rebel movements, now against one god, now against another (as people
have been doing since the time of Arius up to the present). The Devil
would then be able to dethrone the Lord God the Savior, who has all
power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28 : 18 ), put some puppet of his
own there, and either redirect worship to the puppet or reduce the
amount of worship to both.134 Here I will add the following memorable occurrences.
The first memorable occurrence.Once I went to a church in the world
of spirits. Many people had gathered there. Before the service, they were
debating back and forth about redemption.
The church was a square building. It had no windows in the walls,
but there was a large opening overhead in the center of the roof. Light
from heaven came in through that opening and provided more illumina-
tion inside than would have been supplied by windows in the walls.
As the people were talking back and forth about redemption, all of a
sudden a pitch-black cloud sailing in from the north covered the opening.
It became so dark inside that the people could not see each other at all
and could scarcely see their own hands. While they were standing there
stunned by this, the black cloud split down the middle. Through the gap
the people saw angels coming down from heaven. The angels drove away
the clouds on either side so that it became light again in the church.
Then the angels sent one of their own down to the church. At the
request of the other angels, that angel asked the people what topic they
were arguing about that so dark a cloud should come over them, taking
away their light and plunging them in darkness.
They answered that the topic was redemption: “We were saying that
the Son of God redeemed us all by suffering on the cross. By suffering
he ritually purged and freed the human race from damnation and eter-
nal death.”
The angel who had been sent down said, “Why by the suffering on
the cross? Explain why that was redemptive.”
[ 2 ] At that point the priest came in and said, “I will lay out in
sequence the things we know and believe. God the Father was angry at
the human race. He damned it, excluded it from his mercy, declared us
all detestable and accursed, and assigned us all to hell. He wanted his Son