How does cultivating a healthy fear of God liberate us from our fear of others, our fear of the future, and even our fear of death itself? What does the Bible mean when it says “fear God and do not be afraid”? How can we live with a fear of God that drives out the fear of everything else?
Bible Gateway interviewed Dr. Michael Horton (@MichaelHorton_) about his book, Recovering Our Sanity: How the Fear of God Conquers the Fears that Divide Us (Zondervan, 2022).
What is the message you’re communicating with this book’s title?
Michael Horton: The church in America today—I mean, the ones that uphold Scripture as the written and inerrant Word of God—are projecting a profile of Christianity that is totally at odds with what we find there. I include myself. We’re afraid of so many things. Many of them are legitimate concerns. But they’re badly ranked. God should be our number one fear. He’s holy, we’re not, and that’s a problem. If that’s solved, we have a secure place from which to address our daily anxieties.
[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Core Christianity: An Interview with Michael Horton]
Why is fear more rampant today than say a generation ago?
Michael Horton: One survey I’ve found says that kids used to say their top fears were things under their bed at night. Now it’s fear of abuse, divorce, drug abuse, and so on. The climate is changing. That’s a fact. So is inflation. Even if people can find work, basic things—like gas—are ridiculously expensive. How do we talk to our kids when they’re on those stupid iPhones and digital “communities” seem more real for all of us today than actual relationships with people in our neighborhood who may be different from us? We’re scared of everything. Our neighbors—especially the ones who don’t actually live in our neighborhood—are threats to our security, happiness, and prosperity. That’s how we look at things. Then we’re afraid of persecution by an ideologically-driven educational system and media. The LGBTQ+ agenda has become incredibly powerful in a relatively short period. But what if some our own youth in the church are struggling with their sexuality? Do we treat them as “Them” or as “Us” who need our love and compassionate help? So many “threats.” We’re like deer caught in the headlights.
[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Ordinary Spiritual Growth: An Interview with Michael Horton]
How is it possible that the Bible says to “fear God” and also to “fear not”?
Michael Horton: We fear God first not because of anything he can do to us but just because of who he is. He is not just true, good, and beautiful but the source of all Beauty, Truth, and Goodness. He is the Holy One of Israel. In his presence, Isaiah could say, “I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips and dwell among a people of unclean lips, for I have seen the Holy One of Israel.” God is majestic in his holiness, which means he is not like anything or anyone you or I know. But then he’s also our judge. We fear him because he is righteous and we’re not. To know about all of this is called wisdom in the Bible. “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). Starting every day in a posture of prostration before God means that we’re living with the grain of reality. We are in God’s hands, for good or for ill. We need a Mediator, and only with the Good News that Christ has fully satisfied God’s justice on our behalf can our fear of God as judge be turned to a sort of fearful admiration or awe of his goodness, grace, gentleness, and mercy. That’s why the Psalmist can say, “But with you there is forgiveness; therefore, you are feared” (Psalm 130:4). We can follow him, worship him, bring our fears and anxieties to him because he has forgiven us our sins and accepts us in Christ as righteous.
[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, What Does the Bible Say About Worry?]
Why can’t we fight fear by seeking the absence of fear altogether?
Michael Horton: Fear is a natural reaction God designed in our makeup. “Fight or flight” is a natural instinct. If a semi-truck is hurtling toward us, we don’t deliberate. We just run. That’s a terrific gift. But our problem today is that, especially with 24-hour cable news and social media, we’re constantly being put on high alert—for everything. That means we’re not deliberating about anything. Complicated problems can’t be solved because we’re just reacting 24/7. And we’re basically regurgitating whatever our “Preferences” tell us we want to hear. It’s an echo-chamber, on the left and the right, of hostile, angry, resentful, and fearful people who make a pretty good living off of stoking our fears. This actually drowns out the good and proper fear we should have and makes us crazy. No thought, no deliberation, no conversations—just fight or flight.
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What does it mean to fear God?
