FEAR OF GOVERNMENT VRS. FEAR OF GOD
In Romania, as in all countries where people stopped fearing God and started fearing government, the people became enslaved for decades by a communist police state. A Christian attorney, now living in the United States, who suffered imprisonment, beating and other persecution under murderous dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, for her faith and anti-communist sentiments, recently said: “I see this happening in America.”
This lady warned us that if we don’t put our trust in God and stand up for Christ and our country, if we are more fearful of this government than we are of God, we will be conquered and enslaved by this fear of government. Tyrannical government always does everything it can to cause the citizenry to fear it. This strategy is well underway in America now, and calls to mind the warning of Thomas Jefferson that, “"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Fear of government is enslaving, but the fear of God is empowering. The fundamental and most critical need in America is that we, “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecc. 12:13). In the church house, the courthouse, the state house , the school house, and in my house and your house, there needs to be a mighty reviving of the fear of God.
The fear of God is divine in nature, and essential to people who want to be safe, (Prov. 14:27; Luke 1:50), smart (Prov. 1:7), and satisfied with their lives ((Prov. 19:23). On the other hand, the fear of government is demonic in nature, the fear spoken of in 1 Tim. 1:7: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Fear of government puts people into a state of spiritual craziness and social chaos, and then puts them into chains.
In 1932, in his first inaugural speech, President Roosevelt famously said: “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” The two fears we have to fear now as a nation are (1) a suicidal fear of government, and (2) a shrinking fear of God. “And 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).