One of the
most well-known expressions in history is ‘Know your enemy.’ It comes from the
ancient Chinese military treatise ‘The Art of War’ by Sun Tzu. As Christians,
we are in a daily battle against the enemy of our soul.
Here is the
synopsis of this novel:
“I
was a junior tempter then, but even in those days I showed phenomenal promise…”
From
the Archives of The Low Command: Ministry of Misinformation
This
remarkable manuscript outlines the career of the prominent devil, Crumblewit
S.O.D. (Order of the Sons of Darkness, 1st Class).
Crumblewit
provides a fiendish appraisal of the struggles between good and evil which
dominates human affairs in the period from 1942 (when the great Screwtape’s
Letters were released to the world) to the present. Crumblewit’s energies were
deployed in the religious arena, undermining the attempts of Christians to
carry out the mission entrusted to them by the Unmentionable One.
The
account is pleasingly distorted by its author’s truly diabolical conceit and
capacity for self-delusion. It sheds a very satisfying light on the
tribulations experienced by humans throughout this period.
Here is the
biography of the author:
Popular
historian Derek Wilson is the author of over 60 books and has written and
presented numerous television and radio programs. He lives and writes in Devon
[UK].
I will use
this review to focus on a few of the tactics; let’s beware of how we use our
time and resources, and how we need to ensure we are not deceived.
Here is how
Crumblewit steered a minister off track:
By
suggesting to him courses of action that any of the enemy’s agents tried to promote,
I induced him to lower his guard. First of all I drew his attention to radio
evangelists. These rabid spouters of the enemy’s propaganda were a nuisance to
us because they were able to get their sick-making message into every home to
which their networks had access. Some of our colleagues had managed to use the
novel phenomenon of radio (just as they more effectively use television years
later) by insinuating into the preaching slots religious charlatans, who used
their air time to make appeals for money. Only I saw that the medium could be
used even more effectively. I induced Little Bratt [his name for the pastor]
into spending more and more time listening to the radio evangelists. I got him
to analyze their techniques and then try them out in the pulpit. It was not
long before he was paying more attention to the method than the message. (p.
25)
Crumblewit
also explains how he and his colleagues use and abuse a gift originally given
by God, but perverted for their gain:
Sex
remains the most effective universal tool at our disposal. Adultery, sexual
experimentation by emotionally immature young people, and the unwillingness of
parents to provide a firm moral framework for their teenage children are, in
every human community, being justified by the grounds of “love.” Oh, the
delightful spectacles of misery, betrayal, desertion, cantankerous bitterness,
and murder we have been able to enjoy as a direct result of inducing couples to
claim (and, in most cases, believe) that “It’s OK because we love each other.”
As if they knew the meaning of the word! It is an attribute of the enemy which
remains a mystery. If we don’t
understand it, the inferior human creatures can’t possibly grasp its
implications. Our task is to conceal reality from them by persuading them that
the enemy’s hard-and-fast rules were mere guidelines, which humans are free to
adapt, apply, or not apply, according to the circumstances. (p. 136)
This passage
not only uncovers the enemy’s tactics (which were successfully employed in the
Garden of Eden), but also shows how lowly he esteems God’s people.
Here
Crumblewit talks about technology and television in particular. This section
was particularly convicting to me, as I can spend a little too much time in
front of the ‘boob tube:’
Television,
as I knew well and had always urged, was an excellent tool offering numerous
possibilities. At the lowest end it provided an endless stream of trivia with
which we could fill people’s minds and divert their attention from issues
concerning their eternal well-being. Handled properly, TV could even prevent
them from thinking at all; they could simply take their ideas and opinions from
the screens which dominated their living spaces. (p. 150)
He goes on
to explain how he sows seeds of discontent:
[W]hat
we can do, and have done consistently with great success, is keep the pathetic
creatures preoccupied with the mundane; working feverishly to earn money to buy
those trinkets – clothes, gadgets, motor cars, jewellery. houses – which give
them social status and bolster their sense of self-worth. If that leaves them
craving “something more,” we offer glamour. We have schooled a whole industry
to dangle before the populace images of men and women whose wealth, fame, and
exciting lifestyle suggest what, with luck, ingenuity, or extra efforts, their
fans, too, might achieve. We have manoeuvred them into a delightfully jumbled
state of mind in which fact and fiction, reality and dreams are splendidly
confused. (pp. 150-151)
Can anyone
say “Kardashian”?
There are
many more examples of how our enemy gets us off track; these are just a few.
It was, at
times, difficult to read the book from Crumblewit’s perspective, especially
when he was so disparaging of people, but especially of God. His description of
God as ‘the enemy’ was hard to read. In any event, I think it is important to
be aware of the devil’s tactics. So I appreciate Derek Wilson for bringing
these things to his readers’ attention – distasteful as it was. But that’s how
satan (small s) operates. It was particularly satisfying to see what Crumblewit’s
‘reward’ is at the end of the book.
This book
was published by Lion Fiction and provided by Kregel Publications for review
purposes.
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