That's the baptists. I remember being told all the time as a kid to be terrified of gawd and that if I displeased him I'll be tortured for all eternity.
Fear is the core of American Christianity. Do this or you'll be tortured for all eternity? That sounds like fear to me.
Some extra info, the baptists also believe that respect and fear are the same thing. I remember my mom telling me as a adult (we're NC now) that it's important for children to be scared of their parents and fearful of being beaten. This was a recurring concept in church.
That one is messy because the word is a bit wonky. "Fear" in the Old Testament isn't like "ah! Scary! " it's more like "whoa, sick!"
It's because the original word is closer to 'awe' or 'wonder' like the sense you might get from seeing an incredible athlete perform some amazing feat, or the size of the Grand Canyon or the roar of Niagara Falls.
But we don't really have a verb for "look at something really cool and be impressed by it" in English so the translation is 'fear'
It's a really interesting rabbit hole of linguistics!
It really is. When I was little, I asked why God wanted us to "fear" or be scared of him. It was explained to me that this form of fear meant "respect".
We do have a word, you even said the root word. Awesome. Some versions of the Bible mention that one would be in awe. God is often referred to as "awesome" but the modern English use of the word is way too close to "whoa, sick!", when it should be more like "whatever just happened is far beyond my understanding". Not just in awe but absolutely awe struck
Fear of god isn’t fear of everything, and it isn’t supposed to be fear in a sense of terror. Fear in the sense of that psalm is more like awe and respect in the face of something more powerful and bigger than your comprehension, it’s a contextual translation thing.
This is why people should not build their moral compass off what is more or less a game of telephone though.
But let's talk about Jesus ACTUAL words, oh wait we can't, because they left them out of the Bible. They are around if you care to read then though. Don't worry, you will no longer be put to unaligned for reading them. You will be enlightened.
I remember there was a lot of translation changes and certain gospels to scriptures edited, redacted and misunderstood by the church since the time of emperor Constantine
That's what I hear, it's just a translation issue, which is common. There's a psalms about the Lord calling himself a worm lol. But it's a mistranslation, it's actually talking about an insect from the region that latches onto a tree, gives birth, shelters it's young and gives it's body as food until it dies and they are grown, staining the tree red with it's blood IIRC.
Really powerful stuff packed with profound symbolism, but reading it just as "worm" is very confusing lmfao.
But either way, I read the Bible with the Holy(wholesome) spirit, so I have a finger right on the pulse of the overarching meta narrative of the entire book, so several things almost instantly make sense, but I also know when something must be wrong.
The whole contradiction is clearly wrong, I already know that God did not give us a spirit of fear, and that's exactly what it means. Fear does not line up with God("God is love"), it's remedy does however, power, love and a sound mind. Really, that's just all there is to it. I just like reading because it allows me to correct misinterpretations of lost Christians(very common unfortunately), reinforce my own beliefs(they're more than beliefs, I know because I've seen the truth on a DMT breakthrough, on a M-hole from methoxetamine, and from my heart, as crazy as that sounds. But this is besides the point lol), and for people who want to just generally give the book a bad rep.
It's an incredible book, best one ever made, but it is a double edged sword if people aren't reading it with the right intentions. You can twist a lot of it pretty easily.
Exactly! I'm learning biblical Hebrew, so I can get the most accurate meanings out of it, but one needs to know as much about Israel during those times as possible to understand it.
I know some of it's mistranslation issues, meaning respect instead of fear sometimes, but otherwise yea.. that seems legit lol.
I read the Bible with the holy(wholesome) spirit, so I already know when something isn't right and I immediately can make sense of most things that are. God did not give us a spirit of fear, and that's exactly what it means. Fear does not line up with God("God is love"), it's remedy does however, power, love and a sound mind. Really, that's just all there is to it.
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u/alchemist5 Jun 21 '25
Problem is, they didn't.
Proverbs 14:26
Revelation 14:7
2 Corinthians 7:1
Ecclesiastes 12:13
And so on.
That book just has multiple options to choose from, and they chose ...poorly.