This has helped to calm my fears, knowing that my times are no more threatening than the 50s when we feared nuclear war; or the 60s when we feared the breakdown of society; or the 70s when we feared the end of the late great planet earth; or the 90s when we feared Y2K; or the first decade of the 21st Century when we feared comets; or 2012 when the Mayan calander was about to end; or whatever other disasters or powers threaten our times.
Knowing that so many unfounded fears have always plagued us, and knowing that somehow life goes on, I have learned to curb my fears and to keep them in check. But someday, maybe one of my innermost fears will be realized.
FEAR IS GOOD
As
human beings living on this earth, we are created with an innate fear
of the unfamiliar. Worry and fear of the uncertain keeps us humans
alert and prepared for possible dangers. I believe that a good healthy
fear is needed for human survival and continuous growth.
FEAR IS BAD
But
like most good things, fear can also take some bad turns. Too much
fear can paralyze. Too much fear can also create tremendous evils by
turning nice, normal people into killers such as in the cases of the
many genocides that take place throughout history. I don't need to go
through even our own past in the U.S. with the Pietists, the colonists,
and so on, who have done untold evil acts because they feared. And to
those who think that their own group would never do that... It would do
that and probably did at one time.
Fear is a healthy feeling designed to help us survive. But it can become a monster.
Fear of the future has been with us since the beginning of humanity and it will continue until we end as a species; so it is no surprise that fear permeated the days of the biblical prophets.
THE ANCIENT WORLD AND THE SPIRITUAL
Bible prophets and what the Bible calls false prophets addressed the fears of their day. Some tried to ease the fears of the people, telling them that God was on their side and therefore would protect and deliver them. On the other hand, the other prophets capitalized on the fears of their day and told the people that by obeying God, they could escape the future doom or at least prepare themselves for the worst.
In the world views of that day, the natural world was so intimately tied into the spiritual realm, it was assumed that bad times and good times were caused by the gods or God - and only by that spiritual realm. So to avoid what they feared, it was imperative to please the gods or God.
In other words, there was no such thing as natural disaster. The spiritual effected everything. And because the spiritual world determined the events in the natural world, humans could get ultimate control of everything. We could determine whether or not the spiritual realm was going to reward or punish. Our dedication and obedience to the gods / God determined whether or not our fears would overtake us. So ultimately, by appeasing the spiritual beings, people could have ultimate control over the natural world.
Both godly and ungodly people of that day held on to these beliefs. The prophets did as well as the false prophets as well as the people.
Fear of the future has been with us since the beginning of humanity and it will continue until we end as a species; so it is no surprise that fear permeated the days of the biblical prophets.
THE ANCIENT WORLD AND THE SPIRITUAL
Bible prophets and what the Bible calls false prophets addressed the fears of their day. Some tried to ease the fears of the people, telling them that God was on their side and therefore would protect and deliver them. On the other hand, the other prophets capitalized on the fears of their day and told the people that by obeying God, they could escape the future doom or at least prepare themselves for the worst.
In the world views of that day, the natural world was so intimately tied into the spiritual realm, it was assumed that bad times and good times were caused by the gods or God - and only by that spiritual realm. So to avoid what they feared, it was imperative to please the gods or God.
In other words, there was no such thing as natural disaster. The spiritual effected everything. And because the spiritual world determined the events in the natural world, humans could get ultimate control of everything. We could determine whether or not the spiritual realm was going to reward or punish. Our dedication and obedience to the gods / God determined whether or not our fears would overtake us. So ultimately, by appeasing the spiritual beings, people could have ultimate control over the natural world.
Both godly and ungodly people of that day held on to these beliefs. The prophets did as well as the false prophets as well as the people.
THE TIMES
When
I read the prophets in the Bible, I discover individuals who usually
lived in fearful times. They and the people around them lived on the
edge of a terrible future, and the feeling of imminent disaster filled
the air of their day.
In the
midst of all the fear, there was a strong desire to find peace from that
fear. People wanted not to be afraid. People wanted "shalom" which
was rest from the tensions and perils of this life.
People lived with both fear and the longing for peace from that fear.
SOMETIMES THEIR FEAR WAS REAL
When the Writing Prophets of Israel began to speak, there were real threats to the nation's well-being.
Assyria
Assyria
was a nation growing stronger by the day, building a reputation as the
most violent and cruel nation to ever have existed. They took cities
without mercy, slaughtering, raping and torturing people without mercy.
Did I mention that they had no mercy? Israel lived under the constant
feeling that one day, Assyria would focus their evil attention on
them...and one day it did.
Babylon
When
the threat and the viciousness of Assyria had come to an end, Babylon
became the next power to be reckoned with. It was also vicious and even
more powerful as it took one city after another.
