skinwalker chapter 4 (standard:travel stories, 8474 words) [4/5] show all parts
Author: Eutychus	Added: Jan 22 2018	Views/Reads: 1516/1133	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Jerry and Moe continue moving deeper into hell. After making it across the river and the adjoining marsh where they encountered the souls of the sullen, Jerry comes face to face with beings that are patently demonic. They attempt to restrict further trave

"Here we must consider the reason for the anger to distinguish whether
it is a proper or improper response. Scripture speaks of God being 
angry when He looks at sin. Why would He have such a reaction?" 

"Because He hates injustice. He desires for His creation to reflect His
character and when justice is not done, creation fails to live up to 
His intent for its design," I offered as I dipped out the last of the 
swell. 

"Then anger is the right response when it concerns the honor of God,
apart from one's own honor and one's own projects or when it is 
directed at things responsible for the abuse of people who are truly 
helpless and unable to defend themselves, that abuse subverting God's 
sense of justice." 

"So right anger starts with a sense of some wrong done to God and to the
more vulnerable among God's creatures?" Moe asked. 

"Agreed," Phlegyas said as he moved his oar gently back and forth
through the water. 

"Then might wrong anger begin when the reaction comes from an assault to
a sense of personal honor, maybe making it a reaction based in pride? 
I'm sure I've been angry at times when I felt the anger was justified 
based on your definition of 'right' anger, but chances are it was more 
likely a prideful response to a situation that again felt like a 
personal attack." 

"You asked me about some details from the Jonah account a while back.
Think about him for a moment," Moe suggested. "He didn't want to preach 
a message to the people of Ninevah that might result in their 
repentance. God even inquired of him why he was angry. The Ninevites 
were Assyrians, and they were only chosen by God when He needed someone 
to discipline His chosen people, the Jews. Might pride at being one of 
God's chosen or a sense of national  pride over past reversals at the 
hands of Assyria have been a reason for not wanting to give a message 
of salvation to Gentiles?" 

"I'm sure there was some pride involved," I said as I watched the
non-stop conflict at water's edge and imagined the sort of things that 
had begun the brawl. Misread looks, perceived insults, envy over a more 
desirable place on the river's bank... "So at what point does an angry 
predisposition become a wrathful one?" "That's an easy distinction to 
make," Phlegyas said as he picked up the pace a bit with his oar. 
"Anger is an emotional response and not a freely chosen moral act. 
Wrath, on the other hand, is a freely chosen expression of untempered 
anger. It is the intemperate expression of anger, rather than anger 
itself, which leads to the sin of wrath." 

"Then what of God's wrath?" Moe wondered. "I recently made the
acquaintance of a soul who, though he had never wanted anything to do 
with God, defiantly stands his ground in the seventh circle claiming he 
could never believe in or worship a hateful, wrathful God." 

A quote from St. Paul fluttered at the edge of my recollection. Where
normally I could expect such a thought to hang around just long enough 
to frustrate me and disappear, this time the fog lifted and I could all 
but see the words. " 'Love must be sincere'," I said, beginning to 
quote Romans 12:9. The next word in verse nine, though it came as a bit 
of a shock, was probably the reason I remembered the verse. " 'Hate 
what is evil.' " 

"Where did that come from?" Moe asked. 

"Romans 12." 

"Not what I meant." 

"I knew that I had read a verse before that spoke of love and hate
co-existing. Just remembering that fact brought the verse to mind. And 
I think that helps to explain the dilemma your acquaintance has trouble 
resolving. I would almost go so far as to say that love cannot exist 
apart from wrath." 

"Seems like the Gift is manifesting itself in you," Moe said. "Not sure


Click here to read the rest of this story (934 more lines)