Why is God fearing a good thing?

[Chad32]

It harks back to a time when god wasn't loving but a capricious god that would destroy your crops, kill your cattle or bring on pestilence if not appeased, when god was worshipped out of fear not love.

Basically god was the equivalent of not walking under ladders for the vast swathe of believers, a superstition.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/flagellants.htm

Exactly. Omnibenevolence as a characteristic of God is a rather new thing.

Beat me to it. Read the OT. Does yahweh really sound like a god of love to you? He did seem to have a close enough relationship to certain people that they could change his mind about something, or wrestle with him, or he'd make promises to them. still, he was a violent god that ordered death on everyone for everything. He'd kill you for picking up sticks on the wrong day of the week, or for not yelling loudly enough when you're being raped. Or just because he felt like doing it. It didn't matter. You didn't follow him out of love and respect. You followed him out of pants weting fear.