Reluctant Demon Read Online Free PDF

thought the same thing.
    "Didn't God know that if He gave us the ability to defy Him, it would only be a matter of time until one of us thought to try it?" By now others were finding their tongues.
    "He must have known it would happen in the right circumstances. Maybe Lucifer was tricked. It could have been one of us," came a voice from behind.
    I said nothing more but began to think about Lucifer's defense. It was a bad idea on God's part to put both power and free will into the same being. If there were a better control system of checks and balances, none of this would be happening.
    Not that it matters now, but I believe that in the beginning Lucifer truly loved God, but somewhere along the way, his love turned inward and decayed into a yearning for a power that was denied him. It happened after Earth was hung in space. Lucifer rebelled against the boundaries he had been given concerning Earth, whatever those boundaries might have been.
    That's the thing you need to know about God. He sets boundaries. But here is where it gets fuzzy. If we wanted to do so, we could cross the line we were not supposed to go beyond. How's that for mixed signals? W h y would God make us able to do something we were not allowed to do? I've never understood that about God.
    It was obvious to me that Lucifer was in trouble because he had crossed some kind of boundary concerning Earth, though no one knew what it was. God, who created and loved him, must now do one of three things: move the boundary, indulge him, or destroy him. I could see that nobody was going to win this one.
    All of heaven could feel the heaviness in God's voice when He confronted Lucifer. When the rest of us realized God's favorite was not getting a pass, we got really quiet and waited to see how he would respond. Lucifer was outraged.
    "Objection! Out of order! There is no legal precedent for this. How can this be?" he demanded of God, the court, and anyone else who might be listening. His voice trailed off as he began muttering gibberish as if Yahweh would know what he was talking about. None of us did.
    Lucifer shamelessly began to accuse God right there in front of us.
    I shuddered at how far he went as he ranted against the goodness of God.
    "You are an imposter, God. It is Your power and not Your love that brings about Your will." Lucifer bellowed to the heavenly host that Yahweh was not a God of love at all.
    Then he turned toward us. "He is a God of manipulation who creates free will and then denies it." Lucifer tore his hair and stomped his feet. He contorted with rage. His eyes were filled with fire and hatred. Like one gone mad, he spun to confront the other archangels who stood at their posts.
    "Listen to me," Lucifer sputtered, "or you're next. Can't you see what is happening? This jealous God cannot be trusted."
    "What does he mean, we could be next?" someone whispered from the ranks. The angels looked at each other as if the thought of such a thing had never been in anyone's imagination. Lucifer did not miss the uneasy glances exchanged between them. He pressed in harder.
    "None of you are safe. See how He will destroy anyone who does not obey His every whim. Why do you think He has turned against me? He is jealous of His own creation."
    I raised my eyes carefully to look at Michael's face.
    How long would this tirade against the Most High God be allowed to continue? I didn't know what would happen next or which way I would run when it did.
    Nobody tried to stop him, so Lucifer continued to make it worse. "Only I of all the heavenly host dare to speak the truth. The rest of you are cowards."
    Lucifer drew his sword from his belt and brandished it about so furiously, some stepped back from him in fear of losing a wing. I found myself cringing at every swipe and secretly wondered why someone hadn't taken that thing away from him as a precaution. Weapons are a bad idea in a courtroom. I wondered whether the consequences of Lucifer's fit might fall on the rest of