at the thought of trying. The notion of a “reverse rapture” might be a delicious inversion. 

We would persuade the double-minded that those who vanish were the wicked all along, and you set conscience to work against itself. To make that appearance believable requires only that we prompt the right stories, the right omissions, and a few very public demonstrations of absence. I will share my thoughts in a later letter.

The timing is varied among the scripts. These enthusiasts call what follows the Tribulation and reckon it at seven years. Some place the snatching at the outset -- others in the middle or at the close. Such variety is our orchard of possibility. It gives plenty of opportunity to shape the story in different ways. As we have conversed, these creatures are remarkably pliable, so we can easily change the interpretations to suit our narrative.

Of course, we must not urge the Enemy to bring about the story's true ending, the consummation Scripture promises. My aim is only to buy us another decade or so of maximal world havoc. After that we would, no doubt, find other avenues of torment.

I should delight in sharing more of these dreams in further letters. I wonder if it is along these lines that the master is making request of the Enemy.

Your dear nephew,
Wormwood

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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