If a child went to school and told everyone about their wonderful father who loved them, and then went on to say that they feared Dad because of what he might do if they were bad, the teachers would call Child Protective Services for suspected child abuse.
Christians will claim to outsiders that their God “Is love”; is merciful, loving and kind.
And then they brag to each other about being “good, God-fearing people”. Uh, so if he’s so great, why should you fear him? That sounds like a pretty fucked-up relationship to me. Borderline abusive, in fact. Wierd fundies. Wierd, wierd.
I think it’s just semantics. Anything that is omnipotent and all-powerful demands awe. Definition of awe: reverential fear.
Eh, who know’s, I’m not particularly afraid of Him.
I find the idea of being turned into a pillar of salt or condemned to a life of suffering as punishment for attempting to satisfy curiosity to be kinda frightening. God is creepy. There’s no way around it. I’ve found it best to not blindly believe any horror stories about supernatural villains even when there are tales to suggest that such villains possess hearts of gold.
I’ve always found it telling that if a person were to burn someone alive for a perceived fault, that person is probably a Hitler or a Caligula or the Ayatollah Khomeini. However, we’re supposed to find it comforting that a god can do this and we’re supposed to worship him for it? Someone would have to remove my logic lobes first.
Nope. The typical “god-fearing” notion in Christianity is dervied from the need of the Church to control its subjects. One of the best ways to control people is through fear. Really simple: Be good, go to Heaven. Be bad, go to Hell.
This is one of my major peeves with Christianity; you should do what’s right because you should, not because of the consequences.
To fear God is to respect Him, to hold Him dear, to know, and recognize His power. I’m a Christian, and I am not afraid of God, yet He commands the highest respect from me. Fearing God also means honoring Him, not because of consequences, but because of love.
Oh, please. Fear does not lead to respect, it leads to contempt. Have you ever known anyone you were afraid of that you respected? I sure haven’t. But I have known people who I respect very deeply. They don’t scare me.
According to my Webster’s dictionary, fear means “respectful dread, awe, reverence.” I’m not so sure I agree with the word “dread” though. Biblical fear is not the same as terror, fright, being scared…etc.
As I said before, I’m not afraid of God, and He doesn’t cause me to cower in the corner.
Right. But, we’re not talking about that type of fear in this instance.
The interpretation of “fear of the Lord” that I know is knowledge of how important our relationship woth God is, and the “fear” is of hurting that relationship. Love is wanting what God wants, not an emotion, and the “fear” thus described is not an emotion either.
[QUOTE}
Also, people who truly love you, don’t want your fear. [/QUOTE]
Exactly. But people who love you do want you to care about the relationship, to the point where it matters to you how you behave in relation to them, that you “fear” hurting them or your friendship/relationship.
Fear does not come from God, as we are not free if we are consumed by fear.
Tymp, I wouldn’t neccessarily call God a villian. He’s all powerful. He’s on a plane by himself. In order to have a villian, you need a hero, to provide opposition. I suppose you could say the Devil is that opposition, which would make him the hero, but that’s even screwier.
As for fearing God, I was always under the impression the “God-fearing” = “God-respecting”. If God ever tells me to do anything I will most likely listen. However, I will make sure to get it on tape, just in case.
[pedant]I think the expression is just an archaism. The word fear at one time did denote a certain awe and respect. There is a Greek word, incidentally, which has this meaning. Time, pronounced teem-AY, rather combines fear, respect, and awe. The name Timothy (Timotheos) literally means god-fearing, in the sense of honor and respect. For whatever reason, god-fearing must have sounded catchy and the archaic meaning of the word fear never completely dropped out of English usage.[/pedant]
