Hebrew.

The Hebrew word yirah, translated in the Bible as fear, as in fear God, does not mean fear as in fear of punishment; it means to respect or to reverence God.

And the Hebrew word sane, translated as hate, as in to hate sin, does not mean hating people but to detest or deplore sin.

And so these objectionable and suspect teachings in Fundamentalist and Evangelical Churches that justify fear and hate in fact have no basis in the Biblical witness at all.

God is Love.

And we are to love God as Jesus taught us.

We are not to hate sinners.

   

But we are to pray for them and love them as ourselves.

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