Nightcrawler's Missives

By Dwight Carlson

Nightcrawlers Missivesfollows the model of C. S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters, where an understudy demon, Nightcrawler, gets advice, occasionally praise, but more often criticism from his superior, Beelzebub. However, in this century we are hacking into the underworlds Internet. These missives address the nitty-gritty difficult issues both inside the church and in the world at large. Following each communication are questions for your individual or group consideration.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512750270

Dwight Carlson

Dwight Carlson, MD, is the author of nine books. He is a specialist in both internal medicine and psychiatry; practicing for over 35 years. He taught as a assistant clinical professor at UCLA. He is a diligent student of the Bible and lives in Santa Barbara.

Book preview

Nightcrawler’s

Missives

Dwight Carlson

These Missives are the result of a hack into the e-mails between one of Satan’s generals, Beelzebub, and his understudy, Nightcrawler.

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Copyright © 2016 Dwight Carlson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-5026-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-5028-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-5027-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016911662

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/17/2016

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Missive # 1 Cartoons of Mohamed

Missive # 2 Drones

Missive # 3 Bush Two’s War!

Missive # 4 News Cycle and Polarized Media

Missive # 5 Prevent Dialogue

Missive # 6 Porn in the Church

Missive # 7 All They Want Is Meat!

Missive # 8 Rebecca, George, and Tom

Missive # 9 Tom’s Lost!

Missive # 10 Rebecca Serves Meat

Missive # 11 Keep Them from the Book!

Missive # 12 Reading in the Book!

Missive # 13 Tom’s Concern for Others

Missive # 14 Blown!

Missive # 15 A Lost Cause

Missive # 16 What’s Next with Tom?

Missive # 17 Mind Your Own Business

Missive # 18 Spiking the Orange Juice with Birth Control Pills

Missive # 19 Lesser of Two Evils?

Missive # 20 Padding the Expense Account and Cheating on Taxes

Missive # 21 Which is Preferable: Judgment Now or Later?

Missive # 22 Alphabet Soup

Missive # 23 Supreme Court and Gay Rights

Missive # 24 Go to Jail to Get a Free $25,000 Sex-Reassignment Surgery

Missive # 25 Prayer for Our Leaders

Missive # 26 Why Do Earthlings Go to Church?

Missive # 27 God Only Knows Why They Go to Church

Missive # 28 Judgmental Deacon

Missive # 29 Dress and Worship in Church

Missive # 30 A Gay Couple Visits a Conservative Evangelical Church

Missive # 31 Music in the Church

Missive # 32 What Ever Happened to Sin?

Missive # 33 Preaching on Heaven and Hell!

Missive # 34 Response to Preaching on Heaven and Hell!

Missive # 35 Beelzebub, I’m Afraid!

What Beelzebub Doesn’t Want You to Know14

About the Author

Endnotes

Dedicated to Don Rhodes,

who stimulated my revisiting The Screwtape Letters

after seldom looking at them for over sixty years.

Author of Overcoming Hurts and Anger

Recipient of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Gold Book Award

With over five hundred thousand copies sold

Other Books by the Author:

Why Do Christians Shoot Their Wounded?

Who’ll Be in Heaven and Who Won’t?

When Life Isn’t Fair

Overcoming the 7 Obstacles to Spiritual Growth

Energize Your Life

From Guilt to Grace

The Will of the Shepherd

Run and Not Be Weary

Acknowledgments

I want to thank many individuals who reviewed the manuscript carefully and made many helpful suggestions. Some gave reasonable counsel that I chose not to follow—for that I take total responsibility. In particular, I want to thank Michael Alvarez, Greg Carlson, Bob Li, Tess Howe, John Notehelfer, Fritz Ridenour, Nancy Thomason, Charissa Wood, and Susan Wood for their helpful comments. Cover sketch is by Roger Bradfield and the photo by Tom Ginn.

Introduction

My brother, Dr. Paul Carlson, gave me my copy of The Screwtape Letters as a Christmas present in 1954. Paul later went to the Congo as a medical missionary and was killed there in 1964. A friend of mine, Don Rhodes, recently gave a series on C. S. Lewis, and this stimulated my renewed interest in The Screwtape Letters, which resulted in my writing these missives.

After serving as an enlisted person in the navy, practicing both internal medicine and psychiatry, and having been a lifelong student of the Bible, I have seen and heard almost everything—the good, the bad, and the ugly. My hope is to use satire and humor to grab your attention, shine light on areas that are often in the shadows, and jar you to consider some adjustments with ultimate beneficial results for all.

Anyone who has read The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis will immediately be aware that the style of writing in this book is similar to his. Other writers have used a similar technique over the years, namely Peter Kreeft in The Snakebite Letters and Randy Alcorn in Lord Foulgrin’s Letters.

On the cover I claim, These missives are the result of a hack into the e-mails between one of Satan’s generals, Beelzebub, and his understudy, Nightcrawler. Of course, this is fiction; however, this book is my attempt to capture some of the communication that might take place between the self-centered, fallen angels, who are not only alive and well but also acting as the proponents of evil, actively trying to cause you and me to sin against God and those around us. We should not focus too much attention on Satan, but I fear in this century we are almost totally unaware that we have such a powerful and active adversary trying to draw us away from our loving heavenly Father and his will for our lives.

I want it to be very clear I am not personally endorsing many of the things advocated in these e-mails; I am