Tag Archives: Fear

Anxiety and Thoughts of Death

20 Wednesday May 2020

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Short version: It’s not just the idea, but the anxiety produced by the idea, which gives rise to an increase in thoughts of death. If I tell you your worldview is stupid and you don’t care, you don’t have increased thoughts of death. But if you take my “you’re stupid and so’s your worldview” to heart and feel anxious, you’ll have increased thoughts of death. If you have increased thoughts of death, you try to defend your worldview from attack.
Longer version: Terror Management Theory proposes that when we are confronted with thoughts of death, we seek to (1) shore up our self-esteem, and (2) our worldview. For example, an atheist confronted with death can say, I won’t know I’m dead so there is no reason to fear death. A Muslim can say, I will be resurrected to Paradise, so I have no need to fear death. When I thinks about death, they can think about their response to death.

When confronted with some information which undercuts their worldview, (say, there is a god, or Muhammed was not a true prophet), research shows that the victim (or test-subject, depending upon your point-of-view) has more thoughts about death (DTA death-thought accessibility).

Since thoughts of death produce anxiety, human beings seek for ways to relieve that anxiety (anxiety being unpleasant). Researchers have noted two basic mechanisms, first were used to relieve the anxiety. The immediate response is to distract oneself or otherwise try to ignore the information). Then, after a passage of time and as thought the immediate thoughts of death fade, one begins to various “distal defenses” are brought to bear. The victim seeks to shore-up their symbolic mechanism to deal with death.

The research has primarily dealt with the thoughts of death, not the emotion of anxiety. A study published 2014 sought to examine the emotive functions.

The study sought to produce anxiety in Protestant Christian undergraduate students. They were told that the they were testing how a drink effected memory. Some of the students were told the drink contained caffeine and would them “jittery,” others were told it was a vitamin drink.

The reason for the two different drinks has to do with “attribution of arousal manipulation.” The students who drank the “caffeine” might attribute their anxiety to the drink and not to the article challenging their beliefs.

The students were given an article which challenged their religious beliefs (Jesus is the same as Krishna or Mithra or Horus). A control group read an article on the northern lights.

The next phase asked the students to complete words . So they were given coff–. Do they write “coffee” or “coffin”? The reason for this section to was both assess their thoughts of death and to give time for the “distal defenses” to engage.

The final phase as the students to evaluate their article – did it make you angry? How smart was the author?

When the students were given the “caffeine”, there was a marginal tendency to attribute their anxiety to caffeine and to have fewer “death-related” thoughts than the vitamin drink group. The students with the vitamin drink did experience more death related thoughts when having their religious beliefs attacked.

Not surprisingly, the students who read the attacking article had greater emotional response than those who read the article on the northern lights.

But since the researchers had given an introductory questionnaire on death related thoughts, they wanted to make sure that initial questionnaire did not poison their results.

They performed a very similar test. But this time they gave the students an opportunity to set bail for a prostitute. The thinking was that death-related thoughts would lead to more protection for their worldview, which would lead to higher bail amounts.

The surmise was true.

Here is what the researchers believed was significant in these tests: When the student attributed their anxiety to the caffeine they did not seek to protect their world view. It seems that when they blamed the drink for their anxiety it acted to protect them from thinking further about death.

A third test was premised upon this idea: Humans protect ourselves from thoughts of death by distinguishing ourselves from other animals. Therefore, we experience disgust when someone eats strange food, defects on the living room floor or commits incest, because it reminds us that we are animals; reminding ourselves that we are animals, reminds that we can die like animals. Therefore, we feel disgust in those circumstances.

You don’t need to take that explanation for why we experience disgust when someone decides to imitate a dog in your apartment.

The third experiment sought to determine the extent to which misattribution could apply to disgust.

And so we come to a test which I am glad I did not have to experience. The students were going to be subjected to viewing a number of gross pictures, someone vomiting, urine, feces, snot, a dirty toilet, a bloody finger. These apparently makes us think we are animals.

All the students were given an essay to read. One essay said, you’re just animal. The other essay had nothing to do with animals.

All the students were given instructions on viewing the pictures. Some were told to view the pictures carefully. Others were given specific instructions to take a “detached and unemotional attitude.” They were to be clinical and unfeeling as they examined the pictures.

After looking at the pictures, they were examined for disgust.

The students were instructed to have clinical detachment when viewing the pictures had fewer death-related thoughts after viewing them.

And so again, an increase a serious negative emotion increased one’s thought of death.

Here was the upshot:

Our findings suggest that threatening material will only increase DTA when that material is experienced as emotionally unsettling.

Webber, D., Schimel, J., Faucher, E.H. et al. “Emotion as a necessary component of threat-induced death thought accessibility and defensive compensation.” Motiv Emot 39, 142–155 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-014-9426-1.

What precisely takes place is unclear.

This research reminds me of some research I did in college on the grotesque in literature. There is a theory that we are attracted to disturbing things in art because it allows us to focus our existing anxiety on a point and attribute our anxiety on that artwork (rather than on some other matter which may be disturbing me.

There is an important consideration here for persuasion study. Persuasion functions by creating some sort of dis-ease, some anxiety and a proffered means of resolution. You see the car, you want the car: anxiety. You can buy the car: resolution.

If the creation of anxiety generally has a tendency to increase thoughts of death – and thus thoughts of protection of my worldview – this creates a certain complication. The research showed only a “marginal” decrease in death related thoughts when the anxiety could be attributed to the caffeine drink.

If we seek to create a powerful persuasive movement, we have the potential for creating greater anxiety and thus increased death related thoughts. An increase in death related thoughts comes along with protection of one’s worldview.

Thus, a powerful persuasive move have the wind at its back if the persuasion accords with one’s worldview. But, an attempt to make a strong persuasive move (by generating a great deal of anxiety at first) will have a headwind if that persuasive move is contrary to the worldview.

This does not mean that the issue under persuasive pressure is distinctly a facet of the worldview; only that it can be concordant or discordant with a worldview.