The Siege
Everybody
knew what happened in seiges. The stories were passed down to them
from generations and the stories came from other cities of their day.
Enemy armies came into the land and then stripped the land of all that was good. Those armies pillaged and raped as they went. Small towns were defenseless and therefore, many ran to the large cities with walls for protection. But the large cities offered only temporary relief from those armies.
Once inside city walls, the enemy army came and camped outside those walls eating and drinking, while inside the walls, supplies dwindled down to nothing. If the city held out in hopes of some kind of deliverence (either from God / the gods or other foreign armies less vicious), many turned to cannibalism in order to survive, while eating their own excrement and drinking their own urine.
Eventually, if no deliverence came, and usually it didn't, the city gates were opened and the enemy armies flooded in slaughtering, raping and pillaging.
Because they all knew the stories, the people knew the reality that faced them when any foreign army was on the move. Reports regulary came from different regions about the horrors taking place. As long as those other regions were far away, people had some ease. But Israel just happened to be in the center of where just about every army traveled, so fear permeated the air anytime an army was on the move.
TRUE AND FALSE PROPHETS
True prophets correctly discerned the times. Jeremiah told the people to fear the future and prepare for it because it was going to be bad. But Isaiah told King Ahaz not to worry when things looked really bad, because God was going to deliver Judah from armies already set against him.
IN THE 21st CENTURY
Today there are those who are doomsayers. "Everything is going downward and getting worse," they say. But is it really getting worse? I have always held Ecclesiastes 7:10 as a guide to this issue:
Say not, "Why were the former days better than these?"
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
Using this verse as a guide, I have learned that we sometimes glorify the past and we glorify the past's leaders. Using this verse I study deep enough into the past and into history and find that the past is not always as wonderful, as godly, as pure as it seems on the surface.
If I choose to read only certain books and articles, if all I read tells me how wonderful some time or era was, I will not learn the meaning to Ecclesiastes 7:10; but if I look well enough into any era or time, I will find that there people always feared what was coming in their day and that each generation had its share of problems and sins. Many generations faced far greater problems than ours.
Another lesson I get from Ecclesiastes 7:10 is that I should not allow the great days of the past to blind me to the great things happening now. After all, there will probably be a day when people will look back and say what a wonderful time the 2010s were.
The lesson I get from history is not to allow fear of the future and negativity of the present ruin today. Jesus told us not to fear the future because there are enough problems for us today (Matthew 6:34).
Enemy armies came into the land and then stripped the land of all that was good. Those armies pillaged and raped as they went. Small towns were defenseless and therefore, many ran to the large cities with walls for protection. But the large cities offered only temporary relief from those armies.
Once inside city walls, the enemy army came and camped outside those walls eating and drinking, while inside the walls, supplies dwindled down to nothing. If the city held out in hopes of some kind of deliverence (either from God / the gods or other foreign armies less vicious), many turned to cannibalism in order to survive, while eating their own excrement and drinking their own urine.
Eventually, if no deliverence came, and usually it didn't, the city gates were opened and the enemy armies flooded in slaughtering, raping and pillaging.
Because they all knew the stories, the people knew the reality that faced them when any foreign army was on the move. Reports regulary came from different regions about the horrors taking place. As long as those other regions were far away, people had some ease. But Israel just happened to be in the center of where just about every army traveled, so fear permeated the air anytime an army was on the move.
TRUE AND FALSE PROPHETS
True prophets correctly discerned the times. Jeremiah told the people to fear the future and prepare for it because it was going to be bad. But Isaiah told King Ahaz not to worry when things looked really bad, because God was going to deliver Judah from armies already set against him.
IN THE 21st CENTURY
Today there are those who are doomsayers. "Everything is going downward and getting worse," they say. But is it really getting worse? I have always held Ecclesiastes 7:10 as a guide to this issue:
Say not, "Why were the former days better than these?"
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
Using this verse as a guide, I have learned that we sometimes glorify the past and we glorify the past's leaders. Using this verse I study deep enough into the past and into history and find that the past is not always as wonderful, as godly, as pure as it seems on the surface.
If I choose to read only certain books and articles, if all I read tells me how wonderful some time or era was, I will not learn the meaning to Ecclesiastes 7:10; but if I look well enough into any era or time, I will find that there people always feared what was coming in their day and that each generation had its share of problems and sins. Many generations faced far greater problems than ours.
Another lesson I get from Ecclesiastes 7:10 is that I should not allow the great days of the past to blind me to the great things happening now. After all, there will probably be a day when people will look back and say what a wonderful time the 2010s were.
The lesson I get from history is not to allow fear of the future and negativity of the present ruin today. Jesus told us not to fear the future because there are enough problems for us today (Matthew 6:34).
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