Screwtape's game

[shnarkle]

The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point at which time touches eternity.

The present is the only “point at which time touches eternity.”

Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead. …But we want a man hag-ridden by the Future – haunted by visions of an imminent heaven or hell on earth – ready to break the Enemy’ commands in the present if by so doing we make him think he can attain the one or avert the other….

We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow’s end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now….

The patient must be filled with anxiety or hope: “it doesn’t matter which.” This gets the Patient out of the present, where “all duty, all grace, all knowledge, and all pleasure dwell….” A very undesirable situation, according to Screwtape.

About the general connection between Christianity and politics, our position is more delicate. Certainly we do not want men to allow their Christianity to flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster. On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means…even social justice.

Get humans to believe Christianity is true for any reason other than the true reason: “That is the game.”

 

[Helen]

The present is the only “point at which time touches eternity.”


The patient must be filled with anxiety or hope: “it doesn’t matter which.” This gets the Patient out of the present, where “all duty, all grace, all knowledge, and all pleasure dwell….” A very undesirable situation, according to Screwtape.



Get humans to believe Christianity is true for any reason other than the true reason: “That is the game.”

Good reminder...I should read it again, I haven't read it for years.
I think it was about three weeks after I was saved that my dad gave it to me to read!!
I was so new, and hadn't finished reading the Book Of John...let alone other books...so the first time I read it I had no idea what I was reading.

I read it again a couple of years later...by then I had matured enough. LOL

 

[Stranger]

The present is the only “point at which time touches eternity.”


The patient must be filled with anxiety or hope: “it doesn’t matter which.” This gets the Patient out of the present, where “all duty, all grace, all knowledge, and all pleasure dwell….” A very undesirable situation, according to Screwtape.



Get humans to believe Christianity is true for any reason other than the true reason: “That is the game.”

So, you who are not Christian, what is the true reason?

Stranger