The best-selling commodity in the world is fear. If, for example, a group of people is convinced that their money, energy, food, or jobs are in peril, they can be manipulated. Some prefer manipulation toward dark conspiracies or further retreat into the doomsday citadel in which end-of-the-world scenarios paralyze the mind as truly as if they had actually happened. Others choose capitulation to a state that promises to provide for them, giving away everything for the sake of saving something. Selling fear is the surest way to have a relevant website, talk show, or newsletter. Conservatives promote fear of liberals; fear flows furiously in the opposite direction. If it is not the economy, it is the environment, health threats, foreign wars, or thorny social issues. In almost every venue, fear is the message that sells.
Admittedly, there are many economic black holes that give cause for concern. That most western men live under governments that create law and currency out of thin air, ignore their charter documents, and seem bent on spending themselves into oblivions are causes for deep concern among thinking men. The fact that, from one perspective, we are slaves on plantations created by bankers, politicians, and central planners should arouse lovers of liberty everywhere to free themselves from these shackles. Even deeper, that we seem to lack few civil or religious leaders who understand that political slavery is the God-ordained curse of spiritual idolatry, that nations cannot prosper unless governed by God’s law, and that the only way out of our self-inflicted maze of fear is faith and repentance – these are legitimate grounds for heart-felt anxiety, the confusion of faces that Daniel admitted.
Even so, the church must step back from the maelstrom of fear that is surging around us. First, we are absolutely forbidden to be fearful or anxious (Phil. 4:6). God has not given us a spirit of fear but of a sound, bold mind (2 Tim. 1:7). Our Savior told us to “take no thought for tomorrow” (Matt. 6:34), by which he also forbids us to allow doomsday scenarios to shape our thoughts and lives, for he will take care of tomorrow if we seek his kingdom today. Second, the church of Jesus Christ, his Bride, is the only secure institution in the world. In fact, it is absolutely secure, however its present prospects may look to our sin-blinded, earth-bound vision. We have our Savior’s promise that he is building his church – in every season, through every event, good and evil (Matt. 16:18). Thus, third, we walk by faith, not by sight. That is, the perspective that must dominant us is not that of wicked men du jour, who appear to be thriving by their wickedness and to parade their mouths and schemes throughout the earth. Their day is short. We will look again, if we believe and live by God’s promises, and be unable to find them (Ps. 37:36). God’s promises, his covenant with us, must dominate our thinking about the present and future.
If we would but lay hold of this one thought, our future outlook, short and long-term, would be radically altered: that it is not man’s schemes that control earth’s destinies but God’s promises to his people. This is certain because those promises, God’s covenant with us, are sealed with the blood of the eternal Son of God incarnate, the beloved of the Father, the only one who has the keys of life and death, present and future, blessing and cursing, good and evil. And this is exactly where our bad theology is reaping bitter fruit. By largely giving over the present age to the devil and his cadre of fellow-schemers, by denying that the kingdom of Jesus Christ is the defining reality of present history, and by utilizing his word as a source of moralisms and principles rather than the blueprint for our Savior’s rule in and over history, we have ripped out our God-given motivations for confidence and fearless about the future.
To be specific, what are we to do when we see evil swirling around us, men living, dying, and going to hell, and western nations reaching their bankrupt nadir? Some urge that something new is required. Perhaps it is a third political party. Others suggest that Christians should drop doctrine and head to the streets with unbridled evangelistic fervor. Still others say we should retreat within our families, well-stocked larders, and well-oiled arsenals. The suggestions are legion, each in its own way ia a lying spirit at worst, at best containing only one small seed of the whole basket of truth our Father has provided for our direction and comfort in just such times as these. This basket is his covenant, which controls the course of history. One example should suffice.
Consider the true doomsday of human history, the darkest, bleakest hour in the history of mankind. No, it was not our fall into sin, though this should be given due consideration. It is not the great flood that swept away the old world and its mighty citizens in one act of divine judgment, the effects of which we still see and feel. It is certainly not the various evils we experience in the world today. It was the day we crucified the Lord of glory, when, with reckless malice, one last attempt to storm heaven and kill the heir of all things, Jesus Christ, we rejected life and salvation, nailed hope to the cross, and certified the human race as pure evil. Yet, how does Scripture describe this day? “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). Our Savior’s appearance on earth in our flesh, life of obedience to his Father’s will, sufferings and death, resurrection and ascension – each of these was specifically promised by God as part of his covenant of grace with helpless, miserable sinners – us. If even this dark day and deed was strictly under God’s sovereign control, if it occurred according to his eternal counsel and historical covenant, if it was in fact the source of the world’s salvation, then we may be sure that everything happening around us today is equally in the hand of him who “works all things according to the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11). The present and future, like the worst of the past, is so governed by the living God that he will be glorified. The whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of his glory like the waters cover the seas (Isa. 11:9). Not one of his promises will fall to the ground (1 Kings 8:56). He will keep covenant and mercy with them that fear him (Eccl. 8:12). The nations will be discipled by the gospel (Matt. 28:18-20).
