Fear of the Lord

The true Biblical definition of godly fear  is: 'an absolute knowledge that God will hurt me if I deliberately disobey His command'.

There are a lot of well meaning, God loving Christians that have been caught up in 'good Baptist doctrine' that is in fact of the Devil and against the Bible.  We are in a spiritual warfare against the Devil and his forces.  God has given us spiritual weapons to fight with.  Many Christians have laid down one particular weapon and are so strongly trying to convince other Christians to do the same that they condemn those that still use this God given spiritual weapon.

The more effort that the Devil puts into convincing Christians to drop a spiritual weapon, the more I want to use it.

When Jesus headed towards Jerusalem (Luke 13:33-34, Matthew 23:37), He cried for it because He knew of the judgment that would come onto the Jews and that has lasted for almost 2,000 years.  The reason that the Bible gives for this judgment is because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand  (Matthew 13:13; John 9:39).  They closed their minds and refused to consider anything that went against their religious teachings.

Jesus told Peter Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not Revelation revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven  (Matthew 16:17) when Peter expressed a belief which agreed with the word of God but went against (Jewish / Baptist) doctrine.   However, the very next thing that is recorded as being said to Peter by Jesus was Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men  (Matthew 16:23).  This is because Peter started to correct the word of God (Jesus) based upon (Jewish / Baptist) doctrine.   God will judge each of us depending upon what we follow when (Jewish / Baptist) doctrine disagrees with the word of God.  Romans 6:16: says Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?.  I'm going to give you what the word of God teaches.   You choose whom you will yield yourself to obey.

One problem that people get caught in is that they get locked into a single point of view, and then reject a valid, but different, point of view.  Imagine someone looking at a hundred coins and only seeing heads while someone is trying to talk about the eagle on the coin.  When the first person insists that there is no eagle, the second person flips a coin over.  But instead of accepting that there is an eagle on the other side, the first person flips the coin back over and insists that the other point of view is wrong and keeps on insisting that there is no eagle on any coin.  Unless we're that person, we can see that the person has narrowed their point of view too much and is in error for denying a valid truth.  As with the illustration, a person is in error if they reject a Biblical doctrine just because it is not taught by their religion.

Now imagine someone arguing that just because we can't produce a valid U.S.  coin with Hitler's face on it doesn't mean that it can't exist and that we must allow for the possibility of it existing.  Again, unless we're that person, we can see that the person has broadened their point of view too much and is in error of accepting a lie as a valid truth.  As with the illustration, a person is in error if they teach something as a Biblical doctrine that they can not show at least two places that the Bible literally says what they claim.

Revelation 22:18-19 says For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.  This truth is also taught in Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Jeremiah 26:2 and other places.  Each of us is in error if we add to or take away from what the Bible teaches as a literal truth.  God's way of finding that literal truth (resolving hard  passages) is found in Isaiah 28.

A second problem that people get caught in is what Peter got caught in.  They assume that their religions doctrine must be Biblical and start correcting the truth of the Bible to match their doctrine instead of rejecting any religious doctrine that goes against the Bible.

One such error is believing that the Bible contradicts itself.  I have had an open challenge for many years.  I say that there are NO contradictions in the Bible.  In every case that someone has claimed a contradiction, I have shown them that they 'wrestled' the Bible into error as Peter says that some people do (2Peter 3:16).  Wrestlers, of course, try to twist their opponent into an unnatural position.  These people twist one verse into an unnatural interpretation and then (usually) twist another verse into an unnatural interpretation and when these interpretations contradict, they claim that the Bible has contradictions.  In every case I've been able to show them the correct non-contradicting interpretations.  So, the Bible itself does not have contradictions.  Its just their wrongfully twisted interpretations that are contradicting each other.  However, in their sinful pride they often reject the truth and continue in their error until God has to correct them.

