by Brent King
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Kill them!” Lucifer screamed at last in frustration, “Kill them all!”
The host of angels around me seemed ready to comply. They boiled like foam in an ocean caldron. Yet I was accustomed to Lucifer’s trigger temper and unconvinced of the effectiveness of his solution.
“That strategy hasn’t worked very well for us in the past.”
I spoke the words cautiously and from a distance, but I needn’t have. Much to my surprise, their veracity sedated Lucifer, if not my other compatriots, for he knew I was right.
“So,” said Lucifer with irritation as he scowled at me, “This means you have a better idea?”
His boney hands clenched and relaxed, clenched and relaxed. Anxiety pierced his eyes, and exasperation cloaked his voice.
“Well,” I answered, “No. What else can we do that we haven’t already done? I’m worried. Remember what Ellen said…”
Too late I realized my misuse of words as Lucifer’s color began to change, and his temper returned.
“To the abyss with her!” he screamed.
I grew bolder.
“Be careful what you say Lucifer,” I said. “It is we who may end up in such a place. Have you forgotten the power of God’s love?”
Lucifer’s spirit raged, and he leapt toward me with death in his eyes. His mighty hand was choking me, choking me, but just as quickly it relaxed, and the fire in his eyes smoldered.
“Perhaps you have forgotten that no one has been closer to him than me,” he said, “not any of you.”
His eyes narrowed, and a guttural sound, like a growl, filled the air.
“Yes, even closer than that wannabe charlatan Gabriel,” he said, snarling and almost choking.
“I am the first of creation!” he said. “No one can know God as well as I do, and I swear to you, He is a liar and a hypocrite!”
As I watched him sulk back to his position at our helm, I wondered who was who. Perhaps my commander had lost his ability to see anything but himself in anyone else. Maybe evil, defiantly chosen, could no longer imagine anything but itself. If evil could only know evil, then goodness had an advantage, because it could envision both good and evil. I had to admit, I struggled to remember what it was like to be good, and it did seem that Lucifer could imagine no motives except the lust for domination and fear.
Were we losing our ability to comprehend God? Was his grace and goodness slipping beyond our understanding and his wisdom truly becoming foolishness to us, as Saint Paul had said in the scriptures? Certainly only personal power and preservation mattered to Lucifer. His pride forbade weakness, and he could only visualize power meeting power and fist meeting fist. Indeed, force limited our options.
“We have no choice but to kill them,” I said, “though death seems like victory to them. And we thought it a sure weapon to defeat them.”
I sighed.
“God has forced our hand without even using a fist. We must kill them, or they will kill us.”
Lucifer gazed steadily at me for a moment before he spoke.
“So be it,” he said, “but don’t stop there. Throw everything in our arsenal at them. Torment and harass anyone who tries to hold out on God’s side. Severely attack their faith and confidence in God, and paint their past in the most horrible light. Terrify them with the thought that their case is hopeless, that the stain of their defilement will never be washed away. Sentence them to be slain, thrust them into prison, cast them into cruel bondage, and leave them to die in dark, loathsome dungeons. In a word, torture them! Thus they will yield to our temptations and turn from their allegiance to God. We must not allow any to stand loyal to him!”
As I listened to Lucifer’s instructions I took heart again. A vision of the tortured and mutilated body of God came up before me. I haven’t a clue how he passed the test, but I knew for sure that no mere men could pass it.
From there on out it wasn’t real pretty. Wars, convulsions, violence, plagues, and disasters broke out in every place—everything but the peace that men say they value so much. Through it all we pressed those who dared to stand for God to the utmost. We turned the bright glory of God in their faces to paleness. Their starved and bloodied bodies littered the earth. We came very close to killing them all. Yet even as the men we urged to murder them rushed upon them with exultant jeers and cries, intense darkness suspended them in their tracks. A flash of light quickly followed—like a rainbow—that leapt from sky to sky. They were caught in the headlights, blinded, and unable to find their prey.
Thus they could not see the parley between the Son of God and Lucifer. Even if they had, it is doubtful they would have been startled more than I by God’s appearance in the rainbow so close.
“Lucifer,” he cried, “son of the morning! How could you have fallen so far my friend? How could you be cut down to the ground from your high place at my side? It is because you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend into heaven above the heights of the clouds. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God and be like the most High’. Yet now you have been brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”
Speechless and frozen in his place, Lucifer squinted at God, veiling his face against the light.
“You raised some serious charges against me,” said God. “You took no heed of the pain and suffering that would need to go into answering those accusations, much less the eternal loss they would elicit.”
Lucifer found his voice.
“It is fair to question,” he said, “to question even you.”
“True,” God answered, “but to nurture your pride against all reason is unjust. Now the complete victory of my church has answered your allegations, even the three universal concerns voiced by your accusations: One—is my salvation haphazard? If I save man, must I also save fallen angels? Two—are men safe to save? Sure, one like Jesus who has never fallen can keep my law, but can those who have spent most of their lives in rebellion really turn from their sin and keep it perfectly? More importantly, are all the righteous dead, who died with imperfect characters believing in my salvation, safe to save? Does my grace guarantee eternal security from their rebellion? Three—are those who reject my grace truly irredeemable?”
