John C. Rankin. The Screwtape Text Messages. TEI Publishing, 2019.

We have reviewed a few books by John Rankin, and have mentioned him in other posts. This book was a little sad for me to pick up because I had known and occasionally worked with Dr. Rankin for over thirty years. He passed away two years ago. His face is on the book’s cover. I saw him in my memory every time I picked the book up.

The Screwtape Text Messages clearly borrows from the C. S. Lewis classic The Screwtape Letters. The Screwtape Letters first introduced me to C. S. Lewis. (I did not learn about his kids’ books till years later.) The Screwtape Text Messages takes the same concept a generation later, beginning in the nineties up to the time the book was written and published. As the book progresses, Screwtape complains more and more about having to use an old Blackberry when newer tech works better, but that is life where he comes from.

There is, however, a major difference. The Screwtape Letters is fiction. The Screwtape Text Messages is a memoir, really. One could call it creative nonfiction. Besides mentor-devil antagonist Screwtape and student-devil Wormwood, the protagonist is John Rankin, the author. In effect, this is a story of Rankin’s spiritual battles over the course of his life. That part is not fiction.

It begins with flashbacks to his childhood, especially after he went away to a boarding school. There he encountered some of the “initiation rites” typical of such places, but he also ended up encountering both God and evil spirits. We see his conversion and spiritual growth—and backsliding—from the perspective of Wormwood and Screwtape. Yes, there is humor. If anything, Screwtape’s language has gotten more colorful since Lewis wrote about him, but we soon understand this is a serious book. It is very much an autobiography. Yet, it is one that makes us understand there is an unseen world.

The Bible gives us glimpses, for example when Elisha prays that God opens his servant’s eyes, and we see the chariots of fire surrounding the valley of Dothan. (See II Kings 6:15-17). Rankin reminds us that:

…we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

Time and again the tempters try to work on a personally perceived strength, which can also be turned into weakness if our pride or other deadly sin gets in the way. Rankin’s tunnel vision optimism (TVO) helps him persevere and overcome many obstacles. But it can be twisted by the enemy to wear him down. As the Bible warns, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (I Corinthians 10:12)

As has been noted on our blog, Rankin served in an area that few Christians in ministry serve. He was active in the pro-life movement and also conducted many forums with atheists, academics, and activists who oppose Christianity and/or religion. His ministry overall was effective in getting at least some people to see things in a different light, just as this book does even to a reader who is a believer. This book definitely reflects deeply onto our own lives, but from an infernal perspective.

At one point Rankin becomes involved in what would politely be called a marginal or pseudo-Christian cult. Ironically, Rankin is doing this because he thinks he is researching other groups which are cults. This gets Screwtape excited:

Remember—Hierarchy not Freedom! Now, we do not necessarily flee the possibility of such studies, but if we can, we do everything possible to help the subject get sucked into the “deceptions” he thinks he is studying, thinking he is above “deception” himself. (50)

Later, Rankin comes to his senses, so to speak (see Luke 15:17 HCSB). Screwtape worries:

Then there was the dangerous idea and initial work where Rankin started writing a book called “No Coercion in the Gospel” (a nasty attempt to counterpunch the Motto of Hell: Hierarchy, not Freedom!) (60)

Rankin pulls no punches:

So, when he began pro-life (we prefer to call it “anti-abortion” because a double negative is easier to degrade than a double positive) ministry in late 1983, we shuddered (Oh how we desperately hate anything that affirms women and their unborn as equally human, for we hate marriage, we want women to be treated as property by chauvinistic men, who love the abortion, the killing ethos, and we hate children, all of whom are the seed of woman out of whom the Redeemer came). (67)

We see that The Screwtape Text Messages are quite pointed and very honest. Rankin himself comes across as a flawed individual, one who does sometimes fall into sin. In some ways this may be most serious spiritual autobiography since Bunyan’s Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Ultimately grace is all we have, but still we can see the Lord working out his salvation in the life of one of his people. Not trivial at all.