What Happened to Godly Fear?

"Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?" (Mal. 2:17) This saying applies to the soft ‘Christian’ Gospel more than it has ever applied. I received a comment on one of our social media sites in response to a powerful article of truth, that perfectly demonstrates the commonly held religious mindset described by our passage from Malachi. I quote her: "God our Father will not put any child of his into a hell fireNO MATTER WHAT THEIR SINS. It never entered the heart or mind of God to ever do such a thing.” Well, if that doesn’t exemplify what the prophet Malachi rebuked, I sure don’t know what does. What happened to, “Follow peace with all men, and HOLINESS, without which NO MAN shall see the Lord?” (Heb. 12:14) Or this: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned” (Jn. 15:6) Or this: “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather OUT OF HIS KINGDOM all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Mat. 13:41,42) Or maybe this one: “But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear : Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to CAST INTO HELL; yea, I say unto you, Fear him” (Lk. 12:5). And here's yet another such hard saying from none other than Jesus: "And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mk. 9:45,46).

Those passages are all prime examples of how far the minds of religious people today are from the mind of God, but I"m not quite finished: “For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, IF thou CONTINUE in his goodness: otherwise THOU ALSO shalt be cut off” (Rom. 11:21,22). And for good measure we can think on this: “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how MUCH SORER PUNISHMENT, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, WHEREWITH HE [the believer] WAS SANCTIFIED, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:28,29). And how about the apostle Peter’s version of the same spiritual mindset: “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is WORSE with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them” (II Pet. 2:20,21). Yes friend, you will search far and wide, and still may not find a true example of what the apostle Paul described to the Hebrews: “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28,29). Seems to me a lot of folks have forgotten that the “whole duty of man” is to “FEAR GOD and keep his commandments” (Eccl. 12:13). I am certain that the point is graphically made here, and a lot of folks should really search the scriptures before they move their fingers to type nonsense that is utterly contrary to the whole Bible. Amen.