Article: 288591 of talk.bizarre
From: surfbaud@waverider.co.uk (Dave Hemming)
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
Subject: Culling Angels
Date: Sun, 01 Dec 1996 13:56:43 GMT
Organization: Spamhunters
Lines: 68
Message-ID: <32a18cec.2145919@nemesis.waverider.co.uk>


"But I'm already dead."

"That doesn't make any difference, these days. You can still be
damned by your actions."

"That's not what I learnt in Sunday School."

"Shut up and kill another angel."

Bob moved away from Mike, quickly catching up with the
fleeing angel while he puzzled over the conversation.
Drawing his club, he expertly staved in the angel's head as
it cowered away from him. Ignoring it's whispered forgiveness
with a casualness born of habit, he took a deep lungful of
the fresh, pure air of Heaven.

"Tell me again why we're doing this, Mike." He called as Mike
cornered a Principality against the West Gate.

"It's all about free will. You remember that, surely?" Deftly, 
Mike slit the angel's throat as he talked over his shoulder.

"Vaguely. There was some sort of argument between that and
predestination, wasn't there?" Out of the corner of his eye
he spotted a Virtue sidling towards the Gate. 

"Exactly. Were you still alive when the Pope announced that
God wasn't perfect?" 

Bob edged towards the gate. "I remember that. It was in all
the papers."

"Well, the way it works is that God set everything in motion,
then crafted the angels to ensure it ran the way he had
planned. But then a bunch broke away and set up in
opposition."

"The Devil, right?" The Virtue appeared to be tensing for a
sprint. Bob judged the distance, and shuffled slightly to
the left.

"That's the one. Seems he discovered the concept of free will
and decided to share." Mike cleaned his knife with long, slow
sweeps of his cloth.

The Virtue seemed unable to make up its mind whether or not
to risk the run. "So what's that have to do with culling
angels?" Bob was prepared to wait it out.

"Well, free will is good, right? Right. We had it for five
thousand years, give or take. Then along comes Armageddon,
God wins, and 'poof' - virtually no more demons, and hence
no more free will."

"Oh. So we're trying to even the balance, yeah?" Bob
readied his club as the Virtue seemed to reach a decision.

"That's the idea. Look, just kill it, alright? Don't torment
the poor thing. That's what started this whole conversation."



Dave

-- 
"Do you know what it is to be damned? It has nothing to do with fire.
To be damned is only not to love."