The FEAR of God

There is some debate about presenting the fear of God in the scriptures as led to bring in the lost from the darkness. As though God did not know what He was talking about:

"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 you shall fear: Fear Him, which after He hath killed has power to cast into Hell; yes, I say unto you, Fear Him." LUKE 12:4-5
 

Those who disagree are claiming that all we need to do is share about God's love with people, and people will change. While this may be true for some, it is definitely not true for all. The balance between the message of the Love of God and the fear of God depends upon the disposition of the listener. If they are proud and arrogant about their sin, thinking they have no need for a Savior, they will make every excuse in the world to keep doing it. A message of God's Love for them will not change them. The Bible says different. It says,

“Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God”

Psalm 55:19.

The proverbs also state, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools hate correction."

Notice it's not that they don't love God that change does not come, it's that they don't fear Him is why they won't change. Even many proclaimed Christians claim to love God, but they do not obey God much at all. Do they need to love God more? We say "yes", but sometimes bad kids just need a little healthy fear of Dad. Once disobedience gets rooted into a child, it takes a different manifestation of "love" to root it out of them. It's called punishment and parenting. Fact is, people can love God and still disobey God, and hate themselves for it. God is the Master Parent. The Bible says,

"the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

No fear, no change. Know fear, know change.

Fear of the Lord is the beginning, but after wisdom comes, if one never hears that God is Love and has a plan, and if they never see the good news of the cross of Christ, they can take an unbalanced position about God and see Him only as a false god of fear. They can see Him as "the big monster in the sky" who is just waiting to beat people over the head when they do wrong, just waiting to judge people and burn them in Hell. If the fear of the Lord message does not get counter balanced with the truth of His goodness and mercy, His Love and patience shown in Christ; that He even died to save us, people [even Christians] can get into the bondage of running from God all their lives.

But this is not the case with most people in the world. Most people in the world think they are basically "good", and that God is well pleased with them. This is why most of the world really see's no need to make Jesus the Lord of their lives. They are doing just fine without Him. There is no fear of God at all before their eye's. And in the day they die, they will give account for everything done in the body... everything. Not knowing that apart from the grace of Christ received through His blood on that cross, even the slightest breaking of even one of God's commandments will send them into eternal hell.

Why? You ask why would breaking one commandment send someone to hell forever? Because sinning against God is not like sinning against just anyone. Think of it this way: If you threaten to kill your next door neighbor, how steep could be the punishment be for just the threat? A cop could warn you or even arrest you for threatening someone's life, right? But now, say if you threaten to kill a cop, now the punishment will be much steeper. You will be arrested, no questions asked. His authority makes the punishment steeper. But take it one step further, what if someone threatened to kill the President? Now the punishment is far greater than all. You could get life in prison, or you could even get the death penalty. 

Now consider that GOD is higher than any earthly leader. If fact, He is so Holy and perfect that even the slightest disobedience in His Kingdom is seen as rebellion against His Throne. He see's even the thought of sin as the act itself, and nothing escapes His sight.

The fear of GOD is the ONLY fear that is good, because it leads to God's goodness, grace and repentance. After repentance, God becomes a Father, the closest friend, and will remain even if we stumble again and again. This is the great difference the cross of Jesus Christ makes.  After repentance and the new birth, fear dissipates, and love drives us to obey the Lord in all things. But we must never forget, it was not our love for God that led us to salvation. Love for God comes only after salvation. The fear of the Lord is the beginning...

Some say we should evangelize sharing God's love alone, but proud sinners do not understand the love of God. Do a study on how Jesus preached to proud sinners. Jesus preached the Law and Hell to the proud, but he preached grace and mercy to the humble. Law to the proud, grace to the humble. We do not preach to the world the same as we do to children of God. Sharing a message of God's love alone makes a self righteous and arrogant sinner chuckle. He needs to hear there is a GOD of Love, yes... But if he is proud and happy to rebel against God [the way most sinners are], he needs to hear there is a GOD to fear.

Funny thing is, some of these who think we should only preach love to sinners believe that God punishes his own children for their good. Of course He does chastise His own (Hebrews 12:5-11). But I will ask them, "Why does God need to punish, if all His children need is love in order to obey Him?" Hmmm....

"Every man will receive for the things done in the body, according to that he hath done.... Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." 2 CORINTHIANS 5:10-11

That last verse states that the fear of the Lord is a motivator for us to "persuade men". There are so many places in the Bible where God Himself warns of His Judgments, in such sinful times as these, we should think it juvenile even to debate this.

We are in the last of the last days. Still, there are well meaning teachers of God's word claiming we are in error for having a "Tour through Heaven and Hell" on site. The tour is reflective of a tremendously successful play called, "Heavens Gates Hells Flames". The play is being used by God to bring in thousands of souls around the world. Presenting Heaven and Hell, then at the end of the play an alter call. More souls have come to Christ through this play than any other dramatization ever performed. Usually at the alter call, nearly 100% come forward to pray or rededicate their lives to Christ.

Our "Tour" is the only one on the entire world wide web that lets a person make choices to tour heaven or hell leading them to a prayer page. Many over the years have emailed saying they have prayed the prayer to receive Jesus, and some of them for the first time ever. Satanists have gone through the site and given up satanism and received Jesus. We've even had a High Priest of satanism converted. Pagans have emailed and claimed that the Tour scared them, giving them a chance to re-think about the reality of God. It appears the the fear of the Lord truly is the beginning of wisdom.

The Bible says that before God saved us, we were all the "enemies of God" by wicked works, "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled" Col 1:21

"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Romans 5:10

The point is that God see's unbelievers as a type of his enemy, if not straight forward the very enemies of God. It is important that the enemies of God,.. fear God. There cannot be enough warning to them. However, warning them without finger pointing takes a presentation of grace to show them how and why God see's them as an enemy, "...enemies in your mind by wicked works." (Col 1:21) We don't need to point a finger at anyone; we point to God's Laws, and His Laws will do the pointing. We show them God's Laws and His judgment of Hells prison. That way they can judge themselves according to the Word.

Children need to know that the Father loves them with an unending Love, but without the warning of a Fathers Judgments, children become unruly.

“Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God”

In the Body of Christ however, we are told to fear not. We are told we have passed from condemnation in the day of judgment. Non-Christians should fear, but true Christians should not.

"He that believeth on Jesus Christ is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3:18

It's not God Scare to those who are in Christ. Those who trust in Him are in God's Care. This is the BIG difference the cross makes, and the suffering Jesus went through for us all.

Val

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