Jesus Behaving Badly: The Smoke of Their Torment

When it comes to dealing with the violent, angry, bi-polar god of the Old Testament, many Christians use Jesus as their get-out-of-jail-free card.
If we atheists bring up some of the many examples of the despicable actions and character of Yahweh, as described in the Bible, we hear: “But… Jesus… grace… New Covenant...” 
It’s as if sometime during the inter-testamental period, their god attended anger management sessions or got in touch with his kinder, gentler side.  Perhaps an image consultant advised him that all the smiting and killing was starting to give him a bad reputation? God 2.0 (aka Jesus) is supposed to magically override the trail of carnage that the Bible tells us that Yahweh left in his wake.
Like a lover in denial about their beloved’s criminal history, believers plug their ears, shut their eyes, and say “La la la… We look to Jesus.  Loving Jesus, gentle Jesus, forgiving Jesus.”  It soothes them, in the way that “Soft Kitty” soothes Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory.
 
Let’s face it, compared to the Old Testament, the New Testament is a walk in the park… well, most of it is anyway.  There are some scattered instances of ominous foreshadowing which point the blood-drenched apocalyptic orgy of violence, which is the book of Revelation - more on that in a bit.
Mostly, Jesus is on good behavior, and his nice-guy mask slips only occasionally.
He does curse a fig tree to death, talk rudely to his mother, use a racial slur towards a sick foreign woman, and go on an anti-capitalistic rage in the temple court, but for the most part he’s not too scary.  Oh yeah, there’s also that thing about instituting a cannibalistic ritual as a sacred rite - hints perhaps, that all is not as it seems on the surface.
When Christians deflect questions about their god’s vile character by throwing Jesus in my face, I like to take them to the last book of the Bible – Revelation.  That violent, angry god of the Old Testament? Well guess what – Heeeeeeee’s baaaaaaack, in all his ugly glory!
As the bumper sticker says, “Jesus is coming back, and he’s pissed!”
I guess God can play nice guy for only so long before the strain is too much and he reveals his true colors.  Revelation might best be described as a drug-fueled vision of apocalyptic orgy of divine violence.  It is populated with strange monstrous beasts, warring angels, rivers of blood, and piles of bodies.
Jesus, the Lamb is a key player, but this lamb is different.  No longer the mute sacrificial lamb, he is instead the destroying avenger.  Things get so bad, that at one point Revelation says that:
They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!  Revelation 6:16 (NIV)
The wrath of the lamb.  
Gentle Jesus is a thing of the past at this point.
The verses which I like to confront Christians with are these:

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”  Revelation 14:9-11 (NIV)
“The smoke of their torment…”  A chilling phrase if ever there was one.
Christian, this is your Jesus; the guy you worship and adore, watching people in torment as they are burned alive.
No sane, loving person would want to watch that, but a psychopath certainly would.  To the god of the Old Testament, the smell of burning animal flesh was a pleasing aroma (Genesis 8:21).  Perhaps Jesus feels the same way about the smell of burning human flesh?
And this is who you want to spend eternity with – a sadistic torturer?
The book of Revelation puts an end to the charade of the loving Jesus. 
The next time a Christian claims that Jesus puts God in a whole new, loving light, and expunges his past misdeeds, take them to Revelation, and to the “smoke of their torment.” 
See if they truly embrace the revelation of who their Jesus really is.
Written by J. M. Green

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