As I write about the violence of God in the Bible and have conversations about this with various people I interact with during the week, I often tell people that one of the reasons this is such an important topic is because Christians need a better answer to provide the world than the ones we have always given. Usually, the stock Christian answer to the violence of God in Scripture is “God is God and can do what He wants.”

I am not fond of that answer.

In fact, let me go so far as to say that if what God wants to do is slaughter people because they don’t do what He wants, then I don’t mind it so much if people decide not to worship a God like that.

Anyway, one of the objections I occasionally get (but not too often, thankfully) to this whole series on the violence of God is that we don’t really need a better answer to give the world, because the world isn’t too concerned about the violent portrayals of God in the Bible.

I think I understand what people mean when they say this. I think they mean that most people in the world aren’t thinking too much about whether or not God is violent. That’s probably true. Maybe.

Yet in my conversations with people who do not believe in God or who want nothing to do with Him, it seems that more often than not, the issue of His violence in the Bible is often mentioned in the first few minutes of the conversation about why they cannot believe in the God of the Bible. Maybe it’s just who I talk with…

Anyway, I was looking for some images recently for one of my blog posts on the violence of God in the Bible and came across a whole series of internet God memes, and guess what? A large number of these God memes are about the violence of God in the Bible.

Frankly, I found most of these God memes quite humorous, but also quite telling. If one of the common themes in this God meme is about God’s violence in the Bible, doesn’t this imply that people are thinking about it? Maybe it’s just atheist trying to mock the Bible, but even if so, don’t we need a better answer than “God is God and can do what He wants”?

I think so.

Anyway, I though I would include some of the God memes I found online for your viewing enjoyment. Some of you might get upset at some of these. Don’t. If we cannot laugh at ourselves, or of we are too thin-skinned to allow others to laugh at us, then we should not be doing theology and should not spending time online.

Here then, are the 52 God Memes I found online. Most follow the same “meme” pattern, but there’s a few at the end I threw in for good measure.

And yes, there may be some repeats. Deal with it.

52 God Memes