Two Reasons Why People Don't Fear God Today

   I have and idea of two reasons why people don't fear God today. Of course, there are possibly many more reasons, but I shall just talk about these two reasons and try to explain them clearly.
  One thing I have noticed, is that people know basic rules. In many areas, they know the difference between right and wrong. Parents teach their children what is right and wrong. Many families have their own version of what is right and wrong. There is nothing wrong with this in itself, but if you don't clarify the difference between something being wrong, and something that 'Christians' shouldn't do, it sends a wrong message to the child, and he or she becomes confused on what the Gospel really is.
  Let me give an example. Many parents in fundamentalist homes will teach their children that it is wrong, or sinful to drink. If the parents explain what it is that is wrong with drinking and why we don't drink, it can be a helpful tool to the child. But if we teach the child that it is wrong to drink, and that Christians don't drink, then we can communicate to them that responding to the Gospel involves abstinence from drinking. So, the Gospel could look like, 'Come to Jesus. Repent of your sin. Stop drinking, and you will be saved'.
  Is it good to drink alcoholic beverages? Not in order to get drunk. We make a doctrine out of it though, by coming up with conclusions like, 'the water Jesus turned into wine was really turned into grape juice'. There is no substantiation to this assertion, and it should not be used to prove that Christians shouldn't drink. The real question always comes back to the same issue; What is it that you love? Addiction to drinking is a problem and God can set people free from it. But if we make abstinence from drinking a criteria for being a Christian, we have added to the Gospel. We are adding a work to the finished work of Christ for our salvation.
  But even further, what ends up happening is this; A person who has been taught that Christians don't drink, will find himself or herself in situations where drinking will be available. Here is the crux of what I think happens that causes people to lose their fear of God; They take a drink, and guess what? Nothing happened. Lightning bolts didn't come down and zap them. They continued to drink and still nothing happened. But what happens in the person's thinking? He or she now assumes that if God were really there, then He would have punished them for their drinking, but since He didn't punish them, then I guess its ok to do wrong things. We have just lost our fear of God when that happens.
   The other reason ties in with this as well. I have struggled for years to figure out what is wrong with this picture. It happens every time I go out in the car. We happen to live in a neighborhood that is right by a university, so we have a lot of young adults driving, that don't pay attention to rules. There is always someone that has to go faster than the other fast drivers. It is not uncommon for people to go 10-15 miles over the speed limit here. I used to think, they would get caught easily, and get a hefty ticket. But, in reality, that rarely happens. I hardly ever see cops giving out tickets. No one fears the law, when it comes to speeding. There's no consequences for going way over the speed limit. The authorities that are supposed to be doing their job, aren't there. Consequently, people lose respect for authority, and fear authority less, and fear God even less. God has boundaries, even if we can't see them, and there are consequences for breaking them. But if we never experience consequences for our wrongdoings here, we have a hard time understanding that there will be consequences for everything we do on earth, whether we pay for them now or in eternity.
   We might not see God working in the things we do, but He is still at work. Deism is not a valid belief system. God is actively involved in everything that goes on in this world. When we get a glimpse of Him, our hearts change, and we don't want to do those wrong things anymore. Even when we struggle with being free from those things, God is still our vision and hope. The Bible admonishes us to 'not become weary in well doing'. The goal is to see God, with the spiritual eyes He gives us, and be changed in His Presence. Only when we see God will we fear His name.