A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Kirsten Birkett
About the Author
Michael Reeves is the President of Union School of Theology, where he teaches in the areas of systematic and historical theology and also on preaching and spiritual formation. Other titles by Reeves include Rejoicing in Christ, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith.
Contents
1 Do Not Be Afraid!
2 Sinful Fear
3 Right Fear
4 Overwhelmed by the Creator
5 Overwhelmed by the Father
6 How to Grow in This Fear
7 The Awesome Church
8 Eternal Ecstasy
General Summary
A biblical study of the fear of God, what it means, how essential it is, and what it changes in the life of the believer.
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Do Not Be Afraid!
Fear is strong, and baffling. In the Bible, it is viewed as a bad thing from which Christ rescues us (1 John 4:18; Luke 1:74–75). But we are also told to fear God (Prov 9:10). Why would a loving God want us to fear him? Competing Christian camps emphasize either love or fear, but the gospel has both. The fear of God is good; the Messiah delights in it (Isa 11:1–3).
Our culture has become very anxious; a “culture of fear.” We have more safety technology than ever but fear more. Perhaps the more prosperity we have the more we fear its loss; also moral confusion leaves us unable to deal with fear (Frank Furedi). Behind the moral confusion is the loss of fear of God – losing that fear causes us to fear other things more. Atheism promised to liberate people from fear (Bertrand Russell, Enlightenment thinking) but the opposite happened. What is the solution? In a society that rejects God, we must solve our fear problem ourselves; so fear is medicalized, and comfort becomes a health or even moral category. Discomfort, even with an opposing viewpoint, is not acceptable.
In cultures that feared God, human fear was seen differently. Puritan John Flavel saw that human fears are cured by fear of God. . . .
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