There is that within human beings which believes-in a god of fear - a god who, in some sense "rules" the human world, and who demands sacrifice, propitiation, worship and absolute obedience...
I mean that god who is a characteristic underpinning and default of much monotheism, including those many Christians throughout history.
Because this is indeed a god of fear; people are afraid to give up their habitual attitude of sacrifice, propitiation, worship, obedience.
Such fear as The ruling passion is very evident when interacting with many Christians - whatever lip-service they pay to God being our loving Father.
Such Christians do not really trust God, because they are afraid of God - and they are afraid of God because their mental image of God - their understanding of God - is of an all powerful, all-knowing, yet incomprehensible and ultimately alien entity.
As I said, this image of a god of fear seems natural and instinctive to humans - but, despite nearly 2000 years of confusion and conflation - this image is not the Christian Creator God - as revealed by Jesus Christ.
The God revealed by Jesus does Not demand sacrifice, propitiation, worship, or obedience; but instead "love" - or rather, Christ's God does not "demand" love, but is the God for those who recognize His love, and who love Him, and Fellow Men.
Such is the revelation - yet we need not depend on revelation to know the Good and Loving Christian God - because this loving creator God is implied by reality.
For there to be creation, there must be love. Only a loving God would create.
And we (you and me, as individuals) could only know this, if that loving God loved us (you and me, as individuals).
To put it the other way around - the god of fear is a real god - which is why he is universally recognized and responded to. But he is not the creator God; he is not the primary god.
The primary god must be the creator, and the creator must be loving else he would not create - and must love us as individuals, else we could not know anything.
The god of fear is a secondary god; one who hates creation, who uses creation for self-gratification instead of love, who inverts creation against itself.
Therefore the reality of that god of fear implies the god of love as primary creator.
But this argument that the god of fear implies that the God of Love is creator is not a logical entailment; it is an argument about persons.
To accept my argument entails that we already, personally, value love above all. If we do not already value love as primary, as our highest aspiration; then we can just as easily accept the inversions of the god of fear.
So, you can see how much of being a Christian hinges upon the fact that god is Not incomprehensible.
Knowing about God is not the same - just as knowing-about someone is not the same as knowing them.
Or, properly expressed, how vital it is to being Christian that we each know God - and know God as we might know other people such as close family or a deep friend - experiential knowing of an individual.
Unless we know God we cannot love God; and this means we must be capable of such love.
And if we do know God: when we are-knowing God, we know His love for us, and ours for Him - then we will Not fear Him.
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