I know we discussed in class the possibility that Lewis may not have intended to write the Screwtape Letters as a depiction of demons interacting with humans but that he could have written it merely as an example of how the human mindset is depraved and is easily led astray. While I agree that we often stumble on our own two feet, this book has led me to think more about the “schemes of the devil” and of the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly place” and about what exactly their interaction with us really looks like (Eph. 6).
I actually know someone right now who is possibly struggling with possession by a demon. His name is Justin, and he is my brother-in-law’s brother. Ever since he was a young child, his mother said he has had a very dark side to him. Of late, very strange things have been happening to the people who are around him. A tenant who lives above him in his building has mentioned that her covers have flown off of her in the middle of the night several times, and one of his other brothers witnessed a scene in which Justin’s huge English bulldog was flailed across the living room. These instances, among many others, have led to several long meetings with church pastors and to lots of prayer regarding how his family should confront Justin about the evil that seems so obvious in his life. Justin is not a Christian, so he’s definitely not tapped into God’s defenses, but I struggle with the idea of literal possession by a demon. I know it happened while Jesus was on earth, but I feel like we don’t hear about it very much today. It’s seems to be an issue more prevalent in developing countries where there are local witch doctors and where people practice voodoo. However, maybe this thought is just my mind being stereotypical.
Maybe spiritual warfare looks different in different places though. As Screwtape says periodically in his letters, the goal of the “Father below” is to do whatever it takes to get people further away from the “Enemy.” I think the tactics of the “Father” are different for us here in a country like America than in, say an indigenous tribal group in Africa. The thought of literal demon possession happening to someone here in America is really disconcerting for a lot of people. It almost turns them off to the belief that demons even exist. The person who is supposedly possessed is thought of as crazy, their issue psychological. Or, on the contrary, maybe demon possession is not heard of as much in America because it does the opposite of what is intended by the “Father,” in that it makes people more aware of the fact that spiritual forces do exist and could potentially lead people into the arms of the “Enemy” for protection. As Justin has been confronted by his Christian family members in the past few months, his heart is softening slightly to the thought that something is not right in his life.
Possession might be a more potent drug in other places where superstitions are high and where demonic activity might be mistaken as the work of a mystic or magician. In such a case, people are led astray from the truth, so success is achieved by the “Father.” These men are “veritably worshipping, what they vaguely call ‘Forces’ while denying the existence of ‘spirits’” (32).
The tactics of the “Father” in our lives, I think, are typically more subtle. We might be led into the arms of the “Enemy” through something as blatant and physical as possession, so perhaps why the “Father” doesn’t use that tactic on us. Instead, one of the “best weapons” against us is “contented worldliness” (24). Such subtlety, when you think about it, is just as scary as things that are literal and physical like possession. Perhaps even more so because it is so easily concealed from our eyes. Screwtape says on page 31, “Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves. . . when humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and skeptics.” This statement seems to me to be the tactic of the enemy in our lives, subtle concealment.
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