This Present Fear
 Illegal
drugs, super-intrusive technology, fluctuating oil prices,
high unemployment, loss of health insurance, asteroids,
killer calderas, Islam, AIDS, etc. People are living
in fear, and to not see this is to live in a coma.
What, we ask, is happening to our world? Is such fear
a part of the times in which we live? Is there an end
to this, and if so, what is it? Most everyone can see
what is happening — the problem is they just don’t know
where it is going.
Though the numbers are rapidly falling,
many of our citizens remember happier days, like those
of the 1950s. Though there was always the Cold War,
bomb shelters and rock & roll, yet most people lived
in serenity and peace. After all, Russia was a long
way off and many parents still thought Hank Williams
would eventually trump Elvis the Pelvis. The Statler
Brothers sang of such times in their nostalgic songs
like “Do You Remember These” and “Carry Me Back”. Life
was much simpler back then not because there were no
troubles, but because most everybody believed the threats
were only temporary and a happy ending was always in
sight. Folks, not only are those days gone, but hardly
anyone with any level of discernment sees a happy ending
on the horizon anymore. Except, of course, Christians.
Hardly any family can say it has not
been touched at least to some degree by the drug curse.
Fifty years ago it was all about cigarettes and beer,
but those have been shifted to another category and
have been replaced by every kind of deadly chemical
one can imagine. Poison, readily available to all,
is now smoked, snorted, swallowed, injected, topically
assimilated and otherwise introduced into the body.
And each one has its own deadly outcome. No longer
able to shield their kids from unsavory influences,
parents are often suspect of their kid’s peer group,
and even their cell calls and text messages because
drug use is woven into almost every seam of their modern
sub-culture’s fabric. The result is parents feel helpless
and resign themselves to the false sense of security
that comes with, “If he/she can just make it out of
college everything will be OK.” Fear for children and
grandchildren.
People living in the American Southwest
understand their civilian police forces and local Nation
Guard units are totally incapable of stopping and containing
a mass cross-border assault by drug cartels whose intent
would be terror and hostage-taking for ransom. The
truth is not “if”, but “when” such an event might happen.
Fear at our borders.
Property crimes are escalating in the
areas of burglary and robbery. Daylight break-ins are
very common, and even those houses with warnings about
alarm systems are often hit. This is often done using
the smash-and-grab method. The thugs are in and out
in less than three minutes with guns, TVs, etc., as
loot. Don’t be fooled by TV advertisements implying
the immediate response of security monitoring companies.
That is not reality. Fear for property and possessions.
A gun dealer said recently the purchase
of hand-guns went up dramatically after the November
election because, “...people are afraid of Obama’s anti-gun
sentiment.” Law abiding citizens view strangling restrictions
on the purchase and possession of weapons and re-loading
equipment along with the serializing of ammunition as
hostile government annulment of the U.S. Constitution.
They know that when citizens are disarmed they not only
become immediate victims of totalitarianism, but also
the prey of thieves, rapists, murderers and the rest
of society’s dregs. They consider depending on 911
in personal assault and crimes-against-property emergencies
as government-sponsored dial-a-prayer. Fact or fiction?
Take a good look at current events and you decide for
yourself. Fear for personal safety.
Now that oil prices are down, at least
temporarily, some people no longer have expendable income
to enjoy the respite. Loss of employment means not
only a downsizing of life-style, but the loss of health
insurance and retirement plans. This kind of thing
is quite traumatic for people in middle-age who are
depending on their stock investments to assist their
pension plans. No time to recoup. Fear for retirement.
And speaking of oil there is no end
to the terrible scenarios that can be put on the table
if Iran launches an offensive against Israel (which
they have said they will do in time), or if some military
or naval commander in or near the Straits of Hormuz
has to pull a trigger, or if a strong hurricane smashes
into gulf coast refineries, or if a pipeline is sabotaged,
etc. Fear of substantial business failures and further
economic downturns.
Earthquakes. Most everyone understands
that the explosive power of a large magnitude earthquake
is unimaginable. What is now on the minds of many people
is the high risk of such an event actually happening
in some area like New Madrid, MO or southern California.
Food, water, and fuel supplies will be cut off; air,
rail and highway transport will stop; civil unrest will
erupt— a Pandora’s Box of serious problems will instantly
descend upon a major portion of the United States.
Fear of nature and resulting chaos.
The Islamic attack on America in 2001
left an impact that is present today. People are not
so willing to trust the world’s diplomats because they
know diplomacy very often fails and when it does many
people die. And with today’s weapons being sold to
the highest bidder, both conventional and WMDs, the
casualty list could be astronomical. The result of
an NBC attack (nuclear, chemical or biological as such
used to be labeled) is beyond belief. No American president
has ever had to warn our citizens that such an attack
was in progress. No board of Joint Chiefs has ever
had to defend the U.S. against such an attack already
in motion. Nobody has ever seen the effect of an NBC
attack upon millions of people. The truth of the matter
is the trenches of WW1, Hiroshima and Saddam’s attack
upon the Kurds can no longer be considered realistic
examples of a large and coordinated NBC attack on a
major metropolitan area. The carnage would be beyond
the pall. Fear of global war and immense suffering.
