1) THE PUBLISHER ON "BEING A PROPHETIC VOICE"
2) THE EDITOR ON "FEARING, YET NOT BEING AFRAID"
3) A.W. TOZER ON "ASTONISHED REVERENCE IN THE DIVINE PRESENCE"
4) CASSIODORUS ON "THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS TO BE LOVED"
5) WALTER HILTON ON "THE FEAR OF GOD PREPARES A FRAGRANT OFFERING TO GOD"
7) THOMAS A KEMPIS ON "LOVE AND FEAR"
8) JOHN FLAVEL ON "THE FEAR OF GOD VS. THE FEAR OF MAN IN THE DAY OF TEMPTATION"
9) ROBERT HALDANE ON "WORKING OUT OUR SALVATION WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING"
10) JOHN MASON NEALE ON "FOUR KINDS OF FEAR OF THE LORD TOWARD COMMITTING SIN"
12) CHARLES G. SPURGEON ON "THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE FEAR OF GOD"
13) OSWALD CHAMBERS ON "HOLINESS AND THE FEAR OF GOD"
Our freedom-loving nation is becoming dangerously similar to the situation that existed in Israel during the time of the judges when "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." We, like the Israelites, have lost that deep sense of reverential awe for the Creator of the universe. It seems that the majority of Americans fears the IRS, anthrax and the threats of Saddam Hussein more than they fear Almighty God.
there must be a proper relationship and understanding between the creature and the Creator. The excerpts in this edition of "Classic- Christianity" identify some of the prophetic voices from the past who have attempted to teach us about the fear of God.
I once heard a pastor preaching on the book of Job, saying that Job had sinned as a result of his fear of God (Job 1:1, 8). The argument was that Job admits that "what I feared has come upon me," (3:25). Since Job was "afraid" of God, his fear brought on a self-fulfilling prophecy. This preacher's interpretation totally misunderstood and distorted what it means to fear God. Fearing God is not being afraid of God (unless you are in sin and have some real reason to be afraid of the consequences). To fear God is a good thing--a godly thing. In fact, it is associated in Job 1:1 with being blameless and upright and shunning evil. Having a healthy fear of God is something we all need more of. Hear what these great men of God have to say about fearing God.
3) A.W. TOZER (1897-1963) ON "ASTONISHED REVERENCE IN THE DIVINE PRESENCE"
When we come into this sweet relationship of communion with God, we are beginning to learn astonished reverence, breathless adoration, awesome fascination, lofty admiration of the attributes of God and something of the breathless silence that we know when God is near.
You may never have realized it before, but all of those elements in our perception and consciousness of the divine Presence add up to what the Bible calls "the fear of God."
We can know a million fears in our hours of pain or in threats of danger or in the anticipation of punishment or death. What we need to plainly recognize is that the fear of God the Bible commends can never be induced by threats or punishment of any kind.
The fear of God is that "astonished reverence" of which the great Faber wrote. I would say that it may grade anywhere from its basic element--the terror of the guilty soul before a holy God--to the fascinated rapture of the worshiping saint. There are very few unqualified things in our lives, but I believe that the reverential fear of God mixed with love and fascination and astonishment and admiration and devotion is the most enjoyable state and the most purifying emotion the human soul can know. In my own being I could not exist very long as a Christian without this inner consciousness of the Presence and nearness of God.
A.W. Tozer, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO WORSHIP? (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1985), 30-31.
4) CASSIODORUS (490-583) ON "THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS TO BE LOVED"
The fear of the Lord is not fear to be feared, but to be loved. Human fear is full of bitterness, divine fear of sweetness: the one drives to slavery, the other allures to liberty; the one dreads the prison of Gehenna, the other opens the kingdom of heaven.
Cassiodorus, cited in C. H. Spurgeon, THE TREASURY OF DAVID (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1978), 2:148.
Editor's Note: Cassiodorus was a Roman aristocrat turned scholar, theologian and monk.
5) WALTER HILTON (d. 1396) ON "THE FEAR OF GOD PREPARES A FRAGRANT OFFERING TO GOD"
When you pray or meditate, or do any other good deed or exercise, be it either good by grace or defective through your own frailty, or whatever it be that you see, feel or hear, smell or taste, either outwardly or by your bodily senses or inwardly by your imagination, or know or perceive by your natural reason, bring it all within the truth and the rules of holy Church, and cast all into the mortar of humility and break it small with the pestle of the fear of God, and throw the powder of all this into the fire of desire, and so offer it up to God. And I tell you truly that well pleasing shall this offering be in the sight of our Lord Jesus, and sweet shall the smoke of that fire smell before His face.
Walter Hilton, SPIRITUAL LIFE OF MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND, Book 1:18 (Albany, OR: AGES Software, 1999), 53.
Editor's Note: Hilton was an English mystic recommended by Tozer.
Each volume of this book explores 10 attributes of God, including goodness, mercy, grace, holiness, omnipotence, wisdom, faithfulness and sovereignty. This Tozer classic is both instructive and inspirational.
7) THOMAS A KEMPIS (1380-1471) ON "LOVE AND FEAR"
All is vanity, therefore, except to love God and to serve Him alone. He who loves God with all his heart does not fear death or punishment or judgment or hell, because perfect love assures access to God. It is no wonder that he who still delights in sin fears death and judgment. It is good, however, that even if love does not as yet restrain you from evil, at least the fear of hell does. The man who casts aside the fear of God cannot continue long in goodness but will quickly fall into the snares of the devil.
