Why should I fear God

Always wondered the same myself. The OT has a mean God that willingly kills men, women and children for his own purposes and pleasures (not the kind of guy I'd like to hang out with "for all eternity").

But the NT has a loving God that sacrificed his Son....err...Himself...TO himself...for us...so that we can all be reconciled to Him and peacefully coexist in heaven someday, singing praises to Him. But He could still turn any of us into a grease spot if He chooses to, or just toss us in to the "lake of fire" if He sees fit.

Hmmm....if I didn't know better, I'd swear someone made this all up!
(Trust and Ohh-bey.....for there's NO other waaaaay... to beLIEVE WE must trust and obeyyyyyy)

 

I think more than anything it's a Holy Fear, not actually go ....oh no God is here I better watch what I am doing because I am scared of him. God is our Heavenly Father and a lot like our earthly fathers he is gentle and kind and loves his children much like our own daddys do....however growing up I also knew that I had to obey my dad's rules and that placed a godly fear in me that when I did wrong my dad wouldn't harm me, hate me or disown me but he would discipline me and I hated the discipline. I think when it says to fear the Lord, in a sense it means to fear being wicked or unrighteous because the discipline of God will be rough...I could be wrong scripturally speaking on this, it's just how I alwasy thought of it and I wanted to share that to maybe give a bit of insight, please take it as a grain of salt....

karen

 

Some thoughts on a very interesting topic (thanks for bringing it up! :

We, humans, seem to run to one extreme or the other concerning the nature of God. My parents' generation heard 'hellfire and brimstone' sermons almost exclusively. My generation has heard, almost as exclusively, that God is a caring loving God who is focused on us and our concerns. Neither represent a full picture of God.

I would suggest that you study what the Scriptures say about God and try to understand that all of the attributes describe the same God. An excellent book to assist your study of Scripture on this is The Nature of God by Arthur Pink.

 

Skinee &Barnabus: Nice teamwork!
Anyhow, the only people who should have the dictionary definition of fear are non-Christians. The reverential "fear" that Christians have is not the same.
Have a nice day!
Gina

 

Hi Skinee,
Why fear God? Simple. In the words of Jesus:

And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. (Luke 12:4&5).

(Verse 1 of the chapter tells us that he was speaking to disciples, and verse 6 describes God as their father. There is therefore no reason to think they were unsaved.)
The answer is simple: you should fear God because he can throw you into hell. This was an idea that was taught by a great many baptists throughout history, although it seemed to disapear during the 1950's. I know it sounds wierd - even heretical - but I promise to write a thread explaining it properly as soon as I have time. In the mean-time, you might like to read:

http://www.daveandangel.com/CRN/Kingdom/KJournalIndex.html

Your friend and brother,

Bartholomew

 

The fear of God is the beginning of understanding and wisdom. Like Gina said we Christians fear God from a reverential point of view of who he is and what he's done. Not only is he our creator but he is also our redeemer and sanctifier. We Christians and all Gods children who know him, know that when life gets them down, they can always get on there knees because he is also their sustainer. He hears our prayers and answers them and is our friend when we don't think we have a friend in the world. Fear God and keep his commandments not because God might snuff us out at his pleasure but, because the Lord knows what can befall us in life if we don't. The Devil goes about as a raging lion seeking whom he may devour and disobedient christians are his favorite food. There is a definate reason why we should fear the God that loves us... Brother Glen

 

It's understanding who God is compared to who we are....reverence,respect and awe of God and being astounded that a Holy God could even look upon us with grace and love.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.(Proverbs)

We overlook this teaching a lot in our churches,I believe...

 

We must understand the nature of God and his Holiness. We must understand that in man's thinking some things that happened in the Old Testament times seemed very drastic and maybe in our thinking extreme.

Let us look at Sodom and Gomorrah. God agreed not to destroy the cities if he could find at least ten people who were not living a life of pure sin and he could not find ten people in twin cities of thousands of people. The greatest sin of these cities was sexual perversion.

