The audio of this blog is available here: Audio
Introduction
I wonder whether
you’ve spotted a tendency for the trials of our current national situation to lead
to a militant neuroticism born of fear.
It’s a danger we
can all be subject to, and I suspect the various ways it shows up are leading
to significant personal physical AND psychological harm.
This shows itself up
in two apparently contradictory ways … but each stemming from the same roots in
the heart.
It can show itself
up in militant denial of reality, and also in cowering intimidation by the threat
that things pose to our mortality.
Firstly,
fear leads to militant denialism
The refusal to
fear things that we don’t want to hear can actually harm us … but we don’t want
to hear those things anyway, because they hurt us ‘like fear on our skin’!
How do you recognize
this phenomenon?
Now you may see this
refusal to hear and ducking behind barricades when you hear terms being hurled
like: ‘Conspiracy theory, ‘Project Fear’ and ‘Scare-mongering’ … terms aimed to
shame people to share in your denial of reality.
These phrases have
been deployed to get back at people who are telling us what we don’t want to
hear.
Usually they have
been hurled without much rational engagement … they’re just words
weaponized and fired to stop them saying what we don’t want to hear, when
rational reasons to stop are not able to be offered.
When some sort of
reason is offered, it tends to be something like: ‘your being bad for my mental
health’.
These have been
pretty common phrases in 2020 … this troublesome year we’ve just managed to see
the end of!
Secondly,
fear leads to cowering de facto atheism
It leads to a taking of everything upon
oneself as if there were not a God to take care and provide for us.
There IS an
embracing of unreality that is totally risk averse … whereas life carries a
certain amount of risk in a fallen world and a certain amount of faith in God.
Precautions having
been taken, this can begin to look like a denial of God’s ability to take care
of His people, and even a holding too tightly to this age and its’ very uncertain
‘certainties’. It can begin to look like the lack of faith the careless want to
accuse us of.
But in both the situations
… both these responses to warnings that give rise to fear … causing fear
becomes the biggest offence.
Causing fear becomes the greatest offence
Making people
afraid of something is becoming the great offence of our culture.
And I have a
problem going along with that, mainly because the Holy One of Israel seems to do
this quite often.
Our popular discourse seems to require us believe so … you mustn’t ‘spoil’ someone’s ‘mental health’!
But we have a
choice, in fact, about whether we accept that.
Now, let’s be
absolutely clear, it’s not very kind to go around scaring small children!
And bullying
people to see things your way because it’s YOUR way of seeing things is
definitely not at all in any way justifiable.
But bullying
people to shut up when they’re conveying fearful truths is really not
justifiable either!
Unsurprisingly,
perhaps, I’d want to say we need to be alert to what is happening here, not
just hoover up the trend, and to subject this pervasive feature of our
contemporary culture to both rational and Biblical scrutiny.
Now, in Scripture,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom … but the first words of the
angels to the shepherds on that first Christmas hill were the command to ‘fear
not’.
1) Is it rational to reject fear just because
it’s fear?
Working simply on
the basis of human reason, there’s a lot of use to be made from a little fear!
In certain
circumstances rightly used it is positively helpful, however you look at the
issue.
a) Protecting from Danger
On 9th September last year,
BBC Scotland ran a news item about a Police
Scotland tweet urged people to pack essentials such as a first aid kit, radio,
torch, and food and water.
Its recommendations were part of
an annual Preparedness Month, which is being promoted by local authorities and
emergency services across the UK.
However, the police force was
accused of scaremongering.
Twitter exploded with
paranoid people objecting to the advice.
They couldn’t face the reality they might need such a thing.
I’ve heard of
placing lifebuoys on cliff tops raising the same objection.
Can we be clear
here?
It is NOT wicked
to warn people of real dangers they’re ignoring and it isn’t right to be
guilt-shamed when you’ve done so!
Warning isn’t
cruel; failing to warn of realistic dangers when you could have done so, that
on the other hand usually is.
