Which of these fears most accounts for belief in Christianity?

Question

1. Fear of God
2. Fear of Hell
3. Fear of Death

Answer 1

True Christians fear none of the above.

We do not fear God because we have learned through our faith that He is love and compassion. No reason to fear Him.

We do not fear Hell because we follow the teachings of Christ in which we have been promised the Kingdom of Heaven if we do that.

We do not fear death, because we know that is not the end but the beginning of our full understanding of what God has planned for us.

Answer 2

Through out the years of our child hood we all have been conditioned to a very confusing up bringing that we slowly loose our true soul contact within our selves. After a while we develop a fear of death in thinking this is all that there is and that death is the end of it all A gloomy illusion indeed

Answer 3

Proverbs 9:10
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."

Answer 4

Fear of God... who represents love and truth? No, the ability to be humble is not equal to fear.

Fear of Hell...enternal damnation and leaving behind a bad legacy is not really something I'm interested in. Satan would love to ruin the lives of anyone he can get his hands on...causes too many problems and keeps us all busy wasting time in our lives and what not...very testy.

Fear of Death...we are all going to die physically but I know I'm not too interested in spiritual death ...getting rid of love and truth would be self-destruction and I didn't see that on your list. It really has nothing to do with fear and everything to do with wisdom, joy, peace, etc.

Does fear account for my belief in Christianity - no.

Answer 5

The religion is based on fear and consequences of not conforming to the rules, so I think all 3.

Answer 6

Christianity is not a fear-based system of belief. Christianity is not a religion. Religion is fear-based. Christianity is a relationship with Jesus Christ, a relationship that is based on love. If people misuse it, then that's on them, not God. In Christianity there is no fear of hell and death because Jesus conquered both at the cross. The fear of God is obedience to him, which brings all blessings and rewards.

Answer 7

I would say fear of death. But when I speak of death, I am referring to the soul. Death of the soul and removing oneself from the glory and love of God would be a horrible thing.

Answer 8

Neither. No fear drives a Christian to be a Christian, Only the fact that Jesus gives purpose out of emptyness.

Answer 9

Fear of death. Without that, you don't need the other two. They sell "fear of death" the most, kind of like life insurance companies, and when frustrated in their efforts, they threaten with Hell, engaging in fear-mongering in an attempt to bully others into sharing their delusions. That's where George Bush learned how to do it.

Answer 10

Christianity? None of the above.

Religion? All of the above (but mostly 2 & 3, I'd imagine).

Fear of death (and a desire to understand death) is what caused the first people to seek meaning in life and death. The Ego's death grip on its own self-importance causes people to hope for something that goes on once the body stops. The first caveman (or created person, if you're a religious sort) who saw his friend (or an animal maybe) drop over dead (and recognized it in some primitive way as being different from being alive) sought to understand it. That was the beginning of all religion.

Over time, as man developed, the fear of Hell was used to motivate belief in people who would otherwise ignore religion (as most people, left to their own self-serving devices, would). "Heaven" is the carrot, and "Hell" is the stick.

Christianity, however, is different. I'm not saying that many modern "christians" -- most of them, even -- don't come to Christianity from fear of one of your 3 options. But the actual belief system that is Christianity -- as allegedly espoused by Jesus and detailed in the Bible -- has nothing to do with that.

The Old Testament (pre-Christianity) was meant as a way to get a primitive people to act as a harmonious society -- I mean, look at the 10 Commandments: Don't kill each other; Don't steal from each other; Don't lie to each other; Don't go after your neighbor's wife... These are not magical pronouncements. They're just common sense rules for creating a functioning society. Because times and mores were so primitive at the time, however, people weren't gonna follow these rules just because. They needed motivation, and so the carrot and the stick were added.

DUDE 1: "Don't steal from your neighbor!"
DUDE 2: "Why not? I need stuff, and he's got some."
DUDE 1: "Because you'll go to hell and suffer!"
DUDE 2: "Oh... I don't want to suffer. Okay, I won't steal."

(Were the people who followed the rules out of fear of being punished "good people?" Not really. They were following the commandments for personal gain. But, in the early days, that's about all you could ask for. At least it kept them off the streets...).

Christianity, on the other hand, is an extension of the concept to "the next level." Christianity -- ie., the New Testament -- focuses on the idea of loving others as much as you love yourself. It's about not just doing the actions because you're supposed to (and are afraid of the consequences if you don't), but doing the actions because you want to... because you view other people with compassion (as Jesus did) and want the best for them, just as you'd want for yourself. The true core of Christianity -- as much as it's ignored today -- is about developing good character, not just good actions.

Think of it this way: Two people contribute money to an orphanage. They each contribute the exact same amount to the exact same orphanage. One of the people contributes the money because he really wants to help the orphans and make their lives better. The other person contributes the money only because he gets a tax break if he contributes a certain amount of money.

Which of those two people is "a good person"? They both did the same good deed, but only one of them did it for the sake of others. The other did it for personal gain.

The Old Testament would be okay with either person. As long as they did the good deed, that's all that matters. The Old Testament is about actions and results. Motivation is beside the point. Just follow the rules and stay out of trouble, and that's all anybody can expect.

The New Testament -- Christianity -- is about making the jump from being the guy who contributed just to get the tax break (or even just because he felt he was "supposed to," even though he didn't want to) to being the guy who contributes because it helps others, regardless of personal gain. It's about developing a good character, not just engaging in good actions (the theory being that good character will drive good actions (however you define "good")).

The reason I say all that is because Christianity is not really about fear of any of the things you mentioned. It's practiced that way, unfortunately, by the vast majority of Christians who don't understand their own religion (and freak out if you perform a specific ceremony differently than they do), but, in that case, they're not really practicing Christianity as Jesus taught it. They're instead practicing "christianity" as it has been warped through a 2000 year long game of Operator.

I know I'm a little rambly, so to sum up:

1) Religion, at its base, came from a fear of (or attempt to understand) death.
2) Throughout history, religion used fear of Hell or God's wrath to motivate people to at least go through the "good" motions, so as to keep order in society.
3) Christianity as described by Jesus is about self-motivating to perform the "good" actions by developing a "good" character rather than just to avoid punishment. It's not about fear at all.

It's an evolution of the philosophy, reflecting man's readiness and ability to accept the next level of personal development. Many "christians" may be motivated by fear, but Christianity itself is not.