Rev. Dan Calvo
Pittsburgh New Church; July 13, 2025
Text:
The fear of God means worship based on fear when those who are not regenerate are the subject. This is evident from the following places: In Moses, when the Law was delivered on Mount Sinai to the people (…) Here 'the fear of God before your faces, so that you do not sin' means worship based on fear attributable to them because they are by nature what they are. Indeed people whose worship is external, and not at all internal, are led through fear to respect the law and to obey it; but they do not enter into any internal worship, which is holy fear, unless the good of life is present in them, and they know what is internal, and believe it. (AC 2826)
Being afraid sometimes of the infinity and power of God may be as natural as being amazed at the beauty and immensity of the ocean while at the same time being afraid of its power and depth. This is something that we all may have felt at some point: this admiration for the unlimited strength and presence of God while at the same time feeling a certain fear of His power, a fear of what may happen if we stray from the path He tells us to walk. This Holy Fear is present throughout many of the stories of the Word and perhaps one of the most powerful illustrations of this Holy Fear is the story of when the Lord gave the 10 commandments to the people of Israel.
When the Lord gave the 10 commandments to the people of Israel He did it while showing His unlimited power: the voice of God came from the top of the mount Sinai surrounded by smoke, fire, thunder and lightning. And naturally, the people of Israel were terrified! They were so scared that they did not want the Lord to speak to them directly out of fear that they would die. And in this situation Moses replied in the strangest way. He said, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you will not sin.”
Let’s pause on that for a moment: “do not be afraid but also fear Him.” I'm getting some mixed signals here. What are we supposed to be doing? Because on the one hand, we are told we should not be afraid, and on the other hand, we're being told that the Lord wants us to have a fear of Him. So, what are you trying to teach us here Lord? How do you want us to fear you?
We are the Lord’s children, and like all children, it is very important for us to know about consequences. This sense of consequences often manifests itself in fear of what will happen if we step out of line and do something bad. This fear is an uncomfortable feeling, but it is a very important feeling for us to have. Children need to know that if they do something bad like hitting another kid or telling lies or stealing something that doesn't belong to them, there are going to be serious consequences for their behavior. If children know that there are consequences for their actions and they have a healthy fear of these consequences, they are less likely to hurt other people or themselves. Learning that there are consequences for our actions helps us be healthier, happier human beings who are more useful to society. And the way in which we learn what consequences are is from our relationship with our parents and the adults in our lives as we are growing up. Given that the Lord God is our heavenly father, our relationship with Him is very similar in that way. From the beginning of our relationship with the Lord, we are taught that if we do not obey the commandments, there are going to be consequences. Knowing and believing that we will face very serious consequences for not following the Lord’s commandments is the beginning of holy fear.
In fact, you may be surprised to learn that the beginning of all worship takes place in holy fear. Secrets of Heaven number 6071 says that:
All worship of God inevitably has its beginning in holy fear, which holds within it the belief that God rewards good people and punishes the bad. Although to begin with it is out of fear that people do not dare to do evil, love accompanied by good is gradually introduced, and then people start to know and perceive that nothing but good comes from God, and that evil comes from themselves; then at length that all evil comes from hell. (AC 6071)
Having that kind of Holy Fear early on is the beginning of all worship because whether we grew up in a particular religion or whether we came into it later in life one of the core reasons why we even approach religion is the desire for salvation. If at the beginning of our spiritual journey we do not learn that we need to avoid doing evil things in order to be saved, then we lose one of the most important foundations for worship and our relationship with God.
This is what was happening in the story. The Lord was trying to teach this Holy Fear to the people of Israel so that they would obey the commandments. The people of Israel were listening to the Lord give the 10 commandments from Mount Sinai, surrounded by smoke and lightning and fire. Of course they were terrified! And of course they listened and obeyed, because if a massive voice came from heaven surrounded by smoke and fire we would sure listen to it and do whatever it says!
Nevertheless, just because this kind of holy fear is the beginning of worship it does not mean that we need to remain in that initial state. There are many dangers related to remaining in this kind of holy fear. We may become so obsessed with never making any mistakes whatsoever that we may think that at the slightest mistake that the Lord is going to push us down into hell and punish us. Sometimes we may even start projecting that fear into other people, our spouse, our children, our neighbors, leading us to think that if others around us don’t start worshipping the same way we do or believe in the same things we do that they will be condemned to hell. Even more so, remaining in this kind of holy fear may even lead people to eventually reject religion altogether, rejecting this concept of a punishing God. This is a state of unhealthy holy fear that is very prevalent in traditional Christianity.
