Over at Crisis Magazine there's an article you ought to read. It is titled Sympathy for the Devil and Mercy for the Damned. Here's an excerpt:
And Lucifer approached the Throne, and from across the abyss there came a clamor, a wailing bereft of beauty, tone, and voice, as though a malignant choir had become suddenly awash in boiling oil.Please, continue reading here.
“Oh Great One,” he began, he who had been known throughout history as the Tempter, but who could tempt no more, “Oh Great One, we, the damned, have one last boon to bid of you.”
To a soul, the Saved looked on and listened in silent awe. This same swine had harangued them, each and all, their lives long, full of sweet contempt for God and the things of God. Like the Gadarene herd he had filled them with hate and falsehood whenever he could. In the panorama that had just ended – the Judgment – they had seen and heard his every overture to every human creature, unceasing through every moment in human history. They had heard his lies. Nothing but lies. He now slimed and slithered before the Divine Throne.
Could it be possible that he was now telling the truth?
“Oh Great One,” he snarled (for his voice had been reduced to ash, leaden tones eternally bereft of love or loveliness of any sort, no longer disguised as on earth with the lovely lilt of lying), “we the damned beg You to grant us one last wish. We beseech You, do not cast us eternally into the pit of fire.”
What? Reverse Divine Judgment? The souls of the Saved murmured in bewilderment: “How dare he!”
“Damn us, yes,” writhed the groveling husk of a fallen angel. (The Saved relaxed somewhat, but wondered still). “But allow for us that damnation will not be endless. Give us Hope, Oh Almighty One, that we will one day, perhaps long hence, cease to be. That our being, that our natures, that our suffering will not be eternal.
“We know we have merited damnation. Damn us, then, damn us to the Hellfire, damn us moaning, weeping, and gnashing our teeth. But do not damn us forever. Annihilate us. Evaporate us. Will us undone.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad