How to be cast into the Hellfire for all eternity.

As I was riding my bicycle this morning, I thought of the story of Lucifer, the angel who fell from Heaven and became synonymous with "evil". I don't know how correctly I have interpreted this fable, but from what I understand, he became dissatisfied with God and incited rebellion, thus leading to his eternal damnation. I say, I find this story rather intriguing, for I am left to wonder what sort of lessons its authors had intended to bestow upon their readers.

I came across this account of "The Fall of Lucifer". I don't know how true to the original tale it is, as stories change over time. Nonetheless, a few thoughts came to my mind as I was perusing it. From this account, it seems Lucifer was not happy having to obey the word of the son, Jesus Christ - in fact, he was envious of him - so he tried to rally the angels around him, accusing them of being "slaves". Ultimately, no one was having any of it, and God was quick to quash the rebellion and cast Lucifer into the eternal Hellfire.

But who created this tale? And what was its purpose? When I reiterated the story of Lucifer in my head this morning, I wondered if this was not a tale of obedience and blind devotion, that questioning your authority had dire consequences. Was Lucifer really the malcontent as limned in this fable? Or did this serve as a warning to would-be dissidents? Look at what we do in our time: when someone speaks out of turn, we do not hesitate to put the individual in her/his place, even if it means besmirching her/his good name. When dissident government officials cry foul at their bosses, they are quickly labeled as "disgruntled" or "upset" over something, thus eager to lash out at their superiors.

It's all a matter of perspective. Consider Ernesto "Che" Guevara: on one hand, he was a champion of the people, warrior of the working class, someone who refused to take crap from the authority of his time and stood up for what he felt was right; on the other, he is the Devil incarnate, a purveyor of the evil ideology that is Communism, a "terrorist". Could the same be said of Lucifer? Was he really, as they say, the evil that needed to be purged from Heaven, or punished for standing up for change?

Consider another example, that being Jesus Christ himself. If you have read both Old and New Testaments, you may appreciate Jesus Christ the revolutionary, as accounts of his life and times reveal him to contravene the so-called ironclad rules of the Old Testament of Moses, the first being his "turning-the-other-cheek" principle, rather than demanding "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". He also deemed circumcision unnecessary and healed the sick on the Sabbath, both big no-nos in the grand rulebook. Many ardent devotees believe the scriptures in the Old Testament foretold the coming of Jesus Christ, and I'm inclined to agree, though I ask why these prophets did so: perhaps, when the extant world order needs a shake-up, someone is bound to come along to do just that.

And what happened to our dear Jesus Christ?

Yeah.

So what is the moral of the story of Lucifer? I reckon it's that the victors write the history lessons that are passed down to us, and if you don't straighten up and fly right, you, too, will be written into eternal damnation.