Why should we have "fear of God"?

this expression will have different meaning depending on who is saying it

im not fond of the simplistic and superstitious version, but it is popular enough

i belive that many religious ideas have pretty sophisticated origins if we understand them "correctly"

for me, to say "fear of god" is the same thing as to say "beware of thinking that the rules of life do not apply to you"

the observation of my personal life experience is that acting without regard to consequences, acting impulsively and selfishly, and acting in a way which is exploitative of others, is a consistently successful strategy for ruining ones own circumstannces

even of ruining ones own life, ultimately

i belive that this is the heart of the idea of being a god fearing person

also this is, imo, the heart of the idea that god has a sense of righteous justice

Kamizu wrote: (He was teasing you. A lyre is a stringed instrument. A liar is one who tells falsehoods )

Thanks so much. That is an exceptionally funny miss spelling by me there. Lol. I'll just hide under my desk now.

In the Hebrew mindset, to fear God means to obey Him. Fear, obedience, faith and love are all synonymous in hebraic thinking.
Faith, Love, Fear and Obedience are all demostratable actions. James 2:18 Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

If I say I believe planes can fly, I will demonstrate that faith by getting on said plane and traveling to whatever destination.

Abraham Believed (demonstrated faith, showed God he loved Him, feared God) and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.
Genesis 26:5 Because that Abraham OBEYED my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my status and my laws.
1John 5:2 by this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
These three verses show love, fear and obedience as commandment keeping (ie obeying the law of the kingdom).

Areion wrote: In the Hebrew mindset, to fear God means to obey Him. Fear, obedience, faith and love are all synonymous in hebraic thinking.
Faith, Love, Fear and Obedience are all demostratable actions. James 2:18 Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

If I say I believe planes can fly, I will demonstrate that faith by getting on said plane and traveling to whatever destination.

Abraham Believed (demonstrated faith, showed God he loved Him, feared God) and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.

May it be reasonably assumed that your belief in planes flying, and demonstrating that faith, does not necessarily require a fear of air travel?

Sarissah Sojourner wrote:

Areion wrote: In the Hebrew mindset, to fear God means to obey Him. Fear, obedience, faith and love are all synonymous in hebraic thinking.
Faith, Love, Fear and Obedience are all demostratable actions. James 2:18 Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

If I say I believe planes can fly, I will demonstrate that faith by getting on said plane and traveling to whatever destination.

Abraham Believed (demonstrated faith, showed God he loved Him, feared God) and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.

May it be reasonably assumed that your belief in planes flying, and demonstrating that faith, does not necessarily require a fear of air travel?

Perhaps I should've been a bit more clearer? Lol
The word for fear in the Hebrew is yare (pronounced yaw-ray') Strong's number H3372 a primitive root; to fear; morally to revere;

Biblically speaking (depending on context) fearing God is to have reverence for Him. It's a respect thing which falls in line with commandment keeping aka love, belief, faith etc.
With my airplane analogy I would be demonstrating reverence/fear/respect for the not only the plane itself, but the pilot, the mechanics etc. All individuals involved in getting that plane off the ground and landed safely at my destination would have my respect which I would be demonstrating by getting on the plane in the first place.
Even the Greek word for fear found in the New Covenant writings has a similar meaning. Strong's number G5399 phobeo: to frighten, that is, passively to be alarmed; by analogy to be in awe of, that is revere.

Interestingly enough is this is where the word phobia comes from.

*Shrug* In my belief "fear" IS a God. :laugh: Phobos.

More on topic: I always thought that the whole "fearing God" thing in Christianity was meant to be taken at least somewhat literally. Sort of like how one should have a healthy fear of fire, one should have a healthy fear of that which is beyond one.

You have very valid questions. I personally believe, in reguards to God allowing people to die, we are His creation and as awful as it sounds at first, he can do what ever he pleases because he is God. Also only He knows whats best for us, and only He knows how to rid the world of evil. Its hard to immagine a world where EVERYONE was corrupt enough to destroy the whole world except 1 family but it happened. The population at that time was smaller also. Like in the 1000s not in the billions like it is today. The people of the time were praticing sins that we cant even imagine. Thats also why we must put our trust in God because he promised he wouldnt flood the earth that way again. As far as armies being obliterated by God, God can see our hearts, and he gives us freedom to do as we please. This is why not EVERYONE believes in God because he gave them freedom of choice. Those armies already had a hate for God and his people and he gave them chances to change and repent but they refused. So with no other option God had the whole army destroyed. God has NEVER forced ANYONE to change their hearts. Even Jesus had a choice to not die on the cross. Its the consequences of bad choices that cause God to interven, especially when people get in the way of his over all plan.