Fear has a rational
use in protecting us.
b) Teaching and maintaining Discipline
Family
The myth that
children are born naturally good and that fear of the consequence of mis-behaviour
is bad is not doing a lot to build happy healthy families.
It’s a lovely idea
but an unworkable untruth to think children can be raised without discipline,
however that discipline is applied … how it’s applied is another question
altogether!
Neither is unpredictable
and tyrannical parenting doing families a lot of good … this also needs to be
said.
That sort of tyrranical
and unpredictable parenting’s quite simply abuse.
But raising kids
without known penalties for known transgressions, always consistently applied
isn’t raising kids fit for life and strong relationships either. You could also
call THAT a form of abuse!
It’s to be hoped we’re
emerging from the daydream of the last century that children can be raised
without regulations backed by sanctions (whether physical or psychological) as
we deal with the psychological and social chaos in the lives of a few
generations now that have been raised off the rails.
That really IS to
be hoped, because pain that’s resulted has been significant.
Society
And then there’s
the issue of fear in society.
A society without
fear of the consequences of breaking the law does not function … but neither
does one where craven fear of tyranny is an everyday feature
The reason for
this is the same. People are not naturally ‘good’, and will get away with what
ever they can self-justify … unless there’s a fear of external sanction being applied.
But if fear is an
everyday feature, rebellion and unrest will get fermented!
The Westminster
Prime Minister set out in this pandemic by appealing to people’s common sense.
It really didn’t work, it lay in a false view of human nature and I’m glad to
see he’s backed off doing that now and legal sanctions are published and
applied.
What I’ve been trying to show is that there
are rational arguments which show that fear is not wrong in itself but has
benefits for individuals and societies as a whole … what matters is how and by
whom it gets applied.
It’s not RATIONAL to reject fear just
because it’s fear.
2) Is it Biblical to reject fear just because
it is fear?
Perhaps the best
treatment of fear from a Biblical perspective that I’ve personally ever read
comes from a Puritan Minister – part of one of the UK’s biggest back to the
Bible movement - who’d seen a lot of fear close up and personal.
That minister was
called John Flavel. He lived before the NHS, before medical science, before the
DHSS and during the reign of a number of persecuting Kings.
To cut a long story short, he knew shipwreck at sea and state persecution and lived through a difficult time, and his writings about fear are available for free download (click his pic!)
According to John Flavel, then, in his A Practical Treatise of Fear, London, John Reid, 1684, there are Biblically three kinds of human fear to be identified.
The first of these is natural fear.
National Library of Wales,Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
a) Natural fear
““Natural fear is the trouble or perturbation of mind,
from the apprehension of approaching evil, or impending danger.” (Flavel p.
11)”
So, in Genesis 3:8, when Adam disobeyed God and ate the fruit
he knew to be forbidden, Adam immediately hid. Why? It was because he feared
the consequence of his actions.
That sort of experience is common now to humanity, having
passed down from Adam to all his descendants.
Even the Lord Himself, when He came ‘in the likeness of human
flesh’ (Romans 8:3), entered voluntarily into this universal human weakness as
well. It’s worth remembering His prayer in the Garden that if possible ‘this
cup’ would pass from Him, and that He sweat as if great drops of blood in the
anguish of anticipation the night before His sacrifice for sin.
That is a NATURAL fear.
The object of our fears is evil coming to us … but it’s evil
that’s wrong not the fear of it, because natural fear has a function that’s
really helpful.
Flavel has a really contemporary observation to make on this:
“it is worth observation, that all carnal security is
maintained by putting evils at a great distance from us, as it is noted of
those secure sensualists, Amos 6:3. "They put far from them the evil
day." The meaning is not that they did, or could put the evil one minute
farther from them in reality, but only by imagination and fancy: they shut
their own eyes, and would not see it, lest it should give an unpleasing
interruption to their mirth; and this is the reason why death
puts the living into no more fear, because it is apprehended as remote, and at
an undetermined distance, whereas if the precise time of death were known, especially
if that time were near, it would greatly scar and terrify.” (Flavel p. 13)
b) Sinful fear
Flavel says that this is ““the fear wherewith carnal and unbelieving
men do fear
when dangers threaten them; and the sinfulness of it lies in five things:” (Flavel p. 14)
1. The first thing it comprises
is the distrust of God which makes us afraid to trust God’s promise or
protection as we set about doing what God wants us to do.
