Saving Sauron: How to Get Evil-Doers to Heaven

Yes, Sauron (chief bad-guy of Lord of the Rings) is in Heaven!

Sauron, like the best of us, took the opportunities that looked good to him. He saw that more power was good for him, and so proceeded to get more power. Since he was self-centered-–AS ALL OF US NATURALLY ARE-–he didn’t much care what happened to anyone else. He lived to gain legendary power, and made the mistake of tying that power to a piece of jewelry; but it served to unite an entire world ... to teach all of them ‘the good in this world that is worth fighting for.’

That is what Jesus did-–he taught us ‘the good in this world that is worth fighting for’-–he taught us that, after you fulfill The Righteousness, no thing nor person can stop you from being what that Righteousness makes you.
Not even other things you are!

In the Common Opinion, You Are What You Do

Jesus was a reader, a teacher, a preacher, a furniture-builder, a house-builder, a boat-builder, a dock-builder ... one who does all those things couldn’t be a king in Rome! Kings in Rome sat on their heavies all day telling people what to do!

Jesus, however, was the Son of the King of God’s people ... not of the Romans‘ kings, who had chosen the path of personal comfort over the path of service. In God’s kingdom, the righteous King serves, and only relaxes (in kingly splendor of ‘fulfilled righteousness’) in order to serve some more!

Sauron was a king who chose the path of the Romans; finding that being king was more enjoyable than ‘fulfilling righteousness,’ he chose to gain power quickly instead of earning it righteously. That was a bad decision on his part, and he spent nearly 100,000 years imprisoned- and paralyzed for his crime.

But after the punishment (which united the world), he is at peace.