In part I of the original essay on The Prodigal Son we leave our prodigal son home with his father and brother and the whole household about to celebrate his return. His father was very happy to have him home again although his eldest son was not happy his younger brother was being treated like nothing had ever happened. In this essay of The Prodigal Son Part II, we will explore two other interpretations of The Prodigal Son.
Now, I know many of you will disagree with my belief those of us on Earth have at one time or another been disciples of Satan; however, the Holy Scripture is clear Satan was thrown out of heaven with all of his followers who were angels at that time. Some believe that demons were angels at one time and eventually became demons. That is one possibility, the other possibility is that we, all of the human population on Earth are the fallen angels. This last interpretation makes more sense since it is told in Revelation 12:3-4 and it reads as follows: "Then I witnessed in heaven another significant event. I saw a large red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept away one-third of the stars in the sky, and he threw them to earth. He stood in front of the woman as she was about to give birth, ready to devour her baby as soon as it was born." What do these two scriptures mean? Here the Apostle John was telling of an event in Heaven witnessed by him describing a large red dragon. Satan has often been described as a red dragon. John may not have known it at the time, but, he was describing constellations in Heaven and this particular Constellation was Scorpio, the great scorpion that has a great sweeping tail. And as the red dragon stood before the woman, who was Mother Mary and the Constellation that represents her is Virgo, the Virgin, he was hoping to devour her newborn child as soon as he was born. The Constellation of Scorpio has its pincer-like arms extended toward Virgo as if ready to devour it. You can see this for yourself in the night sky at the right time of the year. Also, how many of you know whether Satan, also known as Lucifer, is an angel? Yes, Lucifer was an angel and a very beautiful angel we are told in the Old Testament. When we were in Heaven we were all deceived by Lucifer because we were as innocent as little children in the ways of evil and we were easily convinced to follow Lucifer who later became Satan on Earth when all the angels he deceived renamed him Satan, which means great deceiver. You can read more about how Lucifer deceived all of us in my book, "In the Beginning." And since the beginning of time, we are still here on Earth trying to make our way home to Heaven once again. Thanks to our Lord Christ Jesus, now we can, through him, make our way home to be with our Father, The Holy Spirit, our Lord Christ Jesus, and all the friends we left behind in Heaven. Halaluya! This will be a wonderful reunion! Now, let us continue with The Prodigal Son, Part II.
Let us take another look at the Parable of The Prodigal Son. The story of the Parable of The Prodigal Son is somewhat different depending on which version of the Holy Scripture you have. In the New Living Translation, it is called the Parable of the Lost Son. You will find it in Luke 15:11-32. Just below is how the New Living Translation reads.
To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: "A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, 'I want my share of your estate before you die.' So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
"A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
"When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, 'At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.'"
"So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.'
"But his father said to the servants, 'Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but how he is found.' So the party began.
" Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 'Your brother is back,' he was told, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.'
"The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, 'All these years I've slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!'
"His father said to him, 'Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now is found!'" NLT.
Let us define who these men are. First, the father in this parable is none other than our Heavenly Father, the young son is a wayward son who lives on Earth and lives a normal human life. The elder son is another wayward son who also lives a normal human life and our Father in Heaven loves them both dearly. Both sons follow Lucifer in Heaven and end up on Earth living the life Satan creates for them. Their life is all about material wealth and material pleasures and other selfish needs until one day the younger son dies and returns to Heaven to find that he is greatly missed and our Father in Heaven shows the younger son how welcome he is and how much he has been missed by all. Back to the older son, who is still living on Earth and working for the day that he will have all of his father's wealth. He works hard for his father and is always willing to do whatever his father asks of him until one day he finds himself very old and he no longer cares for the things of this Earth since his age has caused him to mature and now realizes all the things of this world are meaningless. For instance, when you are old and may soon die what good is all of the material wealth in the world? We then begin to think of what happens after we die. Is there a life after death? Or, do we just disappear forever? Our Spirit us tells us there is life after death; however, we are uneasy about what we hear since we also know there is good and there is evil. Where will we end up? So, in the end, all the wealth in the world will not save us from what awaits us after we die.
Anyway, it is nice to know all we have to do is accept our Lord Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior, believe in his words and works, and try our best to follow in his footsteps, and then we do not have to worry about what lies ahead after we leave this Earth.
Now, getting back to the Prodigal Son. Let us say for argument's sake that the youngest son was not coming home after being on his own for several months or perhaps years; but, instead was returning home after having died on Earth and his spirit was returning to his father and brother. How is this possible you might ask. Well, there is a place where people go when they die that is called Hades by some and Pergatory by others. In actuality, it is also called Paradise in the Holy Scripture. When our Lord Christ Jesus was nailed to the cross and he told the man next to him, "this very day you will be in Paradise with me" our Lord Christ Jesus was telling him he would take this man to Paradise, but, not heaven since the man had not yet been saved. You must be saved before you can return to our home in heaven. If you do not go to hell, and you have not yet been saved, then you will find yourself in Paradise. Paradise is where we are given time to recuperate from our past life on Earth or even a recent journey to hell. Most of us have been to hell and some of us have been there several times. We usually stay there for one thousand years; however, it is up to Satan how long we stay in hell, and under certain circumstances, someone can pray someone else out of hell. When we are in hell we are in Spirit and not in the flesh and our Spirit is far more resilient and can survive the very high temperatures that would easily kill someone in the flesh in a matter of seconds. This is why we can survive hell and continue our lives on Earth eventually. Incidentally, the meaning of eternity in the Holy Scripture is a period of one thousand years, so when it reads that you will spend eternity in hell it means one thousand years in hell. Of course, one day in hell would seem like an eternity when we are burning in a pit of fire. Our Father in Heaven would never allow us to burn in hell forever. Our Father is a just Lord God and to spend forever more in hell would be grossly unjust if not vengeful and sadistic. Our Father loves us and this is why we mercifully spend time in Paradise between lives on Earth. However, if we have done many evil things in our lives such as mass murder or raping many women, then Satan will judge us and send us to hell. You see, Satan believes he is supposed to punish evil deeds and punish all evil people. Satan's logic is very twisted and this is due to his evil mind which has developed over many millions of years. Not only that, Satan also tries to tempt us to do evil things in the hope of sending us to hell.
Continuing, there is one last interpretation of The Prodigal Son. This interpretation is the one most often taught and is superficial. It is simply the story of a father and his two sons, one who loves his father very much and the other who loves wild living even more. In this version, the Prodigal Son leaves home and decides to go to a far-off land to live a wild lifestyle until all of his wealth is spent. Then, when he is without food and about to die from hunger, he finally decides to return home to his father. He felt that he sinned against his father and heaven. His father was so happy to see him that he ran to meet him and embrassed him with much love. After his father embrassed his returning son his younger son expressed deep regret for what he had done. He begged his father to hire him as a servant. Then his father asked his servants to bring the best robe in the house, a pair of sandals and a ring to show all was forgiven. The elder son was not happy with his younger brothers return and the welcome he received, so he refused to attend the celebration for his brother. Perhaps later on after his father spoke to him in a convincing way, he did celebrate his younger brothers return. Although, we will probably never know. Still it is reminiscent of what can and does often happen in a family when sibling rivalry's sometimes tear families apart.
We do hope you have enjoyed reading the three interpretations we have given in this essay in Part I and Part II of The Parable of the Prodigal Son. Adios for now my friends.
Typed by Wayne Hill
Dictated by The Holy Spirit