Michael Horton: What’s the #1 moral and spiritual problem in America today? Take a minute and think about it. If you’re like me, the top 10 get filled in pretty quickly—the sins of “the others” (or my own that I keep secret). Now, what’s the #1 sin in the whole of biblical history? “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Genesis 20:11; Deuteronomy 25:18; Psalm 36:1; Romans 3:17, etc.). We try to domesticate it: “Fear doesn’t really mean fear; it means respect.” Well, it includes respect, but it’s being super scared—phobos in Greek, as in “phobia.” Why do we think that people shouldn’t be afraid of God? That’s where our problems begin.
So, inspired by Daniel 4, I began to think of how we’re all little Nebuchadnezzars prancing on the roof of our personal palace boasting in our heart, “Is this not the great Babylon I have built by my power and for my glory?” Humbled—actually, humiliated—by God, the king realized the hard way that God is sovereign not just in general but in particular, over him. “I raised my eyes to heaven,” he said, “and my sanity was restored.”
How should people confront their fears?
Michael Horton: What we need are thicker, richer communities. Houses of worship, neighborhoods, civic organizations, and clubs: these used to be the glue. At your kids’ football game, it didn’t matter to your neighbor beside you whether you were a Democrat or a Republican. It didn’t at church either. These thick communities are disintegrating especially as we imagine that this alternative reality called euphemistically “social media” can even come close to embodied, engaged, and embedded relationships with actual human beings.
One day in sixth grade a bunch of bullies were using me as a punching bag, taking my lunch. When my older football-player-brother showed up, they scattered. Paul calls Death “the last enemy.” How do I know that for sure? Because Jesus has been raised as the beginning of the resurrection of the dead. “Look at him—that’s what you’re going to be like!”, Paul explains. Same for my loved one who dies in the Lord.
I just watched two dear friends say goodbye—one, to an 8-month-pregnant daughter killed by a drunk driver and the other to her husband of 45 years. The anguish of the former was exacerbated by the fact that my friend isn’t a believer. He has a pretty impressive resumé, but he talks about suicide. The other friend lost a son to a drug-overdose suicide. He and his wife were beside themselves with grief. Months later, they still expect for a second to find him in his room before they realize he’s gone. But the strength they have is amazing and it’s coming from outside of themselves. It’s the strength of a Father who so loved them and their son that he gave his only-begotten Son so that all who trust in the Redeemer will never perish but have everlasting life. The pain will never go away, but neither will the promise.
Another dear sister lost her husband of 45 years two weeks ago. She still wakes up thinking he’s lying beside her and goes through highs and lows. But the constant is that she doesn’t have to wonder about his ultimate health or safety or whether her sorrow matters any more than an elephant herd mourning over a calf. “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” (Psalm 56:8).
I’m a 56 year-old guy raising teens. I have fears, believe me. In no other period have social convictions about right and wrong changed dramatically in such a short period of time. But that includes insulting people’s dignity by “cancelling” them. That used to not be ok. But now many Christians think it’s fine because we’re good and they’re bad—really bad.
When we get to the place of cancelling, we’ve closed our hearts and turned off our minds. Now it’s just emotional blackmail, manipulation to get what we want. We sort of started this with boycotting Disney and then others back in the 1980s.
Peter tells us, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.” That’s well-placed fear. Next sentence: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” It’s been said that a quarrel kills a good argument. If I can’t listen and formulate a good argument, I’ll just toss verbal grenades and slogans at people. “Well, you’re just a homophobe” or “You’re a Social Justice Warrior.” We throw out epithets like “Critical Race Theory” (or just “CRT”) or “Christian Nationalist” as if the person we’re talking to can be dismissed with a label. And there’s one more sentence in 1 Peter 3:15: “But do this with gentleness and respect.” I can do that when I fear God instead of my neighbor.
The Bible gives us a story in which the stories of the daily news can be interpreted properly. Instead, we often interpret the Bible in light of the daily news. The church reflects the same worldly divisions. There are “FOX” churches and “CNN” churches. We’re certainly not getting the fear of God from those outlets. They’re just stoking our other fears—and making a lot of money in the process.