AIDS has not been cured, and unfortunately
it is politically incorrect to advocate AIDS prevention
in the realistic form of heterosexual monogamous marriage
and avoidance of illegal drug use. Some of the most
effective drugs used to fight common staff infections
are no longer as effective as they once were. Even
hospitals can be sources of illness and death. Nationally,
a study released in October 2007 found that an estimated
94,360 patients annually in the United States develop
an invasive infection and nearly one in five, or 18,650,
die as a result. The number of deaths exceeds those
caused by HIV/AIDS or homicides each year (www.klinespecter.com/hospital_infections
cited 10 Feb 09). Fear of uncontrollable pathogens.
Fear that places of refuge could no longer adequately
and safely provide relief, especially during an unprecedented
NBC attack.
Politically things are not fairing
much better. It seems a growing number of people are
now fearful of loosing their God-given rights of free
speech, freedom of the press and the right to bear arms
among others. Social engineers have for years condescendingly
labeled such fears as unfounded and reactionary, but
current trends no longer allow such distrust of government
to be ignored. Many people are reconsidering the old
adage: an unarmed citizenry is a government’s dream,
whereas an armed citizenry is a government’s nightmare.
Fear of political repression and the annulment of the
right to private ownership and control of property.
Modern technology, like any tool, can
be profitable or regrettable. Along with the benefit
of being connected worldwide and thus able to do business
overseas while driving one’s car, there is the fact
that virtually nothing is private any longer. With
technology government can know people’s spending habits,
their bank accounts, who they talk to, what they talk
about, what they own and how much, their travel habits,
the value of their inheritance, etc. And there is absolutely
nothing anyone can do about it. What was once “none
of anybody’s business” is now information available
to almost everyone, and especially the government.
This is producing a somewhat different kind of fear.
A fear that the gathering of information will be used
in the future to tax and control people in a way never
seen before in history. Some people sense a heavy and
foreboding spirit of stifling repression on the near
horizon. And they feel helpless to stop it. Do you
suppose this might have something to do with absolute
population control as seen in Revelation 13:16,17?
Well, what about it? Can all of this
be evaluated in a clear and concise manner? Yes. Maybe
the best way to look at these matters is to, in a manner
of speaking, place them on some sort of easily viewed
schematic, tape it to a wall then step back and make
an unemotional, unbiased, realistic evaluation of the
whole scenario. Oh, and one more thing. You have to
put it all in biblical perspective because then, and
only then, can the truth be known. Leave out what God
has said and every secular theory will invariably lead
to a dead-end. Omit scripture and every single conclusion
about the days in which we live and their end will be
flat-out wrong.
The truth is this world is not going
to get better in any major category. Don’t look for
Obama to be able to solve anything permanently. Ahmadinejad
will not suddenly decide to be nice to Israel. The
Taliban will not stop beheading hostages. Oil will
not stay cheap. The so-called Palestinians will not
make peace with Israel, two-state solution or no two-state
solution. The world will not see permanent better times
economically. Illegal and deadly drugs will still be
in demand. Political oppression will always be government’s
tool of choice in controlling people. No part of the
country will be immune from danger. There will be more
dread diseases than cures. And, as time goes on the
list of things to bring concern and fear will grow longer
than the world’s list of peace-assuring guarantees.
Of course, Christians will not be here
to see the consummation of such events. We, like the
rest of the world, see what is going on and how terrible
things are. The difference, however, is we know something
more — how it will end. Thus, we do not fear as those
who have no understanding of where these events are
leading. We know where they end and what to expect.
And, we know of our imminent deliverance. The world,
including many professing Christians, is fearful. Even
some Christians are wringing their hands, losing sleep,
accumulating arterial cholesterol and otherwise destroying
their witness to this dying world of the Blessed Hope
(Titus 2:11-13) because they do not really understand
where all this is going and how it will end. They do
not understand because they refuse to accept the plain
sense of Bible prophecy. Sad.
For Christians all pain and despair
will end with the rapture of the church. For those
left behind the trials, misery and sufferings of today
are not even in the same league with the torment and
affliction of those coming days. The best way to say
it, I suppose, is what is coming is incapable of being
clearly described. Yep, it is going to be that bad.
While the spiritual/allegorical means
of Bible interpretation is often the cause of dismay,
anxiety and fear regarding current and prospective events,
the literal, plain-sense interpretation of Bible prophecy
is the great cure. Allegory, you see, is void of peace.
Indeed, we are living in the darkening shadow of Revelation
6, but we do not panic, become alarmed or distressed.
Because we take God for His literal word we not only
understand what is happening and why, but we know how
it will end. God, our Father, does not use cryptic
codes, theo-babble and non-sensical allegory to give
us information He wants us to know and understand.
He speaks plainly, and we are to simply believe it.
Let there be no present fear in the heart of any Christian.
DLM
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