The FEAR of God

An enormous danger to the very survival of western civilization is now presenting itself. It will soon have a more dramatic and powerful effect upon our nations than any massive earthquake in the history of mankind. Simply put, this quickly growing danger is an almost total lack of what the Bible calls "the fear of God."

"Why become excited about this old-fashioned religious idea?" you might ask. The answer is that when mankind turns away from deep respect for the idea—and the authority—of the Creator God, it is in grave danger of anarchy and of total breakdown in the norms of decent civilization. And it is in danger of the wrath of a real God who does exist, as we will soon realize when He begins to intervene even more powerfully in world affairs!

In America, Canada, Britain and Australia, we are already almost there! Consider: more than 40 million unborn children have been put to death by abortion in the 30 years since the United States Supreme Court declared abortion legal. This far exceeds even the six million Jewish people who were killed under Adolph Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany. When you really understand it from the Creator's point of view, legalized abortion is one of the greatest "holocausts" in human history!

What is happening in the United States and other British-descended nations today is essentially the same as what happened in ancient Israel after that nation turned away from God. The book of Judges reveals a litany of unchecked violence, countless murders, sexual horrors and general confusion, and concludes: "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25).

In other words, when men begin to invent their own "standard of righteousness"—when they begin to "do what is right in their own eyes"—great confusion, lawlessness and chaos eventually follows. Your Bible says: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25). Men have all kinds of ideas that "seem" right. But Jesus Christ said: "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God'" (Luke 4:4).

All professing-Christian churches and ministers know Jesus' foundational teaching of living by every word of God. So why do they fail to follow this clear teaching? Why do they directly contradict this inspired command from Christ in their own teachings regarding homosexuality, abortion and a host of other issues? Why do they persist in calling themselves "Christian," yet directly contradict dozens of the clear teachings of the very Founder of Christianity?

Why?

Frankly, they do this because God seems "far off" to most of them. He is an unreal or vague intellectual concept to many—including some who are highly educated in the colleges and seminaries of this world. Put simply, they do not have what the Bible calls "the fear of God."

The inspired book of Proverbs tells us: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Proverbs 1:7). Again: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (9:10). True knowledge, wisdom and understanding all flow from a profound awareness of, and a sincere awe and deep respect for, the Creator of the heavens and the earth—the Lord and Giver of life. Without this profound respect for the real God, mankind simply stumbles around in the darkness of confusion, human lusts, and the intellectual vanities of many who like to try out various ideas that titillate their own intellect!

Mankind desperately needs to come to a deep awareness and appreciation of the great God who gave life to all, and who now governs the rise and fall of nations and the overall course of human affairs. But we have turned our back on that real God, and so He has turned His back on us!

Only a couple of years ago, a Gallup poll found a great deal of religious "tolerance" among most Americans. Much of this was because people are not really sure what to believe in all the religious confusion around them. As a U.S. News and World Report article (May 6, 2002) stated: "Gallup says that the high degree of religious tolerance reflects, in part, 'not only a lack of knowledge of other religions but an ignorance of one's own faith.' In some polls, he says, 'you have Christians saying, "Yes, Jesus is the only way" and also, "Yes, there are many paths to God." It's not that Americans don't believe anything; they believe everything.'"

If people believe "everything," they end up in confusion, uncertainty and doing what is right in "their own eyes." As the Apostle Paul was inspired to warn us nearly 2,000 years ago: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (2 Timothy 4:3–4). Remember, Paul had just commanded Timothy: "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching" (vv. 1–2).

Yet, instead of "preaching the word," vast numbers of professing-Christian ministers today look around to see which way the wind is blowing, then they preach what is "politically correct!"

Did you know that, as you walk up the steps to the building that houses the U.S. Supreme Court, you can see (near the top of the building) a row of the world's lawgivers, each of whom is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view. They are facing Moses, who is holding the Ten Commandments! Did you know that as you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on the lower portion of each door? Did you know that as you sit inside the courtroom, you can see on the wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit, a display of the Ten Commandments? Did you know that James Madison (the fourth President of the United States, known as the "Father of the Constitution") stated: "We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

How far we have come! How far the Americans, Canadians and British have fallen from the deep respect we used to show to the great God who gives us life and breath! Our "fear of God" is almost gone!

A little more than 70 years ago, U.S. President Calvin Coolidge stated: "A spring will cease to flow if its source be dried up; a tree will wither if its roots be destroyed. In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual concepts. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man—these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We cannot continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause" (emphasis ours).

It is vitally important that each of you subscribers fully realize that our entire team of writers and editors here at Tomorrow's World definitely believes in a real God. We fully believe in, and have proved to ourselves, the divine inspiration of the Bible. You need to know that we will often stand alone in telling you many vital truths of the Bible, of God's way of life and of God's massive intervention in human affairs that will occur if our peoples do not genuinely repent. We hope and pray that all of you will carefully read our articles with an open mind, and that you will prove to yourselves the existence of the true God of creation and the inspiration of the Holy Bible. Then, we hope you will put forth the physical and mental energy to "check up" on what the Bible really says, and that God will grant you the courage to act on His Truth.

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