On Dread and Freedom

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.