Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded.
Proverbs 12:13
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Dear Wormwood1,
If you want your Christian young adult to destroy his life (and his family), whisper to his ears these 3 simple words: despise God’s Word.
Tell him to treat it as unimportant, boring, irrelevant, or useless. No, you don’t have to try to deceive him about the doctrines of the Bible. Let him think it is God’s inspired word. Let him still confess and believe that it is infallible and inerrant. Let him believe all the doctrinal stuff about the Bible, just make sure that he despises God’s Word by his day to day treatment of it.
Whisper to him that scrolling YouTube and Facebook reels is more happy-inducing that reading the genealogies in the book of Numbers. Tell him everyone is doing it, including this ministry leaders.
Don’t interrupt his late night Mobile Legends playtime with his friends. This helps him stay a little later on bed, so that when he wakes up a little later than his alarm clock, it will be easier to convince him to skip his devotions so that he won’t be late for work.
Convince him that the problems he faces in his work, his boss, his co-workers are unique to him. If he reads the verses about bondservants working faithfully in the workplace as to the Lord (Col. 3:23-24), make sure to whisper to him that the verse is proof that the Bible doesn’t care about how he feels or whether he is victimized at work.
Whisper to him that the Bible is useless for dealing with depressions and anxieties he faces. After all, the Bible has no “mental health” vocabulary in it. Use this to convince him that the God’s Word is silent on his issues of depression and anxiety.
However, here is the most important advice: let him always hear God’s Word preached every Sunday. I know it sounds counterintuitive. It sounds like bad advice, but listen carefully. Let him listen to his pastor’s preaching on Sunday after Sunday. Don’t stop him from listening to podcasts and YouTube preaching video clips. Don’t change the algorithm of his Facebook page in order to remove the preaching clips that appear on his Facebook wall. In fact, bombard him with messages from God’s Word day after day.
But as you do this, convince him of this: all he has to do is listen to the Word. Just listen. He doesn’t have to apply it in his day to day life. Let him say amen to the preachings he has heard. Let him comment on YouTube videos that he was blessed with the preaching he watched. Just don’t let him apply the Word he heard. Convince him that listening is enough. Convince him that his listening to the Word makes him more spiritual than the rest of his churchmates who spend more time in cat videos and dancing tiktok videos. When you do, he will think he loves the Word of God because he listens to it, forgetting what James said in James 1:21 (I won’t write out the verse here, so that your charge may not accidentally read it).
Do this Wormwood, and your charge will despise God’s Word.
When he does, (cue-in sinister laugh) it will be the young adult who will be irrelevant, ineffective, and useless.
Your Uncle,
Screwtape
P.S. If you fail, however, he will revere God’s command, and you will be the one in trouble.
Inspired by C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. In the book, Wormwood is a junior, trainee devil, who is receiving advices from his uncle, Screwtape, on how to tempt his charge, a Christian, into falling into sin against Christ.