Satan: My subjects, as we draw nearer to the turn of the 21st century. I feel it in my bones the Lord will return soon to earth and thereafter begin our eternal torment in the place prepared for us all.

Subject 1: I shudder to think of our end that is so near.

Satan: Though fear and trembling grips each of us, let us try to forget it as best as possible. I beseech each of you that your hate for the Lord make you even more vigorous in our efforts to populate our place of torment. By this we can wound His loving heart, though it is impossible for us to taste any real victory. How are our plans coming about?

Subject 2: Well, though our latest efforts seem to have succeeded at first glance, it has not yielded the results we thought it ultimately would. Our perversion of the Master’s wisdom turned out to be as expected. For we succeeded in making man use it to our advantage, creating advanced weapons of war and mass destruction and to kill each other en masse. We have achieved what we have not been able to since the beginning of human life on earth – the 20th century has been the bloodiest thus far! And we did not even have to brainstorm any new ideas to get these puny humans to do this to themselves. We used the same technique we used with our child and the first murderer Cain – jealousy and hate.

Satan: This is indeed good news for us, it seems like we have put a stop temporarily to the alarming missionary movements of the 19th century from America and Europe into the global south and east. But where did we fail with this plan?

Subject 2: Well we find that men in wartime, with death around them and the fear of it in their hearts, cling dearer on to their God. We saw that the soldiers, full of despair, in the trenches were far more inclined to pray to their God and seek Him. We saw people coming in unity setting aside their differences that kept them apart, to be united before their God in intercession. War and such similar situations in life which carries about its nature of deep grief, loss and affliction, often better reckon people to the reality of eternal life. Though there is great pleasure for us in tormenting the Lord’s beloved, it is quite counter-productive to our goal.

Satan: One too many times, we have repeated the same mistake to our embarrassment. With Job, with the early church under the Romans and the countless saints of the Most High in our history of failure, who having prevailed over our afflictions, became greater in their faith and did much harm than good to our cause. This mustn’t continue! What about our plan-B?

Subject 1: O’ morning star (flattery that puffs another up in pride). We have exceptional early success in the end of this 20th century, with our latest plan to achieve the secularization of all men. The rates of apostasy from Christianity have risen tremendously, with churches quickly losing their influence on societies. Since we have failed to make men secular through our many afflictions, we instead tried to use the complete opposite of it – comforts. Christian countries of the West primarily but also elsewhere in the world, have been flooded with wealth and all kinds of comforts in life. This we find has a better rate of success for our cause. Men cocooned in their comforts feel no need to break free from their cocoon and seek God. We have also succeeded in filling their churches with diluted sermons, ensuring they sparsely or never mention sin, eternity or judgement, through the fear of not pleasing men. And we have deceived their tiny, dumb brains to believe that their religion is holding them and their societies at large back from progression. The same lie, you told O’ shrewd ancient serpent (again more flattery!) to Eve back in Eden. And in seeking more knowledge, which they call science now, they can be made as their own gods.

Satan: Comfort and conveniences of life have indeed become the ace in our sleeves. You see, sometimes you don’t need the more conspicuous sword to cut down a man’s faith in God, it’s the small knife hidden in plain sight. The danger of it to which a man is utterly oblivious and therefore has let all his defenses down, regarding it mostly harmless. This small knife cuts the deepest, slipping quietly into the man’s spirit and severing his ties to God. Continue on, my subjects. Add to their comforts more comfort. Ensure men make it their life-purpose to seek, using all their time on earth, to relish in this comfort. Deceive them all the more that their comforts have now removed the need for God in their lives. Let their prayers continue to be filled with such self-seeking pleas for more comfort to be added to their life. For in doing this, we ensure our continued success.