An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. (Psalm 36:1)

Fear Of The Lord Is The Beginning Of Wisdom; Why The Visible Church Is As It Is

The time has arrived where those of us who truly love our Lord, and our fellow man, must begin to take an honest look at something. Something that is so sadly lacking in the true Church of Christ today—even within the evangelical camp–, which is nearly unforgivable.

What is so appallingly absent would be our own esteem for the dreadful and awesome majesty of the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and completely sovereign Yahweh El Shaddai—the LORD God Almighty—as actually revealed in Holy Scripture.

In his book The Holiness of God, which I highly recommend, noted Christian theologian Dr. R.C. Sproul writes:

If God is the Creator of the entire universe, then it must follow that He is the Lord of the whole universe. There is no part of the world that is outside of His Lordship. That means there must be no part of my life that is outside of His Lordship. His Holy character has something to say about economics, politics, athletics, romance—everything that we are involved with.

This is a concept that has been completely lost within our society, which as a result, has ended up perverting what it really means to be independent. The Bible says — Fear the LORD your God, serve him only (Deut. 6:13); and — Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD (Psalm 34:11).

Dr. John W. Baigent offers this comment concerning the phrase “the fear of the Lord: [it is] that way of life which springs from a reverent acknowledgement of the holiness of God” (New International Bible Commentary, 579, emphasis added). He then refers the reader to the following verse of Holy Scripture — The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7).

A little background study into the word “fear,” the Hebrew word yare, will reveal that it means, “to be afraid” [and] “to stand in awe” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary, 79). In this latter sense, to “fear the Lord” is to stand in awe—fear—as in reverence and awe.

However, there is another aspect of this word yare as in “to be afraid” of. You need to understand that if you personally do not have a saving relationship with the Lord God Almighty, through His grace alone—by faith alone—in Christ alone—then you personally have much to fear. Fear, as in “be afraid; be very afraid.”

The Apostle Matthew quotes Jesus of Nazareth as saying—be afraid of the One—[Almighty God] — Who can destroy both soul and body in Hell (Matt. 10:28b). Also, it must never be forgotten that Matthew is standing right there while the Master is speaking.

And not only that, but the Bible has a very stern warning for all those who persist in their self-ish and sinful ways:

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God… It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:26-27,31).

While it’s true people do not like to think of God this way, at the same time, it must also be noted that not even one’s ignorance—or their pleasant mystical musings from “silence”—will ever change the actual facts which surround any given subject. And you’d do well to meditate upon this absolute Truth…