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