Listen To Lewis: KevinH
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” – C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters
We all probably know that Christian(s) who sees the devil behind every sin, sickness, personal offense, or stubbed toe. There is rarely any allowance for human depravity or a fallen world….. whenever something bad happens it must be of Satan and his minions and we must stand up against them and drive out the demons.
On the other hand, we have those who ascribe to a liberal Christian theology and have come to the conclusion that there is no devil….. he’s just a mythological boogeyman and we don’t have to worry about any potential harm brought about by any evil schemes by any evil spirits.
So even in the Christian faith where we have the Bible to tell us about the fallenness of man and the world, human responsibility for their sin, the reality of Satan and his demons (including Jesus’s own personal encounter with Satan and multiple times encountering evil spirits), but also the limits of Satan’s reign and power, we still have many Christians who fall into one of the two equal and opposite errors described by C.S. Lewis in the quote above.
“He (the devil) always sends errors into the world in pairs–pairs of opposites…He relies on your extra dislike of one to draw you gradually into the opposite one.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
However, worst so right now, I submit that we are seeing an epidemic in our current American Christian culture of those who are being fooled by the errors described in this second C.S. Lewis quotation. I submit that far too many Christians in America, primarily but not only Evangelicals, who concern themselves with politics have allowed themselves to become so greatly disturbed by one error of the pairing that they gradually became, and have now become almost wholly engrossed by the opposite error of the pairing.
While acceptance of and cooperation with error happens on both sides of our political aisle, it has become excessively rampant and extreme on the conservative side in recent times. For many, many years, conservative Christians were conditioned by influential forces within their culture to focus on the errors of the one side – acceptance and even promotion of abortion, acceptance and even promotion of sexual ethics in violation of God’s Word, etc. They were told that there is another side that would fight against these errors, these evils, and stand for God’s righteousness, thus they should support such a side.
Tragically, the floodgates of error and evil have broken wide open on the side that was promoted to be “God’s side”. Even more so tragically, many in the church have been utterly fooled and completely drawn into these errors and evils because they are so laser focused on the evils (real and imagined) of the “other side”, that they are blind to the evils they have adopted to try to fight the evils they are so concerned about and have come to so greatly dislike.
Therefore, it is now normal and acceptable, even encouraged to:
- Slander and bear false witness of the political enemy
- Disparage, demean, and demonize immigrants
- Revere crudeness, bullying, and nastiness
- Justify wrongdoing done by “your side”
- Project and act on an “us vs. them” attitude
- Disobey the government on commands which do not violate God’s commands
- Promote unfounded, if not outright false conspiracy theories which accuse the “other side” or the government of all kinds of wrongdoing, even as ridiculous as something as creating hurricanes
- And all the more
“Put on the full armor of God. Stand firm against the Left’s schemes. You will face flaming arrows, but if you have the shield of faith, you will overcome them,” – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
It is not the schemes of the Left….. nor the schemes of the Right…. they are the schemes of the devil. In his Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis made us aware of many of those schemes, yet an additional one he describes in Mere Christianity involving the sending of a pair of opposite errors seems to be working particularly well for the devil today in American politics, even among Christians who know there is a real devil to be contended with. We should know better, and yet we don’t.
“But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Partisan politics are poison to the soul.
Jesus is the cure.
Great article, Kevin
Gotta wonder if the genesis of this was with the spiritual warfare movement (Peretti) and the NAR.
As Lewis might’ve said, both have some good elements but guess who is behind the fanaticism?
Thanks bob1.
I’m sure there is some influence there with what we are seeing today. The irony is in how some see such widespread and severe demonic activity on the “other side”, while completely missing or dismissing the demonic activity that could be affecting their “own side”, even affecting they, themselves.
Yes. It’s a lot easier to blame the other than to first look inside. We Christians should know better! What was it Jesus said about the corruption that’s inside us all?