Why should God even care what we are doing?

As a father you care what your son is doing cause you are attached to him but if you are god an almighty being which created the whole universe why would you care if people do sins or not? In case everything goes wrong you can just create the whole thing again

Why would god be so angry to begin with? He is there despite what we are doing. I think we gave him to much human properties otherwise we couldn't understand him or should we say it or the force

To fear god is the way away from him to experience him is the way towards him. Of course you can only experience him through experience yourself .

About punishment: I think the only one which can forgive us is our self. Whatever we do as long as we don't forgive our self we gonna be in a state of hell, once we did all the things we though necessary to forgive our self we can regain the state of heaven.

Again why should god care?

I've not really got anything watertight to offer here; just a perspective, since I've been thinking quite a bit about fear recently - role and impacts.

I don't think this has anything to do with god - I think it has everything to do with churches as man-made constructs. My personal conclusion has to be that fear is a much easier thing for a church to teach than ... nothing... or whatever it is that's there after we've dissasociated from the mind. With the Abrahamic faiths, I see the hook-up to the force as being quite simple - same with panentheism and Buddism; struggling a bit more with Hinduism; but that is due to being an ignoramus on that front :laugh: They all hook-up, for me, through the spirituality offered in these faiths. But Spirituality is REALLY hard to transmit, or teach. You can wave your arms. You can hope. You can pull inspirational metaphors out of your head until you're thoroughly spent; and fear can still have a hold on someone. Fear, on the other hand is very easy to teach. So maybe the churches just lost sight of what it was they were meant to be doing, and took an easy road out?

As I thought again about this I got this revelation:

The same people who tell us God gave us a free will say if you do this you go to hell or God gets angry... But if we got a free will it cannot be connected to rules otherwise it would be like a bird chained to the ground

I think fearing god (if you believe in him, her, them) is like fearing your mother. If you do then there is something wrong with you or your god(s).

God does give you free will. God doesnt send you to hell for being bad. You go to hell for being evil. The bible says we are all sinners, if all sinners went to hell no one would make it to heaven. The idea that hell is for people who do bad things is a lie. The difference in someone who goes to hell and someone who doesnt is the person who goes to hell doesnt ask for forgiveness or believe Jesus died for our sins. Also God doesnt send you to hell, you send yourself, everyone makes it seem like God is evil and wants everyone to burn but in reality God gave us his only son as a sacrifice to save us from hell and gave us a whole book on how to escape Hell and we still go against it. Thats our fault. If your parents (God) tell you to not put your finger in an electrical socket and you do it anyway, is it your fault or your parents fault that you didnt listen and got electrocuted? Its easy to blame someone for OUR mistakes and eveyone wants to blame God for ending up in Hell. Another misconception on the bible that people have is the old testament, the law in the old testament is broken because Jesus came down and changed it all. The only thing that matters are the 10 commandments and the 11th commandment that Jesus brought which is to Love eachother. So everyone goes around saying " if you do this you go to hell, if you do that you go to hell" none of that is true. A thief asked for forgiveness as he was dying right next to Jesus Christ on the cross and Jesus said he had a place in heaven just for that. Jesus made it SOOOO simple to get to heaven, all you have to do is invite him into your heart, and ask for forgiveness if you mess up. A murderer whos been nothing but awful his whole life can ask for forgiveness on his death bed and God will forgive him. PEOPLE are the ones who say you will go to hell 24/7 for every little thing, GOD however says you are worthy of heaven and his love all you have to do is ask for forgiveness. There are A LOT of things people take the wrong way about the bible. If you are confused or just dont know,  pray for understanding and God will reveal it to you. God isnt evil, he just wants you to put your pride away and ask him. And he wont give you answers until you do turn to him. God is a father and we are children, he has to teach us and we have to learn, if we dont learn from what God teaches us thats our fault.