Thomas Ã Kempis, THE IMITATION OF CHRIST (Albany, OR: AGES Software, 1999), 44.
8) JOHN FLAVEL (d. 1691) ON "THE FEAR OF GOD VS. THE FEAR OF MAN IN THE DAY OF TEMPTATION"
Among the many glorious promises contained in the bundle of promises, this is one, "I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me" (Jeremiah 32:40). And as the fear of God in our hearts, pleads in us against sin, so our potent intercessor in the heavens pleads for us with the Father; and by reason thereof, we cannot finally miscarry. Upon these grounds, we may triumph in that full security which God has given us; and say, What "shall separate us from the love of God?" (RomansÂ 8:35, KJV) . . .
How sad a thing it is for the best of men to be left to their own carnal fears in a day of temptation. . . . Oh what work will this unruly passion make, if the fear of God do not over-rule it! . . . Shall natural conscience and courage make them stand and keep their places in times of danger; when we shamefully turn our backs upon duty, because we see duty and danger together? . . .
O think, what mischief your fears may do to yourselves, and the discovery of them to others. O learn to trust God with your lives, liberties, and comforts, in the way of your duty; and at that time you are afraid trust in him.
John Flavel, Sermon 28, THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE (Albany, OR: AGES Software, 1999), 330.
Editor's Note: Flavel was an English Puritan minister who was educated at Oxford.
9) ROBERT HALDANE (1764-1842) ON "WORKING OUT OUR SALVATION WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING"
There is a salutary fear which ought always to be maintained in the hearts of Christians; for the assurance of his salvation, which a believer ought to cherish, is not a profane assurance which prompts him to disregard the authority of God, but leads to a diligent carefulness to conform to His word, and make use of the means for edification of His appointment. This is what the Apostle intends when he says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12, KJV); for God designs to banish from our hearts a carnal security, as appears when it is added, "for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (2:13, KJV), showing that it is God who produces in His people both the will and the performance. This fear is required from the consideration of our weakness, our propensity to evil, and the many spiritual enemies with whom we are surrounded; and for the purpose of making us careful that we do not fall. . . . This fear implanted in the hearts of the children of God tends to their preservation in the midst of dangers, as that instinctive fear which exists in all men operates to the preservation of natural life, and is entirely consistent with the fullest confidence in God, with love, and the joyful hope of eternal glory.
Robert Haldane, EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS (Escondido, CA: Ephesians Four Group, 1999), CD-ROM.
Editor's Note: Haldane was a renowned Scottish evangelist, Bible teacher and philantropist.
10) JOHN MASON NEALE (1818-1866) ON "FOUR KINDS OF FEAR OF THE LORD TOWARD COMMITTING SIN"
There are four kinds of fear. MUNDANE, when we fear to commit sin, simply lest we should lose some worldly advantage or incur some worldly inconvenience. SERVILE, when we fear to commit sin, simply because of hell torments due to it. INITIAL, when we fear to commit it, lest we should lose the happiness of heaven. FILIAL, when we fear, only and entirely because we dread to offend that God whom we love with all our hearts.
J.M. Neale, cited in C.G. Spurgeon, THE TREASURY OF DAVID (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1978), 2:147.
Editor's Note: Neale was a Cambridge scholar, Anglican minister, leader in the Oxford movement, translator of ancient hymns and author of the carol "Good King Wenceslas."
Love and fear are emotions that are strangely interrelated as we worship our God. This book focuses on the various aspects of divine love and suggests practical ways for believers to put love to work in everyday life.
12) CHARLES G. SPURGEON (1834-1892) ON "THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE FEAR OF GOD"
Let each one ask himself then, in his Savior's name, for his own profit, "Do you love the Lord?" . . . Note what this question was. It was a question concerning Peter's love. He did not say, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you fear me?" He did not say, "Do you admire me? Do you adore me?" Nor was it even a question concerning his faith. He did not say, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you believe in me?" but he asked him another question, "Do you love me?" That is because love is the very best evidence of piety. Love is the brightest of all the graces; and hence it becomes the best evidence. . . . Love is a more sparkling one than any other. If I have a true fear of God in my heart, then am I God's child; but since fear is a grace that is more dim and has not that halo of glory over it that love has, love becomes one of the very best evidences and one of the easiest signs of discerning whether we are alive to the Savior. He that lacks love, must lack also every other grace in the proportion in which he lacks love. If love be little, I believe it is a sign that faith is little; for he that believes much loves much. If love be little, fear will be little, and courage for God will be little.
Charles G. Spurgeon, THE SPURGEON SERMON COLLECTION, Sermon 117 (Albany, OR: AGES Software, 1999), 829.
"HOLINESS AND THE FEAR OF GOD"
(1) Oswald Chambers, THE SERVANT AS HIS LORD: THE COMPLETE WORKS OF OSWALD CHAMBERS (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House, 2000), 1202.
(2) Oswald Chambers, GOD'S WORKMANSHIP: THE COMPLETE WORKS OF OSWALD CHAMBERS (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House, 2000), 466.