Posted on 08/08/2021 3:33:26 AM PDT by Kaslin
To use a twist on an Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen line, millions of people hate what they think Christianity is. Far fewer people hate what Christianity actually is.
Bringing this to mind, again, is a comment I recently came across from an avowedly "non-religious" mother who was upset that her seven-year-old's Mormon best friend wouldn't stop talking to him about Bible stories and Jesus. "I don't want him to be religious, honestly," the woman wrote to an advice columnist in April. "I want him to learn that you should be a good person and do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, not because God will punish you if you don't."
This is a common atheist lament, one sometimes expressed even by Christianity's more intellectual critics, such as the late essayist Christopher Hitchens and biologist Richard Dawkins. Yet it reflects a comic-book understanding of faith.
Here's reality: religious parents want their children to be good people, too (of course!), "and do the right thing because it's the right thing to do." They know that motivation by love of God is the ideal. But the wise among them understand something else as well: fear of God is also necessary.
In fact, something corresponding to the love of God/fear of God model is reflected where many would least expect it: in psychology's prescriptions. Famed psychologist Erik Erikson, by way of his well known "Stages of Psychosocial Development," informed that when a child is in a certain early developmental stage, he understands that something is wrong only if he gets punished for it.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
What does not fear God was ok aspire to be God.
Who does not fear God will aspire to be God.
Damn iPhone…
It matters little whether a society is governed by a Monarch, a Dictator, a Representative Republic or a pure Democracy.
If those in power do not understand and acknowledge that they are accountable to God, that society will eventually collapse.
“For the reverence and fear of God are basic to all wisdom. Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding.”
Proverbs 9:10 The Living Bible
“You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3
And that is where organized religion gets it wrong. One should l9ve God, not fea4 God. God is love.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” John 4:18
Anyone with a full understanding of Christianity knows not to fear, but for many with only a surface level understanding the fear of divine punishment is still a useful push to good behavior.
bkmk
Our rights are given to us from God, that’s why man cannot take them away.
Without a fear of God, mankind’s hubris will be his undoing.
“Fear” might be better translated as “awesome respect, reverence... and some fear, wrapped in overwhelming love”.
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