Terror

The Gospel must not be sugar-coated. Love is paramount. Fear is necessary.

Unfortunately, not many American Christians today can speak with knowledge of the Ten Commandments. Buried in the scripture that gives us the Ten Commandments is the following:

Exodus 20: 18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear . They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die." 20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."

Isn't our problem with divorce and sin in the church linked to this failure? We don't teach the fear of God so, of course, sin is flourishing in our society. It just doesn't get any simpler or plainer than that. The Israelites were so frightened that they needed calming down by Moses.

Fear, not of others. Not of offending someone. Not of losing friends. Fear of God!

Job 28: 28 And he said to man, `The fear of the Lord--that is wisdom , and to shun evil is understanding.'"

When we try to evangelize and to impact our neighbors, we approach these individuals in love. Taken on the surface, there is certainly nothing wrong with this goal. Nevertheless, we fail when we neglect to help instill the fear of God into the hearts of ourselves and others (as we often do).

Have you considered the words you sing in the famous great hymn, "Amazing Grace"?

The second stanza says:

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d!

Although the writer, John Newton (1779), lived a stormy life and had many difficulties, he reportedly became a believer when his slave ship was in a storm and he completely believed the ship would be lost. He experienced true fear, much like the disciples did when crossing the Sea of Galilee.

Newton was wholly transformed by his conversion and became a pastor, at which time he wrote the song.

When he says "’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear", do we understand the meaning? His conversion likely was due to the intense fear from God's fury exhibited by the storm. He classifies the fear as having been from God Himself- grace! It was grace that gave him the fear of God, in order for him to change. God's goodness and grace was actually first. Many would attribute fear first (as implied by this web site), but Newton rightly considered fear to follow God's grace. God was gracious enough to frighten him into seeing the truth, otherwise he would not change. The lack of fear of God in America is holding people away from a relationship with God.

Why aren't we seeing that we must have a true fear of God in order to have such a powerful, necessary conversion. Christ wants our all. Newton sees grace causing the fearful storm, allowing his conversion that otherwise would not have happened. Once the fear has taken hold, the conversion and relinquishing of his will to God, then grace once again will take precedence by relieving his fear. Obviously years later the degree of fear has seared his conscience and remains, only to be relieved by God's grace that comforts those who fear Him.

We offer salvation to the individual in love, yet if acceptance is all they hear about God’s attributes, the affirmed salvation is inadequate for many individuals to grow in Christ.

We attempt to "win" others to Christ. In order to do this we carefully avoid teaching the individual about God’s wrath, worried that we might turn them off. We want a God of unquestioning love and none of us want an angry, wrathful, jealous, Holy God who is described throughout the Old Testament and is not neglected in the New Testament scriptures. Yet we neglect this truth to avoid turning someone from making an acceptance of salvation.

Is it any wonder that ‘Christians’ today have an anemic view of Almighty God and our walk is superficial? How many of us will hear ‘depart from me I never knew you’ (Matthew 7:23)? Not many of us will earnestly seek Him without the prodding of the Holy Spirit enhanced by a strongly perceived need for God's approval. Isn’t this why the scriptures oftentimes discuss the fear of God?

Taking our lead from Christ (such as in the incidence of the prostitute about to be stoned –she was first convicted and then received the gift of salvation). Similarly, our predecessors also kept things in the right perspective. First thing necessary is for the individual to be convicted of sin and then to give God’s gift of salvation in love. We must know we offend Him, however uncomfortable and unfriendly this may be to the hearer. In order to be effective we must tell the whole truth, after all, it is God’s way.

As everyone knows, for an alcoholic to leave that lifestyle, he must first realize he has a drinking problem. ‘Christians’ today fail to see we have a problem. There is one place to find out if we do or not- the Holy Bible, God’s Word!

Today, we aren’t convicted of our sins since we:

1) don’t know God’s Word;
2) ignore this information since we have not
     been told the importance of our failure;
3) have neutered our view of God’s absolute
     power and wrath. We count on a cheap ‘grace’
     to accept whatever egregious failure we
     choose to throw at Him.

When we look specifically at the term "fear" in the scriptures, more often than not, the modern day teacher will make twinkle-toe steps around the base meaning of true fear and sugar-coat the term as ‘awe, respect, reverence or honor’.

Even those attributes, as true as they sometimes are, fail to give us a glimpse of His real being. In America, gladly, we do not experience the context of the above terms. Our representative form of government presupposes that the people and leaders are under an identical Bill of Rights and are, at least theoretically, equals.

At the time the scriptures were written, the rulers and leaders were viewed in a different way from how we currently think of them. It is different to shake hands or to meet a president or other leader compared to meeting a leader of biblical times.

During those days, the king or the Roman governor had essentially absolute power over anyone. If they wanted to have you killed for no significant reason, they could (such as with John the Baptist and Herod). Just to have an audience with these leaders put the individual at great risk of their life. If the individual failed to please this leader or offend the ruler, the individual was in grave danger of being killed or imprisoned.

