Lucifer: The Real Story?

Story Info
A different take on the story of the War in Heaven.
827 words
4.27
12.5k
3
Share this Story

Font Size

Default Font Size

Font Spacing

Default Font Spacing

Font Face

Default Font Face

Reading Theme

Default Theme (White)
You need to Log In or Sign Up to have your customization saved in your Literotica profile.
PUBLIC BETA

Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.

You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.

Click here
werebare
werebare
13 Followers

Notice ... if you have very strict Christian religious beliefs, you may find this idea offensive. If you think this might apply to you, then please do not read further - I don't want to upset anyone.

On the other hand, if you have strict religious beliefs, what the Hell are you doing reading stuff on this site in the first place? :-)

As we all know, there was a war in Heaven, and the angel Lucifer was cast down into the darkness for rebelling against the Lord.

Well, here's a different take on the story …

'Lucifer' means 'light bearer'. While the standard story is that he was the angel whose job was to bear the light of the Lord before he rebelled, that never rang quite true to me – calling someone 'light bearer' gives them an emotionally positive feel, which seems odd to me for someone who's supposed to be the Devil, the root of all evil.

Now, in the Greek mythos, Prometheus stole fire from heaven and gave it to Mankind, believing that we were being repressed by the gods in being denied this marvellous thing. Prometheus was certainly a 'light bearer' when he gave fire to us. The other Greek gods punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock and setting gryphons to tear out his liver, which would constantly regenerate so that his torment was never over. For this reason, Prometheus (who was actually technically a Titan, not a god, to start with) has been worshipped as the 'patron god of mankind' in the Greek pantheon.

Was the light that Prometheus gave to us the light of reason? That would be a rather more significant gift even than fire, and perhaps more deserving of his punishment, from jealous gods.

So think about this:

Lucifer and Prometheus are different versions of the same myth. And maybe it's not altogether a myth …

In the Beginning, as the Good Book has it, there was God. God created the world in the form that He wanted it, and put mankind in the world to enjoy it and to sing His praises. (I always had misgivings about the psychology of a God who feels it necessary that such insignificant beings as us should spend our time worshipping Him, but maybe that's just me ...)

What He created was, in all likelihood, pretty much what the standard Christian vision of Heaven looks like: eternal joy and goodness for all, following God's law.

God also created the angels, as general assistants and dogsbodies, to do the scut work of administering His eternally nice world.

But one of those angels started to think.

Lucifer (or Prometheus) realised that while the world had been created for humans, and they were all happy with it because (of course) it was all good – they had no choice. They could not really appreciate the grandeur of their existence, simply because there was nothing to contrast it against.

He realised that humans could never really understand what goodness was, simply because they did not know anything else. Ans that God had denied us the dignity of free will and choice.

Eventually Lucifer decided that he had to do something about this, so he introduced the concepts of evil and chaos into God's previously perfect world. Maybe he even did it by offering an apple to someone; but what he truly did was to introduce to Mankind 'the knowledge of Good and Evil'.

He knew that he would suffer for this, of course. But he felt it was worth the price.

Of course, once there was evil in the world, it was no longer a perfect place. And even God could not clean up this situation except by destroying mankind. And He is, after all, too merciful to do that.

However, His mercy did not extend to the one He saw as the architect of evil and chaos, who had despoiled the perfection of His creation. Lucifer was condemned to eternal torment. And those who subsequently fell to the temptations that he had created were sent to join him. (Well, maybe the punishment is eternal – but now that Heaven has been cracked, can perfect eternity still exist?)

But while Lucifer is in torment, and knows that untold other souls suffer similarly because of his actions … he also knows that he gave Mankind the free will that God denied us. Those who now reach heaven have earned their place – they had a choice. And the fact that they have now earned it by their own efforts makes the pain worthwhile, even for those who have fallen by the wayside.

God gave us a hand-out. Lucifer gave us a hand up.

There was a cult TV series a few decades ago about a man who was imprisoned, and had very few choices. He was known only as 'Number 6'.