However, the New Church has a very different idea of what holy fear can be. The New Church believes that while this first kind of holy fear is very important, and it provides a foundation for our relationship with God, remaining in this first kind of holy fear is not a good idea, not only due to the problems we just mentioned, but mainly because it is a superficial state of holy fear. This first kind of holy fear is based on fear for our own wellbeing and there is even a certain element of selfishness in it: we avoid doing bad things not because we’re focused on helping others or being good human beings, but because we’re scared that something bad will happen to us if we don’t follow the rules. For example, this first kind of holy fear is like someone who does not kill another person only because they’re afraid of going to prison and losing social standing, rather than not killing someone because they know it would hurt others and it would be the wrong thing to do. That isn’t a healthy relationship with God and with religion. And just like our relationship with our parents needs to grow and develop as we grow older and become adults, so does our relationship with our heavenly father God needs to grow and develop beyond this first kind of holy fear.
For starters, that holy fear that is based on a fear of a punishing God gives us a false idea of who God is. It couldn't be further from the truth, because God does not punish anyone. Whenever we experience any kind of consequence for our own evil actions that is just what they are: the logical consequences of our actions.
Brief Exposition of New Church Doctrine number 62 says that:
Because evil carries its own punishment with it (just as goodness carries its own reward), when evil brings punishment on us it looks as though God is punishing us. This is the same, though, as criminals blaming the law for their own punishment, or our blaming the fire for burning us when we put our hand in it, or our blaming the drawn sword in the guard’s hand when we throw ourselves onto the tip of it. (TONC 62)
So if the Lord doesn't punish anyone, and we are not supposed to remain in this initial state of holy fear of God’s punishment, then what is it that we are supposed to feel? What does this adult, wiser, more spiritually elevated holy fear look like?
While it starts as a fear of consequences for ourselves, a healthy adult state of holy fear is a fear that anything bad whatsoever would ever happen to the Lord or to our neighbor.
Secrets of Heaven number 3718 says that:
Fear that is inspired [by holiness] fills those who are good. This fear is called holy fear and is that which accompanies reverential awe of the Divine and also love. (…) The fear that goes with love is a fear lest harm is done to the Lord in any way, or to the neighbor in any way, and so to good and truth in any way. Consequently it is a fear lest harm is done to the holiness present in love and faith, and so in worship. (…) In general the more love anyone has for what is good and true, the more fear he has lest what is good and true will suffer harm. (AC 3718)
In this more spiritual adult state of holy fear we are motivated by not wanting to hurt the Lord or the people around us rather than being motivated by a fear of consequences for ourselves. We obey the 10 commandments not because we are afraid of being sent into hell, but because it is the right thing to do so that we do not hurt our family and our community. And while some elements of the fear of consequences may be there which is completely normal and as we said it is the beginning of worship, that initial fear of consequences for ourselves is no longer the main reason why we follow the Lord and why we avoid doing evil things once we develop the more spiritual level of holy fear.
This is what the story of the people of Israel at Mount Sinai was getting at. The Lord in this story from the Old Testament is teaching us about the first kind of Holy Fear, but in the Heavenly Doctrines He teaches us that eventually we are supposed to grow out of that first fear into the adult, more spiritually developed holy fear. While the Lord may want us to be afraid that there are going to be consequences if we get out of line when we are children or when we are just beginning our journey of faith, what He truly wants us to be afraid of is that our evil actions will hurt the people around us and will push us further away from Him.
So far, we have used the idea of a child's relationship with their parents to illustrate what the first kind of holy fear is, but perhaps a better image to represent the adult kind of holy fear is the feeling of holding a newborn baby and being afraid that any kind of harm should come to that innocent child. That is the core feeling that the Lord wants us to have, that is a real spiritual holy fear. Not a fear that anything bad will happen to us if we do not follow the rules, but a fear that anything bad should ever happen to that which is loving and kind and innocent. Just like any good parent, the Lord doesn’t want us to be afraid of Him, and while He wants us to know that there are consequences for our actions, He also wants us to know that we can always reach out to Him with whatever troubles we are having. The Lord is asking us to look outward and fear the consequences of our actions for everybody else, instead of being afraid of the consequences for ourselves. If we learn how to do this, we will develop true Holy Fear.
Amen