Fear is endemic to the human condition in a fallen world, and everyone is afraid of death, as are all living things, animals, fish, birds, insects, all flee in fear of their demise. While their fear is instinctual, human beings can think about death. I’ve thought about it as long as I can remember, and in this I’m not unique. Look what the covid scam and the tyrannical response to it did to the entire world. The panic porn of the media, politicians, and government officials created a worldwide fear pandemic . . . of death.
I recently listened to an excellent discussion of this fear with J.P. Moreland, a philosophy professor, scholar, and apologist, who happens to be a friend and family member. Several years back, J.P. experienced severe panic attacks and depression, and went on to write a book about it called Finding Quiet: My Story of Overcoming Anxiety and the Practices that Brought Peace. It’s interesting listening to the podcast knowing all he went through to get to the other side. You’ll hear how it all comes down to trust, which in Greek (pistis) is translated often as faith and belief.
I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older and wiser, thank you God, that living in fear is not good, nor healthy, nor does it honor God. This doesn’t mean fear isn’t at times justified because fear is a natural God-given human response to threat. It also reflects the fact that death is unnatural and wrong, that it wasn’t an intended feature of God’s created reality until man messed it all up.
Everyone regardless of what they believe knows this, but it is only Christians and their Jewish forbearers who give us the reason why. If there is no God, if atheistic materialism is true, then death is in fact natural and there is absolutely nothing “wrong” with it at all, other than we just don’t prefer it. So, do I prefer death or life today? Well, sir, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll take life, just a little longer anyway. No, death is ugly and wrong and evil, and I don’t want it, ever! Thankfully, we don’t have to die! I’ll tell you why in a moment.
A saying related to this topic is without a doubt true: death makes cowards of us all. On the other hand, Jesus can make us courageous in the face of death. I’ve been learning this as I’ve grown older riding the freight train to the grave, and have grown to despise fear, whether it’s related to death or anything else. The reason for this loathing is not so much because it’s unpleasant to be fearful, which it most certainly is, but because it dishonors God. Fear, and its attendant worry, anxiety, and doubt, is also sin.
A family member recently shared with me a vivid metaphor for this sin. She said it’s like a cape which is always on your back ready to overcome you, like the proverbial sword of Damocles. I then asked her a question which surprised her: Have you ever repented for this? Her look was perplexity, like she was thinking, that’s a strange question. She hadn’t repented, nor had I until not too many years ago. Now I repent of it every day because I’m so easily knee-jerk fashion given to this sin. If we’re commanded to not fear, worry, or be anxious, then to have fear, worry, or anxiety is sin. Stop it! As we know, very much easier said than done, but it is nonetheless sin.
The amazing truth I’ve learned, the very hard way as is my wont, is that I don’t have to fear (worry, be anxious, etc.). It’s a choice. I am confronted with this either/or every time life does what life does, trust the Lord, or “trust” the circumstances. In our day we might say the choice is binary, 1 or 0, a fork in the road. If you haven’t had a lot of practice at this, it can be really hard, but as you build the trust muscle, making the choice to trust the Lord God Almighty gets easier. The freedom trust brings is hard to describe until you experience it. In a recent church service, our pastor quoted these verses from Psalm 112 that resonated with me:
7 He will have no fear of bad news;
his hearts is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
8 His hearts is secure, he will have no fear;
in the end he will look in triumph on his foes.
The context is the man who “fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments.” We can fear the Lord or fear our circumstances, which will it be? As we become aware of the dichotomy, that there is no middle ground, the choosing becomes easier somehow. Then we get to witness God work in us and in our circumstances. Thy will be done . . . .
Here is a little secret I’ll share. If we can’t give thanks for the circumstances (all of them), we don’t trust the Lord. I know, it ain’t easy!
As for death, I’ve found in that too it becomes easier to resist the fear, although never completely. For me, the successful resistance is rooted in Jesus’ words to Martha in John 11, which is really a challenge to us all. As her brother Lazarus lay in the tomb four days and having no idea Jesus was about to bring him back to life, he told her that her brother would rise again. She thought he meant at the last day as all Jews believed, but Jesus as he often did, said something completely unexpected:
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Remember pistis. Jesus isn’t saying do you intellectually assent to my position and ability to do this, but do you trust me. The Greek verb form John uses is important, the present indicative active, or actions that are currently being performed in the present; thus the challenge. This ain’t no one time thing, it’s an all the time thing. When the fear (doubt, worry, anxiety) hits (and the temptation to commit these sins in a fallen world in a fallen body among fallen people never ends) will we trust Jesus or not. That is the question.
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