Does fear equal respect? Is God revengeful? ?

Question

Following anybody's beliefs because you fear them sounds a little crazy to me! BUT, lately I have been getting those religious emails that say -- if you don't forward this to at least 7 people, something bad will happen to you. God should be all accepting, non judgemental and have unconditionl love for us. I refuse to think of his as revengeful.

But what do you think.

(Please do not resite Bible. I just want to hear your thoughts!) TY

Answer 1

Hahaha.  Yeah im sick of those petty e-mails that say: if you dont forward this then you dont truly love jesus and god and you will burn in h**l.   Its just ridiculous.  Its just like those people on t.v. that are like: "donate money to me and you will NOT burn in h**l. "  Frankly, the people who praise god or obey god out of fear are petty cowards.  They are 'good' people because if they are not, god will burn them in h**l.  And yet, their hearts are evil.  I on the other hand am a good person without any obligations.  I am a good person because its just natural to me.  I do the right things because i am a human being and want to help others.  I am not a good person out of fear of eternal damnation.  All those other people who proudly claim to be "god fearing christians" can get on their knees and bow in cowardice and shame.  They can continue hiding their evil, hypocritical, judgemental, and intolerant hearts behind the words of god in hopes that their dark souls will go unnoticed.      

Answer 2

that's just chain letter mentality.....don't believe in it

Answer 3

God is love, but God is also just. This is why Jesus had to die, so that God could forgive men. Would you want a god who would say to Hitler, "I'm a loving god. I don't hate anyone, so why don't you come to Heaven"? No, we would say that god is sick. God is just. He is the One who balances out the scales of justice. If God loves people, then God must hate the things that kill people. If God loves righteousness, then God must hate those that break His commandments.

(Rom 12:19)  Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

(Psa 5:5)  The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.

Also, the reason why some people claim that fear equals respect is because the Hebrew word yeraw which is translated to fear means reverence or respect. Fear in the O.T. is not always translated from this word though. Yeraw is found in Proverbs more than any book.

Answer 4

Fear and respect are two very different things.

god isn't real...

Answer 5

god never wants to see anyone hurt - he loves us all and wants us all to be led by his holy spirit and  be filled with his love peace and joy and to let his light shine through u onto others - peace

Answer 6

It is the beginning of wisdom.  If you fear our nature is to try to understand and in understanding we realize our foolish nature and no longer fear but respect.  By placing your ideals on God is like trying to play Him like a puppet. He is not under our control, the guidelines are His not ours.  Who are we to judge Him who created us?

Answer 7

You can't make someone love you by threatening them with physical or emotional harm if they don't.  Love must be freely given or its not love, its fear, outwardly just going through the motions.

You can't make someone follow your beliefs by threatening them with eternal damnation in h**l if they don't.  Faith must be freely given or its not faith, its fear, outwardly just going through the motions.

I get emails like those from time to time and I delete them with the rest of the spam.  Nothing bad has happened to me.  Go ahead and ignore those emails :-)  

Answer 8

Christianity was made to dominate and rule the masses to benefit kingdoms and empires.

Jesus is a sun god made to be a literal person and entity by Constantine and Eusebius (to say the least.)

Christianity was forced down the mouths of poor Europeans to be controlled by rich Europeans who later did the same to the indigenous peoples of the America's and the stolen so called slaves of Africa.

In ancient Europe Wiccans and Pagans were killed in the name of the Christian god. Its sad because if Wiccan explorers settled in America so many innocent so-called indians and Africans wouldnt have been killed.

Its not the fault of white people as a whole. Its the fault of Christianity and Islam. Between those two religions millions on top of millions have been killed and continue to die to this day. All for the sake of control and money.

