I remember those hell, fire and brimstone messages...Richard Heard comes to mind...
I do believe that we should have a REVERENT fear of God...a fear that is healthy. Case in point...a body of water...it's beautiful and majestic, but it can be dangerous if not respected!!!!
Yep... but screams of how you'll die if you get in the lake only stir curiosity.
I haven’t read much of this thread. (OneAccord’s post was great)
But this is a subject that I have spent some time thinking about.
The 1970s “rapture can happen any second” sermons left me with panic attacks as a pre-teen. I lived in fear. I would literally have panic attacks if I couldn’t find my mom (she was the only person I was sure was saved). I even had a plan in place in case the rapture came so I wouldn’t get my head cut off.
I lived in fear. It was terrible. Now I reject any of that kind of thing and it makes me angry when someone tries to walk down that road. I cannot find a way to see that as “Godly” or in keeping with sound teaching.
But the fear of God remains the beginning of wisdom. Not because I said it but because the Word of God said it.
I firmly believe that in some weird wisdomless effort to capitalize on natural fears in the culture of the 1970’s we lost scared people so badly we have lost the ability to preach and teach honest truth about the fear of God.
AND we are the losers for it. The fear of God should not lead where One Accord and I both went. In my fear of God I ran. I ran and paid the price for running. I wasn’t taught really well I suppose. I suspect most of us weren’t.
Having said that, in general I believe that the fear of God is something that while good for everyone is more important for preachers. Preachers had better fear God. NOT fearing God leads to a god complex. It leads to pride and pride will always lead to a big ole fall. I’ve seen too many preachers fall and in all the cases I am close to, I can honestly say something happened that left that guy without any fear of the All Mighty. They were able to “fake it” long enough that they began to believe that God was ok with their sin.
He isn’t. They paid….dearly.
I understood the fear of God means "respect" not fear as being afraid. So until I learned this I was "afraid" of God and I still fear Him in many ways. When it is ingrained in you as a child you don't just change overnight.
I want to please Him and honestly fear I fail at that no matter how hard I try. I don't know that we were ever taught that was an obtainable goal.
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Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.
I remember those hell, fire and brimstone messages...Richard Heard comes to mind...
I do believe that we should have a REVERENT fear of God...a fear that is healthy. Case in point...a body of water...it's beautiful and majestic, but it can be dangerous if not respected!!!!
There was a period of time in my early adulthood, after I came to my senses and was learning to live right, that I just simply wanted to punch the Richard Herd's of the world in the eyeball.
how conflicted is that? LOL!
I am not so sure he still doesnt deserve it.
__________________ If I do something stupid blame the Lortab!
There was a period of time in my early adulthood, after I came to my senses and was learning to live right, that I just simply wanted to punch the Richard Herd's of the world in the eyeball.
how conflicted is that? LOL!
I am not so sure he still doesnt deserve it.
Oh my lord - - those revivals were horrendous!!!! He was in a 6-8 revival while I was in Bible school and you were expected to go to every service AND keep up with school. It was awful!
And...you were scared to miss because a train would hit you on the way home from work.
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Master of Science in Applied Disgruntled Religious Theorist Wrangling
PhD in Petulant Tantrum Quelling
Dean of the School of Hard Knocks
I remember those hell, fire and brimstone messages...Richard Heard comes to mind...
I do believe that we should have a REVERENT fear of God...a fear that is healthy. Case in point...a body of water...it's beautiful and majestic, but it can be dangerous if not respected!!!!
There were quite a few in my first days in church (the early 80's), but Steven Timmons comes to mind. He was one of a few who came through yearly with various end time movies and "motivational" sermons.
And doing ANYTHING based on the current amount of adrenalin flowing through your body is a sure-fire way to wake up the next morning and ask yourself "So WHY did I just promise to sell my car and give it to the ministry??". To me that is no different then getting people all liquored up and getting them to add an extra zero or two to their offering checks or any other zany promise you get them to make.
Last edited by RandyWayne; 11-02-2009 at 02:40 PM.
There was a period of time in my early adulthood, after I came to my senses and was learning to live right, that I just simply wanted to punch the Richard Herd's of the world in the eyeball.
how conflicted is that? LOL!
I am not so sure he still doesnt deserve it.
The flip side is that I know someone who came to God in one of his revivals, (this person was born and raised atheist) and while he now cringes at the thought of that type of preaching, still is a firm apostolic. So, not sure what the answer is to that, just thought it was worth mentioning...
The flip side is that I know someone who came to God in one of his revivals, (this person was born and raised atheist) and while he now cringes at the thought of that type of preaching, still is a firm apostolic. So, not sure what the answer is to that, just thought it was worth mentioning...
good solid preaching is honest and causes conviction.
No need to go nuts.
__________________ If I do something stupid blame the Lortab!
Oh my lord - - those revivals were horrendous!!!! He was in a 6-8 revival while I was in Bible school and you were expected to go to every service AND keep up with school. It was awful!
And...you were scared to miss because a train would hit you on the way home from work.
ROFLOL. That just nearly caused me to spit my water on my screen.
I’ve told this before but it is worth repeating… and kind of funny now that I am 40….
When I was a kid we had TFT preach a revival series on Revelations. Obviously this was all the rage in those days and TFT was NEVER a fear preacher.
Nor was this really that kind of thing. But it sure had that tension of the looming rapture in it. Anyway after several service of this the place was packed out and the last night he was preaching on the rapture. It was crazy packed with the balcony full and everything.
Anyway as he was preaching a storm was building up outside and TFT was really going hard and all the sudden he screams “In the twinkling of an EYE!” as he snaps his fingers…… and at that exact second…. And I mean that exact second, lightening struck and knocked the electricity out!
I kid you not, at the exact second he says this in reference to Jesus coming back, there is this massive BOOM outside and the place goes pitch black!
It was absolute Pandemonium. People literally jumped down from the balcony and ran to the alter. There were injuries. I mean real ones. One lady ended up needing stitches in her lip because some other woman with long fingernails was going nuts and her nail slashed the other ladies lip.
I just remember finding my mom in that chaos and knowing all was well. Mamma goes in the rapture so if she was here, I was still safe.
That was nuts.
__________________ If I do something stupid blame the Lortab!
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