Satan's Last Stand (the Connor series) - Dirk B. (Page 50 of 55)

Why wouldn't the Father of Lies lie to himself?  And to anyone else he could ensnare for eternal damnation?

I managed to work out a reason why God accepts Satan's challenge. Once again, it begins with the rescue mission, but Connor scales it up to rescue everyone except the nastiest of humans, knowing full well that the Father didn't give permission for that. And, technically, it comes very close to matching the end of Revelation in the Bible. Everyone who was destined for the Lake of Fire is forced into it, including all those Connor just tried to free.

But it turns out the lake is actually a portal to other worlds. All the condemned souls go into the lake, but most emerge on other, pristine worlds in regular (non-glorified) human bodies. The remaining humans who Connor freed, go into the lake and end up elsewhere on Earth, which has also been restored to a pristine state.

There will probably be a way to travel between worlds using the portals since there will be hundreds of planets to which humans are transported. These humans are required to "try again" from the beginning.   God will put Connor in charge of ruling everything as punishment for having freed them all, even though God knew he would do that and didn't try to stop him. Could this have been His plan all along?

Naturally, those destined for Heaven never go through the lake and simply end up on a different plane, in a new Heaven and Earth, where they live with God, free from sin. Everyone else will aspire to get there.

The demonic spirits and nastiest humans (past and present) will also enter the lake but wind up on nasty frozen or burning worlds, and their portals will be one way only.   I can't wait to figure out what kind of world to put Satan on.

Didn't Dante have some ideas?

There's an old joke about a fellow with his feet in a freezer and his head in an oven.  On average, he's comfortable.  Or you could assume a spherical cow ...

In this state, does the nature of his environmental condition (eg cold / hot) bother him? Can he sit around for ten thousand years and wait for colonists to show up so he can make a new body?

He doesn't have a choice. He has no place to go unless someone can find a way land on his moon/asteroid spiraling into a black hole. If the lake of fire on Earth dumps him on some searing moon, he's likely to suffer as he would in an actual lake of fire. Based on that, I'd say he'd also suffer in extreme cold. And, yes, Catholics believe it's perpetual suffering. Purgatory, I've read, involves suffering as well. Fun, huh?

Connor is actually going to be the first one who goes into the lake of fire, where he will burn to atone for Adam (his soul) bringing sin into the world. He's returned right back to Megiddo, where the end of the story is still playing out. Every mortal sinner will burn to some degree for their sins before passing through. Their suffering will equal that of the suffering they themselves caused while alive.

As I try to think through some of the elements of the book that I included in the first draft, I'm having a bit of a problem explaining why the Unholy Trinity (or anyone for that matter, especially the reader) would believe a spiritual poisoning of Christ (from the dagger) is even remotely possible.

In the story it's quite clear in several places that Connor/Christ seems to interact with the Holy Spirit even though Connor has yet to realize who he really is (and for some reason, the HS doesn't tell him). Naturally, all that is made up by Satan & Connor since Connor has never been baptized (not yet, anyway). I could have left that whole element out of the story, but given that other people far less pious than Connor have interacted with the HS in the past (true of both Romano and Campagna), it wouldn't make sense for Connor of all people not to have access to the HS, even though he's faking it.

I suppose I could have it be one of the details of the (fake) wager/challenge. Namely, the fake HS can't tell Connor who he really is (Christ) until the fake Father says so, which happens at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Also, it's the reason Christ, an all powerful spirit, doesn't seem able to enter Connor's mind to fully awaken the Christ within him until the climax. In other words, the Father told them both to wait.

Another issue is that the HS withdrew from Romano as part of the rules for the wager. Satan didn't trust the HS not to reveal something to Romano. Similarly, though, shouldn't the HS withdraw from Connor (Christ) for the same reason? As above, Connor fakes the presence of the HS within him, but then shouldn't he pretend that the HS withdrew from him too?

Just to clarify one item, there are actually two wagers in this story: a real one and a fake one. The real one is the decision Connor eventually has to make about whom to destroy (Christ's human half or Satan's De Rosa zombie). The fake wager is that if Christ comes back as a child and is raised by the Catholic Church, Christ will eventually become so disgusted with it, that he will destroy it. Only the fake wager appears throughout most of the book. At the end, Connor reveals the real wager to Campagna, which Connor himself didn't even know until that day.

Thanks, George. Looks like Dante beat me to some of the ideas by a "few" centuries.

