I have heard people throw these two words around rather casually. The God that I understand is not to be feared, but to be loved. Please shed some light on this for me...
2006-11-22 04:59:26 · 26 answers · asked by Lou 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
when the king james bible was translated in the 1700's "fear" meant "awe"(sorta like gay meant happy,but the meaning has changed.)unfortunately,now fear means being scared.so the original meaning of feeling awe,has unfortunately been misconstruesd as to feel afraid .word meanings change over the years,for example suffer once meant permit-like,permit the little children to come unto me, u would not believe how many people nowadays believe christ was asking children to suffer for him,or something like that.
2006-11-22 05:05:07 · answer #1 · answered by Lyn K 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Fear God is exactly what it means.Fear God because God is so perfect and holy he can't look at sin directly or he would destroy us all.Jesus Christ is the only one keeping God from spilling his wrath upon all of us.Through Jesus Christ is the only way into Heaven.God does love us,but when it comes time for judgment,every little secret we all have will be known.Even the ones we have forgotten about.He is holy and just,therefore he cannot sway to the left or right.
2006-11-22 05:19:40 · answer #2 · answered by Derek B 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A Reverant Fear of the Lord. Have you not seen this passage in the Bible several times? God is to be feared- it is a reverant Fear.
Just as it says in Proverbs 1:7
The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"
2006-11-22 05:02:30 · answer #3 · answered by Mandolyn Monkey Munch 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
In the Old Testament God did a lot of scary things to people, so we are supposed to fear his wrath which is supposed to make us do right.
Jesus was all about love and not fear
2006-11-22 05:01:49 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Shed some light? What an apt turn of phrase....
To be "god fearing" is to be afraid of your own shadow.
And "gods" are like shadows in another way: they tend to disappear when you shine a light to examine them.
.
2006-11-22 05:07:24 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It means Fearful of God, It is do do with God's nasty vengeful nature eg getting a man to kill his own son "beacuse he could" - check out the Old Testament, not a nice guy and to be feared. Bit of personality change for the follow up in the New Testament
2006-11-22 05:02:29 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
fearing God is like another form of saying respecting God the word does not mean to be afraid of him it means to be respectful, and loving him first over everything else so when you hear the word God fearing it doesn't mean to be afraid but to love and respect him its sort of like the words were they sound the same but have different meanings so yeah i hope that helps
2006-11-22 05:07:20 · answer #7 · answered by :) 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You are right. God is not to be feared as in scared of. Rather, this means that you respect God's authority and power but serve him in a way where you don't come under his righteous indignation (Anger for a right reason).
2006-11-22 05:03:50 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I believe that refers to having a healthy respect for the one who created you and can take that same life away at any time. There is something about smiting that instills at least a twinge of fear, much like that of a switch yielding parent.
2006-11-22 05:02:52 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Back in the "hellfire & brimstone" days, Christian evangelicals taught their congregation to fear God and the wrath that could be rained down on the sinful and unjust.
2006-11-22 05:01:36 · answer #10 · answered by Rance D 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