I always kind of shuddered at the “someday every knee will bow, someday every tongue will confess” songs and references, because of this “I can’t wait until you are writhing in a lake of fire” vibe.
Yes, this. Even as a Christian who believes some version of "every knee/every tongue", if that doesn't mean that everyone is reconciled and everything is set right, it's not good news. Too many people contort pretty bad so they can rejoice over eternal torture. Ick.
Heck these people want to start the eternal torture sooner rather than later, just give them a chance and they'll inquisition as many people as they can lay their little hands on
"gotten lost" is entirely too soft language. These types of christens are active revenge fetishists. They want to be elevated over everyone else and force those lower people to suffer while they revel in their suffering.
I'd suggest it's more like Trump's "suckers and losers" philosophy. If they spent their whole life being good, turning cheeks, etc, and then arrived in the place in the clouds only to find they let *everyone* in, regardless of their sins, they'd resent it. So... bad people must go to the hot place.
How much of the change in ideology do you think is because of capitalism? I think when the greatest metric of human value becomes money, this is the natural out come.
I think it's a subconscious form of works salvation, what I saw somebody else lately call an eternal prosperity gospel. It's "I've sacrificed so much for God that I deserve rewards and all these rotten sinners who haven't sacrificed deserve to be punished."
I think it's worth adding that what I described above is probably true of the devout rank-and-file. For those in power, though, the threat of hellfile is a powerful weapon to wield to keep people doing what you want them to.
What sacrifices have they made for God? Seriously? They get up to all the same stuff as non-believers. Look at their families; problem drinkers, all female children pregnant by 18, tax cheats, adultery, you name it. Is the sacrifice the fact that they feel guilty & full of self loathing?
Such people will both say "we are all equally rotten sinners in God's eyes" and yet still underneath it all believe that they deserve better in the end because they've been good.
Is this a change in ideology though? I think the modern commodification of faith (see the prosperity gospel) is just a new twist on the French first estate. The separation of church and state is what is saving us, while it lasts. These people want so desperately to use the power of the state
You clearly know more about theology than I do. My interest in theology is primarily in an effort to make better arguments against christianity. The fact that they don't even question the evolution of their text, or how the king james Bible came to exist explains a lot.
