Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime killed an estimated 6,000,000 Jews. Dozens of other stories recount how individuals will commit horrifying crimes (like going into an elementary school and killing dozens of innocent children or walking into your own high school and killing your classmates and teachers).
I have often wondered how things would have been different if these individuals had a fear of God. If they knew just a little about what was on the other side of this life, would they have ever contemplated the appalling crimes they committed? I think we know the answer to that question. The rich man in Luke 16 had a very different perspective on things after death, didn’t he? So also does Hitler and every other evildoer who has died. If only they could undo what they did. However, death ends all opportunity. This life is our one and only occasion to make choices and act upon them.
God wants us to fear Him. Solomon said that is “the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7 NKJV). If we can start with this perspective of God, the knowledge obtained from that point on will be properly filtered.
John tells us that no one is going to escape facing God on Judgment Day (Revelation 20:11-15). Those who had a healthy fear of God and operated out of that fear (because they obeyed God) will have nothing to worry about. Somebody should have said to Hitler while speaking of God: “Be afraid. Be veryafraid!” This kind of fear is a genuine attitude for one to have toward God. There is nothing frivolous about this kind of fear. Nobody wants the kind of fear created in the horror movie, but the kind of fear about which we’re discussing relative to God is productive.
Denny Petrillo