A very short basis for this position follows.  We believe that the Bible is the word of God and that according to the Bible, the only image of God which we are allowed is the Bible itself (John 1:1, 14).  That is, when the Bible says that the Word became flesh  (John 1:14), it was declaring that the flesh was Jesus (God in flesh).  The Word (Bible) is our God given picture of Jesus, just like a parent shows you a picture and says 'here is my child'.  Since the Bible is our God given picture of Jesus (Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35), it can not contain errors since there are no errors in God.  And in fact, Peter goes on to say that We have also a more sure word of prophecy, where he said that the Bible was more reliable than his personal first hand witnessing of the words and life of Jesus (2Peter 1:15-21).  We, of course, no longer have Jesus living in the flesh among men but have the Bible.  If the Bible contained an error, either God Himself also has that error or God made an error when giving the Bible to us or God made an error in preserving His image of Himself.  Anyone that insists that their bible has errors received it from a god that has errors and their bible is not my Bible just like their god is not my God.  (Yes, the capitalization and non-capitalization is deliberate).

The only way that the Bible could contradict itself is if God changed between the time that He spoke the one verse and when He spoke the other verse.  However, the Bibles says that God doesn't change (Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6).   Therefore, it is impossible for the Bible, which pictures God, to change.  A contradiction within the Bible would demand a contradiction within God Himself since the Bible is as perfect a picture of God as we can get.  No contradictions within God demands that there are no contradictions within the Bible or that the Bible is not really the perfect word of God.   Read Peters opinion of those that deny the Lord (word of God) that bought them (2Peter 2) then decide how you want to deal with God and His Word.

Now that I've given you the basis for my position, let me state the position.  The Bible clearly orders the Christian to fear the Lord  (Leviticus 19:14, 32; 25:17; Deuteronomy 4:10; 6:2, 13, 24; 8:6; 10:12, 20; 13:4; 14:23; 17:19; 28:58; 31:12-13; Joshua 4:24; 24:14; 1Samuel 11:7; 12:14, 24; 1Kings 18:12; 2Kings 4:1; 17:28, 36, 39; 1Chronicles 14:17; 2Chronicles 14:14; 17:10; 19:9; Nehemiah 1:11; Job 1:9; 28:28; Psalms 2:11; 15:4; 19:9; 22:23; 25:14; 33:8, 18; 34:7, 9, 11; 40:3; 86:11; 96:9; 102:15; 103:13, 17; 111:10; 115:11, 13; 118:4; 135:20; 147:11; Proverbs 1:7, 29; 2:5; 3:7; 8:13; 9:10; 10; 27; 14:26-27; 15:16, 33; 16:6; 19:23; 22:4; 23:17; 24:21; Isaiah 8:13; 33:6; 59:19; Jeremiah 5:22, 24; 26:19; Hosea 3:5; Jonah 1:9; Haggai 1:12; Malachi 1:6; 1Peter 3:15).  This list is only some of the places where fear  and Lord  occur in the same verse and where that verse is a commandment for the child of God to fear Him.  This list does not include the verses that follow these verses with additional instructions.  Nor does this list include the verses where the Bible says to fear God  or other some other word combination that say the same thing.  Look at the Book Study on Study on Proverbs 9 for an example of how a proper study must also consider context.  (Proverbs 9 includes the phrase fear of the LORD.)  However, there's enough verses listed here that I doubt that most readers will look all of them up.  There should be enough to end any argument about if the Bible tells the child of God to fear the Lord  or not.   It isn't really a question of what the Bible says so much as it is a question of obedience.

In addition, to the verses above, Psalms 36:1 and Jeremiah 2:19 says that those who do not fear the Lord are wicked.  Malachi 3:5 puts those that do not fear the Lord in the same category as sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right.  Isaiah 11:1-3 says that Jesus Christ would live in the fear of the Lord  and we know that are to follow the example of Jesus Christ.  Acts 9:31: says that the early church walked in the fear of the Lord  and equates the fear of the Lord  with the comfort of the Holy Ghost.  Acts 19:17 says that the fear of the Lord  caused the name of the Lord Jesus (to be) 'magnified.  Finally, Revelation 15:4 equates The fear of the Lord  with glorifying the Lords name.

