Whether they’re Christians or not, ask most mature-minded people to give you reasons for the deteriorating state of human attitudes and behavior in society today and you will be given a variety of them. They’ll be correct too for a large part, but it will be a rare one who tells you it’s because, There is no fear of God before his/their eyes Psalm 36:1; Romans 3:18. Whatever reasons you’re given, that’s the primary one; no fear of God. What causes a person to rape and murder another person? No fear of God. What causes a religious terrorist to go on a rampage of slaughter? No fear of God.
What causes gang members across the globe to wipe one another out by the thousands? No fear of God. What causes National and International leaders to lie and deceive each other as well as you and me? No fear of God. What causes people in high places and low places to bribe, embezzle and steal? No fear of God. Let’s look to the church. What causes Christians to deny Bible inerrancy? No fear of God. What causes leaders and theologians to introduce false and spurious doctrines? No fear of God. What causes Christians to be seduced by prosperity gospel messengers and purpose driven liars? No fear of God. What causes them not to question their devil-inspired advocates of same-sex marriage, transgenderism and interfaith? No fear of God.
Most often in Scripture, fear means: reverence, awe and veneration for God. But not so with the above Scripture; there, fear for God means: be afraid, alarm or fright, terror and dread. When was the last time you heard a preacher draw your attention to the second meaning? When was the last time we allowed Scripture to draw our attention to it? Our attention must be drawn to it and we must thoroughly appreciate its meaning through putting it into practice when convicted of any sin, otherwise we can never thoroughly appreciate our practice of the first meaning, whether we’re convicted of sin or not. Which now brings me back to the churches practicing the things mentioned above; they express no fear of God in either sense of the word!
Take either meaning of fear or both. If the fear of God is not practiced by members of the church, it can never be practiced by members of society. After all, we are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, not them Matthew 5:13-14. As the saying goes, the only Jesus society will ever see is the Jesus they see in you and me. But what does that mean exactly? I viewed two young men on the Internet recently. The Jesus they’ve embraced seemed to have no problems at all with unwholesome language and certainly no problems with a person’s sexual identity in relation to the gender to which they’re attracted. After all, “If that’s the way God made them then who are we to judge?” This they ignore or deny: Male and female He created them Genesis 1:27.
Society won’t have an issue with a Jesus like that one. They can admire him forever and a day and still have no fear of God. The same applies to the transgender. His or her Jesus agrees with them. “You were born in the wrong body. Don’t allow anyone tell you otherwise. Certainly don’t allow genetics, physiology, science and reality to tell you that you were born exactly the way God intended you to be born. Listen to your feelings, not those people!” Then there is the Jesus admired by millions who says, “We all worship the same God. You worship Him your way and let others worship Him their way. Don’t limit yourself to the God of the Bible or to the Jesus of the New Testament who claims to be the only way to heaven. Jesus never said that.” No fear of God among these!
Then there’s the Jesus embraced by multitudes who talks only of heaven and never of hell. “Such a cruel and unloving doctrine,” they say. “Such hate speech too!” What better reason to possess no fear of God? If everyone dies and goes to heaven, why would you fear God? True, lots of people speak of heaven as the place where their loved ones and friends go when they die because hell is too horrible to think about; but they don’t deny hell, they just push it from their mind. Not so, the heaven-talkers; for them, hell does not exist. Never mind that the real Jesus has told us, But if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell Matthew 5:29.
Society or church, where there’s no fear of God, obviously there can be no fear of hell. People might believe such a place exists but no way do they believe they’re going to end up there! Old or young, rich or poor, famous or non-famous, influential or non-influential, powerful or non-powerful, prince or pauper, hell knows no distinctions; it’s full of such people and will continue to be so. Apparently a little over 100 people die every minute of the day throughout the world. Those reaching the age of accountability possessing no fear of God have gone to hell. That’s been the case since time immemorial. When the Lord Jesus told us, broad is the way that leads to destruction Matthew 7:13, it was hell He was referring to.
Last year in the UK, I visited some old churchyard grave sites of famous writers, poets, politicians and military people. I did the same with sites and memorials in Westminster Abbey. One question only repetitively ran through my mind from the start to finish, “Where are you now?” Based on what Jesus said about the broad way, most of them will be in hell. And, hell is not just filled with atheists and infidels; it’s full of church-goers too. Roman Catholics are there, as are Anglicans/Episcopalians, Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Presbyterians, Orthodox etc. All who possessed no fear of God when they lived on the earth are there. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it Matthew 7:14.
For the cynic reading this and belligerently asking, “Where is hell?” Hell is at the end of your physical life. Whilst we’re not told specifically what hell is, we are told specifically that it is a place of eternal torment for those who once lived with no fear of God. It was originally created for the devil and his angels, not for human beings Matthew 25:41. Hell is the place of the real, not fantasy or delusion, although it is the deluded that end up there! Do those in hell experience a literal, everlasting burning fire? Perhaps not, but they do experience the literal, everlasting wrath of God so it may as well be a fire because there’s no letup from it. And then at the last judgment, those in hell and those headed there will end up in the lake of fire Revelation 20:15.
It is said, “A man may live a lie, but his deathbed tells the truth.” That was true of the following famous men. Voltaire: On his deathbed he cried out, “I am abandoned by God and man; I shall go to hell!” All his life he denied God and hell, only to discover the reality of both at the end. Sir Thomas Scott: “Until this moment, I thought there was neither God nor hell; now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty!” Thomas Paine: “Oh Lord, help! Christ, help me!…… for I am on the edge of hell here alone. If ever the Devil had an agent, I have been that one.” Three men from hundreds of thousands who lived all their life with no fear of God. At death’s point they discovered the truth but it was too late; God had long since left them.
“Most people die the way they lived.” – Charles Spurgeon. It’s true, they do. So let’s look from Scripture at how they live. There is a generation that curses its father, and does not bless its mother. There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness. There is a generation – oh, how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and whose fangs are like knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy among men Proverbs 30:11-14. The one common trait? No fear of God. Before I was washed from my filthiness by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, I was one of those pathetic people in my generation!
Human attitudes and behavior in society today will continue to deteriorate, as it will in much of what’s called Christianity; no fear of God being the primary reason, always. When a person willingly turns to God in Jesus, He softens the hard heart. On the other hand, when a person willingly turns away from God in Jesus, He hardens the hard heart. That’s why people are unable to repent on their deathbed. We might believe we can turn God on and off like a water tap or light switch whenever we feel like it, but it’s not so. Now is the day of salvation 2 Corinthians 6:2. Now, is not tomorrow. Fear God! The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all………. Psalm 9:17. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing………. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.
“And where there is no law there is no transgression.” – Romans 4:15
God’s law is rejected because it’s mean-spirited or establishes unfair standards. Man’s law is rejected because it’s “intolerant” or “discriminatory.” Where law is not recognized there can be no sin.
There is no fear of God because the world tells people there is no consequence for doing what they want to do. And if there is a consequence, it’s not deserved, but evidence of victimization.
One great delusion after another.
Amen, Lynn.
To paraphrase singer, Julie Miller – ‘Strangers to mercy, lovers with lies, owned by the darkness, blind and hypnotized.’ God Bless you.