A hardened sinner’s soul is as slick, clean, and hard as a billiard ball. Each sin shrinks it, until its slick, shiny essence finally falls through the cracks. It lands among the tormenters in the basement.
The Loving Programmer has no way to pick up a soul that refuses to be grasped. He cannot, according to the Rules of The Program, elevate it to eternal joy. If, however, the sinner realizes, even moments before death, that he has sinned, he may repent.
Repentance turns the soul into something God can get a grip on. Repentance turns the soul into something like a cocklebur that will stick to the light from which the angels’ robes are made. Once He has something to get ahold of, The Loving Programmer can send an angel to which the otherwise lost soul can be attached and flown into Heaven.
We can do few things more important than explaining the importance of repentance to even the most hardened, glittering, pool ball-like souls. Those in the basement hate for any human program to know that it can be restored, up until the last minute that it’s mired in the concerns of the clay. They discourage such messages, and have been known to erase messengers.