Folks, that's a lot of verses listed above along with a very small bit of explanation.  However, a lot of well meaning, God loving Christians that have been caught up in 'good Baptist doctrine' that we are not only to disobey this command from God (to fear the Lord) but are to correct  any child of God who is 'foolish' enough to believe they are to obey the clear literal commandment in the Bible.  I say that this position is in fact of the Devil and against the Bible.  As I will show, the fear of the Lord  is a God given spiritual weapon designed to keep us from sin and God's judgment.   The Devil, of course, wants us to drop this weapon and keep sinning.

These godly people have a lot of 'good Baptist doctrine', preachers and churches to support this position, but I tell you that the 'good Baptist doctrine' is a twisted lie from Satan, just like the doctrine that Peter was fighting for when Jesus called Peter Satan  (Matthew 16:23).  Now, if you're still reading this far, you've already agreed with me that any claimed contradiction within the Bible is not a contradiction within the Bible itself but is in fact a contradiction of the twisted interpretations of the Bible.  Most people that really disagreed with that position would have quit reading in anger before this.  Since there are so many Biblical references that literally order us to fear the Lord, the problem must be with the twisted interpretation of the verses that contradict this clear commandment.  However, before I get into that let me point out one consequence of the church refusing this weapon from God.  We are told that us Revivals before 1900 resulted in people stopping their sinning and leading their neighbors, cities and states into a changed society where open sin was frowned upon.  Since 1900, all claimed us Revivals did not have the ending of sin and an impact upon society.  I claim that this difference is due, to a large extent, to how much people actually feared the consequence of their continuing in their sin.

The first claimed objection to preaching that we are to: fear the Lord  is the subtle claim that our Lord and God is a liar.  This lie is so subtle that a lot of good godly people don't even realize that they are doing it and I believe that they will be horrified when they realize the truth.  This lie is the 'good Baptist doctrine' that God meant respect  when He wrote fear.  Most of these people have pointed out that Satan took the Bible out of context when he tempted Jesus (Luke 4:1-13).  Most of these people have condemned other 'liberal Christian' religions / doctrines that have changed words in verses so that the verses no longer condemned their doctrine.  Most know, and have taught, where God increases the condemnation of those people who condemn a sin in another then do the same sin themselves (Romans 2:1-11).  All of these people can use a computer program or concordinance and find the word Reverence  (and related words) in their Bible.  This proves that the Lord, and the Bible translators, knew the word Reverence  when the Bible was translated into English.  Therefore, to claim that God meant reverence  when he used fear  in the Bible leads to one of four possible conclusions:

1. God is a liar because He put one thing in His Word and meant another.
2. God is impotent and incompetent because He can't keep Satan and men from changing the covenant (spiritual contract) after He completed it and put it into writing in the Bible.
3. The Bible really isn't the word of God but something written by men and God is not bound to any part of it including providing salvation from Hell and eternity in Heaven.
4. The person making that claim is themselves wrong and an unreliable representative of the God of Heaven and His Word.

I challenge everyone to prove that any other conclusion is possible.

Let me be clear, just in case there is any question about my position.  I believe that the literal translation of the Bible is the Word of the Creator of the Universe, known as God.  I believe that the Bible is the word of God that God will use when He judges us.   I believe that the God of the Bible loves us and told us the truth.  He said what He meant and meant what He said.  He told us the method to use when interpreting His word.   Those instructions are in Isaiah 28.  The literal interpretation of the Bible, using God's method as stated in Isaiah 28, is that God has commanded His children to Fear Him.

Having stated my position, I recognize that I have opened myself up to the responsibility of showing how to interpret any verse in the Bible that appears to contradict this commandment.  However, I do not have to answer a doctrine that is not backed by Bible verses interpreted according to Isaiah 28.  I have documented how to interpret the Bible, according to Isaiah 28, in another document.

