Ever Loving!

Being raised as a christian, since childhood, I knew the word ‘fear’ literally as being afraid and was not taught otherwise. A few years ago I took it upon myself to read and study the bible on my own. This is when I learned (blueletterbible.com) particular words had differing meanings than I thought, according to original text. This is particularly sad that I had to do that and was not taught as a child by any religious leaders what was meant by this from its original text. Why? Ask those religious leaders. I have my theory which is why I no longer subscribe to their doctrine. God loving is now where I hang my hat. Thanks for sharing your take on this.

To "fear" God doesn't meant to be afraid of Him, rather it means to hold Him in high reverence (respect).

Easy answer. Why? Because of what has been the teachings of so much of Christianity in all sorts of Churches, denominations and sects. i.e. If you do not "get right" with Him before death by believing x, y or z, you will spend eternity, perpetually, forever, in conscious torment. Not to mention the gnashing of teeth.

So there is your answer.

lets see: Eve ate of a fruit and to punish her he cursed her and her descendants to know pain, suffering and death. then when he was not happy about humans again he flooded the whole earth and kept just his favorite devotees, then he told Abraham to kill his son and then stoped him but he felt satisfied that abraham was actually gonna do it, he tortured Job just to make a point, destroyed soddom and gomorah because he didn't like how they lived, even killed (turbed to salt) one of his fateful servants just because she turned around to see him destroy these places. and all that is just a tiny sample of all the horrible stuff he does to people who don't obey and even those who do. we should pray that the jews, Christians and muslims are wrong because their god is clearly evil and if they are right we should be very afraid in deed.

Nope. Fearing Him means you know you ought to follow the rules He set. To fear Him means you know there are consequences for knowing what is right and not doing it.

But it helps that we know that while we fear Him, it doesn't change that He is love. :)

You seem to have great faith in GOD and I think you are a servant of GOD; please watch this
vidieo interview at:

https://clouthub.com/p/Q7nkTqkd

And when you are finished, please pray for these innocent children every day and every night who are suffering and dieing at the hands of these Satanic trafficers who are profiting millions of dollars
selling baby parts and blood and selling young children into sexual slavery. And please spread the
word.

Extremely concerned,
Scott

In one of his books, CS Lewis gives his take on the Biblical phrase "fear of the Lord". (It's in Isaiah.)

I will never give it justice here, but his basic point is that it refers to an instinctive reaction a mortal would have when encountering a transcendent being, even if the being is benign.

Even in the Bible it says that you shall fear God for why should you fear man who can kill you when God can kill you and put you into hell.

You can embrace love adore and follow him and obey but there are rules and those rules need to be followed. The guilty will be punished but you can be forgiven.

@ReverendDoug, hi mate, I'm on your side, even though a non-theist. But sadly many simply will not embrace the whole notion of a purely loving God. Me, I've basically stopped surmising exactly why this should be so - I have enough trouble understanding myself at times.

All the best.

Precisely!
Most use the phrase while convincing others about their goodness.

When one is Godloving, one don't need to even convince anyone coz love don't let anyone do any wrong.

love does not beget humility

As an atheist with many Baptist Christian friends I couldn't agree more with your sentiment.

I don't fear him.
Not what I have learned thus far.

I would expect someone to with the name reverend to understand the meaning of the word, fear, in the original language and context it was written in…

To conduct yourself in the Fear of Adonai is not to tremble and shake and walk on eggshells.

It is to remember Him, consider Him in everything you do. To remember He is always with us, in our presence. To conduct ourselves as though we are in the presence of a king, or a great leader.

To act in reverence because we are always in the presence of a great King, because of His Holy Spirit.

We should also fear God because He is Holy, and we are not. He is strong and just to destroy us where we stand, but He is merciful.