3 Three More Principles of Fear Principle #4: The loss of God-consciousness produces fear. The greater our God-consciousness is, the lesser our fears are, but only if our fears are the right kind. If we have an accurate God-consciousness that is based on Scripture, our fears will be few. But if our concept of God is based upon false understanding, uninformed opinion, bad theology, heresy, bad experiences, etc., our fears will be many. We learn from the story of Adam and Eve that self-consciousness produces fear. In the same manner, other-consciousness can also produce fear. In Genesis 3, we see Adam and Eve hiding in self-conscious fear from God behind the trees of the Garden. But we also see them fearfully hiding from each other through the fig leaves they used to cover their nakedness. Before their sin and rebellion against God, Adam and Eve “were both naked, and they felt no shame” (Genesis 2:25). In their spiritual innocence, they felt no sense of shameful self-consciousness before God or each other. But sin stripped them of that innocence! As they turned away from God, they turned away from each other. As they tried to hide from God, they tried to hide from each other. That’s because their con-
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