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Robert_Sock
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If we believe that God is all-loving, why should we fear him?
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fisherman_carl
Guest
When your father punished you for doing wrong did he not do it because he loved you? There is no need to fear God in perfect love. For God is love. It is only sin that we need to fear because it separates us from God and invites harmful repercussions. We fear the punishment of God because we have not been made perfect in love yet.
We fear God in the sense that he is our judge. But, if we love and obey God we have nothing to fear. What we fear is punishment, the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. Since God is just and merciful we don’t need to fear him as if he was an evil tyrant. Instead, we only need to be like him. That is we must choose good (God) over evil so that we will be with him.
We fear God in the sense that he is our judge. But, if we love and obey God we have nothing to fear. What we fear is punishment, the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. Since God is just and merciful we don’t need to fear him as if he was an evil tyrant. Instead, we only need to be like him. That is we must choose good (God) over evil so that we will be with him.
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CHRISTINE77
Guest
In the fact that he is awesome, all -powerful and has your life in his hands.If we believe that God is all-loving, why should we fear him?
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fhansen
Guest
To add to the good answers here: To fear God is to acknowledge His existence first of all, His superiority, our need of Him, and to then subjugate ourselves to Him. This is wisdom. “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom” Ps 9:10. From there we grow in the knowledge of God, and fear increasingly gives way to love.
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Bradski
Guest
If your father told you that he loved you and then in the same breath said he would torment you incessantly if you were bad, how would you feel?
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fhansen
Guest
Incessant torment is the inherent consequence of being persistently “bad”, bad being a failure to embrace love.If your father told you that he loved you and then in the same breath said he would torment you incessantly if you were bad, how would you feel?
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Bradski
Guest
How about answering the question before we discuss the merits of this particular system of justice.Incessant torment is the inherent consequence of being persistently “bad”, bad being a failure to embrace love.
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Robert_Sock
Guest
I fear the pain and suffering of purgatory which is supposed to be very harsh, like that of hell, except it’s not eternal. I do not like extreme pain and suffering, and I fear it greatly.
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fhansen
Guest
If my father told me that walking off a cliff would bring me great pain and/or death, I’d recognize his desire to keep me safe.How about answering the question before we discuss the merits of this particular system of justice.
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Aloysium
Guest
If your dad is simply your buddy, if what he says doesn’t matter, and such warnings as that mentioned above, are to be trivialized, you are going to get into some pretty serious trouble. The world is founded on love, and if you refuse to participate in God’s plan to forge you into a loving person, you will find your eternal self not fitting in at the end.
There is justice; so, as it’s a pretty good idea to feel a little twinge of fear around the police, knowing ourselves to be who we are, it is more so with respect to God.
However, we do leave ourselves to His mercy, which is revealed in the sacrifice and resurrection of His son, that we might thereby also be His sons and daughters.
There is justice; so, as it’s a pretty good idea to feel a little twinge of fear around the police, knowing ourselves to be who we are, it is more so with respect to God.
However, we do leave ourselves to His mercy, which is revealed in the sacrifice and resurrection of His son, that we might thereby also be His sons and daughters.
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Robert_Sock
Guest
When I think about the extreme suffering of many of the great saints, like the Little Flower, I tremble in fear!
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Vico
Guest
Each persons internal self-judgment is according to an attitude towards Christ.If we believe that God is all-loving, why should we fear him?
John 3:18
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
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CHRISTINE77
Guest
And yet she said: “O my God, Thou know I have never desired but to love Thee alone. I seek no other glory. Thy Love has gone before me from my childhood, it has grown with my growth, and now it is an abyss the depths of which I cannot fathom.”When I think about the extreme suffering of many of the great saints, like the Little Flower, I tremble in fear!
God is love, Robert, unfathomable love.
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Robert_Sock
Guest
I realize that most of us must suffer either in this world or in purgatory, but I’m still fearful of it. St Therese suffered so much at the end of her life.And yet she said: “O my God, Thou know I have never desired but to love Thee alone. I seek no other glory. Thy Love has gone before me from my childhood, it has grown with my growth, and now it is an abyss the depths of which I cannot fathom.”
God is love, Robert, unfathomable love.
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Xystus
Guest
You should fear God in the reverential awe sense of fear, not the emotion aroused by impending danger or evil sense of fear.
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Todd977
Guest
The Catechism says:If your father told you that he loved you and then in the same breath said he would torment you incessantly if you were bad, how would you feel?
The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs. ( 1035Catechism of the Catholic Church,)
Our eternal separation from God in hell is a self-imposed exile. It is sort of like the prodigal son who left his loving father and the comfort of his father’s house to journey to a far country in Jesus’ parable (Luke 15:11-32), except, when we sin and die unrepentant, we burn the bridge behind us so that we can never return to our loving Father and the comfort of our Father’s house and are stuck in the most miserable of conditions forever. In the afterlife, for those of us in heaven, God will be our food, our drink, our sun, our companion; for those of us in hell, without God, we will always be hungry, thirsty, in utter darkness and cold, alone.
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ffg
Guest
This was just asked a little differently last night in RCIA - Like a few of the answers -If we believe that God is all-loving, why should we fear him?
A: In the sense that we fear offending Him
Not in the sense of be scared of Him.
Keeps us grounded as to who we are and who we are not.
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Robert_Sock
Guest
Did anybody mention a fear of purgatory which I happen to have?This was just asked a little differently last night in RCIA - Like a few of the answers -
A: In the sense that we fear offending Him
Not in the sense of be scared of Him.
Keeps us grounded as to who we are and who we are not.
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ffg
Guest
They did not.Did anybody mention a fear of purgatory which I happen to have?
What drives that fear for you, do you think?
God wants you to have peace, not just later, but now.
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