Lucifer's number, of course, is 666.

BUT HE IS NOT A NUMBER!

werebare
werebare
13 Followers
Please rate this story
The author would appreciate your feedback.
  • COMMENTS
Anonymous
Our Comments Policy is available in the Lit FAQ
Post as:
Anonymous
8 Comments
AnonymousAnonymousalmost 9 years ago
near, but not accurate

In the Bible, God is rather genocidal, and slays over 25 million people.

He commands adoration and worship, like a narcissistic tyrant.

He plans to burn all who disagree with him, including Lucifer, in a lake of eternal fire.

Now who is good, and who is evil? Lucifer, who never kills anyone in the bible, or the serial-genocidalist and dictator of a divine north-korea, Yahweh?

I like how ''radical'' you go, but the truth is a few phases MORE radical, sadly.

Sincerely,

Ignifer.

AnonymousAnonymousover 9 years ago
oops

"Eventually Lucifer decided that he had to do something about this, so he introduced the concepts of evil and chaos into God's previously perfect world. [] but what he truly did was to introduce to Mankind 'the knowledge of Good and Evil'."

oops! you assert :

"In the Beginning, as the Good Book has it, there was God. God created the world in the form that He wanted it... "

that is, ALL of it including the good and the evil. so Lucifer could perhaps point it out, allow recognition of it, or other. not create. been done by god. Oops.

HibbidyhaiHibbidyhaiover 16 years ago
Nice idea

I think that really is an excellent idea, and definently a reasonable arguement. Actually a lot of the old testament borrowes ideas fromm other religions that existed in Ancient times. It's not too nice to single out Christianity though, the Old testament is in the Jewish torah and Muslim Koran as well. And what makes christianity christianity is all in the new testament, which is totally original. (More or less.)

JuliroseJulirosealmost 17 years ago
"Great minds think alike."

I have been thinking about the whole "Lucifer" mythos and have been considering a rewrite of the entire concept. What?!? I'm pretty sure that the Catholic Church has taken liberties with the storyline to promote their religious agenda at some point in history. (Not all Popes were saints.) It is nice to know that someone else out there has followed the same logical bent.

werebarewerebareabout 17 years agoAuthor
Like it? I wrote it.

OK, I just came back to this for the first time in 2 years.

Replies to the comments:

1. The guy who wonders why Christians relate everything to Christianity: I'm not a Christian, and I don't think it's "the right way". But neither can I accept that "Everything about Christianity is disgusting and evil", when the teachings of Christ himself are basically pretty sound. Note, I'm talking about his teachings, not about what St Paul and later people bent them into.

And as to bias: I was brought up in a culturally Christian society (the UK), so naturally that's the mythos that I based this idea on. If I'd been born and brought up with some other faith (or none) as the cultural milieu, no doubt I'd have different imagery to write about.

2. The guy who thinks I got my ideas from TV: I get my input from books, I hardly ever watch TV. And I'm not especially interested in the ideas of theologians, whether they are halfway decent, entirely decent, or downright indecent. Your opinions do reflect a common viewpoint; mine happens to be different. Nobody can know what the facts are about something that happened 2000 years ago when JC was perhaps around; and in the event that something similar to the War in Heaven actually happened, it was far more completely separated from our current experience than that.

3. Paradise Lost: I've read bits of it. If I was writing a formal paper, I'd maybe do the research you suggest. But this was just a bit of philosophy I dreamed up one night and thought was worth writing down.

Thanks to all three of you for your comments, in the unlikely event that you ever come back here and see this repsonse!

Show More
Share this Story

Similar Stories

Celestial Matters A Half-Angel finds herself enslaved to a Demon.in Mind Control
Into The Night When a long lost friend becomes something more.in Erotic Couplings
The Promise Promises are meant to be kept.in Romance
The Archer Medieval romance, an Archer remembers a good deed.in Romance
The Rehab Following one's dreams.in Romance
More Stories