The Fear of God?

There are no justifiable or warranted reasons to be evil but there is every reason to be good.

Those who wish to absolve and justify their mean and despicable ways will argue that life has dealt them a harsh and cruel hand and that they are only responding in kind and that if there is a God that He too must be inherently cruel and harsh for He looks down with favour on some and on others with malice and perversity.
If God is All-Powerful, All-Loving, and All-Encompassing, they say, then why does He not intercede on behalf of the innocent and helpless who through no fault of their own are victims of cruel treatment, merciless conditions and punishing deprivation? How can a kind, loving, and generous Creator stand idly by and allow such suffering and torture to continue? The world abounds with cruelty, brutality, and injustice so why then does God not bring an end to these tragic and pitiful symptoms of imperfection in a creation for which He alone claims credit?
Man creates nothing! He merely discovers that which already exists and then creatively employs it to his advantage. Man has the power of discovery but not the power of creation, hence, from whence comes cruelty, torture, hatred, treachery, betrayal, lying, cheating, and theft? Humankind may exhibit these symptoms but cannot rightfully claim credit for having created them. This dubious distinction must be laid at the doorstep of He Who is the Creator of all things both visible and invisible. If evil exists then God must have created it. How then can the Creator of evil condemn and punish His creation for having fallen prey to insidious forces that are not of their making?

We most certainly can fear a God Who possesses such overwhelming power and Who can impose terrible anguish and retribution against all who would rebel against Him but how can we be expected to love and worship such a biased and whimsical deity? We cannot help but fear Him for He is Omnipotent and we are helpless and powerless pawns in the face of His irresistible Will, but, in the same way that a bag cannot contain more than it can hold, so too is it true that there is no room in a human heart for love when it is filled to overflowing with fear and outrage.
When confronted by the inescapable reality of all the pain and suffering that surrounds us, these observations and criticisms are unavoidable and expected, nonetheless, no matter how easily these complaints and queries roll off the tongue and occupy the mind, an answer capable of subduing the bitterness and of instilling a serenity of attitude into a troubled soul does lie within our grasp, nonetheless, the conditions for its discovery require that we observe with an eye that is not clouded by imitation, that we listen with an ear that hearkens to the exquisite sounds of harmony and is not deafened by the discordant cacophony of shrieking ravens, and that we listen with a mind that is uncluttered by the clamor of the misguided, uncontaminated by the blemish of enmity, and unsullied by the stain of bias.
All the elements for securely grasping and resolving this perplexity are well within our reach and require only that we approach them with a purity of motive, sincerity of intent, and earnestness of heart.
What then is meant by the ‘fear of God’? Indeed! The phrase is both a contradiction and a riddle. On the surface it would seem to be a contradiction for it flies in the face of our conception of God as being All-Loving, All-Merciful, and All-Forgiving, and yet, all of the Founders of the Great Religions have instructed Their followers to arm themselves with, and to exhort their fellow man to observe, a proper fear of God and to dread and beware of His wrath.

How can we, on the one hand, embrace the concept that God is loving, merciful, generous, and forgiving and, on the other hand, recoil from Him with a heart that is filled with fear and dread of His wrath?
The answer lies in the reality that these are two entirely different positions of the mind whereby our heart is moved and our actions dictated. These are two very different vantage points and each cultivates praiseworthy behaviour and promotes commendable conduct by appealing to very different perceptions entertained in the minds of very different individuals.
In general, when we think of the word fear it conjures up an image of limbs quaking, knees knocking, loins cramping, bowels sagging, and kidneys emptying in response to some imminent threat of injury to body, mind, or cherished possession and, generally, this is true. However, there is also the fear that arises when we consider the consequences of our actions by which our behaviour is molded, our conduct is guided, our emotions are harnessed, and our passions are restrained, thereby either liberating our innate abilities and loosing our inherent talents to soar to the heights for which they were intended or, conversely, bringing about the shackling of our treasures and the loss of that which we deem to be precious.
Nothing is more pitiable than to waste time and energy rallying our talents and abilities in the pursuit of that which is worthless and profitless. Man was not intended to be a fig tree that bears no fruit and that is only fit for the fire. The meadow of his mind was meant to blossom in a dazzling spectrum of floral beauty and the orchard of his heart was meant to abound in a succulent array of unblemished fruit from which all succeeding generations may partake. The sound of his voice should carry a melody to delight the hearing of the lover of song and cause all the atoms of his limbs to dance to the ecstasy of its exhilarating harmony. Joy and gladness are gifts of God the absence of which brings anguish to the mind and the prospect of the loss of which brings fear to the heart.
Why then would any person persist, with an intransigent mind, to disregard these self-evident truths and to indulge their most corrupt inclinations? Why does the intelligent and perceptive mind construct battlements to enclose and protect its selfish pursuits and to shut out every effort by the Emissaries of truth and reason to bridge the moat of their self-imposed isolation from reality?
Is it, perhaps, that they fear the loss of that which they already possess and are unable to perceive any substitute of equal or greater value that could impel them to relinquish their hold on it? Or is it, perhaps, that they refuse to gaze beyond the moment, and in the narrow and confined prison of their ignorance, have no fear of consequences that they refuse to acknowledge and, hence, no motive to curb their appetite?
Each and every person throughout the limitless expanse of the universe has been created to know God and to worship Him and each soul from the moment of its birth embarks on a journey the ultimate destination of which is reunion with its Creator and asylum within His loving embrace. When, however, a soul resorts to and employs torture, cruelty, betrayal, violence, cheating, lying, and theft as a means to gain their fortune or advance their position, so too do they attract to them forces of a similar nature with an effect equally as fearful, since the daily practice of these contemptible actions forces them to exist at a level that is immeasurably beneath the station that they are destined in the fullness of time to occupy. They have every good reason to fear the consequences of such flagrant misconduct because this spiritually criminal behaviour does no less than rally the forces of the universe to resist their perverse actions and automatically invokes its self-regulating safeguards to ensure that all the elements within it are properly disciplined for all attempts to disrupt the harmony and unity of its existence.

