The Screwtape Letters - chapter 31 and Screwtape Proposes a Toast:

First of all, Screwtape pronounces the undying love and devotion between himself and Wormwood as he closes out his book. He also emphasizes his disappointment in Wormwood for allowing the patient's soul to slip through his fingers; this is devastating for the Kingdom of Hell and the very throne itself. The rose-colored glasses came off of the patient's eyes and once again, he could see things crystal--the devil lost. This happens in everyday life. Sometimes, the rose-colored glasses do not come off in time and the person ends up in a tragedy and realizes the truth too late. How many people can verify that one? However, there is a relief and a strength that increases in a person from victory when the glasses are off in time; it truly feels like a cleansing. The devil (Screwtape) is a maneuverer. However, he is defeated by God because God is the ultimate strategic maneuver against evil! And, he removes the obstacles instantaneously like 'the twinkling of an eye.' Often times, people are aware of the adversary and his tactics but cannot or will not combat the circumstances around themm feel helpless in it, or are fatigued from the battle and length of time, etc. Whatever the case is, the only way the devil can be defeated is that you look to God in these moments and draw from his strength to endure to the end of it--the bible says that God will give you strength to outlast your enemies. Screwtape states that the patient saw not only what was in those people around him, but that he saw what was in them was within himself--a mirror reflection! Often times, God will allow the devil to do this to a person so that this person can see how hideous and rediculous he or she really is and correct it; it's called "a buffeting." Embracing the pain of its reality will help you to grow in that area, recognize it in others to help them, and be strengthened from it so that you will not be tempted by it again. These values become transfinite! They are embedded in us as a template for the future. The devil's own Intelligence Department will not be so intelligent afterall and he will never win in the end.
Screwtape explains the ramifications on his life as a result of the Screwtape Letters. He states that they 'produced a strain that was a sort of spiritual cramp.' It almost smothered him before he was finished. That should have told him something: That writing these letters through the devil's eyes was more than wrong; it was down right blasphemy and disobedient to God! It is a good thing, like he stated, that he pulled back as soon as he did. Screwtape was correct when he stated that Wormwood should have been the patient's guardian angel and have been balanced by archangelical advice for him. Screwtape definitely painted a one-sided picture--the devil's side--which was his goal. What do think he meant when he stated, "Mere advice would be no good; every sentence would have to smell of Heaven?" Screwtape starts his toast with the scene being in Hell at the annual dinner of the 'Tempters' Training College for young Devils. He is giving curses (If it was a toast in God, they would be blessings!) to these Tempters in the attempt to encourage them to continue the devil's work like he did, and do it worse! They are to feed off of fear, anguish and terror. He refers to a Farinata, a Henry VIII, or even a Hitler as 'real crackling--something to crunch, an egotism, a cruelty less robust than their own, a delicious resistance to being devoured--all things to strive for. He further characteristics of the Principal that he refers to as, 'a municipal authority with Graft sauce.' His drive is there but the way he presented himself to these Tempters was that of a 'nonentity who had drifted into corruption.' Screwtape obviously had no regard for him and stated that a Trade Unionist garnished with Claptrap was a shade better. I believe that Screwtape feels that he can do a better job at training these tempters. What are your feelings? In regard to gaining souls, Screwtape states that they need to consider first, the mere quantity is better than quality and then, triumph through delicate skill and extreme labor to take them from God's saving grace. Screwtape explains that the first job of the Tempters is to harden the consciousness of the person and obscure their language through steady repetitions or habits. That is a tactic the devil uses: For a person to repeat bad behavior to where it becomes embedded and is habitual. And, he chooses certain behavioral types and plays on their mind and emotions in order to accomplish this goal. A third moral that is most important for the Tempters to use are those 'great sinners whom vivid and genial passions have been pushed beyond the bounds and in whom an immense concentration of will has been devoted to objects which the Enemy (God) abhors. These people are the ones that should have been 'thrown to Cerberus and the hell-bound unfit for diabolical consumption.' They are the trash! Screwtape refers to these 'great sinners' as being made from the same material as the 'great saints.' Do you agree or disagree and why? I agree only in the context that they are a mirror reflection of the great saints, but have went bad. Also, the capability of sin is in everyone (humans) and no one is perfect. The devil cannot stand for God to desire humans as Christ-like--like himself. He is always trying to label the great saints with foul labels and equal them to the sinners of the world. Christians are not perfect, they are just forgiven. However, when God appoints you as his qualified leader, there is a reason. You have past his tests, polished, and when you walk in his Spirit for your life, you will make fewer mistakes because it is His advice and will that you are doing, not your own. The devil is an imitator and, therefore, that is what I see in Screwtape; he is trying to advise these Tempters to imitate the ways of God and steal souls from Him by using His own tactics against Him. This is evil! The devil will even use Democracy in extreme to accomplish this goal. He will use inferiority complexes such as, "I'm as good as you" where the believer is constantly defending himself or herself, entrapping that person in a vicious cycle to where they will say or do the wrong things and harm their life with their own words. Screwtape states that the political field are for the inferior. I agree, what about you? It gives them a sense of value, worthiness, and power; however, our authority positions do not need inferior people because it is detrimental for the people under that authority. An example would be the patient, in the case of the claim to equality, and an inferiority--the patient would refuse to accept it and, therefore, resent it as well as the person who feels superior to him.

