Are You Afraid of The Biblical God?Does This Fear Stunt Your Intelligence?

by frankiespeakin 28 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Narkissos

  DD,

  No surprise as this is, I believe, one of the deepest apories of Calvinist theology, where pursuing its own logic to its ultimate consequences leads to system implosion :)

  (Divine) grace is free; it just happens; it has no other cause than God's own will which is causeless; it is not required by anything; not explained by any necessity or need -- even ours. We may need it to be "saved" (need relative to a certain end) but from the standpoint of grace we don't need anything -- not even to be saved. The logic of necessity dissolves in the absolute, terrible and wonderful nonsense of grace.

  To quote Fernando Pessoa: navegar é preciso, viver nâo é preciso -- freely translated: one may need to sail, one doesn't need to live.

  Theologian Eberhard Jüngel has offered an excellent criticism of the concept of necessity in Christian theology in his major work Gott als Geheimnis der Welt (God as Mystery of the World).
• 

  PSacramento

  Narkissos,

  Love that you quoted Fernando Pessoa :)

  I was about to add that to my post, that "need" thing not being an issue with grace other than that we need to receive Grace, God may give it freely but it falls on US to RECEIVE it.

  Salvation is depenadant, for a Christian, on the accepteance of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, our lord and savour and on the belief of his ressurection, I don't recall grace being "needed" for salvation since it is given freely to ALL.

  As for the fear thing, I never have and I doubt I ever will, fear Our Father and Our Brother.
• 

  Deputy Dog

  Nark

  but from the standpoint of grace we don't need anything

  I would say "we" need everything.
• 

  PSacramento

  Can I ask you something DD ?

  Do you belive in God or approach God with fear because of what may be the result if you don't believe in him?
• 

  Lieu

  God, No. God is love.

  Rookie cops? Yes.
• 

  dogon

  When I beleived in the fairy tales of the pretend god of the bible it did stunt my ability to think and reason. Now that I have let such foolishness go, I could no more believe in talking snakes then little green men from another world.
• 

  frankiespeakin

  DD,

  What do you fear? Or do you think you are maxing out your intelligence?

  I'm sure I still fear lots of things, but I'm not using up brains cell with time fearing the biblical deity, I think it has made me more intelligent but I answer that very subjectively and with bias,that being the case I don't think I maxed out my intelligence, curiosity and learning more have increased over the years but I don't think it is maxed out yet

  Does fear of justice stunt intelligence?

  What kind of justice are we talking about here? Are we talking about the kind of justice a angry ignored biblical deity will bring upon those that for one reason or another just don't believe in him and don't give him any time for him in their lives or mind? Or are you talking about governmental type of justice which varies from country to country, or perhaps some type of universal karmic type of justice?
• 

  Deputy Dog

  PS

  Do you belive in God or approach God with fear because of what may be the result if you don't believe in him?

  No. At least not from the standpoint of His existence. I approach God in fear because of my sin, and lack of righteousness. I approach God in fear because I deserve hell and Gods wrath. I love Jesus because He meets my need for righteousness. I believe in the works He's done on my behalf. To all those who say they don't fear God because "God is love". Frankie made a very important distinction. He is talking about the God of the bible. The God of the bible is much more than simply "love". The God of the bible is holy, just, merciful, patient, furious, angry with sinners and Satan, God is a consuming fire, a jealous God, and much more. I think you get my point, (and frankie's point for that matter). frankie

  What kind of justice are we talking about here?

  Take your pick, although I suppose we would debate, the justness of the governmental type of justice. My point is, it's easy to call for justice if you are the one wronged, but if you are the accused and guilty, well that's a different story. As for the fear of God stunting my intelligence that could go both ways. I think the fear JWs have, does stunt something, I'm not sure if "intelligence" is the right word. My fear of God causes me to care, and to think about others. It causes me to try and understand what they think about and believe, even when it's different from me.
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  PSacramento

  DD,

  Thanks for clearing up your point of view.