Common Ground: Why do/should people fear God?

COMMON GROUND is a column dedicated to encouraging respectful dialogue by posing a monthly question that is open to people from every religious/non-religious/political background.  If you would like to post a response, please email smjivey@gmail.com for details.

The question for August is "Why do/should people fear God?"  

Pastor Greg

Pastor Greg Ronning, the campus minister for Texas Lutheran University, details his perspective to this month's question below.  If you are interested in Pastor Greg's writing, CLICK HERE to link to his beautiful blog.

Fear and God

By:  Greg Ronning

In the Lutheran Baptismal liturgy there is a prayer that has always bothered me.  After baptizing the candidate we pray, “Pour out your Holy Spirit upon (name), the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence.”  It always seems strange to ask that the person just baptized and proclaimed “the beloved of God” should now live in some kind of fear of the Lord.  Of course the best way to understand this is to unpack the word fear, and begin to understand that by fear we actually mean respect.  Sometimes I wonder why we don’t just say what we mean, say respect instead of fear.  It seems like that would be a simple solution.

However this problem of fear and God is not just a language problem, I believe there is a larger problem, and it has to do with how we understand God.  As Marcus Borg says, “How we understand God matters!”

Over the years humanity has learned to personalize God as one way of connecting to and understanding God.  Yet God is not human, God is God!  And while at times it might be helpful to understand God as a kind and protective father, or a caring nurturing Mother, God is actually none of these things.  And if we get stuck in one of these, or any other human metaphor, as our only and primary way of understanding God it gets real complicated especially when you attach the word fear to this humanized God.  All of the sudden God is to be feared like an abusive Father or Mother, the bully down the street, or a stranger tempting us with candy.  Suddenly God becomes angry and distorted, and in very a personalized way.

Over the years I have met many people who live in fear of this God, in fear of a judge who is out to get them, in fear of a vengeful Christ who is coming back to destroy the world, in fear of God who looks and acts like a person who is angry and to be feared.

Yet there is another way of talking about God, a simple and truthful way, a way in which it is very hard to attach the word, the feelings, and the outcomes of fear.  The author of First John writes, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” (1 John 4:16b)  Ultimately I believe God is love, a power, an energy, a positive force; and not some old man up in heaven looking down in judgment.  And this understanding of God sets me from fear.  

The most cited command in the bible is, “Be not afraid.”  The greatest commandment in the bible is, “Love one another as I have loved you.”  These words had their human moments in Jesus, the revelation of God’s love, the one who loved unconditionally even unto the cross, for God so loved the world.

COMMON GROUND: Why do/should people fear God?

COMMON GROUND is a column dedicated to encouraging respectful dialogue by posing a monthly question that is open to people from every religious/non-religious/political background.  If you would like to post a response, please email smjivey@gmail.com for details.

The question for August is "Why do/should people fear God?"   




"Sean Gaffney, a Christian writer and story administrator for Warner Brothers studios.  He lives in Burbank, CA. and his response to this month's question is below:"

Imagine Fear of the Lord

By:  Sean Gaffney

I suppose there are many benefits for believers in G-d to hold a healthy fear of God – defined as a vigorous, reverent respect and awe for their Creator.  But there would be even more benefits for society in general if such a respectful awe were more widespread, and pervaded more of our every day existence.

I am reminded of one of the most depressing songs in modern history – “Imagine” by John Lennon. Depressing because it is so hopeful in intent, and yet so woeful in tactic.  “Imagine there’s no heaven,” Mr. Lennon asks of us, because a belief that there is nothing greater than us will lead to “all the people living for today.”

COMMON GROUND: Why do/should people fear God?

COMMON GROUND is a column dedicated to encouraging respectful dialogue by posing a monthly question that is open to people from every religious/non-religious/political background.  If you would like to post a response, please email smjivey@gmail.com for details.

The question for August is "Why do/should people fear God?"  

Alan Schwartz is a Messianic Jew and Project Manager for the Entertainment Industry.  He lives in LA and has detailed his perspective on this month's question is below:     .  

