6. God's Heavenly Council [Text]

Birth Pangs of the End Times — Chapter 6

Previously . . . Katie’s bravery and piloting skill earned her the Distinguished Flying Cross.

End-time conflict takes place in two realms, earthly and spiritual. This is the first of two chapters in this novel that dramatize end-time events in the spiritual realm. These two chapters are what set this novel apart from all other end-time Christian novels. We’ll resume Katie’s story next week.

Chapter Six

God’s Council in Heaven

Early in the 20th Century

On Yom Kippur, the holiest day on God’s calendar, the angelic sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh in the Council of Heaven. At the appointed time, an angel sounded a trumpet to announce the Almighty’s presence among his divine council. Everyone faced the throne and bowed their heads. When the angel sounded his trumpet again, everyone looked up to see Yahweh enthroned in glory on His throne.

As an archangel, Ariel was privileged to stand toward the front of thousands of celestials gathered in heaven’s great assembly. His eyes followed one figure, Satan, as the Devil walked up the dirt path from his dark celestial domain. Satan came into heaven’s light, then passed the court scribe’s table and approached the Father’s throne. The Almighty’s throne was in the center of heaven’s 24 elders, seated in a semi-circle, twelve on God’s left and twelve on His right. Dressed in a tailored Italian three-piece suit, Satan looked more like a mafia godfather or a billionaire CEO than the prince of darkness.

Ariel watched closely as the Devil’s dark, piercing gaze seemed to fix on each of the twelve elders to his right as he passed them on his way up toward Yahweh’s throne. Finally, Satan turned his gaze toward the throne, but he didn’t dare look up into God’s face. Waiting to the Devil’s left in front of the throne stood Yeshua, radiant in glory. Both faced the Almighty. Ariel saw the council’s scribe seated at a small wooden table. On it were a pen, a book, and three small wooden boxes. On top of the first box, he saw a bright red light shining. Over the second box, a dim white light shone. There was no light over the third box. Looking at the third box, Ariel thought, Perhaps this will be the day when the third box’s light shines! Amen! May it be so!

The Divine Council in Session

The council herald stood next to the scribe’s table. When all parties were in place, he proclaimed loudly, so that all could hear, “The council of Yahweh is now in session.” Ariel heard God address Satan, saying, “Do you have any accusations requiring this court’s decision?” Satan responded, “Yes, I have many, which, for efficiency’s sake, I will present in related batches.” He continued, “A total of 56,756,231 humans died in the year since our last court session.”

The Lost

Satan held up a paper. “Exactly 37,459,112 of the dead had no relationship with your son before their death. None ever confessed faith in him; nor were any of them baptized. Your Bible says ‘all have sinned.’ Therefore, this court must decree these 37,459,112 souls be put into the scribe’s first box.” God looked down at Yeshua and said, “Is Satan’s information correct? Do you have any objection to his motion to mark these 37,459,112 dead souls as lost?” Ariel saw Yeshua shake his head, sadly saying, “I cannot object. The number is correct. I don’t know them.” After verifying the 24 elders’ agreement, Yahweh said, “The Divine Council’s consensus is these 37,459,112 names shall be put into the scribe’s first box.”

Immediately, the scribe took the list from Satan, then opened the first box and put the names into it. Ariel clenched his fists in angry frustration when he saw Satan gloating as the red light grew brighter.

Christians?

With last years’ lost souls dispositioned, Satan turned around to address the Judge. “Next, 19,297,119 humans died this year who may have confessed some kind of faith in your son during their lifetime. Of these, I claim 15,095,351 are not covered by your protection because:

• 10,076,089 souls made a lip-service confession of faith sometime in their life, but there’s no evidence they ever got born again. Therefore, they were never members of your kingdom. Their continuously sinful lifestyle attested they were always members of my earthly world system.

• In addition, 5,019,262 of the dead were ‘Jesus-plus’ believers. Some part of their faith may have been in your son, but they also added their own good works to his. The Devil made hand gestures for air quotes when he said the words ‘good works.’

• He continued, “Therefore, you must add their names to the first box. Otherwise, if you add them to the second box, they’ll brag for eternity how their own good works contributed to their salvation.

