Paul Johnson on the Fear of God
History shows us that people are especially dangerous when they have dismissed the thought of divine accountability for their actions.
Listen to the British historian Paul Johnson:
What is so notable about the twentieth century and a principal cause of its horrors is that great physical power has been acquired by men who have no fear of God and who believe themselves restrained by no absolute code of conduct. (quoted in Green, Is Christianity For Real p. 13)
Of course, great evil has also been committed by the religiously motivated, but such atrocities are dwarfed when compared to the atheistic regimes of the 20th century.
What must we conclude then? Not merely that atheism causes people to do evil (as some of my religious friends would want to argue), nor that religion causes people to do evil (as some of my atheist friends would want to argue), but that mankind has a tendency towards evil. And when this tendency is not restrained by some sense of cosmic accountability (i.e. the fear of God and the conviction of the sanctity of human life), you had better look out!
Something to think about from the “Kingdom Perspective”.
…as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks God;
All have turned aside,
Together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
”Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
”The poisoin of asps is under their lips”;
”Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
”Their feet are swift to shed blood,
Destruction and misery are in their paths,
And the path of peace they have not known.”
”There is no fear of God before their eyes.”Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God
~Romans 3:10-20 NASB
