More 'fun' quotes from the church 'Fathers'... this one comes from Tertullian via Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It is a bit hard to say exactly how this is supposed to fit with Jesus' command that we are to love our enemies and do good to those who mistreat us... These are the same Fathers that so many seem so fond of quoting, as though their opinions are supposed to carry some great authority...

"You are fond of spectacles," exclaims the stern Tertullian, "expect the greatest of all spectacles, the last and eternal judgment of the universe. How shall I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud monarchs, and fancied gods, groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness; so many magistrates, who persecuted the name of the Lord, liquefying in fiercer fires than they ever kindled against the Christians; so many sage philosophers blushing in red hot flames with their deluded scholars; so many celebrated poets trembling before the tribunal, not of Minos, but of Christ; so many tragedians, more tuneful in the expression of their own sufferings; so many dancers - " But the humanity of the reader will permit me to draw a veil over the rest of this infernal description, which the zealous African pursues in a long variety of affected and unfeeling witticisms.

Sadly I see this same attitude in 'Christian chat rooms all the time. I don't remember how many times I've heard a Christian say something like 'you won't think it's funny when you're burning in hell... I'll point at you and say 'I told you so'.

--David