You sit in silence contemplating what has just taken place. Only moments ago you were alive and well, relaxing at home with friends. Then there was a deep, crushing pain in your chest that brought you crashing to the floor. The pain has now gone, but you are no longer in your home. Instead, you find yourself standing on the other side of death waiting to stand before the judgment seat and discover where you will spend eternity. As you reflect upon your life your name is called, and you are led down a long corridor into a majestic sanctuary with a throne located in its center. Sitting on this throne is a huge, breathtaking being who looks up at you and begins to speak.
“My name is Lucifer, and I am the angel of light.”
You are immediately filled with fear and trembling as you realize that you are face to face with the enemy of all that is true and good. Then the angel continues: “I have cast God down from his throne and banished Christ to the realm of eternal death. It is I who hold the keys to the kingdom. It is I who am the gatekeeper of paradise, and it is for me alone to decide who shall enter eternal joy and who shall be forsaken.”
After saying these words, he sits up and stretches out his vast arms. “In my right hand I hold eternal life and in my left hand eternal death. Those who would bow down and acknowledge me as their god shall pass through the gates of paradise and experience an eternity of bliss, but all those who refuse will be vanquished to the second death with their Christ.”
After a long pause he bends toward you and speaks, “Which will you choose?”
I dont understand this one. It goes against all teachings in the Bible. Jesus is the ultimate judge for all including Satan. So how can Satan be on the judgement seat? Choosing Christ leads to eternal life not eternal death. Please explain?
Try to look at the parable more for the questions it raises, it's obviously a fictional story created to raise questions in the reader. It grabs attention by flipping things on their head then asking a question that we may never have wrestled with. The author does not believe this is what is going to happen, it's intent is not to create a end of days judgment theology.
The question I think it's intended to raise is that of why do we follow God. Do I follow so that I will wind up in heaven one day or any other number of things it might do for me, or is being with God the reward in and of itself.
If things were flipped around as the parable suggests, would you choose heaven despite God's absence, or would you choose God despite the hell that might come with it.
But, that's simply how I read it. Part of the beauty of parables are that they read us as much as we read them. So, others may see something completely different than me. Thanks for asking, and doing it so nicely.