How do we as Christians speak to unbelievers about the fear of God? Where do we even start since unbelievers have a very skewed, inaccurate view of God? Though the fear of God is a concept that is foreign to an unbeliever, Paul Thompson explains that we are to start our conversations by discussing how God is all-supreme, holy, and righteous, and then discuss fear of God. He suggests that such a foundation must be first laid before delving into the topic of the fear of God. Psalm 14:1 (NKJV) – “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.”

An unbeliever's idea of fear or of the kind of God that they have made up in their mind, we don't really know. You know, when we speak to an unbeliever about God, are they an understanding of who God is to even understand what would be referred to as the fear of God because they've created in their own minds their own God that is a God that they're not going to be afraid of, it's a God that they're comfortable with and a God that's going to make them at ease with themselves and so to breach the topic of fear in relationship to God is probably a really foreign thing to an unbeliever. That idea that this God is just waiting to beat him or to zap him with some kind of... Because he's made some kind of mistake in his life. And that kind of fear for an unbeliever is really foreign to him, I believe.

And so to breach the subject of the fear of God with an unbeliever, though, it has to start with an all-supreme, an all-sovereign, holy, righteous God. And from that position, I think it at least cultivates the ground better for a position of why one would even bring up the term fear in relationship to God.