Augustine on Desiring and Fearing God

19 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by in Augustine, Fear, fear of God, Fear of the Lord, Uncategorized

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There is a sort of paradox which lies at the heart of the Christian’s apprehension of God. We are told to love God and trust God. But we are also told to fear God. Psalm 2 contains the strange command:

Psalm 2:11 (ESV)

Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.

How is that possible: fear and trembling are quite different than the command to rejoice. But this paradox of joy and fear, coming near and trembling is a basic theme of the Scripture:

Isaiah 66:1–2 (ESV)

The Humble and Contrite in Spirit
66 Thus says the LORD:
“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?
2  All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the LORD.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word.

How then do we desire that we fear? Augustine helps provide some information here:

Because human desires must be transformed and reoriented in order to long for God rightly, desire for God, according to Augustine, does not provide an unambiguous sense of pleasure, at least not while we are still on our earthly pilgrimage. For Augustine, the cultivation of the desire for God and the commitment to a process of reorientation to God do not immediately produce unadulterated joy. God does not promptly ravish the soul with exquisite bliss and comfort. Imaging the beauty and truth of God as a light that attracts the soul, Augustine writes: “What is the light which shines right through me and strikes my heart without hurting? It fills me with terror and burning love: with terror in so far as I am utterly other than it, with burning love in that I am akin to it.”19 The terror is due to the perception of the dissimilarity of the soul and the holy God, coupled with the recognition that God is drawing the soul into a potentially painful process of transformation. The exhilaration of seeking the eternal is qualified by the bittersweet disclosure of God’s difference from the unworthy soul.20 A kind of fear arises as one becomes aware of one’s need for God and one’s own insufficiency. Although Augustine often describes God as the soul’s true source and destination, he also portrays divinity and humanity as being two sides of a chasm. God’s immeasurable magnitude can appear so vast that it intimidates the soul. At the same time that it intimidates, the phenomenon of desire for God contains within it the extravagant prospect that the soul, though unlike God, has the possibility to become (in some respects) like God. This transformation into godliness necessarily involves the daunting imperative to reorient one’s life away from lesser attachments and to become a new creature, defined by one central love. Consequently, the desire for God both promises absolute fulfillment but also requires the renunciation of cherished aspects of the old worldly self.

Barrett, Lee C.. Eros and Self-Emptying (Kierkegaard as a Christian Thinker) (pp. 74-75). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.  (Incidentally, this has been a fascinating book so far. If you have any interest in Augustine or Kierkegaard, it is well worth the time.) This fear reminds me of the line in Rilke, Beauty is beginning of terror.

Thomas Watson explains that there are two types of fear:

There is a twofold fear.
1. A filial fear; when a man fears to displease God; when he fears lest he should not hold out, this is a good fear; ‘Blessed is he that fears alway;’ if Peter had feared his own heart, and said, Lord Jesus, I fear I shall forsake thee, Lord strengthen me, doubtless Christ would have kept him from falling.
2. There is a cowardly fear; when a man fears danger more than sin; when he is afraid to be good, this fear is an enemy to suffering. God proclaimed that those who were fearful should not go to the wars, Deut. 20:8. The fearful are unfit to fight in Christ’s wars; a man possessed with fear, doth not consult what is best, but what is safest. If he may save his estate, he will snare his conscience, Prov. 29:25. ‘In the fear of man there is a snare.’ Fear made Peter deny Christ; Abraham equivocate, David feign himself mad; fear will put men upon indirect courses, making them study rather compliance than conscience. Fear makes sin appear little, and suffering great, the fearful man sees double, he looks upon the cross through his perspective twice as big as it is; fear argues sordidness of spirit, it will put one upon things most ignoble and unworthy; a fearful man will vote against his conscience; fear infeebles, it is like the cutting off Samson’s locks; fear melts away the courage, Josh. 5:1. ‘Their hearts melt because of you;’ and when a man’s strength is gone, he is very unfit to carry Christ’s cross; fear is the root of apostasy. Spira’s fear made him abjure and recant his religion; fear doth one more hurt than the adversary; it is not so much an enemy without the castle, as a traitor within indangers it; it is not so much sufferings without, as traitorous fear within which undoes a man; a fearful man is versed in no posture so much as in retreating; oh take heed of this, be afraid of this fear, Luke 12:4. ‘Fear not them that can kill the body.’ Persecutors can but kill that body which must shortly die; the fearful are set in the fore-front of them that shall go to hell, Rev. 21:8. Let us get the fear of God into our hearts; as one wedge drives out another, so the fear of God will drive out all other base fear.

Thomas Watson, “Discourses upon Christ’s Sermon on the Mount,” in Discourses on Important and Interesting Subjects, Being the Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton, & Co.; A. Fullarton & Co., 1829), 368–370. I agree with Watson, but I think he misses something which the quotation on Augustine grasps: There is an ontological basis of fear. There is a fear sprung from the utter otherness of God.

When the disciples are in the boat and Jesus calms the storm, they wonder what sort of man this is. The otherness of Jesus causes them to fear. They were not afraid that Jesus was going to hurt them; he had just saved their lives. They were afraid of his mere presence.

This helps understand Paul’s line that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.” We need an ontological transformation to be able to bear we are going.

The Great Divorce has a seen which captures some of this matter. When the insubstantial beings from hell come to heaven even the grass is too substantial, too real to bear:

As the solid people came nearer still I noticed that they were moving with order and determination as though each of them had marked his man in our shadowy company. ‘There are going to be affecting scenes,’ I said to myself. ‘Perhaps it would not be right to look on.’ With that, I sidled away on some vague pretext of doing a little exploring. A grove of huge cedars to my right seemed attractive and I entered it. Walking proved difficult. The grass, hard as diamonds to my unsubstantial feet, made me feel as if I were walking on wrinkled rock, and I suffered pains like those of the mermaid in Hans Andersen. A bird ran across in front of me and I envied

Lewis, C. S.. The Great Divorce (Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis) (p. 25). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. If the mere grass will overwhelm our feet, what would the sight of the King do to our sight? And how utterly dangerous and other is God to us now.

