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by Kinney Mitchell (Author)
I first found Pastor Backus' pamphlet "A Discourse on the Nature and Influence of GODLY FEAR," written in 1801, while doing research for a different book I was working on. At that time, I had been seriously studying the topic of the Fear of God for over 15 years and considered myself fairly fluent on the subject. As I tried to read this sermon, I found myself needing both a dictionary and a Bible. The dictionary was necessary because Brother Backus had a vast vocabulary and used many archaic words that I did not understand. The Bible was necessary since the author assumed that his listeners were familiar with the more than 100 Bible references he used in this one sermon. It was my original intention to make some minor changes to the sermon to make it more easily read by a modern audience and then try to republish it. As I tried to share this sermon with my friends, it quickly became apparent that more than minor changes were necessary for modern readers to be able to fully understand this discourse. The end product might be most accurately called a collaboration between two preachers who lived more than 150 years apart. Pastor Backus' original 40 page sermon which included 6 pages of genealogy] is now with my contributions more than 85 pages long not counting the Bible study at the end.] In this book, I have tried to distinguish my additions from Brother Backus' original words by using these marks - - to indicate his words. Thus -We do but sojourn in this world; and this time of our sojourning should be passed in Fear.- would be primarily Backus' words with minor changes to make his language more easily understood. Passages without these marks would be the parts that I have added. In this book, I try to help the reader to distinguish between the Holy Fear of God and the unholy fear of God by the use of capital letters. In many ways, it would be most helpful to do the Bible study on the Fear of God before actually reading this book as it would help a reader to first become more familiar with the Biblical message of the Fear of God. In Brother Backus' day, the Fear of God was inculcated, taught often and with great repetition, but in our day, this doctrine has sadly been lost. I believe that it is time, as in Josiah's day, to clean out the temple and rediscover ALL that has been lost concerning the Fear of God It is time also for those who Fear the Lord to speak often to one another THEN THOSE WHO FEARED THE LORD SPOKE TO ONE ANOTHER, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name. "They will be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him." SO YOU WILL AGAIN DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED, BETWEEN ONE WHO SERVES GOD AND ONE WHO DOES NOT SERVE HIM. Malachi 3:16-18 NASU My prayer is that God would awaken in hearts today a desire to learn all of what His Word teaches about the Fear of God and that we and our Churches would once again inculcate the Fear of God and be truthfully called God-Fearing.
