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18pxIf there is one Bible text that has long been a mystery to me, it is 1 John 4:18. This goes as follows: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear is related to punishment, and he who fears is not perfect in love.” A short explanation: the wording “fear is related to punishment” in the NBG translation used here gives the impression that the two have something to do with each other in one way or another, but how that works remains a bit vague. The Greek basic text of the New Testament is clear about that, because it states: “because fear involves punishment”. In short: fear is therefore the result of (an imminent) punishment.
What is the connection between love and fear and why are both mentioned together in this Bible text? For a long time I couldn't find an explanation for this. Until my eyes were opened and it became clear to me that in these few words the whole drama of the fall into sin is locked up. Shortly after the first human couple in the Garden of Eden had been tempted by Satan to disobey God, we read in Genesis 3:8-10: “When they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening cool, man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. And the Lord God called man to him and said to him, Where are you? And he said, When I heard your noise in the garden, I was afraid, for I am naked; that is why I hid myself.” Adam's response shows that he recognized the sound of the Lord God. So it had often happened that their Creator “came to visit them for a moment”. This time however everything was different. Man, after his disobedience, as Satan had said, had learned about good and evil. But in a completely different way than Satan had imagined Adam's wife. Previously, the relationship between man and his Creator was characterized by a climate of love. After his disobedience, man fled when he heard the sound of his Creator, walking in the garden in the evening cool. Because fear now controlled his thoughts and caused his flight behavior. That Adam realized that he was naked and that he would therefore have hidden himself was also his first lie. And his second sin. There was a lot more going on. His conscience told him that he had disobeyed the prohibition of his Creator by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He was really ashamed of that. In his naked body he felt uncomfortable, but in fact that was only a side issue. The discovery of his nakedness was a consequence of sin. For what Adam was aware of was the knowledge that his sin would not remain without consequences. A punishment would follow. And as we already read in 1 John 4:18: for fear is related to punishment, Adam was afraid of the punishment that would follow. His conscience was seized by a conflict. He feared the punishment that was inevitable because the holy God cannot let disobedience to His commandments run its course.
Adam and Eve were nevertheless not the first to sin and disobey God. The serpent who spoke to Eve was not just a snag, but was used by Satan as “the face of Satan”. It is likely that this snake was near the infamous tree or even climbed into it. Through trickery and deception, man was drawn into eternal separation with God, into eternal darkness, and into eternal punishment. And precisely with the latter we have tapped the source of fear. Because Satan became an enemy of God, he was driven out of God's presence and thrown out of heaven. That was not all. Satan knew that his disobedience would not remain without further consequences, that he had taken on the wrath of the eternal God, and that he was now at war with his Creator. That is why the evil spirits always live in fear. Their punishment will definitely be executed. In James 2:19 we read about this: “You believe that God is one? You do well, but the evil spirits believe that too and they tremble.” There is no excuse for these fallen angels left at all, who once saw the face of the Father and stayed as holy angels in His presence. For them there is no excuse and no way back. The same applies to those to whom the Hebrew writer refers in Hebrews 10:26-27: “For if we deliberately sin after we have come to the knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins, but a terrible view of the judgment and fierceness of a fire that will destroy all rebellious ones.” Even those who consciously engage with occultism and sorcery and thereby seek direct contact with these evil spirits therefore live in the climate of fear. I know that through the testimony of an occultist who converted to Jesus Christ and told his story about his salvation out of this constant fear. The sinners who consciously open themselves to the evil spirits live in the same climate as the evil spirits themselves and can face the same frightening fate as we just read in Hebrews 10:26-27.
I read an impressive account of the world of thoughts of evil spirits but also of their fears in the book “Battle and victory of Rev. Blumhardt”, written around the beginning of the sixties of the last century. It deals with the two-year battle that the German pastor Johann Christoph Blumhardt had to fight to free a young woman belonging to his congregation, named Gottliebin Dittus, who was possessed by a legion of demons. This took place in the years 1842 to 1844 in the German village of Möttlingen. It was not uncommon for all kinds of metal objects and glass fragments to emerge through the skin from her body or she vomited out living animals, including snakes. Numerous other supernatural phenomena were also thrown into battle by the evil spirits. More than once they shouted furiously (using the mouth of Gottliebin Dittus) that just mentioning the name of Jesus was a hellish torment for them. Their fear of the Victor was all-dominating. Knowing that they would eventually lose the battle and be taken to the realm of eternal punishment, one of these demons spoke through the young woman's mouth several times these words (in German):
“O Mensch, bedenk' die Ewigkeit,
versäume nicht die Gnadezeit,
denn das Gericht ist nicht mehr weit!”
