what does "God Fearing" mean ?

i hear it mostly from non Catholic Christians. and it's supposed to be considered a positive thing. can anyone, especially those who grew up and were raised to be "god fearing" explain it some more ?

has a different meaning than to "fear" spiders, or whatnot.

It's basically to be reverent, etc. I still remember a few things from those Sunday School days.

it does include an actual fear of the might of God

Is a better tranlation for the old english word fear.

Awe, respect.

Same as in, "When your father gets home....." that so many of us had to hear growing up-

Also goes back to the Old Testament, and Yaweh's covenent with the tribes of Israel--God was dipicted as extremely jealous and vengeful. So, if one didn't fear Yaweh and do precisely as he wanted, then the entire group lost their land, their lives, etc.

Hope that helps.

Stephanie

It's a psychological word play. To fear someone because of consequences somehow equates to some sort of respect and adoration. It's a neurotic human trait brought on by overbearing parental figures.

Lots of hate, that's one thing I've noticed.

Supposedly, a "loving" God, who btw, who gave us "free will" will punish us for using that free will.

We have to be afraid that if we do not follow every word in the bible literally (despite the fact that the bible was written by men who claimed to hear the voice of God and then rewritten ad nauseum) that God will thunk us on the head in anger and send us to an eternal damnation in a fireburning hell without our being able to get a decent hearing about our life decisions that He disagreed with.

Person: "Why me, God?"
GOD: "'Cause everytime I look at you, you just piss me off!"

This life is a test. It is just a test. If it was a REAL life, you would have been given instructions.

somehow synonymous with love and respect but instead was communicated as obedience or burn. I believe it is supposed to be linguistically related to awe, but loses much in the translation. The colloquial use implies someone who obeys God without question with the implication that anyone who is not "god-fearing" must be spiritually and morally inferior. But that's just my personal take on it.

:D

According to fundies - an excuse to be repressed and repress others

So, even if you're doing everything all right and believe what you're supposed to believe, you shouldn't feel safe around him, for he may toss you into Hell just because.

My Christian God is a god of love, compassion and forgiveness. Most of the fundies fear God; perhaps because they offend him with their mean spiritedness.

while i'm not religious i find most liberals who are religious speak of god in terms you mention such as "love, compassion,forgiveness".

i almost never hear the right wing religious fanatics use those words.

to acknowledge God's power in all things. The word would has more a connotation of "respect" than "be terrified of".

because their moral compass don't work. Where as a liberal generally can use logic, understanding and a strong moral compass to get through life.
The opposite of the boogieman.

Just to be clear. I am not God Fearing.

It is a form of confusion. God is love and God is truth.

You would think "god-fearing" would make one agonstic - but "god fearing" people are exactly the sort of people who have no fear that their convictions are wrong.

God fearers only fear humanity, not god

You'd think there WAS no Jesus to hear these Christian Phalangists talk about an angry, vengeful God.

ie to be cowed into passivity and certain narrow morality set forth by the preacher du jour, for fear of retribution from the fire and brimstone, omniscient and omnipotent vengeful God of the Old testament. (you know - the one that sent a flood, and trashed Sodom and Gomorrah - except for Lot who had no choice but repopulate the earth through his vixen daughters that got him drunk and seduced him?)

It means to believe that there is justice, and that one should act on the assumption that one will be held accountable if one does un-just things.

Old testament crap is not always crappy. Among many, there is one relatively subtle idea which is found in the old testament regarding how one should conduct one's life: One should act in a such a way that no other person has to pray to God for relief against you. Act such that no other person would appeal to God for justice against you. Regardless of whether you believe in whatever inuslting characterization of god you want to make up (cloud fairy or whatever) that idea is a good one, you should act towards others such that they would never justifiably pray to god for help because of you.

For Christians god is essentially not comprehensible, i.e., a mystery. When faced with omnipotent mysteries one of the natural reactions is fear - ask anybody who's ever stood in the presence of one. For a Christian human being to claim to understand the mind of God is absurd on the face of it, like trying to enumerate the number of real numbers between 0 and 1.

So, if you don't 'fear' God you don't have any idea of the being to which you are trying to relate. Of course, you may also have a whole bunch of other things in realtionship to God, but fear is going to be one of them.

Please note that I am not a Christian and this is not my relationship to diety, but I have stood in the face of mysteries and feared.

Richard Ray - Jackson Holek WY

god they created.

progression.

we have levels we are on. the 3d of it, is the old testament, fear controls. many people dont feel the spirit within. first they have to recognize it thru rules and the outside. they are searching looking hunting for god, to know him better ect. they literally take his words

walking into new testament, christ conscious is more 4d, going over the bridge in progression. this is the time we see christ is within. then we clearly here spirit telling us that is man interpretation. mans words not christ. i trust in my ablility to hear and know and feel and smell truth. i dont need man any longer to tell me how to be.

and once you have truly walked away from others creating you, then you are in purity and lite of spirit. all day long. every day. in anger and happiness and joy
truly is simple as pie. we are the ones that create heaven adn hell on earth

we are the ones that live in hell, not after life but during. we are all one in spirit and lite. only in seperation do we become retarded. allowing another to decide who we are

we are all capable. we are all capable. no one need be left behind. but it is each persons to do. and they will all do it their special way. and that is having faith in man, to allow them their own power, as i demand mine. they no longer get to blame bible or others, it is theirs to do. and if they dont, i will see

Well written, to the point, and thought-provoking. This is the type of gem that makes DU worth-while.

The literal Greek, if I remember my Greek well enough, means something close to reverence or awe.

You can try to cynically say anything you want, and try to paint the picture that somehow "God fearing" means Christians think they are to b afraid of God, but you'd be dishonest in doing that. In order to make that claim, you have to ignore overwhelming biblical examples where Jesus and other biblical writers says that the God is not something to be afraid of.

The context of statements like this "fear and trembling" one have to do with reverence and awe. Personally, I am fairly critical of this concept, as I think it is frequently over-blown to create this impression of a wholly other, utterly inaccessible, ineffable divine mystery so vastly beyond us in quality and splendor that we can never even hope to do anything but grovel in its presence.

I think that kind of concept is not only problematic, but also unfortunate, and misses (or deliberately) ignores all the language about a very personal, accessible, partnering loving, relational diving encounter which I believe is metaphor and imagery that has far more value.