lurking 16: teaching children about flaming fire and vengeance
when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might (2 Thessalonians 1)
Here we have another beautiful verse from the Christian holy book, that reveals the loving nature of their perfect and benevolent creator deity character, the god God.
Blogger Victoriousinjesus has crafted a nice little post around this verse that promises readers:
Either our enemies will be moved by the love of God to repent and cease to be our enemies or they will be judged in the end by the wrath of God in flaming fire and vengeance.
What a loving thought! And here’s me, a hateful pagan, who wouldn’t wish eternal suffering on my worst enemy. Actually, I wouldn’t wish punishment of any kind on anyone. If I could magic up a benevolent fairy, I would wish a non-violent intervention to help people see things from another point of view, to help them understand how their actions are harmful or counter-productive. Is that not what any creature with benevolent instincts would wish? Apparently not.
So how can Victoriousinjesus tackle these frighteningly foul verses for the younger generation of indoctrinated believers?
Hey kids, I want to say to you what Paul said to the Thessalonians. Your parents and I give thanks to God for you because we know your faith is growing abundantly and your love for others is also growing. Keep it up. It won’t always be easy, but God is watching out for you and will deal appropriately with those who do not respond well to your faith and godly love. Trust Him and keep growing.
To paraphrase, blah blah you’re great and loving, and by the way there’s an invisible vengeance demon out there acting on your behalf, blah blah you’re great and loving. Any thoughts?
Try telling these indoctrinated a-holes this is Pauline Doctrine, and nothing more than a bad acid trip and has Zip to do with JC and they start to blubber and dribble.
Nah, where is this child abuse? Any seven year old on the planet will revel in this.
Piss their pants? Of course not!
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Notice though that he has exactly ZERO followers 😉
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I am frakking gobsmacked, John. Do you reckon this is for real or simply a piss-take?
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Oh he’s real. Someone should ask him if he “graduated” from Trinity College.
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His ”Hey Kids” is rank child abuse.
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For crying in a Bucket, Vi, this has to be one the most insane frakking headcases I have read.
He is sick, sick, sick. A real bastard of the first order.
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Oops, that comment up there was meant down here. Wisp, sort out your reply buttons, they’re in the wrong place
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It’s kind of weird isn’t it? Imagining all the after-life misery with glee.
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Isn’t that where our blogging buddy Clubschadenfreud (sp?) gets his name?
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Cosmic justice… It’s a common theme, and the idea of having a bully on your side seems to be quite attractive to these folk. Sad, really.
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My invisible demon’s going to get you! If he doesn’t soften your heart and save your soul before you pop your clogs.
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“Pop your clogs”? What on earth does that mean? Must be an british expression.
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Yeah, they talk funny.
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Pop your clogs: – kick the bucket, buy the farm, meet your maker, push up the daisies, cross to the other side … and many more delightful ditties.
Google is you fweind.
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Oh, so it’s about death! I thought maybe it was about being so surprised you flew out of your shoes. Thanks for the clarification. 🙂
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I told you – they talk funny, and call it “English”!
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That kids’ message implies that kids can imagine those they dislike burning in everlasting hellfire and damnation. I’m sure fantasizing about that will encourage them to be model citizens and upstanding human beings.
Luckily previous generations are leaving the church, so hopefully those kids won’t stick around long enough to be warped by such messages.
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It’s interesting how he assumes that he will always be in the right. Presumably these people have enemies who also believe in gods – could lead to a tug of war for the flaming vengeance in the afterlife.
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Yeah, my gods can beat up on your gods…. if they gave a sh*t anyway. I used to have a bumper sticker that read “If your god is dead, wanna try one of mine?” ah, the world of the NeoPagans.
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I want to know this great love so I can join the Savior forces and kill stupid people with love who just don’t get it. Idiots. The stupid pisants should accept this sweet embrace. Doucebags.
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Yes, I love everyone as my god commands but if they don’t agree with me they will be suffering eternal afterlife torment. Still love them.
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“…inflicting vengeance on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction…” 2Thess1
I heard this scripture used in the catholic church many times to damn various kinds of people, usually homosexuals. It resulted in my first ever case of religious cognitive dissonance, because I went to public school and had many gay friends. These teens were so nice and fun to be around…I could not imagine why god would want to utterly destroy them. It left me absolutely dumbstruck.
So! I would like to credit 2Thess with being the beginning of the end for my faith. Well yeah, it took a few more decades and enough cognitive dissonance to make me permanently insane, but it was the first time I had the sense to question the nature of god. The other seriously disturbing verse I remember as a child was the one involving Passover (Exodus 12:29).
We need to slap that verse on the walls of the subways and see if it makes the good christians ask some questions. Though I’m sure some will just say it’s god’s “good and proper judgement and delivery of justice.” *sigh*
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“I’m sure some will just say it’s god’s ‘good and proper judgement and delivery of justice.’” – The Christian stand-by answer to that is, “He made us, he can do what he wants with us –“
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Ugh. I find it disgusting when christians make that response. My mom and dad made me…it doesn’t give them the right to kill me or abuse me or threaten me or damn me to hell.
Buy hey, the christian god is a “good” daddy. *sigh*
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“it doesn’t give them the right to kill me or abuse me or threaten me or damn me to hell” – ExZACTly!
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“I would like to credit 2Thess with being the beginning of the end for my faith.” Glory be to these special verses! It’s interesting that all the viciousness of the OT can be overlooked, but it’s the softer message of the NT that can drive the deconversions. Corinthians did it for me.
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Corins the whole book, or a certain verse? I love knowing what fostered people’s deconversions.
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“Either our enemies will be moved by the love of God to repent and cease to be our enemies or they will be judged in the end by the wrath of God in flaming fire and vengeance.”
And that’s different from the Islamic approach to apostasy, how?
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The difference is in language. One uses the language of the only true god, Arabic, and another we can’t tell what language it was told in
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I want to become a soldier in waiting for the day of vengeance. This way of showing love is one I want to learn
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Do you think we’d get to personally operate on the flamethrowers on all our enemies? I love them all so much. 🙂
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Violet, I have a random question for you. I’ve now had several conversations with christians who think there is only one reason for atheism: SEX. Yep, they think we all want as much sex as we can possibly get, without punishment from God. They do not seem to think one can be in a faithful marriage and be atheist, because we can’t control ourselves and just want to screw everyone in sight. Have you ever heard of this? Have you ever posted on it? I’m somewhat flummoxed by this, as I never even considered the sex angle when I became an atheist (I’m married).
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That’s hilarious! I don’t think I’ve had that specific conversation with any of them, although they do have really odd ideas about ‘morality’ and ‘sin’ so it’s not too surprising. I did a post called ‘taking sex seriously’ which covered it a little bit but was more an anti-porn post.
There used to be a polyamorous blogger that hung around a bit in these circles, and he wrote some interesting posts. I wasn’t convinced though. I think most us humans can only really handle monogamous relationships – things get too complicated otherwise. Are you thinking of posting on it?
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“I think most us humans can only really handle monogamous relationships – things get too complicated otherwise.” – Especially when you call her by the wrong name —
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Nope, not posting about it on my blog. If you want to use it, feel free!
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“they think we all want as much sex as we can possibly get, without punishment from God” – The problem is, they say that like it’s a bad thing —
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