WORSHIP IN FEAR OF JUDGMENT

DANIEL 3:6

[NKJV] — and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.”

[ICB] — Everyone must bow down and worship this gold statue. Anyone who doesn’t will be quickly thrown into a blazing furnace.”

He not only made the idol golden (great, glorious and attractive) for men to worship it, but he also added the pressure of the fear of his judgment (wrath) should incase some would still not worship it based on its riches alone.

Even so:

*1* There's time to Worship The LORD for He's Worthy to be worshipped;

*2* There's also time to Worship The LORD for fear of His Judgment.

Both are not the same. Many only know the first reason for worshipping Him, but have not come to the second reason. Worshiping God for His worthiness is about Love of God, but worshiping God for His judgment is about Fear of God. The love of God is the height of Wisdom, but the Fear of God in the foundation or beginning of Wisdom.

He not only wants you to worship Him with knowledge of His glory, splendor, grace, goodness, riches and awesomeness; for He also wants you to worship Him with knowledge of His Judgment, Fear of Him. Should I give you three Bible references that calls all men to worship God in regards to His Judgment (and not just worshiping Him in regards to His other attributes, but His Judgment or Fearfulness)? I think I should.

The angel that would be flying and doing evangelism on air, preaching the everlasting gospel, would not be preaching prosperity but be preaching fear of God and worshiping God in fear of His Judgment. As it is written,

[Revelation 14:6-7] — "And I saw another angel fly in the middle of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."

[Revelation 15:4] — "Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your Name? for You only are holy: for all nations shall come and worship before You; for Your judgments are made manifest."

[Psalms 96:9] — "O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before Him, all the earth."

[Psalms 5:7] — "But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy: and in Your fear will I worship toward Your holy temple."

You see "Fear" or "Threat" is applicable in Worship, not just honor. There are worship dominated by honoring the One being worshipped, and there are also worship dominated by fearing the One being worshipped.

In the top Bible verse above, the king that commanded the people to worship his golden image (in honoring him) at the sound of music also showed his judgment or wrath (fiery furnace instant death sentence) to whoever fails to worship the image (fearing him) during or after hearing the music. So both honoring the image and fearing his judgment were applied to ensuring the worship the king deaired.

Another similar example would be the Antichrist (the Beast), the False Prophet (the Second Beast) and the Image of the first Beast. The second Beast (False Prophet) would exercise the powers of the first Beast (Antichrist), and cause people to make image of the first Beast. As soon as the image of the first Beast is ready, the second Beast would give life to that image of the Antichrist or cause the non-living image to become living thing, like some advanced form of Artificial intelligence (AI). The second Beast would also give that image of the first Beast power or ability to track and kill whoever would not worship it (the image) nor receive the mark of the beast (666). Meaning, adding fear of his judgment or wrath or death sentence to the attraction of worshiping the image of the antichrist.

[Revelation 13:15] — "And he had power to give life to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed."


Now having known there's "Fear of God" and there's "Fear of the Enemy's wrath:" whom you worship means whom you fear the most.

The Lord has taught us, saying, "Do not fear the wrath of the enemy because I am about to reveal My own wrath."

Check that statement out: He's not telling you not to fear the Enemy's wrath because He will protect or deliver you, neither is He promising you the Enemy's wrath would not touch you, as the reason why you should not fear the Enemy's wrath. Rather the reason He's telling you not to fear the Enemy's wrath is because God's own wrath is far greater and more deadly than the Enemy's wrath. It is using "Greater Fear" to overcome or disregard "lesser fears." Not using security or promise of safety to assure you and keep you from the Enemy's fear, but rather showing you His own Fear or threat that's greater than the Enemy's threat. As it is written,

[Matthew 10:28] — "And do not fear them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

Again, if you truly fear God, you would not fear men nor fear the devil because you fear and know the judgment of God. I don't fear man because I fear God. You may not understand how greater Fear is the solution lesser fears. The reason Joseph was not afraid of the woman's wrath to sleep with her was because Joseph was afraid of God. If you saw the fear or danger of losing your job, losing your position, or losing your life unless you compromise in fornication, idolatry or any sin; you have not seen God's wrath if you do compromise, but only seeing the Enemy's wrath if you don't compromise.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, were not basing there fearlessness of the king's wrath for not worshiping his image on God's deliverance or security from the furnace of fire instant death; rather they were basing their fearlessness on the greatest Fear, which is the Fear of God, greater than the fear of the king's wrath. Promising people that God will deliver them if they don't fear what men would do to them for serving God and remaining upright and virgin, would not always help them. Let their assurance for conquering fear of men be their fear of God, so that even if God would not deliver them from the threats or dangers at men's hands they would even die still fearing God who is able to destroyed both body and soul in hell fire forever. You must fear His Rod and Staff more than you fear the evil in the valley of the shadow of death, because His rod and staff can do you more harm (if you drift) than all the evils in the valley of the shadow of death can do to you if you remain abiding with Him.

What many people are doing daily is basically "Choosing God to punish them" by choosing men/sufferings not to punish them: They fear men or fear sufferings more than they fear God. So they try to escape poverty, sufferings or people's wrath, even when that means falling in God's wrath.

[Psalms 36:1-2] — "The transgression of the wicked said within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful."

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RELIGION IS THE LORD ON EARTH.

RELIGION IS GOD IN HEAVEN.