THE "FEAR OF THE LORD"

[Seeking ET]

The Urantia Revelations- Paper 149:Section 6

   It was at Gamala, during the evening conference, that Philip said to Jesus: "Master, why is it that the Scriptures instruct us to 'fear the Lord,' while you would have us look to the Father in heaven without fear?  How are we to harmonize these teachings?"  And Jesus replied to Philip, saying:

   "My children, I am not surprised that you ask such questions.  In the beginning it was only through fear that man could learn reverence, but I have come to reveal the Father's love so that you will be attracted to the worship of the Eternal by the drawing of a son's affectionate recognition and reciprocation of the Father's profound, perfect love.  I would deliver you from the bondage of driving yourselves through slavish fear to the irksome service of a jealous and wrathful King-God.  I would instruct you in the Father's relationship of God and man so that you may be joyfully led into that sublime and supernal free worship of a loving, just, and merciful Father-God.
   "The 'fear of the Lord' has had different meanings in the successive ages, coming up from fear, through anguish and dread, to awe and reverence.  And now from reverence I would lead you up, through recognition, realization, and appreciation, to LOVE.  When man recognizes only the works of God, he is led to fear the Supreme; but when man begins to understand and experience the personality and character of the living God, he is led increasingly to love such a good and perfect, universal and eternal Father.  And it is just this changing of the relation of man to God that constitutes the mission of the Son of Man on Earth.
   "Intelligent children do not fear their father in order that they may receive good gifts from his hand; but having already received the abundance of good things bestowed by the dictates of the father's affection for his sons and daughters, these much loved children are led to love their father in responsible recognition and appreciation of such munificent beneficence.  The goodness of God leads to repentance; the beneficence of God leads to service; the mercy of God leads to salvation; while the love of God leads to intelligent and freehearted worship.
   "Your forbears feared God because he was mighty and mysterious.  You shall adore him because he is magnificent in love, plenteous in mercy, and glorious in truth.  The power of god engenders fear in the heart of man, but the nobility and righteousness of his personality beget reverence, love, and willing worship.  A dutiful and affectionate son does not fear or dread even a mighty and noble father.  I have come into the world to put love in the place of fear, joy in the place of sorrow, confidence in the place of dread, loving service and appreciative worship in the place of slavish bondage and meaningless ceremonies.  It is still true of those who sit in darkness that 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.'  But when the light has more fully come, the sons of God are led to praise the Infinite for what he IS rather than to fear him for what he DOES. 
   "When children are young and unthinking, they must necessarily be admonished to honor their parents; but when they grow older and become more appreciative of the benefits of the parental ministry and protection, they are led up, through understanding respect and increasing affection, to that level of experience where they actually love their parents for what they are more than for what they have done.  The father naturally loves his child, but the child must develop his love for the father from the fear of what the father can do, through awe, dread, dependence, and reverence, to the appreciative and affectionate regard of love.
   "You have been taught that you should 'fear God and keep his commandments, for that is the whole duty of man.'  But I have come to give you a new and higher commandment.  I would teach you to 'love God and learn to do his will, for that is the highest privilege of the liberated sons of God.'  Your fathers were taught to 'fear God- the Almighty King.'  I teach you 'love God,-the all-merciful Father'.
   "In the kingdom of heaven, which I have come to declare, there is no high and mighty king; this kingdom is a divine family.  The universally recognized and unreservedly worshiped center and head of this far-flung brotherhood of intelligent beings is my Father and your Father.  I am his Son, and you are also his sons.  Therefore it is eternally true that you and I are brethren in the heavenly estate, and all the more so since we have become brethren in the flesh of the earthly life.  Cease, then, to fear God as a king or serve him as a master; learn to reverence him as the Creator; honor the Father of your spirit youth; love him as a merciful defender; and ultimately worship him as the loving and all-wise Father of your more mature and spiritual realization and appreciation.
   "Out of your wrong concepts of the Father in heaven grow your false ideas of humility and springs much of your hypocrisy.  Man may be a worm of the dust by nature and origin, but when he becomes indwelt by my Father's spirit, that man becomes divine in his destiny.  The bestowal spirit of my Father will surely return to the divine source and universe level of origin, and the human soul of mortal man which shall have become the reborn child of this indwelling spirit shall certainly ascend with the divine spirit to the very presence of the eternal Father.
   "Humility, indeed, becomes mortal man who receives all these gifts from the Father in heaven, albeit there is a divine dignity attached to all such faith candidates for the eternal ascent of the heavenly kingdom.  The meaningless and menial practices of an ostentatious and false humility are incompatible with the appreciation of the source of your salvation and the recognition of the destiny of your spirit-born souls.  Humility before God is altogether appropriate in the depths of your hearts; meekness before men is commendable; but the hypocrisy of self-conscious and attention craving humility is childish and unworthy of the enlightened sons of the kingdom.
   "You do well to be meek before God and self controlled before men, but let your meekness be of spiritual origin and not the self-deceptive display of a self-conscious sense of self-righteous superiority.  The prophet spoke advisedly when he said, 'Walk humbly with God,' for, while the Father in heaven is the Infinite and the Eternal, he also dwells 'with him who is of a contrite mind and a humble spirit.'  My Father disdains pride, loathes hypocrisy, and abhors iniquity.  And it was to emphasize the value of sincerity and perfect trust in the loving support and faithful guidance of the heavenly Father that I have so often referred to the little child as illustrative of the attitude of mind and the response of spirit which are so essential to the entrance of mortal man into the spirit realities of the kingdom of heaven.
   "Well did the prophet Jeremiah describe many mortals when he said: 'You are near God in the mouth but far from him in the heart.'  And have you not also read that direful warning of the prophet who said: 'The priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money.  At the same time they profess piety and proclaim that the Lord is with them.'  Have you not been well warned against those who 'speak peace to their neighbors when mischief is in their hearts,' those who 'flatter with the lips while the heart is given to double-dealing'?  Of all the sorrows of a trusting man, none are so terrible as to be 'wounded in the house of a trusted friend.'" 

