Isaiah 8:13 Genesis 28:17 Daniel 9:4
Dread is not exactly the same as fear. Fear means to be afraid of
something exact such as death or a dangerous person or of God as a person.
Dread is a kind of nameless fear, a sickening feeling about the future.
Existential philosophers call this feeling "angst" or
"nausea."
Dread consists not so much in a fear of the future as it does of being
forced to take responsibility for the decisions that one cannot avoid. In this
way, dread directly connects to freedom. This inner or spiritual freedom is not
the same as political freedom although political freedom extends from it. This
freedom constitutes the very intellectual and spiritual being of the
individual. Thomas Jefferson referred to this freedom when he wrote "that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness..."
"Unalienable" means a freedom that cannot be separated from our inner
being. In a sense, we are freedom itself. The existential philosophers contend
that we are condemned to be free. By this, they mean we cannot avoid being
free; and that freedom can be either a blessing or a curse depending on the
choices we make. For this reason, the existentialists despise those who attempt
to avoid making decisions. They consider them to be cowards in life and contend
that they live in a state of "bad faith." The existentialists admire
those who resolutely make decisions and manfully take responsibility for them.
Yet, as Shakespeare wrote, "Conscience makes cowards of us all."
We all anguish over choices we have to make, especially the very important
ones. Questions arise in our minds. What if I make the wrong choice? Will I
regret my choice? Can I bear the responsibility for the choice I make,
especially if it was a bad one? This is dread.
The existentialists maintain that our very being becomes determined or
fixed by the choices we make. Thus, the person who chooses to do evil becomes
an evil person; and the person who chooses to do good becomes a good person.
However, the Bible teaches that to choose to be good is not enough to
save us from evil. The Bible teaches us that when God confronts us, He
constrains us to make a choice. God forces us to see ourselves as a condemned
sinner; that is, as a person who cannot avoid making wrong choices at times;
bad choices for which we must take the responsibility and bear the punishment.
Jacob, in Genesis 28:17, and Daniel, in Daniel 9:4, faced this dread when
confronted by the presence of God; and they made the right choices to repent of
their sins and serve the Lord.
Whenever a sinner reads or hears the gospel, he or she becomes
confronted with God in human form; and the Holy Spirit constrains that person
to make a choice either to submit humbly to Christ as Savior or to deny Him. When
a convicted sinner makes the right choice to repent of their sins and put their
faith in Jesus as their Savior, then Jesus takes away their dread because He
has already taken the responsibility and the punishment for their sins by His
suffering and death on the cross in their place. In place of their dread,
Christ gives them peace. Matthew 11:28-30; John 14:27; John 16:33; Isaiah 8:13.
When the new believer receives the free gift of peace, forgiveness,
and the everlasting life of Christ in his heart, then his dread departs because
he knows he is forever safe no matter what future decisions he may make, good
or bad. But when Christ recreates the heart of the new believer, he becomes so
grateful and loves Christ so much for his salvation that he desires only to
please his Lord; and as a result, he endeavors to make only good choices for
the rest of his time on earth.
