http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/june2012/barrya613.htm
The first part of this is in the post linked above.
I said that in Luke 16 the rich man is God and the unjust steward is Lucifer and Jesus is letting us all in on the plan that Lucifer came up with to be received into someone’s homes after being fired for embezzling the heavenly worship. He cannot dig and to beg he is ashamed so he comes up with this plan.
Luke 16:
4. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
5. So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?
6. And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.
7. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.
This requires some help from the Holy Spirit to see so prayerfully consider this. There is only one faith on earth that offers mankind complete forgiveness of our debt and that faith is TRUE Christianity. All other faiths or religions or cults or beliefs including “New Age” type beliefs have this one aspect in common: That they offer a way to LESSEN but never ever completely deliver from a sense of debt before God. (New Agers don’t believe in sin per se but recognize a need to remember their divinity and become more godlike or whatever, it works the same way because they never actually attain it.) This is because every one of these false religions including false versions of Christianity are all the product of Satan carrying out his plan to deceive as outlined in the above scripture.
Satan comes to “every one of the Lord’s debtors” and asks them “How much owest thou unto my lord?” He always starts by making the person aware of their debt before God and then offers his solution in the form of some deed or other that they can perform in order to somehow reduce their debt and feel better about themselves because they did this whatever it was. This is why I mentioned before about the “Hegelian Dialectic” because that is basically what is working here. It was Satan who encouraged our first parents to sin in the first place so that he could offer them his false solution.
Satan knows that he is going to hell but he does not want to go there alone and his only satisfaction is to try and trick as many people as he can to go there with him. But not only the ultimate end he also receives access into their homes now if he can get people to do this deed of sit down quickly and write something less. Every false way involves this apparent lessening of the debt (it does nothing of the kind in reality but Satan tricks his victims into thinking that this religion or that actually has that power) rather than completely washing the debt away. Only Jesus offers us 100% freedom from all debt because He paid for it already and He offers us rest from trying to lessen the debt little by little. But Jesus allows Satan to offer people his evil alternative way to see if they will go for it or not.
Anyone who has submitted his life to Jesus and experienced the forgiveness of sins and the peace of being debt free before God, should have no fear of the devil and no reason to enter any dealings of this kind with him but can answer the question of how much they owe with: “Zero, I have been forgiven and there is nothing that you can offer to me Satan so get thee behind me and what has thou to do with me?” Resist the devil and he will flee. But if the person is still holding on to their sense of debt after all that Jesus has done to free them from it and if Satan can convince them to do business with him and they are willing to “sit down quickly (because it’s illegal what we’re doing here) and write down less…” Then it shows Jesus where that person’s true heart is. That person does not really believe in His sacrifice to save them. That person does not trust God’s promise to free them from all their sin debt. So there is a “labor” for us and that labor is let us labor to enter into His rest. In other words, if you are one who has been trying to be righteous by your own efforts, stop doing that and instead focus your energy on becoming able to believe God when He promises to make you righteous by giving you Jesus’ performance to cover yours. Yes, labor to enter into that rest! Satan will fight you to keep you from it but fight him back with scripture.
Luke 16:
8. And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
9. And I say unto you, [Satan, and fallen angels with him] Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. [Hell]
10. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
11. If therefore ye [you and I] have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? [If you deal in unrighteous mammon with Satan, why should I give you heaven?]
12. And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? [By partnering with the unjust steward, Satan, you are guilty of the same thing he did, being unfaithful with another man’s (God’s) possessions and stealing what you rightfully owe by writing down less than 100% debt. Far better it is to accept what Jesus did when He paid it off entirely!]
13. No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
So, Jesus is allowing false religions to exist because He wants to see what we will do with Satan’s offer. He is hoping for people who will choose His true offer of becoming completely debt free and know the truth and that truth sets them free from all these false ways and all of Satan’s tricks to ensnare them.
The way that this ties in with what I said before about Moses and the Rock is that it is the same test. Once someone has tasted the free gift of salvation and forgiveness of sins if then Satan can convince that person to return to the works of the law and TRY to keep the law again in order to obtain or remain righteous when God gives righteousness for free as grace – unmerited favor. It is the same as Satan convincing someone to admit a debt before God (when God has already called them debt free) and willingly bargaining with Satan instead of trusting in God to keep His promise of declaring us righteous. We must make a choice between two masters. 1. God and His complete claim over us and this includes His right to declare us completely righteous because He charged Jesus with all our sins, or 2. Satan and his accusations against us and this includes Satan’s offer of writing down a false amount on our bill to make us look better than we really are if we go by our natural un-redeemed self.
Once I began to understand this scripture I still had not known that the amounts that the unjust steward says to write down are also significant but we can discuss that at a later time if you want.