Jesus is the “right side of history.” He went to the cross but was raised on the third day and is glorified at the right hand of the Father, interceding for sinners, until he returns to establish final justice, righteousness, peace, and life. We’re called to care about the common good of our neighbors in this life—indeed, more than expecting the world to treat us well. But we’re longing ultimately for their salvation and incorporation into Christ’s body. When we see our neighbors through his eyes, through the lens of his love and mercy, we begin to honor them as created in his image and in need of Christ just like us. We don’t cancel fellow image-bearers of God.
What the world needs to see are not fearful, angry, and proud Christians making the same stand that Republicans and Democrats make. The world doesn’t need the church to make a statement by wearing or not wearing masks. The world needs to hear good news, good arguments, and see Christians (on their knees with the tax-collector instead of in the peanut gallery with the Pharisee, confessing their sins and being forgiven. Because, let’s face it, Christians have done some pretty bad stuff in Jesus’ name. “You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law,” Paul indicts. “For, as it is written, ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Romans 2:23-24).
Precisely because we live in Jesus’ story, we take justice and righteousness seriously but know that it won’t ever be established perfectly and finally until Jesus does it in person. Not just “Others” but “We” will be praying, “Have mercy on me, a sinner,” until Jesus returns.
As I said, actual institutions mediating between the state and the individual are disintegrating. This is where the kingdom of Christ really stands out—or should, at least. When Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it,” he wasn’t talking about a Platonic idea. He meant concrete, local, embodied branches of himself as the Vine.
In a world of soundbites and surrogates, we go to church to actually encounter the God who made and redeemed us. We’re not just hearing the story again but being re-casted by the Holy Spirit from the dead-end stories of this fading age into the greatest story ever told: reality. Here, God makes a real promise with real words from the lips of another sinner, uses real water to seal that promise, and keeps pledging with real wine and bread. It’s where we hear, sing, and pray God’s word together, confess our sins together, and confess our common faith in the Triune God, hear God’s absolution. We become what the word says. CNN and FOX won’t be covering that, but it’s the “breaking news.” And we’re no longer afraid.
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What is a favorite Bible passage of yours and why?
Michael Horton: Hard to pin down. But one of my favorites is Romans 5:1-11:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, wea have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
What are your thoughts about Bible Gateway and the Bible Gateway App and Bible Audio App?
Michael Horton: Of course, one of the benefits of digital technology is that we have greater access to the things that matter most. We just have to turn to those resources before we give our allegiance to the noise. That’s why I love Bible Gateway. It’s a fantastic way to engage Scripture in our everyday lives. The notes and commentaries are also a great resource.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Michael Horton: As Christians we say we believe in “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” But often we live as if death and its symptoms—loneliness, job-loss, moral decay and injustice, climate change, health and politics—are in charge. That’s what I mean by “we worship what we fear.” If I’m most afraid of losing my job, then I’m finding my security in someone or something other than Christ. If I’m afraid of not being happy, I’ll make my wife and kids bear the burden of ultimate satisfaction—and maybe ditch them or ignore them when they don’t. If I’m afraid of all the social, political, economic, and moral changes, I’ll blame “Them”—whoever they are—for my unhappiness.
When we imagine we’re in charge, that we can transform ourselves or our world, or that the government or entertainment or a political figure can do this for us, it’s literally insane. It’s living against the grain of reality. But when we raise our eyes to heaven like Nebuchadnezzar, our sanity is restored. That’s just living with the grain of reality.
Recovering Our Sanity is published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Bible Gateway.
Bio: Michael Horton (PhD) is Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary in California. Author of many books, including The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way, he also hosts the White Horse Inn radio program. He lives with his wife, Lisa, and four children in Escondido, California.
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The post Fear God and Do Not Fear: An Interview with Michael Horton appeared first on Bible Gateway Blog.
