 |
The author grew up with seven siblings in a very religious household. In 2023, Sheets had an experience on Microsoft Teams that changed his perspective, and he identified as the Prince of Darkness. With that backstory, the author details in his narrative the gospel as he has discovered it. For instance, his computer and phone screens said he had "unlocked" Heaven. On his computer, the year had flipped forward to 3000, or another year far into the future. He saw YouTube videos of himself saying, "Lucifer Sheets, formerly Steven Sheets." The title comes from one of these YouTube videos.
Sheets—twenty-five years old when he wrote the book—was nearly two years past the experience he had on Microsoft Teams. He invites readers to reach out to him and ask questions if they wish to discuss his gospel. Sheets acknowledges that while the pages include themes of inflicted will or indoctrination, he mostly wants a normal human conversation about what he has written. By the close of the book, he thanks his readers, concluding with wishes of peace and love.
The author is a software engineer who enjoys immersing himself in hiking and video game worlds. With this context in mind, the depth of video games comes across in Sheets' book. The same deep thinking, existentially, about who we are and why we are here, is present in his gospel. In some ways, it is like getting to know a character, their dialogue, their motivations, and their lore. What sets the gospel apart is that it stems from the author's own life. He brings up his childhood, growing up around his mother, and the experience he had many years later that changed everything for him. It is not a fictitious world, but a real-world experience he wants to share with others and discuss in terms of a broader impact.
The author's voice is one of the strongest elements of the work. He uses a personal style, as if talking to one person rather than a large crowd. Emphasizing points and even printing pages in all caps makes clear the importance and seriousness of the topics he covers. Short sentences help the reader know what they need to take away from each passage: the message or wisdom he shares with them. Many chapters also include questions, almost as if the reader is working through these issues and dilemmas in real time with the author.
What stands out the most is the author's courage to talk about his experience. He's not afraid to share what he thought and processed internally. Many sections are raw and real, with lines of thought about his life and what he spent his life on. He also shares what the experience did for his career and the type of job he wanted to do in the technology industry that was his life before. Seeing life from his perspective and learning about his gospel can encourage readers to have the courage to share what they themselves experience in the same real, unfiltered way.