 

Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then

07 Saturday Mar 2020

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The quotation below is from Philip K Dick’s Through a Scanner Darkly. The work is an extended meditation of identity and paranoia; not for the faint of heart. In this section the protagonist is trying to determine whether he is really being targeted by someone for something:

One of the most effective forms of industrial or military sabotage limits itself to damage that can never be thoroughly proven—or even proven at all—to be anything deliberate. It is like an invisible political movement; perhaps it isn’t there at all. If a bomb is wired to a car’s ignition, then obviously there is an enemy; if a public building or a political headquarters is blown up, then there is a political enemy. But if an accident, or a series of accidents, occurs, if equipment merely fails to function, if it appears faulty, especially in a slow fashion, over a period of natural time, with numerous small failures and misfirings—then the victim, whether a person or a party or a country, can never marshal itself to defend itself.

And:

Still moving about alertly with his gun, Barris ignored him as he sought to discover telltale traces. Arctor, watching, thought, Maybe he will. They may have left some. And he thought, Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then, briefly. Under very specialized conditions, such as today.

It reminds me of the line from William Burroughs, Paranoia is having all the facts.

The current terror about a virus, unseen; of unknown danger (is it terrible or mild) seems to stir up a similar fear. We live in a world which pretends to have tamed and managed death. And yet here it is again. It wanders about at its leisure like a virulent man of wealth and ease.

It has provoked paranoid and panicked responses. The paranoia of Did I really see that?

And so I wonder, how we’ll have those fears been packed away? Were they just waiting for an opportunity to come out? How easily will they be returned? How firmly will paranoia link up with reality?

What does a culture like ours offer for the fear of death? What happens when do many become paranoid at one time?

It seems we will find out.

Thomas Boston on the Need to Fear Oneself

29 Wednesday Jan 2020

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In a sermon entitled “The Happiness of Fearing Alway,” Thomas Boston spoke of the need to fear oneself:

Happy is he that feareth alway with respect to himself. Every man is his own nearest neighbour, and so his worst enemy is nearest to him. Happy is the man that keeps a jealous eye over himself. “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things that thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life.” And there are four things about yourselves which you have need to fear; to be jealous over them, and circumspect about them, lest you offend God in them and by them.

Thomas Boston, The Whole Works of Thomas Boston: Sermons, Part 1, ed. Samuel M‘Millan, vol. 3 (Aberdeen: George and Robert King, 1848), 7.

We should fear our heads, our hearts, our tongues, our senses.

We should fear our heads, lest we become prey to bad ideas, “God is a God of truth as well as holiness. There are soul ruining principles as well as practices.” There were bad ideas infecting minds in Boston’s day, but I’m willing to venture that we have increased the stock of soul-destroying concepts. We should be willing to question what we know or think.

We should fear our hearts: “The heart is the principle of action as the eye is the light of the body. Great need then is there for the heart to be pure. O! what need to entertain this holy fear with respect to the heart; for it is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. If you would have the streams pure you must look well to the fountain.”

Our heart too easily and too willingly fastens upon the wrong objects, upon those thing which debase and shame. Conversely, godly affections too easily dissipate, “Good affections are tender buds of heaven easily checked and made to wither; and bad ones like ill weeds grow apace.”

We should fear our tongues. “It is dangerous to ride on an unbridled horse, and equally dangerous to have an unbridled tongue.” More damage has been wrought by the tongue than by hand; often the worst acts of violence are stirred up by the tongue. And the tongue has destroyed countless lives before death has taken the body.

We should fear our senses. At this point Boston sounds very much like John Bunyan in The Holy War: the senses are gates to a city, and thus the means which Satan gains entrance to the heart: “These are the gates of the soul, and when the town is besieged, there must be strict watch kept at the gates. Satan lays his trains at these gates, and if we do not take good heed, the whole soul may be set on fire. By the eyes and the ears, did the devil blow up all mankind in Adam and Eve.”

Faith and fear go hand in hand

28 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by in Faith, Faith, Fear, fear of God, Fear of the Lord, Thomas Watson, Uncategorized

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The graces of the Spirit work for good. Grace is to the soul, as light to the eye, as health to the body. Grace does to the soul, as a virtuous wife to her husband, “She will do him good all the days of her life.” Prov. 31:12. How incomparably useful are the graces! Faith and fear go hand in hand; faith keeps the heart cheerful, fear keeps the heart serious; faith keeps the heart from sinking in despair, fear keeps it from floating in presumption; all the graces display themselves in their beauty: hope is the helmet, 1 Thess. 5:8. meekness “the ornament,” 1 Pet. 3:4. love “the bond of perfectness,” Col. 3:14. The saints’ graces are weapons to defend them, wings to elevate them, jewels to enrich them, spices to perfume them, stars to adorn them, cordials to refresh them: and does not all this work for good? The graces are our evidences for heaven; is it not good to have our evidences at the hour of death?

 Thomas Watson, A Divine Cordial; The Saint’s Spiritual Delight; The Holy Eucharist; and Other Treatises, The Writings of the Doctrinal Puritans and Divines of the Seventeenth Century (The Religious Tract Society, 1846), 17–18.

Augustus Franck, Nicodemus, or a Treatise on the Fear of Man, Chapter IV

22 Friday Nov 2019

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The prior post in this series is found here. 

CHAPTER IV

Of the manifold mischiefs caused by the fear of man

Fear of man is one cause which causes one to reject coming to faith, “Many thousands of souls are thereby kept back from a true and thorough repentance and conversion; because they do not suffer the knowledge of the truth, the brightness whereof hath in some degree enlightened them, to shine forth in its full strength, but hold it, as it were, imprisoned by manifold hypocritical shifts and pretences.”

 

Fear of man also limits one’s growth in godliness, because one is afraid of what others may say or do. “Many know not what the reason is why they make such slow advances in their spiritual growth, when all this while the enemy, that is, the fear of man, secretly lurks within, and eats out, as it were, the very vigour and activity of the life of grace; though they take him for their best friend, supposing this fearfulness to be nothing else but wisdom and prudence.”