Flavel gives the example of Isaiah 30:15 ff. where instead of trusting the
promise of God in the face of the powerful Sennacherib’s awesome attack, the
Israelites went off and bought Egyptian miIitary help and therefore paid what
turned out to be an unacceptable price.
When faith goes out the door fear comes in, and fear chases faith from the
door.
2. The second component
found in sinful fear identified by Flavel is to fear something far more than we
should. He calls it ‘immoderacy’ which means a lack of balance … the feared consequence
is nowhere near so bad as we thought … it’s an unrealistic panic which bears
back on lack of trust in God for not allowing us to face threats that large.
3.
The third component
Flavel uncovers as he analyses sinful fear is the tendency to credit what we
fear with more power over us than it actually has; “To trust in any
creature, as if it had the power of a God to help us, or to fear any creature,
as if it had the power of a God to hurt us, is exceeding sinful, and highly
provoking to God.” (Flavel, p. 16)
So, Matthew 10:28 says: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill
the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in
hell.”
The Lord is being really blunt with His disciples there but that seems to me like
a fairly fundamental calculation to make … and one that could keep you from reacting
to threats in ways that could cause you significant harm if you don’t reckon
those odds at the right time.
Certainly this consideration should crop up in our Risk Assessments on a regular
basis!
4.
Fourthly Flavel
uncovers the way fear distracts the heart from courses of action we should and
would otherwise be taking … resulting in sin.
“The best men find it hard to keep their thoughts from wandering, and their
minds from distraction, in the greatest calm of peace, but a thousand times
harder in the hurries and tumults of fear.” Flavel, p. 18
5.
Fifthly Flavel warns
us of the sinfulness of this sinful fear in that it tends to lead mankind to
walk away from the way the Lord would have us address our fears to grasp at
man-made and inadequate substitutes.
Hebrews 2:15 speaks of Jesus Who had made “… free
those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
Now, that’s an awful lot from John Flavel
there, but I hope you can see things that are common to our spiritual experience
with the fight against fear with this man who lived such a much more precarious
life than ours, in the English Midlands then for so long mainly in and around
Plymouth roughly four centuries ago.
He describes Natural fear, sinful fear and
then what he calls ‘religious fear’.
Words change their meaning over time, and
what he describes as religious fear we’d probably understand better if we call
it ‘Godly fear’
c) Godly fear
Our culture has no idea about this … so it seems like nonsense and is immediately discounted, but just give this a minute and hear old Flavel out …
Because Flavel makes what to us seems a rather counter-cultural point in these words:
“There is an holy and laudable fear, a fear which is our treasure, not our torment; the chief ornament of the soul, its beauty and perfection, not its infelicity or sin, viz. the awful filial fear of God; natural fear is a pure and simple passion of the soul; sinful fear is the disordered and corrupt passion of the soul; https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/247682
but this is the natural passion sanctified, and thereby changed and baptized into the name and nature of a spiritual grace.”
What’s he ON about?
He explains himself like this:
“It is one of the sorest
judgments to be in the fear of man day and night, Deut. 28:65, 66, 67. and one
of the sweetest mercies to be in the fear of God all the day long, Prov. 23:17.
The fear of man
shortens our days, Isa. 22:24. but the fear of the Lord prolongeth our days,
Prov. 10:27.
The fear of the Lord
is a fountain of life, Prov. 14:27.
But the fear of man a fountain of mischiefs
and miseries: By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil, Prov. 16:6. but, by
the fear of man men run themselves into evil, Prov. 29:25.”
OK … there’s some sense there so far, so
come on now John Flavel, let’s get to the point, man!