God does not judge unless there is a reason to judge. He does not kill or destroy unless there is a Holy reason for that to happen. God hates rebellion so this is why so many people died amongst the Israelites.

Other nations were judged and destroyed because their lifestyles were of pure unadulterated perversion. They offered their children as burnt sacrifices unto false Gods. They were caught up in homosexuality, bestiality, and adultery. Their sins were so great God poured out his wrath.

Paul rebuked believers in one of writings for questioning these things. He said who do we think we are, questioning the one who created us. How can the clay tell the potter what to do.

People say things like I won't serve a God unless he fits my image and that is their choice but it is also God's choice to have set the plan of salvation in effect and this is the way it is.
It is God's decision about Hell. It is GOd's decision that we must accept Jesus as our personal Saviour. It is your choice to not follow him because you don't agree with his attributes of Judgement but in the end it will only end up with his wrath on you.

Man's philosophies and ideas won't sway what will happen at judgement. Disagreeing with the way God's attributes are won't matter because God is who he is.

 

God never kills for His own pleasure, that would be sadistic. He had eternal purposes in all His acts in the O.T.

 

God never kills for His own pleasure, that would be sadistic. He had eternal purposes in all His acts in the O.T.</font>[/QUOTE]Well...be careful. God does everything He does in order to please Himself (as John Piper states, "The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy God forever"). Isaiah 53:10 states that "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him" in referring to what would happen to Christ.

This mindset would definitely be sadistic if we were to attempt it. But it is not sadistic for God to act in this manner.

 

Just a note before this threads sucks in too many of the regulars here. Barnabus Collins was a returning troll. Those of you have been around for a few months may remember him as "Golgotha."

There may be more of these types around. Sometimes they're very easy to pick out and eliminate.

Think of this as like a "where's Waldo" puzzle. Can anyone else spot any trolls around here?

Clint Kritzer
Baptist Board Troll Hunter (it's a living)

 

Hey Brother Clint what bridge did you find that troll hiding under?... I want to make sure I don't cross that bridge again!... I remember that story Billy Goats Gruff about trolls under a bridge but thats another thread... What weapon did you use to bag that troll?... "THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT"!... I knew it!... Gets them everytime... Brother Glen

[ May 15, 2002, 07:55 PM: Message edited by: tyndale1946 ]

 

skinee, you proposed a good question from a secular point of view. But as you know, this is a Baptist discussion board, and we do not oversimplify the problem as you did and used an English dictionary to find out the meaning of fear.

When you want to find out the meaning of a word from the Bible, then you need a Concordance (preferably Strong's) and see what the original word in the Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) writing meant.

Without going into much detail, I am giving you only two examples from the Bible, which were translated from the Hebrew as fear. In Proverbs 1:26 we read:

Here the word fear in the Hebrew is pakh'-ad = alarm, dread, terror. Obviously this is referring to a condition which terrorizes the person.

On the other hand, in Proverbs 1:7 we read of a different fear:

In this verse fear in the Hebrew is yir-aw' = reverence. Sort of being awed (respectful fear or wonder).

Most of the time when the fear of God is being referenced in the O/T the Hebrew word yir-aw' is being used, and when it depicts fear due to oncoming calamity then pakh'-ad. But just to be fair, there are at least a dozen different Hebrew words and expressions which are being translated into English simply by using the word fear. Just like in the New Testament Bible the word love in the original Greek had about six different expressions. For this reason never use simply an English dictionary when you read the Bible, always cross reference the words from the original Hebrew or Greek. Hope this will throw some light on your inquiry.

[ May 16, 2002, 01:49 AM: Message edited by: Barnabas ]

 

Learning to respect someone starts with a fear of what the consequences of your actions will be when it pertains to that person (or in this case The Lord). Reverance, respect, love... all these things only come after you have understanding of how powerful The Lord is. Once you truly understand the power of God you will have of fear of judgement.
Why should you fear God? The scriptures tell you to.
Hebrews 10:31
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
By the way... read the whole chapter...better yet read the whole book of Hebrews. You can not understand one single scripture without understanding the chapter and you can not understand the chapter without the whole book.