This may upset some of the forum's Christians, but I'd only employed the phrase as an English idiom without any intended Christian connotations, about as reverential as saying "Sweet Godalmighty!" when checking a hot chick's butt. I admit, I had to burrow through more Bible references than I'd intended to find a NON-Biblical meaning (chiefly because the Bible sites float to the top of Google's output whenever it comes with a reference to the Big Guy).
It means, "to make someone very frightened"