I’ve said this before: I have no fear of Satan. I think he’s overrated. But I’m terrified of God.

There’s an odd blog topic for you. This blog is all about encouragement, and here I go talking about being terrified by God.

I’d contend this isn’t a bad thing. Actually, it’s a good thing. Humor me here.

First off, I’m fascinated by atheists. I know a few. I don’t try to debate them. Here’s this:

There is some real irony here. I’m relatively bright, but I never have understood this. There is no Zeus, but I don’t waste mental bandwidth hating Him because, well, he doesn’t exist. Nor can I come up with a persuasive reason to devalue or berate Zeus-worshippers. (I’m thinking there might be some out there.)

Putting that aside, it seems appropriate that atheists should assume God simply doesn’t exist and let it go at that. That frees them up to go about the business of being atheist. Some feel compelled to recruit others to their viewpoints, and that’s okay, too. That’s their prerogative.

There is one sticking point, though. Why is it that people, in all cultures, are so religious? Where did that impulse come from? If there is no God, why is there religion?

There have been reams of speculation produced that try to answer that question. Google away, if you want to do a deep dive. I’ll share my thoughts, and it will give you some sense of why I’m terrified of God.

I’ll start with fear.

There are plenty of things to be afraid of. For me, it’s heights. Yours may be snakes, or public speaking, or flying. Some of these may be legitimate; there are all sorts of things out there in this world worth fearing. The fear of heights might be reasonable if you’re perched on the ledge of a cliff and rocks are crumbling beneath your feet. I wouldn’t recommend picking up a cobra barehanded. And while airplanes are extraordinarily safe, bad things do happen. Random things, even. As I’m typing, I’m replaying all those images of that condo collapse in the Miami area. The likelihood of that happening is crazy small. But it did, and I suppose that will give some people a fear of tall buildings.

I note on the news that violent crime and murder is on the rise. It’s possible that someone might try to murder you. In a full-scale war, there are lots of people bent on murdering you.

There is a distinction here. When people are out to harm you, it’s possible to reason, negotiate, and discuss. You do have a tiny bit of control, perhaps. But when it comes to natural disasters, you can’t reason with a tornado or earthquake. Those forces of nature are impersonal and mean no malice. They just are. And if you want to talk pandemics, then you have a case study in how an emotionless, dispassionate thing like COVID can wreak havoc.

That’s scary.

Yep, there are very effective vaccines available to deal with COVID. I recommend you get vaccinated. That does give you some control. Your house might have a tornado safe room. Buildings in earthquake-prone areas have all sorts of safety features in their designs.

However, primitive man had none of these. He was at the mercy of the storms. So, the thought goes, in order to cope with the awfulness of nature, men personalized nature.

They came up with a sun god, a storm god, a fire god, all sorts of other gods. If these gods were so bent on inflicting harm on people, then people needed to come up with ways to appease them. Men would beg before the earthquake god, pray to the god of disease, and make sacrifices to the storm god. Somewhere along the way, it seems that all these gods got rolled into one. Hence, the monotheistic one god.

That’s actually a pretty reasonable argument.

It’s a flawed one, though, and this will be a way for you to understand why I’m terrified of God.

If all these theories and postulations are true, why would man invent a God that was so much worse than any of these natural phenomena?

The holy God revealed in scripture is scary. You see Him taking out whole people groups. Nations are destroyed. That’s more traumatic than any natural disaster.

That’s all bound up in God’s holiness.

“Woe is me,” Isaiah said, when meeting God face to face. “I am undone.” Over in 2 Samuel, Uzzah, trying to do the right thing, is struck dead when he touched the ark of the covenant. When Peter, James, and John heard God’s voice on the mount of transfiguration, they fell on their faces, terrified.

God’s holiness. That’s why I’m terrified of God.

If we were to be delivered from fear, why would we invent a God who was scarier than anything else in creation? Maybe we could create a God that was just a good ol’ guy, or who was easy to make nice with.

Here’s the thing. That’s not the God of the Bible. There’s nothing more terrifying than the God Who is sovereign over all the forces of nature – indeed, over everything. This God is a threat to us way beyond anything we could dream up. He is a threat because He is holy.

We don’t talk about the holiness of God that much. That wouldn’t play too well in a church growth seminar. Listen – I am a grace and mercy junkie. But I can’t escape the image and reality of a holy God.

That’s where the gospel comes in. The gospel is good news. The only way we can escape the fear of God is to know and experience the covering of all that by Jesus’ righteousness and sacrifice.

See how that works? It’s quite the deal. The only way you can manage the judgement of God to come (and may even be among us) is to be covered by His love.

If we could grasp that! The holiness we see in Jesus is the only thing that can give us security. One day we’ll all see God face to face, and that is a day of reckoning. But because of Jesus’ holiness, and His life being exchanged for ours, we won’t have to worry about eternal judgement.

I’m terrified of God, not because of what I could have potentially experienced, but because there are so, so many others who won’t experience that mercy as it comes through His holiness. They may not be terrified now, but at the End of Days they will wish they had seen God in His majestic holiness and responded to His offer of redemption.

Easy call. Receive His mercy.