In the previous blog post comment thread, a Christian blogging friend of mine was undeservedly labeled with a disparaging remark. I thought that a portion of my response deserved a blog post [a.k.a. a “Blogment”] all its own. So here it is, with some added links and commentary:
Originally in reply to GMpilot:
From my perspective, Black3Actual does not deserve your disparaging remark. Just because you reject what he is sharing doesn’t make him what you called him in your comment.
For the longest time, you have disparaged God because of your own negative opinion of Him. You believe that the call in Scripture for the fear of God is something to dislike; even hate.
In Matthew 10:28, Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
The fear (meaning, dread) of God happened to Adam and Eve the moment that they sinned. Prior to that, they had a forever kind of loving relationship with Him. We (all human beings since) have inherited this tendency to sin, and thus unredeemed men and women (if honest with ourselves) also have the same dreaded fear of God.
Upon being saved, that slavish “fear of dread” turns to a reverential awe of God. This is what Jesus Christ accomplished for us at the cross. We no longer live in dread of our Heavenly Father – it turns around 360 degrees [meaning, a TOTAL turn in which we can face Him because of His agape love] towards a renewed and caring love for Him! And, because of our reverence for Him, His righteousness, and His Holiness, we fear to do evil. Our desire is to live rightly, for Him!
I see Black3Actual’s heart as being a believer who wants the Lord to use him for His great purposes and His glory. Through reading his blog – The Oil For Your Lamp, I see him as desiring to meet people who are lost with whom he can share the Gospel of Christ.
Jesus shows us many times in Scripture how to pray. There is a great difference between those who say pagan prayers (where he/she tries to harness the spiritual powers of the universe to do his bidding… and so will say, “As I will so it must be.”) They are actually proclaiming, “my will be done.” It is the “being their own God” syndrome. Contrast that with the Christian prayer, “Thy [God’s] will be done.”
The Bible has been attacked over the last 200 years or so like never before. We have been warned in Matthew 24 that this will be the case the closer we get to the end times when “the love of many will grow cold.” The KJV says, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will wax cold.”
“Wax” as a verb from Dictionary.com:
1. to increase in extent, quantity, intensity, power, etc.:
Discord waxed at an alarming rate.
[Note: Chuck Smith has a great written sermon on this verse. Read it HERE.]
Why has the love of many wax cold?
Because of lawlessness. Because iniquity shall abound.
We have seen the explosion of lawlessness and abounding iniquity here in the United States over the past 30 years! However, it most obviously became ratcheted up back in the 1960’s when the Bible was removed from the schools.
Mat 24:12
“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
Many secular “scholars” have joined in the savage attack. Yet, the critical scholars are proven wrong again and again. Why? Because as history unveils itself, the Bible is vindicated.
You, GM, choose your scholars. You choose your experts, in which mostly all express anti-Christian opinions. The point is that somebody chose those particular “experts” and they didn’t choose them by chance. They often stack the experts in such a way as to promote unbelief. [A recent example in the Darwinism vs. Intelligent Design battle is the so-called Homo naledi, which is already being questioned as a unique species of unclear evolutionary importance.]
The truth is, that link questioning this unique species will not get anywhere near the exposure via the media as the “discovery” of Homo naledi has.
But that is only one example. The quest to disprove (as well as disparage, twist, misinterpret, demonize etc.) the Word of God will go on until Christ returns. Meanwhile, Christians are rest assured that:
Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven. – Psalm 119:89
GM, I don’t ban you and I continue to answer your anti-Christian rants here for the purpose of countering what you write; and hopefully helping those who may come upon this blog to read the posts and comments to see what the Bible says on such matters. I don’t know everything, but God’s Word has the correct answers. Whether you agree or not doesn’t really matter.
Dostoyevsky famously said, “If there is no God, then all things are permissible.” That is why the fear of God is good, and to be a God-fearing person is healthy.
I have attempted to begin to express the relationship between the love and the fear of God. I’m sure there is much more evidence of this that can be shared from the Bible. I would like to encourage readers to share such evidence in the comment section!
~ Christine
Hat tips to all links.
H/T: Black3Actual
H/T: GMpilot