[Karas]

"To fear the Lord is to hate evil;
I hate pride and arrogance,
evil behavior and perverse speech." (Proverbs 8:13 NIV)

all the inner peace groups/religions follows this.

What book are you useing? Gnostic?

[CFTraveler]

He posted that it's from the Urantia book.
http://www.urantia.org/urantia-book

[Karas]

He posted that it's from the Urantia book.
http://www.urantia.org/urantia-book

thanks =]
something new to look into. Bit sceptic on the " claims to have been presented by celestial beings as a revelation to our planet, Urantia."

[Seeking ET]

The Proverbs quote is written by a religious man.  It likely does not denote the message of Jesus.  Being words present in the Bible doesn't automatically dictate the will of God... an impossibility for most Christians to appreciate.  It has been written, rewritten, and bastardized by powerful religious tyrants throughout the ages.  Not all inner peace groups follow that reasoning.  Many define "evil" itself very differently from the Bible.  Urantia is very difficult for Bible fearers to accept.  Its more for advanced spiritualists, not necessarily dogmatic religionists.  The Bible teaches that God can become angry at our actions, such as homosexuality, and as a result destroy debaucherous cities.  The Bible tells stories of God destroying the whole world with a flood because he is disappointed in us.  Urantia unvillifies God and corrects the seemingly irrational actions of the Bible deity.  As difficult as it is for any religionist to accept its presence, the Urantia Book has the tools and teachings to stand up to the Bibles history, reasoning, and message itself, in a way that can be rejected because you are offended, but not because it's teachings are not sound or intelligent.  Much has been created by men, many teachings of Jesus for instance ("I come not to bring peace but a sword").  We are not evolved beings but EVOLVING beings.  Teachers have come before to correct our path of understanding.  Most often they have been rejected in their own era, only to find greater followers in later generations.  The Bible has become the handbook for God in America, and it teaches too much of his jealousy, anger, and tyranny.  It needs correction.  The Urantia Book is that gift!

[i smoke and drink coffee]

I read some of that, not all of it.  I was coming to the boards today to make a post concerning the "Fear Of God" and why it is important to Fear God.

I will not dabble in such excrement to betray your time to a foolish quest, here is the point I was going to make.

If you Fear God, you are both in union and, at the same time, driving away vampiric parasites.  The parasites do not want to feed on Fear Itself due to their nature as pleasure seeking, sensual beings.  So, build up the fear of god, for fear is the greatest brother than a man can have.  If you do not have the fear of God, then Fear becomes an enemy, and in your delusion of what fear is, you lose your Sight and Hearing.  Fear puts up an auric harmony that both synergizes your own being, and you environment in a perfect vibration.  Fear is the anti vibration to astral parasites, and, I have already encountered much benefit from practicing 'the fear of God'
Fear also becomes pure faith when you convert it, and through that measure, you can attain unto worship.  Not only does being afraid of God bring you closer to God, but it puts up an auric shields and God is always there, ready to build you up and make you whole in the perfect Fear of God. 

I don't think Jesus would have said words like that, but it's entirely your choice.  I only say to you now, "Fear God to be Alone With God".  When you are vibrating with the perfect and absolute fear of God, and you turn that same fear into faith, you can literally "Destroy Your Enemy" who does not fear God and is only a sensual, pleasure seeking parasite.  Therefore, fear God, that you not lose respect, and that you maintain your chakra system with the vibration of God that is synergized by the aspiration unto worship with comes from the clearing out of your aura by the wholesome, energetic fear of God.  It is an emotion, but it's one you control.  You will also notice, for instance, an angry dog comes running up to you with intention to bite, and you feel a sudden jolt of absolute fear, and the dog stops, and life continues.  It is much the same way with these parasites.

[Everlasting]

"My children", how insulting. Jesus would never say that to a brother.

[Seeking ET]

Insulting?  

"Be ye as little children"...

"And they shall be lead by a child"...

Did not Jesus say, "you are the children of your Father who is in Heaven"?
Did he not also say, "I and the Father are One"?  

-I Drink Coffee-... "Resonating vibration with the fear of God" to "fear God and be alone with him"?  If we don't fear God we're succumbing to "vampire parasites"?  I've always found it ironic when individuals criticize the Urantia Book, which they likely haven't even touched, then validate their criticism with superstitious madness.  By the way, when a dog attacks and you show fear.... IT BITES YOU!  It's predator instinct.  If what you said were accurate then NOBODY WOULD GET ATTACKED, for they all feel fear in that situation.  Now you're saying that fear wards off energy parasites?  We're talking theology, but you're way out beyond the outskirts of reality!