Both fear and the wrath of God pre-exist our awareness of them and whether in this world or the next the inescapable effect of our transgression will exert its influence and be brought to bear upon the soul.
By the wrath of God is meant cause and effect and should not be construed to mean that God sits idly upon His plush throne surveying His creation while at the same time correcting mistakes that have not gone according to His Will. God does not make mistakes that He must at a later date correct. The universe does and is unable to resist unfolding according to His Will. In other words, the entire universal system, all of God’s creatures including humankind, and all other universes presently unknown to us, have been created by Him completely equipped with all safeguards and universal laws that, if ignored or transgressed, will bring retribution to bear upon the transgressor. If you disregard His instructions to you, or if you deliberately and knowingly act in opposition to His laws and teachings then you will pay the price for your transgression whether it be in this world or the next. That is one of the immutable and universal laws that underlies His entire creation both visible and invisible.
Two innate guardians that serve as protective champions to the soul are, the sense of shame and, the sentinel of conscience, neither of which exists in every persons heart or occupies every persons mind.
There are some who are not endowed with a sense of shame and whose sordid existence is a reflection of this absence and there are others whose heart and mind are deprived of conscience and for whom torture and cruelty are instruments of delight and for whom pity, mercy, and remorse, are deemed to be the attributes of fools. Their hardened hearts are unmoved by the cries of their victims, the pleas of their captives, or the tears of the grief-stricken whose agony arises out of the loss of a loved one at the hands of evil butchers. Such as these are parasitic organisms whose behaviour is not regulated by ethics or morality and who respond only to the fear of retribution by outer social forces designed to safeguard the whole of which they are a destructive part. Justice, not personal revenge, demands that laws and the means for their application be put in place to protect the innocent from the parasites that seek to feed upon them. A flock of lambs must be safeguarded by a shepherd to protect them from the insatiable appetite of the wolf against whom they have no defense. The shepherd harbors no ill-will and his protection is not motivated by hatred for the wolf, rather, while recognizing that the wolf is a victim of its predatory and carnivorous inclinations and cannot be blamed for pursuing its prey he, nonetheless, also recognizes that the lambs have neither the strength or the faculties to stand against the wolf who, if left to his own devices, will steal into the pack and devour them all one by one. The shepherd would prefer that the wolf never approach his flock for it is not his wish to bring harm to it, however, his first duty is to his flock and if necessary he will destroy the wolf if it threatens the safety of the innocent lambs in his custody. Punishment should never be motivated by revenge lest it descend into the abyss of brutality and cruelty and in so doing transform the guardian into a mirror image of the perpetrator that they condemn so that no distinction can be detected between them.
If the actions of the heart and mind are conditioned by the sense of shame then it becomes unthinkable to entertain any idea or course of action that would redound either to your own personal dishonor or to the dishonor of those things that you hold most dear.
If the actions of the heart and mind are faithfully served by the sentinel of conscience then it becomes equally unthinkable to knowingly and deliberately perpetrate acts that would bring injury and suffering to the innocent and harmless or that would inflict savage, brutal, and merciless torture and revenge upon those who are deemed to be guilty.
The sense of shame and the sentinel of conscience are the twin pillars upon which the canopy of justice is supported and they are the secure foundation upon which the institution of justice is erected. Within the hallowed sanctuary of their embrace, that is an asylum for the righteous and the innocent, can only be inhaled the fragrance of equity and the scent of freedom.