God paused and shook his head at our leader.
“These questions have not been easy to answer,” he said. “That is because it has taken a total, consistent conquest of evil on the part of men. Only a generation of men who knew my character beyond the limited light of past generations could have ever done this. Their vindication of me required a steady increase of light that produced not only a pure understanding of my character, but also a possession of it. Evil persisted until an army of such men were willing to come forward to preach and live the message of my final atonement: that fallen man can have complete victory over sin in this world through my power.
You fought that message at every pass. You knew the truth and kept it from billions of lost souls who could have been saved and all because of your pride.”
Lucifer stammered, cursed, and finally spoke.
“You’re one to talk,” he said. “You demand allegiance and obedience out of one side of your mouth and feign humility out of the other. I have done nothing that you haven’t done.”
“You don’t get it Lucifer,” said God. “Has love slipped beyond your grasp? It’s all about love. The machinery of love runs the universe. No one, not even I, can throw a wrench into the gears of love without creating hell. And you have thrown more than one wrench into those gears.
I clearly disproved your charges against my character at the cross, but you clouded the truth and forced things to develop into what you see now. In the demonstration of my remnant church, all have witnessed a group of loyal citizens who love me so much that they would rather give up their lives than transgress my law in the smallest detail. They have understood your lies and rejected them. Through them I have shown you irrefutably that my love for sinners is also able to transform them completely, so that they can love like me once m
ore.
In them I have clearly demonstrated the connection between grace and law. You and a host of men are lost because salvation is more than forgiveness of sin. Forgiving grace must be consistently accepted before cleansing can occur. This embraced forgiveness leads to cleansing and empowers forgiving grace to become enabling grace. When guilt is thus removed, so is sin. In this way, forgiveness leads to victory over that which needs to be forgiven. The grace that brings victory completely replaces forgiving grace, making it no longer necessary.
Now no one has to take all this on my word alone. Now all can clearly see that those who refuse forgiving grace in a probationary time, when no coercion is applied either way, freely reject the only path that leads to salvation and are truly irredeemable. Yet those who accept my forgiveness are ultimately safe to save.”
All this smacked of doom to me, and my heart pounded in my throat. Lucifer squirmed this way and that—looking for a way of escape—but God was not through with him, and he could not turn away.
“Your accusations have been so thoroughly proven false by my church that no one will ever be able to seriously consider your charges again. Your baptism of torture—the final test of my church—was necessary to show the universe beyond doubt that I can correctly identify who is safe to save. All on whom I have placed my seal have passed the grueling test. By faith they obeyed me when it seemed irrational, just as Jesus did. No one can now object to my assertion that righteousness really is by faith. Those who live by faith may be safely allowed into a sinless universe with the confidence that they are no longer a threat to my government. Forgiving grace, humbly accepted, always leads to enabling grace, so the righteous dead are truly safe to save, and no one needs worry about humans ever rebelling again.”
The howl of the elements drowned Lucifer’s retort. Yet all on earth understood the Son of God’s next words. He stood yet in the blinding rainbow, and his voice thundered like a mighty waterfall. It rolled through the earth, and shook it to its foundation.
“It is done!” he said. “Lucifer, you have continually asked me where they are that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.”
God spread out his hands toward a host of loyal men on the earth.
“Take a careful look Lucifer,” he said, “because here they are.”
We stared at God’s people with terror and amazement as the earth swelled and heaved like the waves of the sea. The mountains shook, and the oceans boiled in fury. The dark firmament rose up to clash with the glory of God, and above the shriek of a hurricane came the wailing despair of the wicked. We trembled before God’s power, but the men guilty of trampling his law fell prostrate with shuddering fear, and groveled in utter terror.
God’s church stood in striking contrast to our fear. Their faces, so lately distressed at our hands, radiated wonder and triumph. Their elation irritated me. I could see nothing about God that gave reason for ecstasy. So he had proved his case, but this love he was so serious about did nothing for me. Lucifer obviously concurred. Defiance and hatred filled our eyes as we cringed in the light.
Yet Lucifer’s humiliation had not reached its zenith. A young woman stepped forward from a group of joyful saints and approached God. I didn’t recognize her at first. However, as I peered more closely, I knew those eyes.
“Ellen,” I whispered, looking over at Lucifer.
He stood motionless, his jaw slack and his eyes glazed. The contrast between the morning star of creation and this woman, a specimen of the last of creation, stunned even me. Ellen stood simple and beautiful before him, youthful beyond my memory. Lucifer, though bearing a noble form, bore an expression of anxiety, malice, deceit, and unhappiness. I tried, but even I could no longer say he was beautiful. As I watched them face to face with each other once again, Lucifer’s last words to Ellen echoed in my mind.
“Foolish mortal! You are squandering your time!”
But Ellen was speaking now.
“Lucifer,” she said, “Long ago God told you through my words that you would not be able to thwart His purpose for His people in the end, that He would have a perfect people on earth so that the entire universe may see that His law is just.”
Lucifer’s face contorted, but he seemed unable to move or speak. Job, Caleb, and Joshua stepped forward to stand with Ellen as she continued.
