Fear! Monday, March 9, 2020
Dear Trinity Baptist Church Family, This essay by Pastor Scott Carson is too important and timely to wait for a bulletin insert.
Stop Spreading Fear
“If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer – His grace sufficient, His promise unchangeable.” John Newton
Recently I learned that Cheerios causes cancer. It has to be true. I read it on Facebook. So, being the loving, sacrificial husband and father that I am – I ate all of the Cheerios in the house (Okay, I didn’t really…but I thought about it and that’s almost the same thing.)
While it’s true that Cheerios and other cereals contain a small level of glyphosate which is a known carcinogen, a direct link is unprovable. It’s estimated that the amount of glyphosate in cereal would result in one additional case of cancer in every million people over a lifetime.
Before you email me data showing me that I’m wrong, that’s not my point. My concern is the needless spreading of fear. Should we seek to eat healthier? Absolutely! Yet, because this is a fallen world everything has some level of “poison” from the food we eat, to the water we drink, to the air we breathe. But God did not call us to be the “Bubble People.”
When it comes to much of the sensationalism and panic that permeates social media and the media, I’m a skeptic. First, I rarely watch the news. When I do, I watch with a high level of skepticism. Both the media (and politicians) weaponize fear to garner attention and support. Fear sells. It’s very profitable. If you don’t believe me, try to buy hand sanitizer with the current panic about the Corona Virus.
Fear is an invader. Fear is not part of our original design. We are Imago Dei, made in the image of God. God is never afraid or anxious. There was no fear in the Garden until sin entered. After Adam and Eve fell, they hide in fear from God. In Genesis 3:10 Adam replies to God, “I heard the sound of You [God] in the garden, and I was afraid…” 2 Timothy 1:7 is the antithesis of that, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” If God didn’t give us fear, who did? It’s obvious.
To live in fear is a sin. When I was a child, I was terrified of the dark. I still remember becoming hysterical when my Mom would turn the light off in my bedroom. Often I’d wake up in the night and run to my parents’ bedroom. My Mom took me back to my bed, opened her Bible to Psalm 56:3. That promise has been with me for over five decades and still brings me great comfort: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee” (KJV).
Do I still have bouts and struggle with fear? Yes, but not as much as I used to. My Heavenly Father continually increases my depth of faith. Faith grows from being in the Word (Romans 10:17), walking with Father and seeing His hand in my life. As I choose to fight off fear and trust my Father today, it becomes easier to trust Him and live fear-free tomorrow.
For those who have committed their lives to Christ and trusting in the cross for our salvation, what do we really have to be afraid of? The very worst that can happen to us is Death. I love the Phillips rendering of 2 Corinthians 5:6-8: “We realise that being ‘at home’ in the body means that to some extent we are ‘away’ from the Lord, for we have to live by trusting Him without seeing Him. We are so sure of this that we would really rather be “away” from the body (in death) and be “at home” with the Lord.” Death is merely an entry to being Home with Jesus for all eternity!
God is grieved when we surrender to the sin of fear. The nation of Israel spent an additional 40 years wandering the wilderness because they feared giants more than they trusted the God who had rescued them from Pharaoh and slavery in Egypt. Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that we can’t please God without faith. Our Heavenly Father wants us to trust Him.
That means that Christians must stop wringing their hands over viruses, elections, the economy, child abductions, etc. Yes, we need to be wise and use sanctified common sense. But our eyes must always be heavenward. As one Chinese pastor wisely said, “When you’re in emergency, dial your spiritual 911- Psalm 91:1, ‘He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.’”
Times of panic are gospel opportunities. Believers like Jerry Thacker are the model for Christians. When HIV was still virtually unknown, Jerry, his wife, Sue, and their daughter, Sarah, all were infected with HIV through a blood transfusion during Sue’s delivery of their daughter. Yet, they turned what was a tragedy and a death sentence into a ministry to AIDS victims and used it to challenge the Church to minister to AIDS victims no matter how they might have contracted the disease.
No doubt, given the current pace of developments, these numbers are already out of date. The coronavirus has now spread to over 60 countries, with major outbreaks in China, South Korea, Northern Italy, and Iran. Nearly 90,000 reported cases and over 3,000 deaths. As of this week, there were over 90 confirmed cases of the virus in the United States with six deaths. According to the best numbers so far, the lethality of COVID-19 is about 2%. If that rate holds, the coronavirus would be about 10 times as lethal as the seasonal flu, and even that high of a percentage is doubtful.
It’s not surprising that those who don’t know Christ are terrified. Yet, it’s an opportunity for the people of faith to share hope, courage and truth. In the 16th century, German Christians asked Martin Luther how to respond to a crisis. In 1527, less than 200 years after the Black Death killed half of the population of Europe, the plague re-emerged in Luther’s own town of Wittenberg. In his letter “Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague,” Luther gave advice for Christians confronting infectious disease outbreaks. He argued that anyone who stands in a relationship of service to another has a vocational commitment not to flee. Those in ministry, he wrote, “must remain steadfast before the peril of death.” The sick and dying need a good shepherd who will strengthen and comfort them. Luther challenged Christians to see opportunities to minister to the sick as an opportunity to show our love for God by loving our neighbors. While Luther doesn’t encourage his readers to expose themselves recklessly to danger, he constantly straddles two competing goods: honoring the sanctity of one’s own life, and honoring the sanctity of those in need.
God is never surprised by calamity or tragedy. He is still on His throne, even using calamities, to accomplish His purposes. Christians must not panic. When times are at their worst, we believers should be at our best. And we will be when we live in the faith of knowing this world belongs to our Father, that He has it all under control and in the end, He will wipe away every tear from our eyes.