Below is part of the writeup for the 4th century documents written by Satan, pretending to be a couple of future saints. Some of it is true (e.g., there is a last challenge) and some is total malarky (e.g., Christ coming back as a child). The part below is intended to allow me to say, yes the story events don't match the Bible, but that's because the characters are on a different timeline from the Bible prophets, especially John.

No, the portals and the other worlds are for mortal sinners. They get there via the lake of fire, which is not the case for sinners going to purgatory. Granted, I could just wave my magical fiction wand and make it so, but it seems very clean at present in terms of a reader wrapping their minds around the story, especially a Catholic reader. The more I deviate, the harder it gets for them, and the less they're likely to like the story, imo.

Technically, one doesn't get a glorified body until after the Second Coming, so I guess you're just a disembodied soul waiting in Heaven for the Second Coming. Eve, if you recall, does get her glorified body, so she could be at the center of events to keep an eye on Adam/Connor, although that part of her mission doesn't begin until book 2.

Antonio will be the example of what purgatory is like in this story. It's not truly Catholic, but then not much is known about purgatory. I figure if you want absolution from a priest, you usually need to do some penance. If Antonio wants out of purgatory, he needs to make things right with Romano, which includes telling Romano the truth (that Antonio had already gone to confession prior to being hit by the truck, but he allowed Romano to think he died in a state of mortal sin). I'll treat what he did to Romano as a venial sin.

Antonio will continue to travel with the group like in the first draft, but he also needs to do some good works before he gets out of purgatory. If you recall, he "cured" Connor of the spiritual poison by figuring out the solution and dunking Connor in the Sea of Galilee. Naturally, Connor wasn't actually sick, but Antonio didn't know that. Still, I'll probably make that the last thing he needs to do to complete purgatory, even though Antonio won't know it right away.

So, for some reason, he remains with the group throughout the entire trip. Eventually, he'll get a chance to ask Phanuel what else to do to complete purgatory. He's told he already did complete it, and he may go to Heaven whenever he wishes. But he decides to do a few more good works by staying with Romano to oppose the efforts of the Unholy Trinity. My other option is to simply keep Antonio in the story, while he thinks he's still in purgatory, whereas in reality he cares too much about Romano and Connor that God knew he'd rather stay in purgatory long enough to finish his life's work. He would then find out at the end of book 3 that that's the real reason he's still on Earth.

One thing I'd like to include, though, is the idea that Antonio becomes more and more holy as he does more good works. It's a transformation that would happen automatically. It slowly purges him of sin, so he can go to Heaven, which definitely is Catholic. I just have to be careful that his holiness doesn't ruin him as an interesting character. I figure he can still say sarcastic things without them being sins.

Did I answer your question? :-)

What? Being more holy is less interesting? Say it isn't so! Jesus was rather interesting. The apostles were rather interesting. Eternity will be nothing but holy so I expect it to be rather thrilling. Jesus said some pretty brutal things to people so perhaps sarcasm is allowed but it should be holy sarcasm... whatever that is. I gotta think on that one.

George FLC

>>I just have to be careful that his holiness doesn't ruin him as an interesting character.

What I meant was if it's not written correctly, the character will become boring (for the reader and the writer). The plot and his character arc still need to happen beyond him becoming holy. It has to serve the story somehow. Perhaps as he becomes more holy, he becomes more insightful about Connor and the dagger, and realizes the Sea of Galilee would cure him. Also, if I bring him back for books 2 & 3, I would then have to think up ways to use his holiness to benefit the rest of the story. And he probably wouldn't be the right person to get caught up in some violent event, although perhaps his growing holiness makes him a good choice for tackling demons. Stuff like that. Details TBD.

I was told many years ago that the story was becoming boring because, every time anyone runs into trouble, Connor prays and solves everyone's problems. Zero tension with that. It's the reason I added the demonic dagger and the various stages of Connor's sickness from it. Despite that, Seabrass thought things in the Holy Land were too predictable. He suggested I kill a few of the guards, but I couldn't do that since that would make Connor a murderer since he controls the events in the HL. If he's a murderer, then there's no point in having him fail to kill the pope too. Can't go that way. I'm still pondering how to address his concern.

I don't know if this helps... Scriptures state that Satan can appear as an angel of light. So, it's not much of a stretch to think that Connor has a demon dog that masquerades as a nice little doggie. Perhaps it can spy on the good guys for Connor.

2 Corinthians 11:14-15 Holman Christian Standard Bible
14 And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their destiny[a] will be according to their works.