“You have challenged His wisdom and ability,” she said, “You have put the almighty on trial. Yet God’s purpose was to use His church to prove His point, and they, through His grace, have upheld the truth of His word, a truth that you have tenaciously resisted. Though Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient and accomplished things men could never accomplish, the process of salvation that He ratified there by His achievement could only be completed in the lives of once sinful men by their replication of the same demonstration of the full power of the gospel.
In their last mission and brutal test, they weren’t as concerned about saving their own souls as they were about vindicating God's law and character. They knew that in order for everyone to be convinced that you were a liar they must finally demonstrate the power of what the gospel can do in and for humanity. By following the example of their Redeemer, they proved that what God did in Jesus, He can do in every human being who submits to Him. Until it was demonstrated that the Holy Spirit could do His part in reproducing in humans the very image of God, the sacrificial atonement was in vain. God’s name and honor were in jeopardy until He demonstrated that His grace could produce people who will love Him continuously and unreservedly, regardless of the cost. They just love Him, because He first loved them. They have proved that perfect obedience is always produced by love.”
“Love!” Lucifer coughed and growled at Ellen. “Don’t talk to me about love. What could a greenhorn such as yourself know about love,” he asked, “You may as well save your breath!”
“I only know what my Redeemer has taught me in my short life,” answered Ellen, “but it has been enough.”
Lucifer laughed right in the face of God and Ellen.
“Enough for you maybe,” said Lucifer, “but not enough for the vast majority of men. Love was helpless to save billions.”
Lucifer’s hideous outburst rose above the cries of the damned.
“What,” he cried, squinting closely at God, “are those tears in your eyes? Aw! Daddy’s lost his little boys and girls!”
He shook his head in disgust, and his voice hissed.
“It will forever serve you right for what you’ve done to me!” he said, and his voice rose to a scream, “Look at them, writhing in damnation, like the sands of the sea. Your loving attempts to save them have been futile!”
God listened as Lucifer ranted. When he spoke, his voice was quiet.
“But not for the millions I have saved,” he said, “They are forever beyond your power. They prove that although evil destroys, indeed destroys itself, my love can save to the uttermost.”
God waived his hand toward the host of waiting, joyful saints throughout the earth.
“Look at them Lucifer,” he said, “They are my chosen ones, my loved ones—like you once were. They are not the strong or the mighty, nor the honored or the rich, nor the wise or the learned, but the common and the ordinary. I have taken the weakest of men, under the most discouraging and most trying circumstances, and through them shown the cosmos the wonders of my love.
They have faced persecution and torture. They have stood face to face with death. Yet they were willing to die rather than to sin and betray my love. Through the weakest of the weak I have shown that there is no excuse for sinning and never has been. If this host of garden variety men who have spent most of their lives sinning can successfully repel your attacks through the strength of my love, if they can do this with all the odds against them and with no further forgiving grace available, then was there ever any excuse for sinning?”
God was crying now, and even Lucifer was speechless before the spectacle.
“Behold Lucifer,” said God, �
�I have come for my own. How long I have waited for this moment. How long has creation eagerly yearned for the revealing of my children!”
The combined splendor of God’s passion and the devotion of his people filled the heavens, and we could bear it no more. We retreated into the dark and disintegrating earth to watch the spectacle from afar. With radiant faces, God’s church rose through the shrieks of demons and the cries of the damned to embrace their God in the skies.
* * *
As I watch the light fade toward heaven, I realize that it is just us again, that light, happiness, and joy have departed. In Lucifer’s eyes I read the pain of millenniums of separation from the God he was created to adore. I know the same pain.
Yet I no more yearn for the purity and glory of our primal home. I have no desire to be tortured in such a place. But the reality of the horrible nightmare into which I have fallen surpasses it. I am caught in a quandary, a trap of my own making. As dreadful as God seems to me, this hell is even worse. The darkness around me images the folly of our course. It is a paradigm of our defeat.
I’m not now sure that evil even has a chance of success, because it seems like even if it wins, it loses. Yet none of us would have believed that love could conquer. God’s love seemed helpless and weak against our colossal arsenal of evil, yet it has prevailed. Lucifer’s last stand has been crushed, and I wonder why I ever entertained the idea that darkness could be brighter than light.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to express my gratitude to my parents for nurturing in me a love for the great Adventist message. This has resulted in my search to truly understand God’s purpose in calling a people to take the unique Seventh Day Adventist message to the world.
I also want to thank Ellen White for bringing me to a better understanding of the Bible and the Great Controversy. The writings of Dennis Priebe and W. D. Frazee have also been crucial in my journey. A special thanks to Ellen White, Dennis Priebe, E.J. Waggoner, and A.T. Jones, whose words have been quoted and paraphrased in the fabric of this story.
The ideas of W.H. Auden (New York Times Review, 1954) are used in the dialog of chapter seven.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I am a freelance writer of Christian fantasy and historical fiction, working also as a massage therapist and health consultant. I am a musician, a waterman, and have two boys, 18 and 21, who live in British Columbia, Canada. I live in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
You can email me at [email protected].
I would love to connect with you on Facebook, Twitter, or my blog.
