Fear For Your Life

“Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.“

1 Samuel 12:24

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:18

When you review history in light of God’s Narrative (the Bible) you are able to discern true causes and motivations, as well as the results of faith or rebellion against God. That is what we will discuss today about the time in history often called the Renaissance. The Renaissance is best known for the philosophy of thought that produced the French Revolution.

Neither the Renaissance nor the Revolution were a crusade for religious freedom, but an effort to replace religion with reason and rationalism. France, boasting the largest population in Europe, had trouble feeding its masses. Multitudes lived in direst poverty while royalty and Catholic cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and abbots lived richly. True Christians suffered along with the common people, striving to preach and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The devil worked ingeniously to couple ‘religion’ with ‘Christian.’ (The fruit of his efforts can be seen in the world’s news today.)

The goal was to live without fear, especially fear of God. That theme persists universally in the speeches of world rulers, of every pope, and of mutitudes of cultish and social heads. They all agree that “fear” is a bad thing. By default that includes a God whose Word demands fear. But an adage of Bible believers of all times has repeatedly proven true: When you do not fear God, you will be afraid of someone or something else.

The French peasantry reacted in what is known as the Great Fear of 1789. The bloodshed to be free of tyranny only produced more tyranny. The Reign of Terror (Sept. 5, 1793- July 17, 1794) imposed by the newly formed revolutionary government only made things more fearful.

The fears of the French continued to manifest. On June 8, 1794, a man named Robespierre and the French National Convention formally inaugurated a new religion. It was a form of deism, the belief that there is a god who, having created the universe, more or less disappeared. The Convention ordered people to recognize the existence of a supreme being and the immortality of the soul, but to reject the “superstition” of Christianity. The 7-day Christian week was exchanged for a 10-day week, and new holidays were commissioned celebrating the great events of the Revolution. Saints were replaced with political heroes. Churches were designated “Temples of Reason.” A statue called the Goddess of Reason was erected in Notre Dame. June 8 became France’s “Holy Day,” the “Festival of the Supreme Being.” The revolutionaries vowed to replace the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost with a new trinity—”Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.”

It didn’t work. “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” deteriorated into fear, bloodshed, and the guillotine. The weeks following June 8, 1794 saw the heads of 1,400 people fall “like slates from a roof.” Through this time about 300,000 people were arrested and as many as 23,000 were killed for not supporting the de-Christianization of France. Chaos paved the way for Napoleon Bonaparte, the little dictator. The terrors of France had only begun.

Forward to June 18, 1815. Multitudes followed the charismatic Napoleon in what has been the last flourish of French nationality. All of the impetus from the new religion of the Renaissance and the French Revolution came of age at the Battle of Waterloo.

But someone had blundered. Tennyson’s epic line from “The Charge of the Light Brigade” rehearsed the crumbling of the advance of a belief system in man, by man, and for man.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

According to the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Napoleon lost 25,000 men in that battle. The French learned the hard way the cost of not fearing God. Their revolution died just a decade after its birth.

Make No Mistake

“Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” proved inadequate gods, as did Robespierre, the Revolution, and Napoleon himself. In the end they offered only misery.

Belief in the Bible also produced a revolution. We know it as the Reformation, a reviving that sparked from reading a New Testament in secret to a complete Bible commissioned by a King. Yet it also came with great bloodshed. That blood came from believers who were not ashamed of Christ. They laid down their lives in martyrdom. From Wycliffe to Tyndale and scores besides, they “loved not their lives unto the death.” (Rev. 12:11)

What fueled an outspoken minority of believers with the resolve to give their lives, rather than fight for them? They had been delivered “from so great a death” (2 Cor. 1:10) and from “the fear of death.” (Heb. 2:15). They had chosen instead to fear GOD. They understood the nature and the power and immensity of God. They believed the words of Jesus Christ, “And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.” (Luke 12:4-5)

Fear God, for your Life!

Yes, the greatest peace comes to those who fear God. Peace in any nation, according to the prayer of 1 Timothy 2:2, “That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.” But also peace for every person, according to the assurance of Romans 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Bergoglio, the late Catholic authority, supposedly wrote this in his final Easter speech: “There can be no peace without freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and respect for the views of others.”

Only the first 5 words were correct.

That was the sentiment of 17th century France. Beware when you pursue peace without truth. The blood will flow. “The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.” (Psalm 55:10)

When the world (or the spokesman for it) says, “peace,” you can be sure there will be terror. But when you obey the warning from God to fear Him, you can be sure of the greatest peace that passes understanding. Malachi 2:5 offers a sweet deal from God to one who fears Him.

“My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.”

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