256. But let this be illustrated by an example: In many places in the Word anger, wrath, and vengeance are attributed to God and He is said to punish, to cast into hell, to tempt, and other like things. He who believes this in simplicity like a child, and in consequence fears God and avoids sinning against Him, is not condemned for that simple belief. But he who so far confirms these things in himself as to believe that anger, wrath, vengeance, and all like things that proceed from evil, are in God, and that God punishes man and casts him into hell from anger, wrath, and vengeance-he is condemned, because he has destroyed the genuine truth, which is, that God is Love itself, Mercy itself, and Good itself, and such a Being cannot be angry, wrathful, or vengeful. These things are attributed to God in the Word, because such is the appearance. These are appearances of truth.