 

Fear of man and continual opposition may cause a minister to lose heart and thus perform their office. Fearfulness in one encourages fearfulness in others. And so two fearful ministers in one place, may cause a great deal of mischief. Those who are brought upon under such ministry will resemble their minister, as a child does a parent. Such ministers also rob others by distracting them away from ministers who could more profit their soul.

 

And those who are wicked take courage when they see the righteous fearful.

 

Fear of man causes many to refuse to be an open gospel witness to those who have power and position.

 

“The fear of man is always for maintaining old customs; and whilst every one is afraid of innovation, all abuses are thereby more and more authorized, so that all things proceed continually from bad to worse, because nothing is reformed or amended.”

 

A fearful man cannot act in faith on God, because, “a fearful man trusts God no further than his reason reaches and carries him.” He certainly will not trust God to protect him. By rejecting faith in God, we reject God’s blessing which is bestowed upon the faithful who receive them in faith. A fearful heart can receive no true communion or spiritual blessing from God; rather, such a fearful man is also plagued by a bad conscience.

 

“St. James saith, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,” ch. 4:7.: and the reverse of it is full as true; for the more we give way to the devil and his instruments out of fear, the more they pursue and press upon us. Men might rid themselves of many troubles, could they but resignedly rely upon the authority of their function, and boldly perform what God hath commanded them. If we neglect this, it is no wonder if the devil insult us.”

More dangerous than anything you will ever meet

12 Saturday Oct 2019

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The Two Towers, Chapter 5

Tolkien here draws together two ideas which Gimili naively thinks to be exclusive of one-another. This is similar to Lewis’ comment that the lion is good and dangerous. The lion is certainly not safe.

The source of this idea is God himself. God is good, perfectly good. God is love. Who has ever been more kind than Christ? And yet God is very dangerous; more dangerous than anything we could imagine: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet:

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matt10.28

It is a simplistic concept to think that danger and good are separate.

This helps a bit understand the tension in Christianity that we are to love God, trust God, put our hope in God – fear God.

Thucydides and the Fear of God and gods

26 Thursday Sep 2019

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In considering the matter of the fear of God/gods and human response, Thucydides has an interesting observation in Book II The Peloponnesian War. He is describing a circumstance of people flooding into the city of Athens. He first describes the breakdown in public order:

[52]An aggravation of the existing calamity was the influx from the country into the city, and this was especially felt by the new arrivals. [2] As there were no houses to receive them, they had to be lodged at the hot season of the year in stifling cabins, where the mortality raged without restraint. The bodies of dying men lay one upon another, and half-dead creatures reeled about the streets and gathered round all the fountains in their longing for water. [3] The sacred places also in which they had quartered themselves were full of corpses of persons that had died there, just as they were; for as the disaster passed all bounds, men, not knowing what was to become of them, became utterly careless of everything, whether sacred or profane. [4] All the burial rites before in use were entirely upset, and they buried the bodies as best they could. Many from want of the proper appliances, through so many of their friends having died already, had recourse to the most shameless sepultures: sometimes getting the start of those who had raised a pile, they threw their own dead body upon the stranger’s pyre and ignited it; sometimes they tossed the corpse which they were carrying on the top of another that was burning, and so went off.

The breakdown in public order led to a breakdown in moral order:

[53] [1] Nor was this the only form of lawless extravagance which owed its origin to the plague. Men now coolly ventured on what they had formerly done in a corner, and not just as they pleased, seeing the rapid transitions produced by persons in prosperity suddenly dying and those who before had nothing succeeding to their property. [2] So they resolved to spend quickly and enjoy themselves, regarding their lives and riches as alike things of a day. [3] Perseverance in what men called honor was popular with none, it was so uncertain whether they would be spared to attain the object; but it was settled that present enjoyment, and all that contributed to it, was both honorable and useful.

He then addresses the issue of fear as a restraint upon human behavior:

[4] Fear of gods or law of man there was none to restrain them. As for the first, they judged it to be just the same whether they worshipped them or not, as they saw all alike perishing; and for the last, no one expected to live to be brought to trial for his offences, but each felt that a far severer sentence had been already passed upon them all and hung ever over their heads, and before this fell it was only reasonable to enjoy life a little.

Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (Medford, MA: London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton, 1910).

This is interesting not just for the observation about the relationship between fear and restraint (why not do whatever I desire when it makes no difference in terms of punishment), but also the matter of “faith” in gods/God. I wrote a couple of days ago about the question of a crisis of faith following a great loss.

This people are experiencing a crisis of faith and have become atheists in practice if not in theory. They are living as if there is no divine judgment. Since it is the duty of a god to protect me from the vicissitudes of life, what is the point of faithful relationship to the god, if the god will not protect me from this world. That idea is so deeply engrained in us, that we effectively believe – even among professing Christians – that if some difficulty befalls us, that we God has failed.

But Christianity sees trouble as ultimately stemming from a decision of God. In a polytheistic society, there are multiple divine agents. Thus, one should worship the god/goddess who best be able to protect and advance my interests among the other gods. To get across the sea, it does little to have the help of a god who has no power over the water.

They gave up on worship, because the gods could no longer sustain their duty of protection. Gods operate like politicians who can get votes only so long as they have the capacity to provide some benefit. And that benefit must be immediate and tangible.

Why then would God fail to deliver to protect one against trouble. If there is trouble, why not a judgment upon Egypt which does not touch Goshen?

The promise is not a delivery in this age, but a delivery from this age:

Galatians 1:1–5 (ESV)

 

1 Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

The obvious rationale to permit trial in this age is that trial in this age sets our hope elsewhere. The book of Ecclesiastes begins with the observation that this world is utterly vain – it will not persist nor will it satisfy. The book ends with the admonition:

Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 (ESV)

13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

This is interesting, because it is so countercultural. The disposition described by Thucydides is the human default: The job of a god is to protect me from the vanity of this world. If the god fails in that task, there is no basis to fear that god. But Ecclesiastes says: The world is in fact vain. But the vanity of the world should lead to the conclusion to in fact fear God.