Before I get into any specific verses of the Bible, let me start with a general error that many people make.  Here I am going to state basic teachings of the Bible and not prove them.   Anyone that needs proof of these things is too spiritually immature to understand the rest of this paper.

Many religions and belief systems tell people that they 'just need faith'.  Consider: the people that the U.S.  labels as 'terrorists' and 'suicide bombers' definitely have faith.  They just don't have the faith of the Bible.  The fact is that the Bible teaches that having faith isn't enough but you must have faith in the right person (Jesus Christ).  Many religions state that God is love  and say that you just need love.  However, in 1Timothy 6:10: the Bible says For the love of money is the root of all evil.  From this and many other things in the Bible we know that it isn't having love but what (and who) you love that really matters.  It isn't having faith, but who you have faith in.  We could go on and study every emotion in the Bible and we would find over and over that the Bible doesn't condemn or praise an emotion by itself but how it is used in our lives.  The same is true about fear.  The Bible doesn't teach against that fear itself is bad but teaches against fearing certain things (the world, the flesh, the Devil and everything that comes from them).  This fear of things that keep us from obeying God does not prevent the child of God from fearing God.

Fear is an emotion that keeps us from doing something.  The Bible really teaches that any fear which keeps us from obeying the Bible and the God of the Bible is to be rejected by the child of the God.  However, the Bible also teaches that the true fear of the Lord  actually keeps us from sin.  The God of the Bible is the same yesterday today and forever  (Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6).   All through the Bible God gives His people a curse for disobedience and a blessing for obedience.  All through the Bible God is called a Father  and the example for human fathers.  To claim that God will not punish sin or that God tells anyone to not fear the punishment of sin is to claim something that goes against a basic teaching (precept) about the character of the God of the Bible.  The Bible teaches that such teachings are from Satan.

To the best of my knowledge, all of the conservative Bible believing religions claim that the teaching which says 'parents should only give or withhold rewards but never punish' is of the Devil.  To claim that God exercises a doctrine of the Devil when dealing with His children is utter foolishness.  The God of the Bible deals with His children the same way as He tells us to deal with our children.  When the Jews came into the Promised Land, God offered reward for obedience and punishment for sin.  God did the same many other places.  Yet, many conservative Bible believing religions claim that somehow the God who never changes will change when it comes to the judgment seat of Christ  (Please see the notes for Romans 14:10 and 2Corinthians 5:10-11).   I'm not going to get into the judgment seat of Christ  and cause a lot of arguments other than to say two things.  1Corinthians 3:15 says that some saved people will suffer loss  at the judgment seat of Christ.  These good people emphasize loss  to the point of effectively removing the word suffer.   Then Revelation 21:4 says that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes  and they ignore that this doesn't occur until after the 1,000 years reign of Christ.  Now, I challenge you to survey a school full of children.  Ask them if someone is 'punished' when they face an authority and as a result of facing that authority they suffer  and have tears for a long time.  I know that I'm not going into a lot of detail here and refuse to do so since people are very passionate about a doctrine that they can not show a single Bible verse to back up.  Many people claim that all punishment for the Christian occurs in this life only, but can not show a single verse in the Bible to back that claim.  Every time I point this out to them, they start attacking me and making the disagreement about me and my experience.  However, I have nothing to do with what is or is not in the Bible.  People who claim that all punishment occurs in this world remove a lot of the Biblical reason for the child of God to fear the Lord.  That's part of the reason that God's children then reject the clear commandment of the Bible to fear the Lord.  They have no reason left to do it.  However, if we accept all of the verses that clearly teach us to fear the Lord,  then we have to ask when does the punishment occur for the disobedient child of God.  And, if we're truthful, we have to admit that punishment in this life is not sufficient to stop some people from sinning, even though they claim to be Christians.

