The Fear of Death: Live with Neil Anderson
Fear is a big subject; it’s the number one mental health problem of the world and worthy of the time that we spend on it. It is the most repeated commandment in Scripture, “Fear not.” It is the first emotion that Adam expressed after the Fall: “I was afraid.” There was nothing there to be afraid of, yet that fear—what I like to call the primordial fear—of being absent from God dominated his life at that time.
Today we’re going to look at the fear of death. 1 Corinthians 15:26 says, “The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” This fear of death is constantly being stimulated by the environment which we live—primarily through mass media. You listen to the news every night, and it’s plain to see that “if it bleeds, it leads.” Then we hear about the new salmonella outbreak, or a mass killing, or an airplane that goes down, or a tornado that hits. Then you see images of people looking through the ruin trying to find meaningful things that were left there from their life. It’s a tragedy that fear—a powerful motivator in our lives—can dominate so many lives.
Irrational fear—fear of something that is not legitimate—is mutually exclusive to faith in God. Irrational fear allows for something to control your life that is not God. God has not given us a spirit of fear—but of power, love, and sound mind. So let’s take a look at the fear of death, perhaps the biggest stronghold in many people’s lives.
The genesis of the problem is Satan. Why is that the case? Listen Hebrews 2:14–15, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. ” Think about that for a moment. Those who had a fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Jesus came to set us free; the truth will set us free. To realize that from the very beginning, the origin of the fear of death really is the one who had the power of death. The fear and obsession of death combined with suicidal thoughts is just part of the landscape for those in spiritual bondage.
We received this testimony at our office to illustrate just that:
I am 30 years old. When I was five, my mother and father took me to a witch doctor to help cure my nose bleeds. My parents were to say a few prayers then place a silver coin on my forehead. Shortly after the nosebleeds ended, I became obsessed with dying. A tremendous fear came over me that would not subside. I accepted the Lord when I was 25. Two years ago, the fear of dying came back in full force after sharing my testimony at a women’s Bible study. The fear was oppressive. Everyday I chose to wear clothes that I thought would be my “death clothes.” How was I going to die? The thoughts on my mind were petrifying. “I would die, and my three year old daughter would grow up without a mom.” “I would die, and my husband would marry a beautiful blonde.” I asked God to remove the fear. I became familiar with all the fear-related Bible verses. It was so overwhelming; I thought I was going crazy. Then I came across the book, “The Bondage Breaker.” I realized that I was in bondage. I remember crying out to God asking Him to show me what was holding me back. I prayed the prayers. And when it came to the part about renouncing sexual sins, I tried to envision every man I ever had sex with—what they looked like, what their names were. I prayed for these men; I prayed that their names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. I felt the fear leaving me—the fear of being unworthy to stand before God, the fear of getting AIDS, the fear of dying. This may sound funny, but with every prayer, I almost felt a “poof!” coming out of my mind. Then I slowly asked the Lord why this fear plagued me for so long. And I remember long ago going to that witch doctor, who to this day, my mom claims was a man of God. I truly believe that a curse was placed on my life when I was five. I lived 28 years infested with fear. I didn’t care how I lived and became a loose woman because I was sure I would never live to see the consequences. Thanks be to God from whom all blessings flow. There truly is freedom in Christ.
John is a missionary that is a friend to our ministry. He spent some time in Africa as a bush pilot. After two close calls, he became agoraphobic. It became so intense near the end of his first time that he barely could leave his house. The seeds of fear, however, were sown much earlier in his life. Listen to his story:
After so many years of deception that held me in bondage and fear, I am set free in Christ; praise His name. At age 14, my hobby was amateur radio. I enjoyed tuning across the bands and finding faraway stations. When lights out time came, I would turn the amateur radio off, get in bed, plug in an earphone to my AM radio, and continue listening for far-away broadcast stations. In time, I located a station in New York state. At 10 pm, I heard their news, station ID, and the introduction to their next program, “The CBS Radio Mystery Theater.” From that night for the next four years, I was hooked to that program—falling asleep with images of suspense and fear flooding my mind. If only I’d known what I was setting myself up for. Sometime thereafter a voice began to tell me just when the phone would ring and who was on the other end without fail. I was able to tell my parents secret habits about people that I knew to be true, even when meeting an individual for the first time. Sometime in the future, my folks would remark to each other, “How did you know?” After I received my driver’s license, the same voice would tell me where the speed traps were on the interstate. My mom once told me that during the years at my Bible school I was blessed with tremendous spiritual insight because of all things I knew and could do. Spiritual insight is right—however, it was the wrong kind.
Let me just stop here for a moment. This is such a fascinating testimony. One of the first persons I met with was an undergraduate student at Biola University. She could go about the campus and point out people’s sin, thinking this was a great gift from God. When she found her freedom, however, that gift was gone. That “gift” wasn’t from God. Love covers a multitude of sins; it doesn’t go around pointing it out in other people’s lives. She had such difficulty afterwards because she had never had a clear mind, but even though she thought this was spiritual insight from God, it was ruining her life. It was the same in the previous man’s testimony; let’s pick up where I left off:
Not always did the voice tell me the truth. The voice would actually become rough and tell me to burn my arms with my smoldering iron or poke out my eyes with a screwdriver. When I would climb a radio tower to repair antennas at 100 feet, the voice would often tell me to jump off. The battle for my mind in the moments while on the tower was so intense that just trying to keep safety and good practice in front of my mind would cause great, debilitating fear. Since that, fear began motivating my life—my daily activities. The voice in my head would often tell me I was stupid, dumb, ugly, and fat and would never amount to anything…90% of the time it told the truth; so I just kept listening to it.
Can Satan tell the truth? Sure he can. He can tell you 90% of the truth! And once you buy into the lie, then he’ll start introducing the lie more and more. While working through The Steps, John realized that the voice inside his head wasn’t from God, and he found incredible freedom. He actually went back to Africa to pick up his belonging. He was there for two weeks, and said he had more ministry in those two weeks than he had in the previous three years in Africa. He was a changed man after going through The Steps.
How does God overcome this? Adam was the first living soul. Jesus was the first life-giving Spirit. Jesus—fully God, fully man—two natures, one person. That’s the bedrock of Christianity. I can’t overstate how important it is realize that what Jesus came to give us was life. That life means my soul is union with God.
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.