record of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ as the basis
of their belief-systems and morality codes.
Major W. Ian Thomas writes,
“It is one of the subtleties of Satan which causes men to flee from
God and seek to silence His voice in the very practice of religion.
So it is that man, to suit his own convenience, has reduced God to
a theological formula, an ethical code, or political program, a
theatrical performance in a religious setting, the hero worship of
some vivid personality...” 27In his masterful presentation of diabolic activity, The
Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis has the senior devil,
Screwtape, say to his nephew, Wormwood, “One of our
greatest allies at present is the church itself,” 28 i.e.
“Christian religion.” In another vignette Screwtape explains
that “it will be an ill day for us if what most humans mean
by ‘religion’ ever vanishes from the Earth. It can still send
us the truly delicious sins. Nowhere do we tempt so
successfully as on the very steps of the altar.” 29 Blaise
Pascal likewise noted that “men never do evil so
completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious
conviction.” 30
To identify religion with the activity of Satan will seem
to be blasphemous to those who have not differentiated
between Christianity and religion. Once that distinction has
been clearly made however, the antithetical alternative to