But there is also a coherence between Thucydides and Ecclesiastes, the gods of the Athenians could not fulfill their promise. They were “hired” to do a job, which they could not do. Like the Egyptian gods systematically destroyed the plagues, the Athenian gods were shown to be no gods.

 

Edward Pohill on how the fear of God prepares us to suffer

25 Wednesday Sep 2019

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Pohill begins with his proposition which he seeks to prove in the ensuring discourse:

If we would be in a fit posture for suffering, we must get an holy fear in our hearts.

He then cites to two texts of Solomon which commend fear as a means of wisdom:

The wise Solomon begins his Proverbs with this; “The fear of the Lord is the beginning (or head) of knowledge,” (Prov. 1:7); and ends his Ecclesiastes with this, “That to fear God, and keep his commandments, is the whole duty of man,” (Eccl. 12:13).

He then makes the observation that the capacity to fear the God is something which belongs uniquely to human beings. Not even devils, who have great intellectual capacity can perform this task of exhibiting a holy fear of God:

Other things appertain to the beast, or the devil; but holy fear is the all of man, it makes him a perfect man, not only to do God’s will, but to suffer under it.

He then notes three ways in which a fear of God creates a basis to withstand suffering. First, he contrasts the fear of God with the fear of man. He makes a series of observations respecting the fear of other human beings. To begin with, the fear of man is irrational (compared to the fear of God), because men are everywhere accounted as weak:

It is not the fear of man but of God, that doth it. It is not the fear of man that can do it. God gives us a charge against this, “Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die?” (Isa. 51:12). There is no cause to fear a weak piece of clay, a very breath, a fading leaf; he must die, and there is an end of him and all his thoughts perish with him.

Pohill could have cited to any number of like verses which warn us to not fear man, such as

Isaiah 2:22 (ESV)

22         Stop regarding man

in whose nostrils is breath,

for of what account is he?

Moreover, fear of man leads to sin:

The wise man tells us, “That the fear of man bringeth a snare,” (Prov. 29:25). It made Abraham dissemble as if he had no wife; David changed his behaviour, as if he had no reason; Peter curse and swear as if he knew not his master: this fear disposes to apostacy,

He takes the remedy from the remainder of Proverbs 29:25:

Proverbs 29:25 (ESV)

25     The fear of man lays a snare,

but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

The fear of God and the fear of man seem to be mutually exclusive categories; we can only do one or other. And thus Pohill argues that the fear of man

must be cured by that fear of God, which disposes to suffering: when we are ready to drown in worldly sorrow, it is of singular use to spring another, a godly sorrow in our hearts; and when the fear of man puts us into trembling fits, it is an excellent remedy to raise up the fear of God in our souls above the other.

The fear of God does not create a generalized anxiety; rather it is a cure to anxiety. Rather than being basis for anxiety, a concern for the Lord alone creates freedom from a concern of what happens in this world:

Thus God directs his people not to fear the confederate enemies, but to “sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and to let him be their fear and their dread,” (Isa. 8:12, 13). He is Lord of Hosts, God over all, and the fear of him should be above all other fears; this is the way to have him to be a sanctuary to us, as it follows. If we fear him, he will be an inviolable place of retreat, where we may repose ourselves in a day of trouble.

Second, he distinguishes fear of the Lord from fearfulness. He uses the now unusal word “diffidence” which emphasis a lack of confidence, doubt, uncertainly. The fear of the Lord does not paralyze us in place:

It is not a diffidential fear, but a fiducial one that doth it: a diffidential fear makes the mind, as meteors in the air, to hang in suspense, and, in case affliction come, to fail under the burden. St. Peter walked upon the water to go to Jesus; but when he saw the wind boistrous, he was afraid, and began to sink, (Matth. 14:29, 30.) By faith he walked, and by diffidence he began to sink.

While sinful fear creates diffidence in our heart, the fear of the Lord is consistent with faith and confidence in God:

Our condition is the very same; in the waves of a troublesome world we stand by faith, but fall by diffidence; that fear, which prepares us for suffering, must be a fiducial one. “Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord, he is their help and their shield,” (Psa. 115:11).

Fear of man entails an increasing sense of protection of myself-by-myself; it is the opposite of faith. Fear of the God causes us to flee and run toward God in faith:

Holy fear is and must be in conjunction with faith. Fear flies from the evils of sin and hell; faith closes in with the promises of grace and glory; both concur to make a man fit for suffering; and such a sufferer shall have God for his help and shield.

Thus, fear of God is not a fear which causes wavering or cowardice.

Third, fear is also associated with a position of dependence. But the fear of God is not the dependence of a slave but the dependence of a child: “It is not a servile fear, but a filial one that doth it”.

The difference in these two types of fear lie in the result of such fear with respect to sin. There is a difference between fearing the consequence of sin as opposed to hating the sin:

he that hath a mere servile fear of the wrath to come, may forbear an act of sin, but he hath the love of it in his heart; “adhuc vivit in eo peccandi voluntas” the love of sin lives in him still, as an ancient hath it.

He then applies this question of fear to matter of suffering. If one merely fears pain – such as the consequence for sin – then such a one will reject all suffering. One who suffers for God suffers because the love of God is greater than the sorrow of suffering:

Such an one is not in a fit case to suffer for the truth; he hath not a love to God to move him to it, nor a capacity to have heaven after it; and how can he suffer? It is very hard for a man to suffer for a God that he loves not; or part with the good things of this world, when he hath no hope of those in a better.

He then contrasts servile fear with filial fear (the fear of a child) on the ground that filial fear is fear of God mixed with the love of a child:

That fear, which prepares for suffering, is not servile, but filial; it stands not in conjunction with the love of sin, but with the love of God; the nature of it is such, that he that hath it will displease man rather than offend God; part with a world, rather then let go the truth and a pure worship; nay, and lay down his life rather then forfeit the divine presence and favour which are better than life. Thus much touching the nature of that fear, which prepares us for suffering.

