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Comparing the Fear of God to Fear of an Earthly Authority

Comparing the Fear of God to Fear of an Earthly Authority

I was going through some company training recently, and was in one section that detailed the process for monitoring the implementation of a major change. It detailed the stages where the progress compared to the plan is reported to successively higher levels of review committees, culminating with review before the company board, if it’s warranted (I.e, if the project has failed to meet its deliverables objectives). As I was thinking about that, I thought about how on some occasions, some…

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Is the Believer to Have a Fear of God?

Is the Believer to Have a Fear of God?

My friend David and I spent considerable time discussing this one morning: Given that 1 John 4 says that there is no fear in love, because fear has to do with punishment, and there is now “no condemnation to those who are in Christ” (Rom 8:1), is it appropriate for the believer to have a “fear of God”, or is that strictly an Old Testament concept? I’ve done considerable reading in some of the resources since that conversation, and I…

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Two Kinds of Fear

Two Kinds of Fear

An idea underlying much of Reeve’s book 1 is that the expression “the fear of God” is used in two different ways. This is seen perhaps most clearly in the story of the Israelites at the base of Mt. Sinai, just after Moses received the ten commandments. (Ex. 20:18–20). Seeing the lightning and thunder, the mountain smoking, and the earth shaking as a display of God’s power, the people cried out in terror, “You [Moses] speak to us, and we…

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