How can you make fear mean more than one thing? Either you are told to fear God or not fear God? Not that hard.

ask miriam webster,,,

archaic : to feel fear in (oneself)
3: to have a reverential awe of <fear God>
4: to be afraid of : expect with alar

: to be afraid or apprehensive

we are to have a reverential AWE of God

we are to be apprehensive of the consequences of our actions
we are to be apprehensive of what God is capable of

If God is truly loving, He's not gonna throw you in a pit of fire, or kill you. I don't care what anyone says that is NOT just.

We know better than that for crying out loud! If we do and God doesn't, doesn't say much for God.

Its not something I bang my head over truly.

Whatever DEATH might be, I prefer eternal life. Its as much a choice/fear as atheists who dont want to die because they wish to continue living.

I understand it, but it doesn't have to be neccessary. In truth, we are ALL saved, it's man that has us believe otherwise.

So then why has it been said that we must fear god?

If faith and fear are polar opposits then it would stand to reason that faith in god is what one must have.

not fear of god.

Have no idea why people say to have fear in God. Why not just love God? And with loving God, we would then obey his wishes "best we can anyways". There is nothing to fear. You obey God and you will be rewarded. Nothing to fear. You love God as he loves you and all will be good.

The problem is, you got God in such a box, that people can't love Him in their own way, and if they love Him wrong they will go to hell. So that creates fear.

They get it from the Christians. And other Abrahamic religions.

I don't know of any other religions the preach that God will cast anyone into everlasting punishment for not supporting the religion.

The Wiccans don't preach that anyone should fear God.

The Buddhists don't preach that anyone should fear God.

Only the Abrahamic religions preach such nonsense.

That's where it comes from Cowboy. The Abraham religions.

Refuse to climb on board their religion and they'll have God condemning you to everlasting punishment.

That's where it comes from my friend.

It doesn't come from anywhere else.

You mean that the Christians would love for it to create fear.

What it truly creates is just division among men and religions.

Christianity typically only creates fear in their own followers.

You need to believe in their religion before you can fear it.

I have no fear of Christianity.

In fact, I even saved Jesus from that horrible religion.

I got tired of them using him as a battering ram for fear and hate. So I freed him from their evil grasp.

I now see Jesus as a respectable Mahayana Buddhist Bodhisattva.

I no longer view him as the monster that the Christians would love for him to be.

Well then it's a personal "opinion" and has no true bearing on anything. We are to love God, not "fear" him. I mean yeah fear a little, with love comes fear. You love your spouse, you fear loosing them. Maybe not a "conscience" fear, but nevertheless there is that bit of fear there. That is why you do things SHE wants, regardless if you wish to do it or not. You wish to make her/him happy and you fear not doing as such. That right there would be the only fear there is. Not a fear of eternal damnation or anything, but a fear not doing your part in the relationship.

However in a healthy relationship, be it parent to child, or spouse to spouse, there is communication that comes along the way. This encompasses the way things are in the relationship, what's good and what isn't, and what changes if any need be made to improve upon it.

If.....the communication in this case is all one sided, meaning you have to do things one way and one way only with no room for any deviation, how can it be healthy? It can't, because there's no true give and take, it's unbalanced, and you have no true voice.

It'd be like having a girlfriend who insisted on everything her way, whether you like it or not, with little regard for what you felt about things. Who in their right mind would stay in a relationship like that?

I know I wouldn't, and anyone that would, whether they wanna admit it to themselves or not is being abused.

Ah very true. But you're looking at it from a secular point of view. God isn't just a father, he's our creator, our lord, our leader, and of course our friend. In a Monarchy, when the king tells a peasant to do this or that, is there room for discussion? When a parent tells their child to do this or that, is there room for discussion? And parent to child would be a full grown adult parent telling their little child say 10 years old. If that parent tells their child to clean their room or they will be grounded, is there room for discussion? Room for deviation? No, the child cleans his/her room or is grounded.

Does it matter where I am viewing it from? If God knows better than we and WE know what a healthy relationship is, SURELY He does.

As for the parent-child thing, yes there may be rules, BUT here's the difference. They ALWAYS can make up for any wrongdoing, you CAN'T if you reject your God outright. Further, no good parent will torture their kids forever and ever (or kill them depending on belief) either, but your God does.

If your child continuously stated you were not their parent as a fact. Would you allow them to live with you? Of course your child would be over the age of 18. If your child lied all the time, was a thief, or many of other examples, would you continue to allow your child to live with you?

Eternal life is a GIFT. It's not a given, it's a gift to those whom have earned it through their life. It's a reward for their obedience. And one can make up for any wrongdoing with God as well. Heck that's why Jesus sacrificed himself. To be the ultimate sacrifice for YOU to receive forgiveness.

I don't think that I would call faith "merely" belief; although belief is involved with faith.

"Knowing" can also eliminate fear.

Faith may be part belief, part knowing and part trust and part experience.

A person with confidence will have less fear. Confidence comes with knowing, and experience.

The greatest fear for some people is said to be public speaking. But if you have experience and confidence, you will have faith that you will do a good job and won't be laughed off the stage.

RELIGION:

Where the term faith is used in religions, you are asked to have faith in your religious authority to know what he or it (The Scripture) means or is talking about.

You may not let him or her live with you, but you wouldn't kill them! Therein lies the difference.

You need to brush up on your definitions there Cowboy. A gift is given for FREE. If we have to do something to get it, than it isn't a gift anymore. To call it still a gift, defies all logic and good sense.

Also, NO you can't! Because once you see God no matter repentant you are, you still burn. For someone who claims to forgive seventy times seven, He doesn't follow His own rule.

As per the laws of the universe, if eternal life is possible, it is neither a gift or a given.

You have to earn it just like anything else.

Of course now we have to see if we can actually define and understand what eternal life is.

I think if we evolved from a single celled animal to a human, and eternal life exists in any form, then we have earned it.

True a gift isn't earned. But it can be loss. Will you get a gift from an enemy in life? If not, why not? The gift of eternal life isn't "earned". You can not buy your way into heaven. But you can loose the gift through disobedience. Again, true the gift isn't "earned" but all gifts can be lost. And Jesus forgives us for anything and everything one could do in a life time if that one seeks forgiveness true heartedly.

But here's the thing, if the person is seeking to give a gift to us, why would they require us to do anything? How can we lose it, if they truly desire to give it to us?

That may be so, but if God is all merciful and all forgiving, He has to be in this life and the next. If He's not, he fails at his own teachings.