The day will come when we each face our Lord and give an answer for the things done in the flesh (Romans 14:10, 2Corinthians 5:10-11).  We will each stand alone.  I do not believe that I will be able to say that this or that preacher taught whatever doctrine since God gave me His Word and His Holy Ghost to teach me that Word and God sent men into my life to warn me about false teachings from 'good godly preachers'.  I believe that God will not only tell me 'here's what you taught' but will also hold me accountable for the consequences of those teachings.  If the results of my teaching is that people justify their sin and continue in it, I believe I will be punished.  If the result of my teaching is that people fear 1,000 yearss of punishment after death and stop doing sin that punishment in this life could not stop them from doing, I believe that I will be rewarded.  You do as you are willing to answer to your God, Lord and Saviour.

Now that I've dealt with general teachings on this subject, let me deal with a couple of specific verses that are used to contradict the clear teaching in the Bible that the child of God is to fear the Lord.

One of the most basic causes of confusion is 1John 4:17-18 which says Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.  He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  The most basic cause of error related to this verse is that the Devil has convinced many of God's children to copy his method and take part of the sentence out of context.  Many fundamental Bible believers will quote There is no fear in love  or love casteth out fear  but they do not quote the entire sentence and they take what they do quote out of context.  In context, the word love  is qualified by the word perfect  three times.  In the Bible, the word perfect  means 'fully grown up with no possibility of maturing more' or '100% mature'.  If we apply this qualifier to the two partial quotes used most often, we get immediate (if limited) clarification.  If people said 'There is no fear in 100% love' or '100% love casteth out fear', very few people would have trouble accepting that these claims do not eliminate fear.  The fact is that only a fool or a liar would claim to live in '100% love' (1John 4:17-18) at all times.  Therefore, a little fear is possible in the rare occasions that these 'almost perfect' people slip down to living at '99% love'.

Let me illustrate.  The Bible teaches that God is perfect love.  When I am following God 'perfectly', I am in His perfect love.  If God says to go due north, and I turn to the left or right even a couple of degrees, then I am no longer following God's perfect love  'perfectly'.  It is only a matter of time before I have drifted quite far from God's perfect love.  Therefore, there is not a problem with God's perfect love  but with my inability to follow 'perfectly'.

Now some people don't like the use of '100%'.  I have pointed them to Hebrews 11:40 which said that all of the heroes of 'chapter of faith' would not be made perfect  without us, and received that complaint that there the word perfect  was referring to when we get to Heaven.  So, some use of perfect  is not while we are in this life but some, including 1John 4:17-18, is in this life.  However, Luke 6:40 is instructions for this life where our Lord Jesus Christ told us The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.  So, according to Jesus, perfect love  is to love like God does.  And I still maintain that anyone who claims that they love like God does all of the time is either an ignorant fool or a liar.  But we could go on to the three references in Job where God said that Job was a man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil  (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3).  I don't know anyone who can honestly claim to be more perfect  than Job was.  Yet, Jobs 'perfection' was not enough to let him stop fearing the Lord.  The fact is that I could go through every verse in the Bible dealing with perfect  and people would find one reason after another to claim that the verse mentioned didn't apply to them for some reason.  In their heart they want to claim that they have done the impossible.  I say that we can have 1John 4:17-18 for short periods of time while we live in this flesh, but that most of our lives come short of perfect love.  Those people who claim to live with perfect love  all of the time still need to go through the verses I've already listed and explain why each one doesn't apply to them.  If any does, I know that I can find at least another 100 verses that give the same command with different wording.   However, I seriously doubt that these people will even read the verses because doing so would not allow them to be comfortable while they go on believing a lie.  The real shame isn't that people refuse to obey a clear command that is given over 100 times in the Bible, but that they insist that other saved people do the same and cause those others to suffer God's judgment for ongoing sin.