In the second half of the essay, he lists out three ways in which holy fear acts to prepare us for and help us endure through suffering. First, holy fear looks upon sin as worse than suffering. Second, holy fear takes real the suffering of hell as opposed to temporal suffering. Third, holy fear looks upon eternal loses as greater than temporal loses.

What each of these elements has in common is that holy fear, fear of God, puts our life into a different context. The fear of a bare creature is the fear of loss of some immediate good in the present creation. But holy fear looks through the present and sees things in their eternal aspect.

First holy fear looks upon sin as worse than suffering. Sin is contrary to God:

Holy fear looks upon sin as an evil much greater than any suffering: suffering is opposite to the creature,

but sin is opposite to the infinite God;

it is a rebellion to his sovereignty,

a contradiction to his holiness,

a provocation to his justice;

an abuse to his grace;

a stain cast, as much as in us lies, upon his glory;

nay, as the schools speak, it is a kind of deicidium, it strikes in a sort at the very life and being of God;

it wishes that there were none at all;

and, if it could effect it, there should be none.

Suffering does not make a man worse; but sin does:

Suffering doth not make a man worse then he was before, but sin doth it. Those saints that were destitute, afflicted, tormented, wandering in deserts, and mountains, and dens, and caves of the earth, were yet such excellent ones, “That the world was not worthy of them,” (Heb. 11:37, 38). On the other hand, Antiochus Epiphanes, (who was, as his name imports, illustrious and glorious in the world) was yet but a vile person, and was made such by his wickedness.

Next, present suffering can only affect those things which must lose. Sin will cause the lost of those things that must not lose:

Suffering strikes at the estate or body of man, but sin strikes at his soul, a thing more precious than a world; nay, and at the divine image there, which is more worth than the soul itself:

Consider the degradation which sin perpetuates:

it doth, where it can prevail, turn men into beasts in its sensual lusts, or into devils in its spiritual wickednesses: suffering may have good, nay great good in it, but sin is evil, only evil; it is called by St. James, περισσεία κακίας, the superfluity or excrement of all evil, (James 1:21).

It contains all evils in it; and if all evils (saith a worthy divine) were to have a scum or excrement, sin is it, as being the abstracted quintessence of all evil, and having nothing at all of good in it. Sin, saith Bradwardine, is a thing not to be done, “pro quantiscunque bonis lucrandis, aut pro quantiscunque malis præcavendis,” for the gaining never so great a good, or for the avoiding never so great an evil.

He that hath this holy fear in his heart, will choose suffering as the lesser evil, rather than sin, which is much the greater….It was the saying of Anselm, That if sin were set before him on one hand, and hell on the other, he would rather choose hell than sin. … Holy fear will tell us, that sin must not be done to avoid suffering; that we were better bear all reproaches than dishonour God; lose our estates than leave our religion; nay, and lay down our lives than be separated from the Divine love.

O let us look upon sin as the maximum formidable; as that which hath in it the most proper cause of fear and flight, that no external miseries and dangers may be able to drive us into it.

Second, a holy fear causes the reality of hell to overshadow the losses of this world:

Holy fear looks at the sufferings which God inflicts in hell, as incomparably greater than those which man doth or can inflict upon earth.

Our Saviour directing our fear to its right object, takes notice of the vast difference between them, “Fear not them, which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt. 10:28.)

Man’s killing is one thing, but God’s destroying another: man may kill the body, and it may be in a tormenting manner; but there is no death like the second; no torments on earth are comparable to those in hell; no finite arm can strike so hard as the infinite one; no culinary or elementary fire can burn so hot as the infernal doth.

….Man may kill the body, but after that he can do no more, his engines of cruelty cannot reach the soul, or touch the inward man, which is a sanctuary for God; but God kills the soul, his wrath is in a peculiar manner poured out there where the chief seat of sin was; the never-dying worm is ever growing upon conscience. … He that hath this holy fear in him will choose any sufferings on earth rather than those in hell. One of the sons of Solomona told the tyrant Antiochus, that his fire was cold, and indeed it was so, comparatively, to the fire of hell.

St. Austin [Augustine] putting the question whom we should obey, God commanding one thing, or the emperor commanding another, makes his answer: “Da veniam, Imperator, tu carcerem minaris, ille gehennam,” Give place, O emperor, thou threatenest a prison, he a hell.

When Polycarp was threatened with fire, his answer was, That the persecutor threatened only a momentary fire, but knew not the eternal one. He that ever heard that true thunder, which is the voice of God, would hardly be afraid of such artificial cracks as the emperor Caius Caligula used to make to shew himself a God. And he that carries upon his heart an awe of those sufferings which God inflicts in hell, will hardly fear those which men inflict on earth.

Finally,

Holy fear looks upon spiritual and eternal losses, as incomparably greater than carnal and temporal ones. The loss of the world may be made up in the saving of the soul; but for the loss of a soul, nothing can make a recompense.

Moreover, the loss of this world will be more than satisfied by the gain of the world to come and the presence of our Savior:

The loss of man’s favour may be richly made up by the presence of God’s. Moses endured the king’s wrath, as seeing the invisible one; the presence of God was so with him, that he feared no human frowns. But if the divine favour be wanting, nothing can supply the defect of it.

Conversely, if we were to lose God, what good would the entire universe provide? All things in this world are temporal; the things to come are eternal.

Its riches are but poor moth-eaten things, which in a little time vanish away; its pleasures are but the titillations of sense, and perish in the using; its honours are but a blast, a little popular air which soon go away, and come to nothing. When once God, who is the fountain and spring of all good, departs, it is in vain to hope for any thing from the little rivulets and cisterns of the creature.

When we compare what will have and lose with respect to God; our concern is not to lose the creature but to lose the Creator:

The adulterous woman fears, lest her husband may come; the chaste woman fears lest her husband depart. In like manner servile fear makes us afraid that God will punish, and filial fear makes us afraid that God will depart. The loss of him is more than the loss of all things.