Answer 9

No fear equals intimidation

Yes lets not get God and mans religion confused

There are many interpretations  of God

i chose to believe in a spiritual approach

Ok by the laws that govern mathematics or science

For  me it comes down to this

For argument sake

God is either infinite or finite

meaning infinite is in and threw all things seen and unseen

having no start nor ending

In infancy all points are center points

inclusive of up down hot cold  

there is not really such a thing as evil or good  that is a perspective or label that man placed on events  so that we may have reference points

unity is the foundation of infancy

finite is with a beginning and ending  meaning  and therefore not all mighty  but with the capability of demise

division is the basis of finite

religion wants to say god is angry or vengeful  jealous or any number of man made ideas

this would be the case for a god who is finite

a god who would need to wage war with the opposing forces

I say God is infinite  

being that god is in and threw all things

then who would god be angry at

wage war against  bring punishment on

if there is only god then would god do this unto god

try to think of it like a big mirror

the mirror knows its self as the great mirror

yet it does not know what its greatness is because there is nothing that is not great

The mirror longs to understand what its greatness is and cant with out understanding what greatness is not

So the mirror has a plan

it shatters itself big bang into trillions of smaller aspects of itself

each piece is still the mirror only now its the great mirror with points of reference

one piece is chiped another cracked another perfect in proportion to the big mirror

each piece represents the big mirror and experiences what it is to be the great mirror only in a smaller porportion

untill one day all the mirror comes back to its real body

with the experiance and knowlaged of what it is like to be apart from the great mirror or not great

now the mirror is with in side itself the great mirror because he understands that he is in all things the chipped the cracked etc

Answer 10

Father to children should be the relationship of god to his people, it should be one of trust, loyalty, honor, love, respect. fear was a reason for worship there would be few so called christians ?

Answer 11

Well, I think that someone who threatens you with eternal damnation if you don't follow their way is... well, to be blunt, quite oppressive. That takes away free will in a way.

And what's up with the 'Fear me. I am your lord.'

Anyone who really loves you wouldn't want you to fear them, would they?

That's a little sadistic towards the mentality...

Someone who loves you wouldn't try to place you lower than them like that; they would want you just as high up with them...

Answer 12

Fear is part of the religious mind control techniques that keeps the flock in line.

Answer 13

god is justice murderes and rapists and other sinners go 2 h**l and r tortured its wat the desereve like hitler

Answer 14

What you believe God should be, will be demonstrated to be in your own life.

Answer 15

I agree that trying to scare you into a religion is bad. Well think of it like this, or this is what Christians would say.

God is perfect, humans aren't and were full of evil sin. So its ok that he kills us natural disasters and all that other c**p.

Answer 16

unconditional love... yeah, that's what the flood was all about.

Answer 17

Listen to me I'm a person of faith in jesus christ. Do not listen to those chain letters those are NOT REAL. GOD is good and he will put nothing on you that u cant handle. Please don't feel threatened by those chain letters those are not of god at all that is just bored hypocrites. Im not saying im perfect but iam saying i know enough about god to know those chain letters arent real. Next time u recieve them delete them.

Answer 18

I personally don't believe in God, but if I did and he used his threats of damnation to get me to follow him, I'd probably tell him to kiss my a** and that I'd see him in h**l.  I don't take c**p from people very well, and anyone who is resorting to fear to get me to believe in their message isn't someone I'd want to believe in anyways.

Answer 19

God is the bad-a-s-s. He is dirty hairy, the terminator and austin powers all rolled into one.

Answer 20

No, God isn't like that (revengeful), but he likes if us fallowed his guidelines. Still though, he gave us free will, and continuesly tests us.

Suffering, tentation and similar acts are all tests that us (people) fail most of the time.

I really and deeply believe in God, and I know I've seened a lot, but I do regret what I have done. Some people don't do it. Some others have chosen to not live with God at all, but look at their lives - alcohol, drugs, tabacco, prostitution and so on. They wanted to drag me to that world but I refused!

Answer 21

That is one of the questions i had ask myself, I chosed not 2 believe in any gods

Answer 22

Fear = Fake Respect

Hopefully people will stop being afraid.

Answer 23

  Which God?  The Old Testament God who demanded respect and vengeance, or the New Testament God who talked about love? ...and which women did these vengeful male Gods replace?  the goddess of love?  the goddess of the hearth? the goddess of reproductions?

try thinking outside the God box.........or inside it...what makes you immortal is inside you, not outside