Thank you, Oden, for explaining what the Bible actually says.

But is it just me, or does it not make sense that if a person doesn't accept Christ that they be sentenced to eternal torment? What about all those people in third-world countries who never even hear about the gospel and die without having had a choice? I know, some will say, that is why missionary work is so important. That still does not answer the question. Where do those people go? They neither accepted nor rejected Christ, or perhaps had no religion whatsoever. Does God punish those people for eternity for not accepting Christ? There's a serious plot hole there.

Now, I know all that is beside the point of this thread, so I'll put it back on track. I do have a sense of fear of God, but not in the way that people generally see it. One day I had a conversation with Relan Volkum and he was talking about man-made religions/spiritual concepts and such. I had a revelation at that point as I realized that I had been thinking of God as something that I could fit inside my head. When I thought beyond that, to the idea that God is something so profound and grand that words cannot express his existence, and our thoughts cannot grasp his reality, that is when I felt fear. Not out of risk of disobedience, but of awe. For the first time I understood that God was something that made me little more than a tiny being in something so ginormous that my life could be snuffed out in less than an instant. Who was I in the face of something like that?

As usual, I come to the same conclusion: the truth is always greater than the words we use to describe it.

Does God punish those people for eternity for not accepting Christ?

Not according to Jesus.

Matthew 25

31 'When the Son of man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory.

32 All nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats.

33 He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.

34 Then the King will say to those on his right hand, "Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.

35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome,

36 lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me."

37 Then the upright will say to him in reply, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

38 When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome, lacking clothes and clothe you?

39 When did we find you sick or in prison and go to see you?"

40 And the King will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."

41 Then he will say to those on his left hand, "Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

42 For I was hungry and you never gave me food, I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink,

43 I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, lacking clothes and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me."

44 Then it will be their turn to ask, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or lacking clothes, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help?"

45 Then he will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me."

46 And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the upright to eternal life.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lMXQi-K_-A&t=1359s

I no longer fear God, because I do not believe the God of the Holy Bible to be anything more than a myth. I now live my life in a state of joy and happiness. I look forward to every moment and have done more good for my family, myself, and my fellow man now that I am free from this fear. If God does exist, I would say at judgement, he would look at my life as a believer and see how bad a human being I was, and he will see that the moment I stopped fearing him and stopped believing in him that my contribution towards life and others became better. Maybe this is the true test. Just like a child fears a spanking from mommy and daddy, but eventually reaches the age of reason and maturity, and chooses to do good, not because of fear of punishment, but because to do good is the correct response.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9gDSlP6o7g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-UmbCnSpj8&t=350s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wn71NGN9e4

Just going to toss in my 2¢ here
This is in the Abrahamic section, so I'll try to keep everything in that context. The first mention of "the fear of God" is in the Torah, and it's used exactly like most people use it: not really in a fear-ish sense. Beyond that tangential point, God's presence is so great that the one person able to see Him was only allowed to see His back as He passed. If looking at someone, or touching the Ark are instant causes of death, there's a certain physical fear to it.
For Christians that changes a little bit, because Jesus (God's person incarnate) came to Earth and was fully man (yeah some people might disagree, but I'm going off of consensus, scripture, and the variety of creeds out there). He died, and raised others and was raised from the dead. Peter wasn't killed Raiders of the Lost Ark style the first time he saw Jesus.
However, whichever chap wrote Hebrews added what I think is an understated idea: "Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see." When getting on an airplane, you're having Thomas-esque faith, based on years of planes flying, science explaining that they work, and being able to physically see the plane. Imagine if flying meant you went to the airport as usual, and then just stepped off the jetway into what looked like nothingness: a little scarier. God however, isn't like an Airplane in that you just get a ticket and go thru some metal scanners to get to heaven. In Daniel, his three companions are about to be killed for not worshiping the king, and they offer this remark "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it...But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods..." Even if
God isn't an extortionist (some preachers are for sure), but if someone is beyond your understanding or control, it should be just a little scary. Christianity isn't about appeasing God to try and get out of trouble, it's appreciating the holiness of what should be: like a platonic form of goodness that we can't grasp or embody, but we shoot for anyways.
Again, I'm not a saint or theologian.