He finishes with this exhortation from a Martyr:

When the Martyr Menas, under the persecution of Dioclesian, was brought forth to suffer, he gave this reason for it: “Nihil est, quod meâ sententiâ conferri possit cum regno cœlorum; neque enim totus mundus potest, æquâ lance expensus uni comparari animæ;” There is nothing, in my judgment, like the kingdom of heaven; neither may the whole world, if weighed in an equal balance, be compared with one soul. He had rather lose anything in the world than a heaven and a soul. O let us labour to know where the great loss lies, that we may never for sake spiritual and eternal things for carnal and temporal.

 

Richard Sibbes, Sermon on Canticles 5:2 (e)

18 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by in Fear, fear of God, Fear of the Lord, Puritan, Richard Sibbes, Song of Solomon, Uncategorized

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Sibbes ends the sermon with the observation that to be “awake” is a “blessed state”. It is to be in a state of holy communion with God in Jesus Christ and thus is a “happy” condition.

Since a “waking” state is blessed state, that provokes the question, How am I be in waking state. As he puts it:

Quest.How shall we do to keep and preserve our souls in this waking condition, especially in these drowsy times?

If 17thCentury England was a “drowsy time”, what would Sibbes say about the current world?

He provides a series six answers:

Consider the importance of being awake

Stir up the exercise of faith

Pray for the presence of the Spirit

Stir up a godly fear

Keep company with other Christians

You will see that these answers concern both private and public actions. His application concerns our thoughts, our affections, our behavior. We must be considered with both our physical and our spiritual environment. In short, he prescribes a general way of life:

First, must consider the importance of staying awake:

Ans. 1. Propound unto them waking considerations.

He develops this answer in three parts. The first consideration is our need for remaining awake. He begins with the observation that we fall asleep because is not sufficient reason to stay awake (in these drowsy times).  What then will give us good reason to stay awake:

To see, and know, and think of what a state we are now advanced unto in Christ; what we shall be ere long, yet the fearful estate we should be in, if God leave us to ourselves! a state of astonishment, miserable and wretched, beyond speech, nay, beyond conceit! [conceit means conception, idea]

We fall asleep because we lose sight of the blessing of being awake. Only when we become drowsy do the things of this world increase in their appeal:

We never fall to sleep in earthly and carnal delights, till the soul let its hold go of the best things, and ceaseth to think of, and to wonder at them.

To sharpen this consideration, Sibbes asks us to consider the shortness of life:

Make the heart think of the shortness and vanity of this life, with the uncertainty of the time of our death; and of what wondrous consequent†it is to be in the state of grace before we die.

This consideration has special consideration for us today since it was written by a man 400 years dead. When we hear this from one who is alive, death seems distant. But when the speaker has already died.

Finally, a judgment is coming and when that judgment comes we will be wholly dependent upon the grace of God:

The necessity of grace, and then the free dispensing of it in God’s good time, and withal the terror of the Lord’s-day, ‘Remembering,’ saith St Paul, ‘the terror of the Lord, I labour to stir up all men,’ &c., 2 Cor. 5:11.

Indeed it should make us stir up our hearts when we consider the terror of the Lord; to think that ere long we shall be all drawn to an exact account, before a strict, precise judge. And shall our eyes then be sleeping and careless? These and such like considerations out of spiritual wisdom we should propound to ourselves, that so we might have waking souls, and preserve them in a right temper.

Second, he counsels us to stir up faith. He makes a couple of related points here. First, faith is a grace which keeps the spiritual life awake. Without faith, there will be no other life. Second, the heart of man, our identity, our soul is conformed to that which it perceives. That is the nature of human beings being in the image of God, we are reflective creatures:

The soul is as the object is that is presented to it, and as the certainty of the apprehension is of that object.

When the soul perceives God by grace, the greatness of the object conforms and enlivens the soul and keeps it awake.

He then counsels how to stir up the soul in faith. Consider the end of all things:

When a man believes, that all these things shall be on fire ere long; that heaven and earth shall fall in pieces; that we shall be called to give an account, [and that] before that time we may be taken away—is it not a wonder we stand so long, when cities, stone walls fall, and kingdoms come to sudden periods? When faith apprehends, and sets this to the eye of the soul, it affects the same marvellously. Therefore let faith set before the soul some present thoughts according to its temper. Sometimes terrible things to awaken it out of its dulness; sometimes glorious things, promises and mercies, to waken it out of its sadness, &c.

When we are in ease, consider the dangers which reside that estate:

When we are in a prosperous estate let faith make present all the sins and temptations that usually accompany such an estate, as pride, security, self-applause, and the like. If in adversity, think also of what sins may beset us there. This will awaken up such graces in us, as are suitable to such an estate, for the preventing of such sins and temptations, and so keep our hearts in ‘exercise to godliness,’ 1 Tim. 4:7; than which, nothing will more prevent sleeping.

Third, he counsels that we,

Pray for the Spirit above all things. It is the life of our life, the soul of our soul. What is the body without the soul, or the soul without the Spirit of God? Even a dead lump. And let us keep ourselves in such good ways, as we may expect the presence of the Spirit to be about us, which will keep us awake.

Fourth, keep our mind and affections filled with “light” that we may be awake. This is similar to Paul’s counsel:

Philippians 4:8–9 (ESV)

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

The principle here articulated is that we will avoid dissonance and conflict in the matters upon which we dwell and the life we lead. We will want there to be a consistency with our thoughts, our attentions and our behavior.

What makes men in their corruptions to avoid the ministry of the word, or anything that may awake their consciences? It is the desire they have to sleep. They know, the more they know, the more they must practise, or else they must have a galled conscience. They see religion will not stand with their ends. Rich they must be, and great they will be; but if they suffer the light to grow upon them, that will tell them they must not rise, and be great, by these and such courses.

Conversely, a mind filled with light will desire light, “A gracious heart will be desirous of spiritual knowledge especially, and not care how near the word comes.”

In short, we will continue on the direction in which we have begun by sheer heart-inertia. “Sleep is a work of darkness. Men therefore of dark and drowsy hearts desire darkness, for that very end that their consciences may sleep.”

Fifth, he counsels to stir up the fear of God.