This whole discussion on the command to fear the Lord  is understood a little better with an illustration.  Draw a large circle on the ground.  At due north, put up a post and label it 'perfect obedience'.  At due south, put up a post and label it 'perfect sin'.  At the east point and at the west point put up poles and label one of them 'liberal compromise' and label the other 'conservative compromise'.  Now have several people try standing in the center of the circle and put observers outside of the circle.  I know for a fact that I am in a very small portion of the population who can see both shoulders at the same time.  This small portion could see 'perfect obedience' and 'perfect sin' at the same time, if they were pointed perfectly at either compromise pole.  However, most of the population can't see both at the same time.  Most people have to be turned away from 'perfect obedience' to see perfect sin  and they have to be turned away from 'perfect sin' to see 'perfect obedience'.

The Love of God pulls us towards 'perfect obedience' and the love of the world, flesh and the devil pull us towards 'perfect sin' (1John).  The fear of the Lord  pushes us away from 'perfect sin' and the fear of the world, flesh and the devil push us away from 'perfect obedience'.  Most people understand that compromise is the result of having some love for the world, flesh and the devil, which is less than perfect love of God.  In fact, most should be able to see the truth in this illustration that there is a direct inverse relationship between our love for the world, flesh and the devil and our love of God.  However, what most people don't understand is another Bible truth that there is a direct inverse relationship between our fear for the world, flesh and the devil and our fear of the Lord.  When we are lined up with 'perfect obedience', we are completely obeying the pull of the love of God  but we are also completely obeying the fear of the Lord.  Some might ask how we are completely obeying the fear of the Lord.  The fear of the Lord  teaches punishment for even 'little sins'.  When we do no sins, not even the even 'little sins', we are obeying the fear of the Lord  which teaches us to stop our sinning.  When we are lined up with 'perfect sin', we are completely obeying the pull of the 'love of the world, the flesh and the devil' but we are also completely disobeying the love of God.  In addition, we are also completely obeying the 'fear of the world, the flesh and the devil' but we are also completely disobeying the fear of the Lord.

In our illustration, most people turn to the right or left (away from 'perfect obedience') some amount in order to see 'compromise' on either side.  Those that see 'compromise' and know that 'perfect sin' lies beyond 'compromise' in the same direction, are operating in the fear of the Lord  when they go back the other direction just as soon as they see 'compromise'.   They have not seen sin and its consequence yet are operating in the fear of the Lord  because they know that fear of the consequences , which they have not yet experienced, will be experienced if they continue turning the same direction.  These people might not experience fear directly, and yet are operating in the fear of the Lord, when they turn away from 'compromise' just as soon as they see it because by turning away from 'compromise' they are in fact also turning away from 'perfect sin' .  They might not be sensitive enough to know that they have turned a little out of alignment with 'perfect obedience' because they are not sensitive enough to realize the correcting pull of love.  However, if they use the fear of the Lord, which they can sense easier, they will turn away from the fear of the Lord  and back into alignment with 'perfect obedience'.

That's the way that God's love and fear work together.  God's love is supposed to draw us towards walking in the direction of 'perfect obedience' to God's will.  God's fear is supposed to drive us away from walking in sin.  Most of us are far more sensitive to fear than to love.  If we are facing the pole labeled 'perfect obedience' none of us can see the pole marked 'perfect sin' and most can't see the poles marked 'compromise'.  This is the point when there is no fear.  However, the more that we turn away from 'perfect obedience', the more we turn towards 'perfect sin' and it doesn't matter if we turn to the right or to the left.  The more we turn towards 'perfect sin', the more fear of the Lord  (and His judgment) we should feel.  God gives us this gift because we are more sensitive to fear than we are to love.  We can be turned part way away from perfect love  and not realize it.  However, if we are paying attention to the fear of the Lord, we can know that as soon as we start to feel it we should move away from it.  If we start to turn to the right away from perfect love  , then the fear of the Lord  should drive us back to the left to get away from it.  If we start to turn to turn left away from perfect love, then the fear of the Lord  should drive us back to the right to get away from it.  This way, by moving away from the fear of the Lord  we are in fact moving more in line with the perfect love of God.

