4 posts from Tim Wheatly:

#1:

It is interesting what C.S. Lewis writes in the Screwtape Letters when he Wormwood is told: "There is no need to despair; hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a brief sojourn in the Enemy's camp and are now with us."

It seems as if Lewis is going against the idea of "once saved always saved." It would not surprise me that he would believe in this doctrine, because of his great emphasis on man's freewill. If man has a choice in whether he is saved or not, than why does he not have a choice in forfeiting his salvation?
Nonetheless, the one main thing I see wrong here is that to me if man chooses God, that seems to be a work on his part of achieving salvation, because it is something that he has done to obtain salvation. Thus, I believe in predestination and the perseverance of the saints, that is that God chooses you and will never let you go.

#2:

I find it intesting how the Screwtape wants his patient to pray like he did when he was a child, where he sort of forgets what it means to be praying. Certainly, not praying with your whole being is something that the devil would want, but does the devil really want us to look back on, as is implied in Lewis' writings, our child-like prayers. In a way, that would not be a good-thing for the devil, since when I was a child and prayed, I will remember that I came to God with that child-like faith with which we must come to Him, because "anyone who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him" (Hebrews 11).

#3:

C.S. Lewis continues the pattern of being able to relate to his readers by writing of current events that had happened in the recent past at the time of his writings. In Screwtape writing about the wars and how it can have negative effects for the demonic side, the reader's attention is grabbed, since many British had just gotten done with World War II at the time of them reading this book.
Also, it's interesting how C.S. Lewis cleverly reminds the reader, without them really notocing he is going so, about the inevitability of death. Whether it is in war or some place else, everyone will die and have to face God. Thus, C.S. Lewis prompts the reader to remember "his creater in the days of his youth" (Ecclesiastes).

#4:

Also, Lewis does a nice job of sneaking into the book how we as Christians tend to be concerned about what man thinks of us many times, instead of what God thinks of us. In chapter 10, Screwtape encourages Wormwood to have the patient laugh at his non-Christian's bad jokes, and to be silent when he ought to be spekaing up. This is definitely something that the Devil likes to work on. God has given us the Spirit without limits is what the scriptures say but Lewis implies in the book how we intend to suppress that Spirit. For we were not given "a spirit of timidity", but rather, as St. Paul says, "a spirit of power." Thus, to be shy in how we speak up, is to be lukewarm, something that is condemned in the Book of Revelation.