You are talking about red letter xtians. They are very few in number and influence.
I was raised a liberal xtian, and when I started talking to other xtians (or coming across Jack Chick tracts) and about what they believe and espouse, it really sent my mind reeling. I had read quite a bit of the NT myself at a fairly early age, and later, I read the OT. If you take the red letter stuff and try to make the conservative ideology fit, it doesn’t really work.
Most of today’s most vocal and prominent xtians seem to glom onto more the fire and brimstone stuff, assuming all that punishment will be dealt out to others and not them. Also, quite a few are definitely NOT readers, and probably have never even read even a few pages of either NT or the OT. Quite a few are fixated on things that are entirely off the ranch, meaning things like the Left Behind stuff…
They’ll get to sit at the side of the character of Jesus and watch those other people (again, not them - they are not perfect, just forgiven) eternally tormented. You don’t have to have a degree in psychology to realize this is the kind of sick fantasy that sounds more like something a character like Hannibal Lecter would dream up rather than something to ground a moral philosophy in. Their idea of “heaven” is watching other people getting tormented? Talk about telling on yourself. That is some truly depraved stuff.
You are talking about red letter xtians. They are very few in number and influence.
I was raised a liberal xtian, and when I started talking to other xtians (or coming across Jack Chick tracts) and about what they believe and espouse, it really sent my mind reeling. I had read quite a bit of the NT myself at a fairly early age, and later, I read the OT. If you take the red letter stuff and try to make the conservative ideology fit, it doesn’t really work.
Most of today’s most vocal and prominent xtians seem to glom onto more the fire and brimstone stuff, assuming all that punishment will be dealt out to others and not them. Also, quite a few are definitely NOT readers, and probably have never even read even a few pages of either NT or the OT. Quite a few are fixated on things that are entirely off the ranch, meaning things like the Left Behind stuff…
They’ll get to sit at the side of the character of Jesus and watch those other people (again, not them - they are not perfect, just forgiven) eternally tormented. You don’t have to have a degree in psychology to realize this is the kind of sick fantasy that sounds more like something a character like Hannibal Lecter would dream up rather than something to ground a moral philosophy in. Their idea of “heaven” is watching other people getting tormented? Talk about telling on yourself. That is some truly depraved stuff.