There is an interest in what is being called “re-enchantment,” a movement seeking to encourage Christians to pay better attention to the unseen world all around us, full of angels, demons, and Saints. (Us Orthodox are really into this idea but we are not the only ones.) It’s an alternative to viewing the world in a flat materialistic way which is a fruit of the renaissance/enlightenment/Reformation. So yes, I see the work of demons in many things that happen all around us, and the work of angels as well. And I could tell you some cool Saint stories…
Anyway, you don’t have to be part of the NAR to appreciate this. You can just be an ordinary Christian who believes the words of St. Paul when he talks about the prevalence of demons “in the air.” I think this explains UFOs, for example. People have always seen weird lights in the sky, as St. Bede and St. Gregory of Tours report. People believed in a *supernatural* unseen world back then but since modern people are scientific, demons try to frighten us by masquerading as space aliens. And people have been primed to believe in aliens by TV shows such as Star Trek, etc. (Space aliens are just an example that came to mind.)
As the Scriptures say, our battle is against denizens of the unseen world. The Scriptures are full of warnings about demons which many folks are oblivious to.
BTW, I’m not talking about Christians becoming demon-possessed, etc. and people making up new denominations/movements to accommodate that kind of thing. I know some Pentecostals get carried away with casting demons out of everyone. That’s not what I mean by re-enchantment.
Xenia,
I feel almost silly saying this, but I actually agree that “aliens” are from the spirit world, confused as something else. I have always thought that.
Xenia,
I’m not familiar with the “re-enchantment” movement, but from what you describe, it does seem to be a pretty good idea.
As for UFO’s and space aliens, I don’t know if we can prescribe that with certainty to Satan and his demons, but I have long thought that it is quite plausible, even likely.
Somebody can correct me if I’m wrong, but if we go back more than a couple hundred years, I don’t think there’s many stories at all of possible UFO’s or space aliens. Seemingly, stories only became more prevalent once mankind came to know that flying craft are possible and gained a greater understanding of just how vast the universe is and populated with so many other planetary systems, thus piquing curiosity as to the possibility of other life out there. Now that people were apt to understand the possibility of space craft and space aliens, it makes one wonder if Satan and his demons have taken advantage of this environment to distract and deceive.
Kevin H – If you back more than 200 years you find people encountering elves, fairies, etc. Usually in out of the way places, odd hours and very few witnesses. Jaques Vallee’s book (written in the ’60s) Passport to Magonia traced unexplainable sightings from folklore to the modern age. Not a believer, but the first UFO researcher to claim they were not material but inter-dimensional beings.
Terry, that’s interesting. And it would almost seem to fit into my theory. 200 years or more ago, people had little concept of spaceships and aliens, but they did of elves, fairies, etc. It seems quite plausible that demons would use what may be most understandable or believable to their current audience.
Terry, yes! Jaques Vallee believes UFOs are not Extraterrestrials but intelligent beings from another dimension who are malicious. He’s not a believer, as you say, but he does believe in the unseen world. Christians can just call these creatures (because they were created by God) demons and we need not be worried about them. The whole UFO thing has shaken the faith of many people, which I suppose is the purpose, but once we realize what they are, we need not be afraid, or even give them a second thought.
In early Medieval times people saw monsters, too. St. Columba saw, what could only be described as the Loch Ness Monster, cross his path in the sixth century. People saw weird beings back in the day and I don’t think they were all making stuff up. I myself had a very strange encounter with…. something.
The problem is that a few hundred years ago, people believed there were witches everywhere (HT: Monty Python) or if you go the Jack Chick / John Todd / Mike Warnke route a few decades ago Satanists everywhere sacrificing children, or today using the basement of a Pizza restaurant. Almost all of the supposed sightings of UFOs, aliens, etc. today (or fairies, elves, etc. in the past) can be explained as natural phenomena. I suspect much of the supposed demon possession in the OT and the Gospels (and throughout history really) were really mental/medical disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar, etc.
R’as:
“I suspect much of the supposed demon possession in the OT and the Gospels (and throughout history really) were really mental/medical disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar, etc.”
If that’s true, what did Jesus cast into the pigs?