by Scott Besgrove

Created on: March 11, 2010

I have met some amazing and very thought provoking Christians.

Some of these Christians I am lucky enough to call my friends, and sometimes we engage in a healthy, passionate, but ultimately good-natured theological debate. We argue over dinosaurs, over free will, over cause and effect, over political agendas at the time of the Bible's first publishing, we argue over many things, and many different points are expressed.

The one resounding point that is always put forward by my believing friends, is that their God is one made up of love, completely and absolutely, and to find "His" path is to find love. My Christian friends brush off the fire and brimstone First Testament like avid Harry Potter fans brush off the awful first movie, and tell me that the New Testament and Jesus' message is the stuff to be taken more seriously.

Notably, the First Testament being eschewed by these intelligent young Christians is the one literally brimming with fear and punishment.

Now, with my own theological beliefs pretty much firmly entrenched by now, and taking on board these messages I am receiving from my friends, I can hardly see the logic or the reason for a fear of this God. If his message is love, what is there to fear? Why should an all-loving, benevolent and omnipotent being have any cause to inspire fear within the hearts of his creations, whom he apparently loves completely and utterly?

Given that God supposedly created everything, and is omnipotent (this meaning all powerful, in a very literal sense) there is no just cause for him to want us to fear him. Why would someone who has the power of the entire universe at his disposal need inferior beings that he created to fear him? It's a ridiculous idea. Having us fear him would imply that we are capable of doing things contrary to his desires, which some Christians will tell you that we are. However, if this all loving God is omnipotent, all powerful, and not only able to see the future but very probably exists in it now, then how can we feasibly do anything other than the path already laid down for us? Why is there this need to fear a supreme being made completely out of all-encompassing love?

The implications and exact science of his power aside, I will reinforce my first point. The Christians I know are relaxed, happy, intelligent, lead good lives and are kind to others. These Christians believe that God should not be feared, but simply met with the same love as he showers upon us.

I see no reason to fear this God. 

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