“This fear is a
gracious habit or principle planted by God in the soul, whereby the soul is
kept under an holy awe of the eye of God, and from thence is inclined to
perform and do what pleaseth him, and to shun and avoid whatsoever he forbids
and hates.”
As you might reasonably imagine, Flavel has
several points that he wants to make about this fear of God:
a) Godly fear is God’s work in the human heart
The NIV for Jeremiah 32:40 doesn’t duck the hard ball the
way a number of other modern translations do – it says “I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I
will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that
they will never turn away from me.”
The NET translation isn’t so good as that until
you get to the footnotes which are much more helpful:
“I will make them want to fear and
respect me so much that”; Heb “I will put the
fear of me in their hearts.” However, as has been noted several times, “heart”
in Hebrew is more the center of volition (and intellect) than the center of
emotions as it is in English. Both translations are intended to reflect the
difference in psychology.”
This protective ‘fear’ we’ve read of here, then, is to be understood
as the gift of God prophesied for the New Covenant blessing and is promised as
part of the EVERLASTING covenant the Lord made in Christ.
b) Godly fear builds a consciousness that the eye of God our Master is upon us,
His servants
That’s a great thing …
because it makes us conscious of the fellowship we have with God and builds our
relationship of love and service to Him throughout our days!
It’s also a great
thing because it makes us realise both that we are not alone with the things
that come our way in life, and that He is watching us not only being aware of
whether we are living to do His work but also being aware of what we need
moment by moment to do it!
c) Godly fear leads to a glad willingness to do the will of God
We fear the consequences of stepping out of the love of our
Heavenly Father … which we very much prefer to keep experiencing.
d) Godly fear strengthens us to avoid displeasing God
And as in Job’s experience (Job 1:3) it enables
the person who lives in this godly fear and awe of God to avoid things that
would displease the Loving Father.
Conclusion
We do tend in our culture to identify fear as
a very bad thing in itself.
The tendency is to think of self-confidence as
an entitlement, being accountability-free as a human right.
The fruit of that is plain to see in the effects the failure of humans to live
in the fear of God have created.
“Some men owe
their death to their fears, but good men, in a sense, owe their lives to their
fears; sinful fears have slain some, and godly fears have saved others.
“A wise man feareth
and departeth from evil, (saith Solomon) but a fool rageth and is confident.”
(That’s a reference to Proverbs 14:16).
“His fears give him a timely alarm before the enemy fall into his quarters,
and beat
them up; by this means
he hath time to get into his chambers of security
and rest before the
storm fall: But the fool rageth, and is confident," he
never fears till he
begin to feel; yea, most time he is past all hope before
he begin to have any
fear.” (Flavel p. 25)
But thinking as if fear is only a bad
thing in and of itself and to be denied and run from and avoided, really fails to
see it’s Biblical benefits to the person who walks with God.
Flavel concludes his argument with
reference to a crucial passage in Isaiah 8:12-13, which he feels makes the point
he wants to get to:
“‘Do not call conspiracy
everything this people calls a conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear,
and do not dread it.
The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,
he is the one you are to fear,
he is the one you are to dread.”
Flavel’s point is that this graciously given
fear of the good God, is what drives out the fears we otherwise face without it.
Humanity’s revulsion from fear is therefore
hurting it, but we shall need to track that idea through this passage in Isaiah
8 … and that’s what we’ll be coming to in this podcast
Outline
Introduction
Firstly, fear leads to militant denialism
Secondly, fear leads to cowering de facto atheism
Causing fear becomes the greatest offence
1) Is it rational to reject fear just because
it’s fear?
a) Protecting from Danger
b) Teaching and maintaining Discipline
Family
Society
2) Is it Biblical to reject fear just because
it is fear?
a) Natural fear
b) Sinful fear
c) Godly fear
i) It is God’s work in the human heart
ii) It
builds a consciousness that the eye of God our Master is upon us, His servants
iii) It
leads to a glad willingness to do the will of God
iv)
Strengthens us to avoid displeasing God
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