The Screwtape Letters - chapters 28-30:
I chose chapter 29 because I have seen Screwtape's scenario so many times, especially in the area of pride with men. The devil (Screwtape) is incapable of producing anything good, much less virtue of anything or any kind. The only thing he can do is imitate or use anything that God creates. He has no originality! He imitates any virtue that a person has as a facade to deceive others. This is why Screwtape states that a wicked man needs a little virtue to be greatly effective. The virtuous facade allows the wickedness to fully operate under the scenes in that person, rendering him solely to Satan as well as accomplishing his job--to deceive him and others to do his will. And, why do you think that Screwtape states that their research department (Screwtape's and his father) has not discovered how to produce any virtue and can only rely on God's? I believe that if the devil had this ability in his hands that he could and would do more damage to people. How? I also believe that the results would render Christians a copious amount of warfare as if they do not have enough. This way, with the need to only be able to use virtues from God, the devil has to fight to gain access from the believer because he cannot create it. And, he's defeated especially when there are two or more Christians together. He does not stand a chance!
It does not matter who is bombarding the patient's town, the fact is that the town is being bombarded. The devil (Screwtape) is just looking for any opportunity to get the patient to fall to his prey with to sin, especially large sins because only in extremes can he cause a person to react dangerously and do the most harm. The devil's favorite area is emotions. God gave us emotions but to use them properly and to keep them in balance. Any deviation of any one of them places the believer into the devil's territory where they can then be distorted or twisted, exaggerated, and way out of control in extreme. He will play on your last nerve to cause you to react outwardly in a negative fashion such as, violence. Hatred is a very strong force and fear feeds it because the more you fear what you hate, the more you hate the fact that you are cowarding as well as the fact that you are fearing what you hate. For example, the devil chooses a person who is righteous and has not mastered their anger management by allowing it to be solely the wrath of God through His Spirit channeling down from Heaven. This is a "fleshly anger" of resentment or dislike (loathing) and, therefore, an emotion out of control and the devil's playground. Even righteous anger which is totally justified by God, can be misused by the devil in Christians if it is not buffered to where the person brings it to God's attention ASAP in order for Him to dispense the judgment. The devil knows that if he can steal your courage, a virtue, then he can cause you to waiver in cowardice and fear. Shame comes as a result of "you going there" and is very detrimental to a person's emotional state. The devil wants the patient to be broken where confusion sets in because that is when he will look for something to target his hatred toward. God allows calamity to come because He gets people's attention and He wiping out concentrated evil on earth. God will allow the devil to do his tactics to allow Christians to see what they are made of in order for repentance and humility to occur. The devil uses this as an opportunity for his purpose. However, to those Christians who are obedient, God will use it to warn them ahead of time of what is coming so that they can prepare themselves and overcome it. The devil (Screwtape) wants to keep the patient from learning about himself and aggravating the shame to produce despair, to be numb to the awareness of the sin and accepting God's forgiveness blindly and not giving the mercy credit. Why? Because he is then insulting God by not acknowledging His sovereignty and he continues in the sin of unbelief and falling back on his "sense of duty" as the driving force which becomes obscured by an imaginary cloud laced with precautions based on fear and superstitions to keep matters from getting worse. The emotion does not cause the sin, but the act resulting from it does because the devil "got you to go there."