"Respect God"

By:  Alan Schwartz

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” – Proverbs 9:10

The term “fear of God” or “fear the Lord” appears many times throughout the Old and New Testament.  It is used mostly as a pre-emptive warning, to keep us out of trouble.  The Hebrew word for fear in the above verse is yirot.  This word comes from the same root word that respect and awe come from.  The Grand Canyon is awesome, a great white shark, a tornado, or hurricane is awesome.  They are fearful also because of the power that they possess.  

During our childhood we may have heard the expression “wait ‘til your father gets home”.  This may be the view of authority or discipline we have carried into our adult life.  Our earliest encounter with authority is usually our parents.  Statistically many children get off to a bad start with either no authority figure to respect or an authority figure that is not respectable at all, possibly to the point of blame, fault, condemnation, and punishment.  The other context for this term is to explain the lawless and rebellious that ignore God’s warnings.  Any sane parent would warn their children against carelessly running into the street, or from touching a hot stove.  This, in most cases, is done out of love and for the welfare of a child and to display greater knowledge and trust of the instruction of a worthy parent.  Unheeded cautions may even come with a rebuke, an “attention getter” to serve as a remembrance, for the next time.  Sadly the current standard in this country is against the disciplining of our children.  Nonetheless, God gave us free will, God also has a “permissive will” when he allows us to exercise our free will, sometimes we use it for things we are cautioned against.  Let’s take a look at the Bible, which is where we find all we need to know about God and His relationship with us.  Jeremiah 17:9 tells us,

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?”

COMMON GROUND: Why do/should people fear God?

COMMON GROUND is a column dedicated to encouraging respectful dialogue by posing a monthly question that is open to people from every religious/non-religious/political background.  If you would like to post a response, please email smjivey@gmail.com for details.

The question for August is "Why do/should people fear God?" 

 

Mark Langham, is a follower of Christ and an activist/owner/writer for Conspiracy of Hope - an organization whose sole purpose is to stop the sexual exploitation of children.  His response to this month's question is below:

"The Sovereignty of God" 

By: Mark Langham

As a Christian, well immersed in “church” and living in a post-modern age where words have been emasculated, and being no theologian, my response to the “fear of God” has evolved. I was taught, as Ira was, that “fear” meant awe and wonder. And I believe that to be one large dynamic part of it. But I think we already have a deeply ingrained system of awe and wonder. If a “2” is a litter of puppies being born then a “9” is my son being born. The headroom for God is very limited. We say God is love. And then we say I love chocolate. The sliding scale starts in the finite but goes into the infinite. Words fail us and yet words are all we have.

When I read the scriptures, it seems to me that fear is a huge part of worship and the relationship we are supposed to have with God. We’re told the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That fear is for our protection, for our blessing, for our understanding, for all things in the universe to remain in order. It is this fear that is supposed to compel us to cherish our neighbor, to feed the poor, to be kind to the stranger when we have failed to do it out of love. At the end of his days, Solomon, whom scripture calls the wisest man, summed it up to this. “Fear God and keep His commandments.” So than what is this fear?

COMMON GROUND: Why do/should people fear God?

COMMON GROUND is a column dedicated to encouraging respectful dialogue by posing a monthly question that is open to people from every religious/non-religious/political background.  If you would like to post a response, please email smjivey@gmail.com for details.

The question for August is "Why do/should people fear God?" 

 
Ira Schwartz, a Jewish screenwriter from Hollywood, CA, responds with his article "Fear" below. 

Fear

By: Ira Schwartz 

While perusing one of the political pages on Facebook the other day I noticed a discussion on religion.  There were about a dozen comments posted regarding the article so I decided to give it a whirl.  As I was reading through the comments I noticed a pattern developing…these people were afraid of God.  Most of the commenters claimed to be Christians and almost all agreed that God was to be feared.  Here is one of those comments:

“My fear of God is that I do something so terrible in my human nature against him that when I face him on judgement day he will not say "well done thou good and faithful servant, enter the kingdom of heaven" but "depart from me for I knew you not" You see we all are God's creation yes! But we are not all God's children.”

Not being of the Christian faith, I was raised and still am Jewish; I thought I would check with some of my Christian relatives to see if this was a common thing.  Much to my surprise I discovered it was.  Now I do not profess to be an expert in Judaism, in fact far from it, but in searching my memories of those 5 “long” years in Hebrew school I can’t recall one time we were told that we should fear God.