You are at higher risk of this danger when you simply meet these individuals. It would have been better for some to have never met the ruler and blended into the background rather than offend the man with power. How much moreso with God!!

So when the scriptures mention fear in the most diluted forms (respect, honor, etc.) today, we still cannot fathom the true powerful sense of the term as it was written. These individuals had a complete right to do with you as they wished. Wouldn’t this have instilled essentially a true terror in the person who would meet them, especially if they were being judged for some questionable or clearly wrong thing they did? Today we have wimpishly considered this fear as mere honor. We don’t give God His due.

A search through the Hebrew and Greek root words from Strong’s Concordance was done, revealing the following findings.

	FEAR*	AWE**
Hebrew (Old Testament terms)	749	55
Greek (New Testament terms)	163	14
Total	912	69

* "fear" as in: terror, dread, that which strikes terror, afraid, frightened, trembling, terrified, quaking, shaking, fear, etc.

** "fear" as in awe, reverence, honor, respect

Strong’s numbers included:
Hebrew- 357,2398,2731,2844,3372,3374,4034, 4172, 4529, 6206,6342, 6343, 6435,1763.
Greek- 870, 1168, 1171, 1630, 1790,3381, 4423, 4576, 5399, 5401,.

This shows that the scriptures overwhelmingly use the definition of fear (terror, dread, that which strikes terror, afraid, frightened, trembling, terrified, quaking, shaking) as would be defined by a child approximately 92% of the time!

The current, artificially theological approach with whitewashing of the term "fear" causes great detriment to an individual’s salvation as well as their interest to run the good race. Could it be they might lose their salvation?

The honest teacher must never suggest mere honor or respect as we define them today as the equivalent to scriptural "fear". Certainly not more than 8% of the time.

This is an example of real Biblical fear (there are hundreds of others)(some others are here as well)-

Matthew 28: 2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

These Roman soldiers were similar to our Marines. Maybe they were like Special Forces. These soldiers were the tough guys who took pride in never flinching! They obviously didn't flinch here!!!! One thing is sure- to experience the kind of fear described in verse 4, it must be more than respect. This was significant terror.

The terror was because of an angel. How much more terrifying must it be to face Almighty God Himself? By whitewashing the truth, we hurt ourselves.

Uzziah became king of Judah at the age of 16 and the prophet Zechariah knew what was important.

2Chronicles 26:5 He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success. 6 He went to war against the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod. He then rebuilt towns near Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines. 7 God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabs who lived in Gur Baal and against the Meunites. 8 The Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the border of Egypt, because he had become very powerful.

God’s prophet, Zechariah, was showing Uzziah and us that fear of the LORD must be first. Notice that when the king learned this lesson well and sought the LORD, God blessed him. We know this is true also from the great blessings given to our nation. We must expect these to be painfully removed for our failures.

In summary, we must prioritize teaching the true "fear" of God for at least these reasons:

God tells us that it must be present for us to gain wisdom. It is a necessary prerequisite.
Without a fear of God we tend to forget Who we are dealing with and become comfortable with cheap grace, risking our own salvation.
Without a fear of God, fewer will be receptive to the Gospel. They see "sin" as just an opinion.
Without a fear of God and fear of His displeasure, divorce becomes optional. Similarly, unwanted scriptures that collide with our desires may be ignored.
The seeds that fall on poor soil require the fertilizer of fear to help get the roots started and may help it to sustain the plant till it can bear fruit.
Our predecessors and the scripture use fear to draw us back. Jonathan Edwards "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is an example of where this ordained approach led to great revival!
A profound fear for your life is almost uniformly the nature of the use of "fear" in the scriptures despite what modern day theologians may erroneously teach. Even as powerful as "respect and awe, etc." in the setting of Biblical times was, this is dwarfed by the overwhelming (92%) use of the meaning closer to true, overwhelming terror.
If we are doing God’s work, shouldn’t we also choose to do it His way?
Expect no blessings and great judgment on us when we don’t give God the shaking, humble, careful fear He deserves.

Phillipians 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling , 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Luke 12:5 But I will show you whom you
should fear : Fear him who, after the killing of
the body, has power to throw you into hell.
Yes, I tell you, fear him .

Isaiah 33:6 He will be the sure foundation for
your times, a rich store of salvation and
wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD
is the key to this treasure. (NIV)

Many other scriptural examples are found here in this web site.

When we have a true fear of God, we will do His will. When we do His will, we need not fear, but no one can achieve this. When we fail, we must be fearful (as in Phillipians 2:12, above), but lean on Christ. When we have no true fear of God, we are condemned.

God's love gave us His Son, Jesus Christ, for our salvation. If interested, please contact us. Without Christ, we are all condemned. With Christ, God becomes our Father whose love is eternal.

Read the Bible for yourself. Check out "fear" for yourself.

mailto:diojqa@dutyisours.com