The Safest Road to Hell

"In one of his letters to his young nephew, Wormwood, Screwtape posits that, "the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." The point Lewis is making is that powerful emotions, though rash and unthinking while being experienced, do not last long and they prompt an examination of the soul. Much more effective to prevent such an examination is an unreasoning apathy, which can stretch on much longer if not indeed for a lifetime. Earlier Screwtape tells his nephew "Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick." In reality murder is probably worse than cards because murder would stir up inside all but the most calloused soul thoughts of right and wrong causing them to seek absolution of there guilt. Acknowledgement is the first step of confession and the process of forgiveness and murder is much more obvious and more readily acknowledged as a sin than a game of cards (which may in fact not be sinful and thus when it is is much more difficult to acknowledge).

There is great danger in this for us as Christians, because while it would be very difficult to tempt the majority of humanity to murder, it is oh so easy to tempt us to be apathetic. After all apathy is so much easier, it avoids all the pain and heartache caused by the emotions such as love and anger. I think of it like climbing a mountain with heaven at its summit and hell at it's base. To go up is difficult, it involves climbing and even if that climbing is up a gentle slope there is still more exertion required than to simply turn around and take the slow winding path down. Thus one might very easily be tempted to take the gentle, easy path down the mountain rather than the laborious one up it. At the same time however, it would be extremely difficult to convince a hiker simply to throw themselves off a cliff in order to reach the bottom. While both throwing oneself off the mountain would accomplish the tempters goal more quickly, it is much more realistic to assume that they will take the easy path down.

The point where we might be convinced to turn around on that mountain and begin that easy descent is the point where our desire for the summit has diminished that we no longer consider it worth the tribulations to reach. We must as Christians guard ourselves against ever reaching that point. As Romans 12:11 says, "Never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord." And just as the way to reach the summit is to keep it always in mind the way to reach our destination is outlined for us in Hebrews 12 where we are told to "Fix [our] eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith."  Another analogy used is that of temperature. We must be Christians on fire. In Revelation the Church in Laodicea is rebuked severely because they are "neither hot nor cold." This state of spiritual apathy disgusts God and he says "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

As Christians this is an ever present danger and many more within the church fall to this temptation than to that of sinning outright. The consequences however are the same as Satan wins a soul just as much through apathy as through contempt. In order to guard against the subtle enemy of apathy John Piper suggests that we test ourselves daily with the following questions:

"Do you have zeal for a worthy cause? Is there some good for which you are being slandered? Or is life so harmless in this evil world that it fits in nicely with the way things are going, and so nobody is asking you anything?"