Ans. 5. Labour to preserve the soul in the fear of God: because fear is a waking affection, yea, one of the wakefullest. For, naturally we are more moved with dangers, than stirred with hopes. Therefore, that affection, that is most conversant about danger, is the most rousing and waking affection. Preserve therefore the fear of God by all means. It is one character of a Christian, who, when he hath lost almost all grace, to his feeling, yet the fear of God is always left with him. He fears sin, and the reward of it, and therefore God makes that awe the bond of the new covenant.

He makes this a distinguishing feature of Christian maturity, “One Christian is better than another, by how much more he wakes, and fears more than another. Of all Christians, mark those are most gracious, spiritual, and heavenly, that are the most awful and careful of their speeches, courses, and demeanours; tender even of offending God in little things.”

But it is not merely fear of correction; it is a fear of loss:

 He is afraid to lose that sweet communion any way, or to grieve the Spirit of God. Therefore, always as a man grows in grace, he grows in awfulness, and in jealousy of his own corruptions.

We must exercise steady consideration of our dangers so that we maintain a godly fear. In particular, we should fear those sins which are most likely to affect us personally:

Those that will keep waking souls, must consider the danger of the place where they live, and the times; what sins reign, what sins such a company as they converse with, are subject unto, and their own weakness to be led away with such temptations. This jealousy is a branch of that fear that we spake of before, arising from the searching of our own hearts, and dispositions. It is a notable means to keep us awake, when we keep our hearts in fear of such sins as either by calling, custom, company, or the time we live in, or by our own disposition, we are most prone to.

Here is a true observation: we are each fit for particular sins. We may be fit by disposition, situation, habit, experience. Any number of social and psychological factors may dispose us to some particular sin, but we do have particular sins:

There is no Christian, but he hath some special sin, to which he is more prone than to another, one way or other, either by course of life, or complexion. Here now is the care and watchfulness of a Christian spirit, that knowing by examination, and trial of his own heart, his weakness, he doth especially fence against that, which he is most inclined to; and is able to speak most against that sin of all others, and to bring the strongest arguments to dishearten others from practice of it.

Sixth and finally, we must be careful of our company:

Ans. 6. In the last place it is a thing of no small consequence, that we keep company with waking and faithful Christians, such as neither sleep themselves or do willingly suffer any to sleep that are near them.

We will be encouraged either to wake or sleep by the company we keep. We are greatly influenced by our company, therefore, we must keep the right company. He provides a list tailored to his immediate audience. It is interesting to consider how different and how similar he exhortation sounds:

Certainly a drowsy temper is the most ordinary temper in the world. For would men suffer idle words, yea, filthy and rotten talk to come from their mouths if they were awake? Would a waking man run into a pit? or upon a sword’s point? A man that is asleep may do anything. What do men mean when they fear not to lie, dissemble, and rush upon the pikes of God’s displeasure? When they say one thing and do another, are they not dead? or take them at the best, are they not asleep? Were they awake, would they ever do thus? Will not a fowl that hath wings, avoid the snare? or will a beast run into a pit when it sees it? There is a snare laid in your playhouses, gaming houses, common houses, that gentlemen frequent that generally profess religion, and take the communion. If the eye of their souls were awake, would they run into these snares, that their own conscience tells them are so? If there be any goodness in their souls, it is wondrous sleepy. There is no man, even the best, but may complain something, that they are overtaken in the contagion of these infectious times. They catch drowsy tempers, as our Saviour saith, of those latter times. ‘For the abundance of iniquity, the love of many shall wax cold,’ Mat. 24:12. A chill temper grows ever from the coldness of the times that we live in, wherein the best may complain of coldness; but there is a great difference. The life of many, we see, is a continual sleep.

He then cautions against leisure:

Let us especially watch over ourselves, in the use of liberty and such things as are in themselves lawful. It is a blessed state, when a Christian carries himself so in his liberty, that his heart condemns him not for the abuse of that which it alloweth, and justly in a moderate use. Recreations are lawful; who denies it? To refresh a man’s self, is not only lawful, but necessary. God know it well enough, therefore hath allotted time for sleep, and the like. But we must not turn recreation into a calling, to spend too much time in it.

The trouble with permissible things is that we easily become careless, not seeing the danger:

Where there is least fear, there is most danger always. Now because in lawful things there is least fear, we are there in most danger. It is true for the most part, licitis perimus omnes, more men perish in the church of God by the abuse of lawful things, than by unlawful; more by meat, than by poison. Because every man takes heed of poison, seeing he knows the venom of it, but how many men surfeit, and die by meat! So, many men die by lawful things. They eternally perish in the abuse of their liberties, more than in gross sins.

Sibbes concludes with excellency of being awake:

We will conclude this point with the meditation of the excellency of a waking Christian. When he is in his right temper, he is an excellent person, fit for all attempts. He is then impregnable. Satan hath nothing to do with him, for he, as it is said, is then a wise man, and ‘hath his eyes in his head,’ Eccles. 3:4. He knows himself, his state, his enemies, and adversaries, the snares of prosperity and adversity, and of all conditions, &c. Therefore, he being awake, is not overcome of the evil of any condition, and is ready for the good of any estate. He that hath a waking soul, he sees all the advantages of good, and all the snares that might draw him to ill. Mark 13:37. What a blessed estate is this! In all things therefore watch; in all estates, in all times, and in all actions. There is a danger in everything without watchfulness. There is a scorpion under every stone, as the proverb is, a snare under every blessing of God, and in every condition, which Satan useth as a weapon to hurt us; adversity to discourage us, prosperity to puff us up: when, if a Christian hath not a waking soul, Satan hath him in his snare, in prosperity to be proud and secure; in adversity to murmur, repine, be dejected, and call God’s providence into question. When a Christian hath a heart and grace to awake, then his love, his patience, his faith is awake, as it should be. He is fit for all conditions, to do good in them, and to take good by them.

And his conclusion:

Let us therefore labour to preserve watchful and waking hearts continually, that so we may be fit to live, to die, and to appear before the judgment seat of God; to do what we should do, and suffer what we should suffer, being squared for all estates whatsoever.