One of my purposes in starting this thread is to show not all fear of God is a bad thing.
In Revelation when Christ vanquishes the enemies of God and fight to stop His kingdom from coming to earth, the rhetorical questions is asked -
"Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?"
This is stated by the late victorious overcoming martyrs of Christ standing on the sea of glass mingled with fire in chapter 15. That symbol means they are over the lake of fire. They are the NT equivalent of the Israelites who crossed successfully through the Red Sea to escape Pharaoh and his armies in the Exodus.
"And I saw as t were a glassy sea mingled with fire and those who come away victorious from the beast [antichrist] and from his image and from the number of his name standing on the glassy sea, having harps of God." (15:2)
They overcame the perils of the previous chapter 14 where all those who receive the mark of the antichrist and follow him to utterly oppose God the Creator are judged eternally by Christ and His angels. (14:7; 14:9-12)
"And they sing the song of Moses, the save of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and wonderful are Your works, Lord God the Almighty! Righteous and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!
WHO WILL NOT FEAR, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; for all the nations will come and worship before You, for your righteous judgments have been manifested." (vs.3,4)
The rhetorical question is asked toward the end of the great tribulation period -
Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name"
Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; for all the nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous judgments have been manifested." (vs.3,4)
I think the answer must be that eventually no one is left in the whole universe who will not fear and glorify the name of the Triune God.
Though temporarily some creatures may boast that they have no regard for the Almighty, least of all fear. Time will tell.
By that time the martyrs standing above the sea of glass mingled with fire (the lake of fire) proclaim God's righteous judgments have been so manifested to the world by the King of the nations, God, who "alone [is] holy".
His judgment on Antichrist and his kingdom seeking to take over the world is seen as wonderful.
"Great and wonderful are Your works, Lord God the Almighty! Righteous and true are Your ways, O King of the nations." (v.3)
The final outpouring of God's wrath upon Antichrist, his armies, his kingdom is seen in the seven last bowls of Revelation 15
"And I saw another sign in heaven great and wonderful, seven angels having seven plagues, the LAST plagues; for in them the fury of God was finished. " (v.15)
In connection with this completion of the fury of God concluding we see the last martyrs standing above the lake of fire as the Israelites in the Exodus stood on the other side of the judgment of the Red Sea upon Pharaoh and his armies seeking to KEEP them in the slavery of Pharaoh's Egypt.
"WHO . . . will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?"
Proverbs 9:4 told us -
"The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."
The world returns to wisdom and understanding. God is the ground of all being and the Source of truth. God is the Creator and the Most High. God is the King of the nations.
Not only His righteous judgments are to be feared. To miss reality is the be feared. To miss truth is to be feared. Not only to offend God is to be feared but to be so deceived as to miss the ultimate truth of the universe is to be feared.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
@sonship
Typo Correction:
That should be "the servant of God" or "the slave of God"
"And they sing the song of Moses, the [servant] of God,
@fmf saidThe underlying innuendo of this question is that the truth merely = someone's "religious beliefs."
Should atheists be "ashamed" of not sharing your religious beliefs?
To dignify the question with an answer is to agree that there is no truth. There is only this or that one's "religious beliefs".
The other repeated question lately is along the line of something like "when you chat with your church leaders do you tell them . . . ".
To dignify this question is also to accept the device embedded that one chats with his church leaders about this or that.
These are not very interesting innuendos for me to spend time on.
The next post will have something I think is worth my while to spend time on.
That is the warning from Paul that for those who do not love the truth strong deception will come. And they will find themselves swept away by a lie in the end times.
Paul warned the church of the Thessalonians. Because men did not love the truth, God in His sovereignty will send to them strong delusion that they may get off the fence and be swept away by the great lie of the Antichrist.
"The coming of whom [antichrist] is according to Satan's operation in all power and signs and wonders of a lie.
And in all deceit of unrighteousness among those who are perishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved.
And become of this God sends to them an operation of error that they might believe the lie.
So that all who have not believed the truth but have taken pleasure in unrighteousness might be judged." (2 Thess. 1:9-12)
If today you do not love the truth of the gospel and take pleasure in unrighteousness the possibility exists you will not be able to resist the LIE of the coming Antichrist.
@sonship saidYou are typical dumb preacher and Christian. The smart Christian escapes eternal punishment by listening to Christ. The goats go into eternal punishment.
Paul warned the church of the Thessalonians. Because men did not love the truth, God in His sovereignty will send to them strong delusion that they may get off the fence and be swept away by the great lie of the Antichrist.
[b]"The coming of whom [antichrist] is according to Satan's operation in all power and signs and wonders of a lie.
And in all deceit of unright ...[text shortened]... ighteousness the possibility exists you will not be able to resist the LIE of the coming Antichrist.
Smart people are not goats.
Smart people listen to Christ.
Stop being stupid
Be smart.
Be a sheep.
Thread closed.
Read my posts.
I read them.
I read a whole bunch of your posts on another thread in another forum.
It was kind of sad.
Most people I know who say they take part of the New Testament have to have an accompanying conspiracy theory to explain how the other words got in there.
That is most people.
"These words I like. These other words I don't like shouldn't be there. "
No doubt you have some totally innovative and original skepticism that I have
not considered.