• For these reasons the court should adjudicate these 15,095,351 as lost, and outside your protection.” Satan concluded, saying, “I rest my case against these so-called believers. Again, the Father looked down at Yeshua and said, “Is the Accuser’s information correct? Or can you claim any of these souls?”

Yeshua responded, “In this matter, the Accuser is not correct. Of the 15,095,351 souls in this group, my blood covers 2,472 souls who were born into my kingdom before they died.” Yeshua lifted a paper. “Here are their names. They’re mine.”

When Ariel saw the Devil wince, he thought, That was stupid. Yeshua knows every one of His people.

Addressing the Accuser, God said, “Can you rebut this claim regarding these 2,472?” The Devil looked down and shook his head to admit he couldn’t. Then, after verifying the 24 elders’ agreement, Yahweh said, “The Divine Council’s consensus is 15,092,879 names shall be put into the scribe’s first box, and 2,472 names shall be put into the second box.” Immediately, the scribe took the names from Satan and Yeshua. He put the lists in their respective boxes. Now, both the red and white lights ebbed brighter.

Ariel thought, Now we’re getting to the good part.

Christians

Looking at Yeshua, Satan said, “The remaining 4,201,768 souls who died last year all claim to be part of your spiritual kingdom, and therefore, outside my jurisdiction.” “However, I have evidence that none of them lived a sinless life. This group includes many who were murderers, idolaters, occultists, adulterers, and homosexuals. None were perfected to your level of holiness before they died.”

“Therefore, to prevent polluting heaven with these defiled creatures, you should place their names in the first box, where they’ll rest until their final judgment.” Yeshua responded to the Almighty Judge, “My blood covers these 4,201,768 souls.” Ariel leaned forward to hear what Yeshua would say next.

Martyrs

Yeshua turned toward Satan, looking him in the eye. The Devil wouldn’t meet his gaze. Instead, Satan looked at Yeshua’s feet. Yeshua said, “Now it’s my turn to accuse. Among My 4,201,768 disciples who died last year, you murdered 19,297 holy ones who would not renounce their faith in me or my word, regardless of what you did to them. They committed no crime. They were blameless and innocent. Can you provide this court any evidence why any of these 19,297 names should not be added to the third box?”

Satan continued looking down.

Jesus said, “I command you to answer.”

Satan cowered, answering sheepishly, “No.”

Yahweh verified the 24 elders’ agreement. Then he said, “The Divine Council’s consensus is 4,182,471 names shall be put in the second box and 19,297 names shall be put into the third box.” Immediately, the scribe took the two lists from Yeshua. He put the lists into the second and third boxes, respectively. The second box’s white light brightened. Every eye watched to see if the third box’s light would light up. After a few seconds, Satan visibly breathed a sigh of relief when it didn’t.

Ariel thought to himself, It looks like Satan’s got another year.

Satan Released to Deceive the Nations

The Judge addressed Satan, “Do you have any further business for this court?”

Satan responded, “Yes, I have one last question. Should I assume my boundaries for testing mankind are unchanged for the coming year?”

Ariel watched the Judge visually poll each elder, one by one. Each one nodded in silent agreement toward the Judge. Ariel’s anticipation heightened. He’d attended over 1,900 council meetings since Yeshua’s resurrection, but something different was happening now.

The Judge then responded to Satan, “As you know, we are approaching the six thousandth year of this creation. The start of the Seventh-day millennium is upon us.” “Therefore, with the end of this age approaching, the council is removing your restriction against deceiving the nations.”

To Ariel, the Devil’s face looked like he just won the lottery. Ever since the Messiah’s resurrection, Satan has been bound, restricting him from deceiving the nations. But, after almost 2000 years, God’s Divine Council just freed the Devil to restore his unified control over all nations.

The Almighty continued, “Regarding your boundaries for testing mankind,”

1. “You may not cause more than half of mankind to die.”

2. “I delegated authority over the earth to mankind, not to you. Therefore, you have no direct authority over any nation or ethnic group. You only have the authority that humans willingly give you.”

