(cont.) The Malakim watch as Elohim create Time, including the Gaia (earth), Ayden (Eden), and earth-kind, or the mud-race (humans). There are several apologetics clues here and there in favor of treating young-earth creation literally and not as myth. In the parallel SpiritRealm inhabited by the Malakim and Shaityrim, there are mythological animals based on apocalyptical imagery, such as centaurs (Rev 9:7-10), Khimari/Chimara (Rev 9:17-19), and flying fiery horses (2 Kings 2:11).
Michael, one of the Malakim, begins as a lieutenant motivated to defeat the centaurs for the approval of Commander Lucifer Haylel, who is concealing his more ambitious motives. Lucifer is Nietzsche’s Overman, giving honor and loyalty only to those who serve his purposes, wearing different masks to con whoever needs conning, warmed by the motivation of power, but otherwise cold and calculating. Michael is discouraged against swordplay by his lieutenant commander, the intellectual Gavriel (Gabriel), who at first thinks that Michael is too easily controlled by his emotions, and later that he has become too overwhelmed by them to feel anything at all. The relationship between Michael and Gavriel is tested primarily by Michael’s attraction to and Gavriel’s disdain for the mud-race, but also by their intermittent disagreements surrounding Michael’s impulses, reminding one somewhat of the relationship between Frodo and Samwise Gamgee in LOTR. This is an ever-current issue in Christian apologetics—the importance of maintaining a balance between the head and the heart, of remembering that people are the reason Truth matters, not winning an argument.
Michael’s loyalty to the Prince is challenged, at first by Michael’s need for approval from Lucifer, who becomes Shaitan (Satan), and later by his doubts surrounding why Elohim would bring judgment upon humans (the mud race), or at least not save them from the consequences of their choices. It may strike the reader as odd that Gavriel never questions the wrath of Elohim, but always questions the wrath of Michael. This is only confused more when the Prince does not agree completely with either Gavriel or Michael on the appropriateness of swordplay and emotion. Michael’s relationships, with Gavriel and with the Prince, are forged in the crucible of this conflict. The Prince demonstrates a balanced view that is beautifully interwoven, a thread here and a thread there, throughout the tapestry of the narrative. Lucifer/Shaitan’s character demonstrates a stark contrast, the Anti-Prince.
Much research has gone into the creation of this tome, as evidenced by Lamont’s tracing the times and places where historical gods have been worshipped—these are the Shaityrim. They all start out as Malakim and, like Lucifer/Shaitan, all receive new names when they fall and become Shaityrim. It is disappointing that none of the Shaityrim, one in particular that seems like he just might, realize they were mistaken. A key line the Prince speaks to a doubting Michael is “One cannot pardon those who do not wish to be pardoned.”
Ichthus77 