NationStates Jolt Archive

All the time I hear the saying "God-fearing Christian" - I really don't understand this expression in relation to the fact that most Christians think God is forgiving. Could somebody clear up my confusion?

Fear in this case means to respect and obey, not tremble in fright. Yes we believe that God is merciful, but He is also holy. All of His followers want to be like Him so we obey His commandments in the Torah.

I don't think that that can be cleared up... it's just one of those things about christians that makes them funny to listen to for extended periods of times.

EDIT: Seems I may have been wrong... ah well.

7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction

from the old testament

All the time I hear the saying "God-fearing Christian" - I really don't understand this expression in relation to the fact that most Christians think God is forgiving. Could somebody clear up my confusion?

They could but it would require a definate restructuring of their beliefs.

It DOES mean fear, as in fear. Coming into contact with the absolute, the everything, the all-encompassing, unlimited, omnipotent universality of existence itself would, putatively, leave you absolutely terrified. Awe leading to fear, splendor leading to insanity, universality leading to isolation. This is largely the reason why mental defectives were considered to have a direct link to God in pre-modern Europe.

BTW, im an existensialist...

so im doing this against my own belief by even acknowledging this possibility of god, but i must remember that the literal definition of fear also includes...

2. (Script.) Apprehension of incurring, or solicitude to avoid, God's wrath; the trembling and awful reverence felt toward the Supreme Being.

from websters dictionary.

It would seem to me, that its a classic representation of fear like you would at once be suspect.

To be afraid - in this case, of (a) God.

It DOES mean fear, as in fear. Coming into contact with the absolute, the everything, the all-encompassing, unlimited, omnipotent universality of existence itself would, putatively, leave you absolutely terrified. Awe leading to fear, splendor leading to insanity, universality leading to isolation. This is largely the reason why mental defectives were considered to have a direct link to God in pre-modern Europe.
However, it actually means respect of God and thus you are misguided.
Having the gift of tongues without a interpreter with you is a waste.
You need one or its not the gift of tongues you got.

Basically it means God-respecting Chrisrians. I would hope they are lol

The only reason you, I, or anybody else thinks it means "to respect," without the negative connotation of terror, is because Christians have succumbed to the pressures of justifying their religion by logical arguments. Such a venture is always doomed to ultimate failure, as there is nothing logical about religion, from the believer's side. Once it becomes logical, it ceases to require faith, and once it is no longer based on faith, it ceases to be a religion.

The only way in which the term means "respect" is because it is impossible to think yourself above and beyond somebody whom you fear. It means fear, as in FEAR, terror, to be afraid, to tremble, to piss one's pants. Instead of falsifying their beliefs into a sort of complacent, politically-correct, excusable stain on the human psyche, Christians(and any other religious group) should stick to their core beliefs. Once they do otherwise, they cease to be respectable, as they have lost their grasp on what really makes them who they are. Religious texts were not meant to conform to the world's desires, they were meant to conform the world's desires to their own values.

Oh! Oh! I met a "god-fearing" Christian today!

So there I am, calmly walking from class to lunch, and BOOM! There it is. A huge day-glo yellow sign hoisted in the air reading "Obey Jesus or Perish." The sign was held by an equally bright gentleman who was shaking it angrily at students and other passers-by. He ranted and raved for a good half-hour about how it states in Corinthians that (something along the lines of) attending a place of higher education makes us all blasphemers. He was actually trying, on a crowded liberal college campus, to scare us into believing in Jesus. Somehow, I don't think he got the desired effect. It's people like that that kinda freak me out, and steer me away from religion.

It also means fear as in you know that God can do whatever he wants. Litterally, anything. If he so chose, he could make you or me never have existed. He could make the entire universe never have existed. If you don't fear power like that you are a fool.

But, you also realize that God is loving and forgiving. He won't make us all not exist. We fear his power, but love him because he will not use it against us.

I think it has to do with having fear of sinning among the eyes of God.(you should fear committing sins)
Like I wouldnt flick my brothers glasses off when I was a kid in front of my father. hehe but as soon as he turned his head or left the room
........................... Flick

This is one of those things where you (the imperical you, not the you you...graded down, ah well, moving on...) take things from people who have similar but not same beliefs and compare them as a whole and it seems contridictory, which is true of the whole because of variations, but not true of it's smaller portions.


well that made sense to me....

Being a Christian is no easy task and God is no push over...

Matthew 10:

34) Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to turn `a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."


There's lots of difficult choices and some will feel that if they don't adhere to them 100% then they've let the big man down. And is God forgiving to all or just forgiving to those who follow? and if he's just forgiving to Christians then there's lots to fear should you believe but not follow.

If God is so great, why does he need fear or power to get people to love him?

If God is so great, why does he need fear or power to get people to love him?


Would you love someone that your fearful of, or do you love someone merely because their powerful? I would hope not, so there's obviously more that your missing / ignorant to.

Would you love someone that your fearful of, or do you love someone merely because their powerful? I would hope not, so there's obviously more that your missing / ignorant to.

No, I wouldn't.

uhm. to answer your question...
god is displayed differently in the old and the new testament.
whereas in the new testament he is good, forgiving and all that, in the old testament he quite the opposite. (ever heard of say...noah?)

If God is so great, why does he need fear or power to get people to love him?
are you really asking whether god needs fear to get people to love him? that's kind of a detour, isn't it? :D
as far as I've always been told, he doesn't need people to love him. they just think he's great and then do. ;)

Yes but god did do alot of killing. Floods, fireballs, and turning people into things.

Yes but god did do alot of killing. Floods, fireballs, and turning people into things.
yes. old testament. noah. blah ;)
but people nowadays apparently don't want to hear that, judging from the fact that we're on page 2 of this post and I'm the first one to answer the question asked.
I guess it's more comforting to know that god will always look out for you no matter what than knowing that he'll expell you from paradise if you do something wrong :)