Now, because we have the promise of our Father, who cannot lie (Heb. 6:18), we have every reason to face the future with confidence, even with a sense of great resolve to undertake great things for his name. We must not view it with a sense of pending defeat – except for God’s enemies. We must not think that only bad things will happen – except for covenant-breakers. Granted, we are sometimes called to suffer so that we may be conformed to our Head, Jesus Christ, and manfully bear his cross. However, even these sufferings, which by his promised goodness we have as yet born very little, work together for our good, despite the constant screaming of the salesmen of fear, filling our ears with doom and gloom (Rom. 8:28; Deut. 17:19).
Therefore, this is not the hour for paralysis but for faithfulness – to keep covenant with God. All true Christian men must repent and forsake their sins, flock to God’s church to hear his word, and seek those seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord that are promised because our Savior reigns at the Father’s right hand (Acts 3:19). This we do primarily by – and the more fervently as we see ungodly men striding through the earth spewing their poisonous venom – turning to the righteousness found in God’s word. Would we see victory in our times, or at least the church’s return to God’s program of kingdom expansion and victory? Keep the Lord’s Day holy. Serve him self-consciously in the calling he has given to you. Obey his word. Be faithful to seek him with your whole heart, holding back no sin from his confrontation and cleansing, no gift for his use, and no time for your improvement in his covenant. Enter regularly into holy conversation and prayer with like-minded believers. And above all, cast off fear! This is not man’s day, but the age of our Savior and of his Spirit, who shall so subdue all things to himself that the desert will blossom as the rose – but only as we rebuild the old waste places through obedience in all areas of our lives – husband-wife relations, parenting, domestic life built around an open and read Bible, fervent family prayer meetings in which God’s kingdom promises are held up before him, and patiently waiting for him to work to defend Mount Zion, his church.
Whatever you may feel about the immediate prospects of the church, civil liberty, or cultural righteousness, your perspective must be governed by the fearlessness that is our precious gift through our Father’s gracious covenant. Young men, seize these promises! Seek what you can do with your particular gifts to promote the glory and honor of the Prince of peace. Do not waste your hours in gaming, frivolous, emotion-numbing relationships, and covetousness. Young women, put aside preoccupation with self, beauty, and boys; consider yourself a King’s daughter, all glorious within, with no higher destiny or present purpose than for him to make you beautiful in his righteousness and useful in his service. Remember, it is not the church that has a gun to her head, or godly men seeking to stand for righteousness in the various cultural pursuits in which our Father has called us to exercise godly dominion. It is the city of man that has a gun to its head – the gospel sword wielded by the hand of the omnipotent Spirit, whose great work in history is to topple all thoughts and towers raised in opposition to God, by convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. As you speak this word, live this covenant, and trust the God of grace and glory, fear will depart. Holy boldness will take its place. Expectation of a great work of God and hope in his promises will inspire you to seek him, pour out your heart to him, and stand still to see his salvation at work.
Though we have such great and precious promises, so many reasons to be about our Father’s business with expectation of his blessing, fear lingers. There are two clear reasons for this. Fear is fed, on the one hand, by guilt. At one level, we admit just cause for the hovering clouds of God’s judgment, that even the more than the world, the church must be chastened for her sins, in which we all share a part. How can we overcome the paralysis of guilt? Only by looking to our Savior with believing, adoring eyes, and especially to his cross, upon which our curse is nailed – all of it. Chastening we may well receive, but not cursing. So sufficient is our Savior’s blood that no one can lay a charge against us. And, marvelously, the more we gaze upon our Savior and his cross with believing eyes, the more guilt is left behind and amazed joy takes its place. One cannot simultaneously stand in awe before the cross of the Lord of the glory and be held in the grip of fear. There he is! – still fresh from his triumph, reigning over heaven and earth, calling us to walk in his train of victory, promising us every gift and grace necessary to undertake the conquest of the earth by his gospel, standing with us at all times as he gathers us into one body, unifying, sanctifying, and preserving us poor sinners by his word and Spirit. If you would put off fear, even its lingering stench, you must look at the glorious Lamb more regularly, fervently, believingly, and adoringly.
Then, we listen to the dead. The confidence that we put in the prognosticators of fear is astounding. Even those who would profess that “in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” suddenly, when it comes to current events, various fiascos, and pending doom, listen to those who cannot see past the nose on their face, if that far. There is no light in them; do not listen to them. Of course they feel that their edifices of autonomy, whether conservative or liberal, are cracking at the foundations. Of course they sense that the city of men is doomed – the final judgment causes tremors in the city of man that are felt throughout history, anticipating the final crack of doom into which all unbelieving men will fall. Of course they are fearful – that they will lose their way of life, their audience, their political leverage, their artificial sense of security. What do you expect from men who are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them (Eph. 4:18)? Now, some believers also sense the precariousness of modern society, but our message is not one of fear, preserve the rubble at all costs, do whatever it takes to preserve a way of life, that quite honestly, must come to an end so that in its place our Savior may transform men and nations into citadels of righteousness and justice built upon his word.
This, then, is our bold message in a fearful hour. There is another King, one Jesus, to whom all the princes and judges must give humble allegiance, bowing before his cross, submitting to his scepter, and kissing him with faith and love. This is not a message that the regimes of death and fear will embrace. It cannot be packaged in such a way that its offence is removed. It need only be proclaimed – by every pulpit, every father, every son and daughter of the kingdom – with courage, persistence, suffering, if necessary, and confidence – for the King reigns. Let all the nations tremble.