As you should be able to see, we need the fear of the Lord  because our sinful nature does not allow us to sense the perfect love of God  enough to guide our lives only by that.

Go back and read the context of 1John with this in mind.  In the same verse that people take out of context (1John 4:17-18) it says He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  I will state the opinion that anyone who claims that they have been made perfect in love  and is always in 'perfect obedience' to God's will is either a liar or a fool.  While this might be true for some of us some of the time, it is not true for anyone all of the time according to 1John 1.  Most of us should be able to agree that we have not yet reached that point where we no longer need the fear of the Lord.

I know that there was another verse that people use to say we shouldn't obey the Bibles clear command to fear the Lord  , but I don't remember it.  When someone reminds me of it, I will deal with it.  The first thing I will do is read the context of the verse and apply God's instructions in Isaiah 28 to see what the Bible is really saying there.  I am sure that, at that point, I will have no problem answering any challenge to the commandment to fear the Lord:.  The only real problem will be those who are not looking for the truth but are wanting to argue and justify their error and sin.  So I need to be sure that we don't end up arguing but are actually working together towards a better understanding of the word of God.  That means that I first need to be sure that we are using the same foundation.  Therefore Let me ask everyone to first answer a couple of questions before they present their challenging verse.

1. Do you agree that we have the inerrant word of God in the KJV1611? If not, then we do not have a common basis and can not proceed until we have a common basis.
2. Do you agree that there can be no contradiction within the Bible? If not, then we are dealing with different pictures of or God, if not dealing with different God's and can not proceed until we have a common God.
3. Do you agree with the method of interpreting the Bible as presented in Isaiah 28 (where God clearly said how He teaches doctrine)? If not, then we do not have a common method and can not proceed until we have a common method.
4. Do you agree that we have a clear command from God to fear the Lord  based upon the KJV1611 and the method of Bible interpretation presented in Isaiah 28? If not, go back and go over every verse that I presented in this paper that says to fear the Lord  and explain to me how that verse is to be interpreted so that we do not have to fear the Lord.  To proceed without agreement on what has already been presented is to introduce confusion and confusion is not of the God of the Bible but is of Satan.  Therefore, I will not proceed without further comment upon what has been presented so far.

I am not interested in arguing with people and strongly believe the Biblical command of: But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.  (Titus 3:9).  In my years I've met many people who brush away hours and days and months of Bible study by me because they've spent a few seconds or minutes looking a one or two verses that they're sure offsets all of my study.  In my experience, when I show them their error they refuse to agree that they were wrong but jump to another misinterpreted verse and that even those who strive to be godly can be caught up in Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.  (2Timothy 3:7).  Those who are really interested in coming to the truth will stick with one part of the Bible until the truth is found and not jump around causing confusion and strife.  Therefore, I must insist that we have agreement on the four questions above before we proceed any further with additional verses or points that anyone wishes to consider in this matter.

I started out saying that I wanted to use a spiritual weapon that the Devil put a lot of effort into convincing Christians that they should drop and that they should convince other Christians that they also should drop.  I used Biblical examples to warn of the consequence of following religion when it opposes the Bible.   I then identified the weapon as the fear of the Lord  and identified over 90 verses that tell us to fear the Lord.  I pointed out that the identified verses were a lot less than all of the places that God tells His children to fear  Him.  I then showed several ways that error is taught about the fear of the Lord  and tried to show what the Bible really teaches in these cases.  Finally, I challenged the reader to actually study the word of God on the matter and not just discard what I've said with little effort put into finding the truth.  Let me leave you with a question.  Who but an enemy would convince you to drop a weapon during warfare? Who but an enemy would try to convince you that you don't even want to consider if you should pick this weapon up again? If the Devils that scared of the fear of the Lord, then I'm going to use it.