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God Fearing
- Thread starter Willamena
- Start date
Guitar's Cry
Disciple of Pan
I think it's a misunderstanding or unwillingness to face that shadow person in the mirror.
Skwim
Veteran Member
My strong suspicion is that "fear" assumed this connotation because the reverence and awe it denotes was essentially coerced by the forces that led its use: People so feared god's wrath that to appease him they gave him the respect he demanded. And, of course, such power was bound to elicit awe in mere mortals. So while it may denote extreme reverence or awe, the reason may be far from laudatory. God gave people good reason to be afraid of him.
"God fearing?" What ever. It is just a term used since the dawn of christianity by the christian fathers to strike fear into people in order to convert them to their self-subjugating ways, as well as, a tactic used to control the masses and to create a herd mentality among humankind. Obey the laws of God (laws and doctrines created by men) or suffer his wrath as he casts you down into the lake of fire and brimstone for all eternity simply for living your life in accordance with your own unique Desires and Will. Rather than bending to the megalomaniacal tyrany of a god conceived of by power hungery men.
I say unto them, "the Lake of Fire burns within me, and the only power that I fear is that which indwells deep within me!" :bat:
Hail, Set!
/Adramelek\
I say unto them, "the Lake of Fire burns within me, and the only power that I fear is that which indwells deep within me!" :bat:
Hail, Set!
/Adramelek\
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I see "God fearing" as manifesting in two ways, both of which have already been discussed in this thread. I see "fear of God" understood as something that is quite literally that: a desire to not be punished by God for wrongdoing. But I see fear of God to only mean this in the context of someone who has a relationship with the Deity that has not come fully into its own maturity. As a deeper and more powerful relationship develops, I understand it to be used to signify a relationship of respect, of recognition of authority and dignity. It is an awareness of God's might, but submission to God's demands stems from the respect one has for God in all His power, not just His power to inflict pain.
The Hare Krishna have some notion of multiple levels of relationship with God that follow this pattern, I believe, but I'm not dead sure.
The Hare Krishna have some notion of multiple levels of relationship with God that follow this pattern, I believe, but I'm not dead sure.
AntonBatey
Member
Why would I fear a being that nobody can prove exists?
javajo
Well-Known Member
God-fearing just means one has respect for God and lives his life accordingly. God is love and there is no fear in love but love casts out all fear. When one trusted Jesus for salvation, that person became God's child, dearly beloved and accepted forever and ever. Fear goes out the window and love floods the room; warm, glorious, unconditional, all encompassing love.
We Muslims mean this meaning when we call somebody "God fearing".
javajo
Well-Known Member
I understand that. Of course he was adressing Jews before he died and rose again. Warning them to obey God. Now we are under a new covenant, and when we got saved, we became God's children, dearly beloved, saved to the uttermost forevermore. That is why John was able to say in 1 John 4:
8He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 16And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19We love him, because he first loved us.
javajo
Well-Known Member
One who is now saved need not fear God as in be afraid of him punishing us (Christ was punished for us), but we still respect him and try to do what is right. We need not fear 'losing our salvation' or going to hell or any other punishment, for Christ paid for all our sins for us, past, present and future. We SHOULD however fear the CONSEQUENCES of our sins. We still reap what we sow in this life and the next. If one smokes too much they may get cancer, or if they drink too much lots of bad stuff can happen and it may be a bad example and witness to others and people may not listen to them and not get saved and they may lose reward in Heaven.
waitasec
Veteran Member
are you saying the new covenant started after the supposed resurrection?
if you are then all jesus' teachings fall under the old covenant, right?
linwood
Well-Known Member
Bullied into submission.
Magic Man
Reaper of Conversation
I means "fearing God" to me, and it is associated with being a good person.
Griggsy
Member
To feel respectful dread, reverence and awe for ones chosen god. I think the word "fear" was probably used as the bible was translated because not only can it mean these things but its also pretty damn scary. Combine it with a local heretic burning and the masses will behave themselves. Efficient and sadly not lost in History. The politics of fear.
javajo
Well-Known Member
In a sense. The new covenant or testament began with the death and resurrection of the testator, for as Hebrews 9:16-17 says: For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. And Jesus said in Mathew 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. and Paul in 2 Cor. 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
So Jesus' teaching to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand was to the Jews to whom he spake alot in parables for their "minds were blinded". Of course his teachings are relevant to us as well: love your enemy, do unto others...etc. and he said he came to die in fulfillment of scripture as in Isaiah 53, to die for our transgressions.