3. “You may violate no one’s free will by forcing them to renounce truth through mind-control or drugs.”

Ariel could see the wheels turning in the Devil’s mind. There was so much he could do within those boundaries!

Angelic Monitors and Consequences

The Almighty added, “To ensure compliance with these three rules, godly angels will be assigned to monitor your kingdom’s activities on the earth. They will not interfere with your operations, but they’ll report your activities to this council.” “Any violation of these rules will result in this council’s judgment against the offender, and possibly against you as their leader, as this council deems appropriate. Is that understood?”

“Yes,” Satan said. “I understand.”

The Almighty said, “You’re dismissed from this assembly.”

Without another word, the Devil turned and strutted out, taking the dirt path back down to his dark celestial domain.

The Almighty asked, “Does anyone else have business with the council?” No one spoke up.

“In that case, this annual divine council session is adjourned.”

The angel sounded a trumpet blast and everyone stood facing the Almighty, their heads bowed reverently, including Yeshua and the 24 elders. When the trumpet sounded again, the Almighty was gone.

Ariel’s Assignment

Ariel saw Yeshua walking toward him. The archangel bowed reverently as the Lord approached. Yeshua said, “Ariel, my brother, and faithful friend. You heard the divine council’s directive?” “Yes Lord, I heard it.”

“Good. I want you to shadow Satan whenever he’s on the earth. Please assign angels to monitor all of Satan’s hierarchy and operations regarding the boundaries the council just set. Finally, establish a communication and reporting network to communicate with, and get reports from all the angels under your command.”

“Yes Lord. I will do it.”

Yeshua said, “Soon our brethren on earth will overcome and the third box will shine its light. Amen! Let it be so.”

Satan Convenes the Archons

Ariel observed as Satan’s executive council received their orders.

In the Devil’s locale of heaven, Satan, dapper as ever, prepared to make his annual address to his executive council of evil principalities and powers. Before him stood the 70 archons who rule the nations of the earth, and hundreds of evil, angelic authorities.

“Comrades, welcome to this historic meeting of the Blood Brothers’ Clan. Why do I say historic?”

He paused, as his audience all leaned forward in anticipation.

“Today, our shackles are removed. We’re now all free to restore our kingdom on the earth. We’re free to gather all nations under our control.” The crowd responded with whoops and hollers, whistles, applause, and shouting.

Ariel thought, What a bunch of animals! There’s no unity in this bunch. Each one only cares for himself.

After the whooping subsided, Satan continued, “The big guy gives us free rein to rule the nations. He only gave us three rules. We can only kill half of humanity, no more.” More whoops and hollers. “Second, we have to deceive mankind into giving us authority to rule them.”

“What’s new about that?” A husky, tattooed, biker-looking devil yelled.

Satan continued, “And third, don’t use drugs or mind-control to violate their free will.”

At that, the biker devil yelled, “No problem. Ninety percent will do anything our government and media puppets tell them to do. We’ll just kill the other ten percent and still have forty percent to use as examples for anyone who gets out of line. Duh!”

After the hollering subsided again, Satan continued,

“One month from now, I want you 70 archons to meet me here to discuss my detailed plan. This plan will include how we’ll centralize governments, economies, media, and religion under our control within the next 70 years. Here’s a preview:”

• “On the International Level, we’ll setup our one-world government through 10 regional kings.”

• “We’ll centralize our control over all economic, media, and religions to herd all humans into secular compliance.”

• “We’ll use wars, famines, pandemics, delusions, and perversions to make the nations follow us and reject God.”

• “On the Individual level, we’ll turn the masses against God’s followers. We’ll test Christians in every way possible. Most will compromise, joining the crowd to save their skin. Only a few won’t comply. We’ll hunt them down and kill them, as examples to the rest.”

The crowd chanted in unison, thrusting fists into the air, “Hail Satan! Hail Satan! Hail Satan!”

Chapter 6 Podcast

In this podcast the author discusses spiritual lessons we can learn from Chapter 5.

Coming next week . . . six months after earning her Distinguished Flying Cross, Katie is a highly-respected medevac pilot. But trouble arrives from an unexpected direction.