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Carbon is the most abundant element of the earth and no living organism has yet been discovered that does not rely upon it for the integrity of its existence. When carbon is placed in the crucible of fire and subjected to the rigors of extreme pressure it emerges as the hardest substance known to man and when this same substance is refined and polished its beauty and brilliance cause it to be diligently sought after as a source of wealth and adornment. The many faceted diamond expresses its luster no matter from which vantage point it is viewed and has long been the symbol for the journey of that which is crude, in its earliest stages, to the eventual zenith of its potential.
From the bowels of human history and out of the earth of human understanding have been extracted two unique diamonds pre-eminent over all others, both of which are pursued with passion, and each of which is the reciprocal counterpart and adversary of the other. One is a prodigy to be admired and emulated whereas the other is a prodigal to be distrusted and avoided. In a contingent world life does not exist without both since the presence of one depends on the presence of the other. The knowledge of one requires the knowledge of the other since only in the Eden of total ignorance does the presence of either remain undetected.
These two paramount diamonds that dominate the activities of humankind are Love and Hate, out of which all other qualities and attributes arise and they represent, on the one hand, the conditions of heaven and hell and, on the other hand, the two compelling forces that propel humankind either to soar to the heights of greatness or to descend to the depths of shame.

Love, that is to say, the force of attraction and affection, without which solid form would cease to exist and the most minute component of the tiniest atom would suddenly vanish into nothingness, and without which, throughout the infinite expanse of our universe and all universes that extend beyond, all matter and all life that depended upon it would simply disappear with only a void remaining where life had once existed. Love is the central emanation from God and the surest sign of His presence.
Those who know God and worship Him are also those who love Him and whose hearts are filled with dread, not because of the expectation of His retribution against them, but because they fear that they may transgress His Word, earn His censure, and thereby fail to enjoy His approval. This fear arises from the need not to disappoint their Beloved and is a natural corollary to the sense of shame and the sentinel of conscience. This is the spiritual and emotional fear and is a healthy and necessary part of our existence and it is a fear that is capable of subjugating all other considerations, including physical fear, as is evidenced by those courageous and heroic martyrs who have shed their blood and their very substance in the path of their beliefs and who have stoically endured a persecution and suffering, the like of which we can but imagine, for the sake of their love for their Beloved.
Love is the essence of life, the cause of all attraction, the basis of all affection, the source of all bonding, and it permeates all things whether visible or invisible, and, though it is not a thing that can be seen, touched, or examined, nonetheless, the evidence of its existence is both undeniable and irrefutable and is the most eloquent testimony to the All-Pervading Presence of the Creator from whence it emanates.

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Hate, that is to say, the forces of division and repulsion, the source of chaos and confusion, the manifestation of corruption and depravity, the mother of sin and imperfection, the cause of decomposition and death, and the vortex into which all the engulfing snares of hell lure and attract us, is the adversary and counterpart of love that constantly lurks in the darkness and that is ever poised and vigilant and that, patient and tireless, seeks to topple us into the abyss of error and to dash our hopes, smash our spirits, and cripple the ability of our soul to attain the lofty position it was destined to occupy. It is both resourceful and opportunistic and will avail itself of any moment of carelessness to distract us from our purpose and will employ any occasion of weakness or mistake to divert us from our path. It ill behooves us to underestimate either the influence or strength of such a nefarious foe or to disregard the growing signs of its pervasive presence in the activities that surround us and that influence and manipulate our every move.
Hate, however, is not a being or a personality nor is it a living, conscious, and thinking adversary that with willful deliberation plots and conspires for our downfall. Nor can we, with picturesque simplicity, ascribe to it the various names of Lucifer, Satan, or the Devil, whereby it is transformed into a competitor against God. God has no peer, is without an equal, has no rival and is without a competitor. God stands alone and Pre-Eminent above His creation that includes all things living or inanimate and all things whether visible or invisible.
Hate is a condition, an emotion, a symptom, that fills the vacancy when love departs, when affection is discarded, when attraction vanishes, and it seeps into every fiber, occupies every niche, and takes up residency wherever and whenever the spirit loses sight of the purpose for which it was created. It is the soil in which the seeds of evil are nourished and cultivated and it is the germ that invades and infects the healthy organism. Hate can only exist in the absence of love in the same way that evil can only exist in the absence of good. Hate and evil do not have any substance in and of themselves but, rather, become manifest and exert their pernicious influence when love is abandoned. They tarnish the mirror of the human soul and form the dross that obscures the ‘image and likeness’ of God that lies potentially therein from appearing in all its resplendent glory.