Translation: “O man, think of eternity,
don't miss this time of grace,
because the judgment is not far anymore!”
It is astonishing to note that it was an evil spirit that told this in poetic form. This reminded me that before their fall, these spirits were all gifted angels who had all been given their own talents and abilities by the Creator, just like we humans. Apparently they have not lost all those skills. However, it is primarily the message itself that confirms that demons know what their eternal destiny will be. And that of every sinner who, in indifference to the gospel, has ignored the short time of grace here on earth and will therefore also have to share the terrible fate of the evil spirits. Eventually the evil spirits had to give way forever and after this battle was over there was a spiritual revival in the village of Möttlingen and the surrounding area.
What this report clearly confirms are the words of the apostle John. We read namely in 1 John 4:18: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear is related to punishment, and he who fears is not perfect in love.” It is this fear of Satan and his evil spirits and the fear of sinners who willingly and knowingly open themselves up to these evil spirits, wich fear has everything to do with the coming eternal punishment. The punishment for their disobedience to their Creator, Jesus Christ.
That tree of knowledge of good and evil was placed there as a result of the fall of Satan. The compact form of the creation story in Genesis gives the impression that the fall occurred shortly after creation, but it is quite possible that many years have passed between them. In Genesis 1 we read that man was the last to be created and he was given all the trees with seed bearing fruits for food. Creation was thus completed. The creation of man is again expressed in other words in Genesis 2:7. Then (after completing creation) we read in Genesis 2:8-9 that the Garden of Eden is planted, including the two trees, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Between the completion of creation and the planting of this garden, it could well have been many years. Because man was created to live on earth forever, time (and aging) played no role whatsoever. Man had not become a second older in those intervening years. As already stated, time did not play a role and aging (= slow dying process) was not yet an issue.
The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil were planted in that garden, the last of which was forbidden territory. Man was then made a choice because, since Satan still had access to this earth even after his exile, it was in line with the expectation that he would then also want to drag man into his fall. Because of the ignorance of sinless man, both trees were planted by God, accompanied by the warning that man could only eat from the tree of life. Man had to choose from now on. After man had sinned, the Creator expelled them from the garden of Eden so that the tree of life became unreachable for the sinful man. This was God's protection against the danger now lurking for them. Because, after all, things went wrong and man submitted to Satan, Satan became the ruler of this world. Man bowed to the lies of Satan and thereby became part of the kingdom of Satan. Man no longer had a part in eternal life with God. Moreover, man was created as a crown on creation. That crown fell into the hands of Satan, who subsequently took ownership of the earth from mankind.
Immediately after his disobedience, man too came under the wrath of God, as a result of which one day he would get his share in the punishment for sin, just like Satan himself. Part of that punishment was executed immediately. For in Genesis 2:17 the Creator said: “But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The body of man became after that first sin mortal and the aging clock began to count down. The hourglass was set. It was God's grace that man did not immediately return to dust. About Adam we know (from Genesis 5:5) that, when he died, he was 930 years old! Meanwhile, the curse of sin had come over the earth and the herbivores became predators. The innocence was killed. Death had entered. The climate of death, the separation from the Creator, had taken hold of this world and with it the fear of the coming eternal punishment.
The snake behind the snake that seduced the woman into disobedience had made this earth his domain after the fall of man. This snake is mentioned twice in the book of Revelation, clearly stating who this snake is. This is how we read in Revelation 12:9: “And the great dragon was cast down (on the earth), the old serpent, who is called the devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown to the earth and his angels with him.” And in Revelation 20:1-3 we read about this dragon: “And I saw an angel descending from heaven with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand; and he seized the dragon, the old serpent, that is, the devil and satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and closed and sealed it over him, that he should no more deceive the nations before the thousand years were finished; then he had to be released for a short time.” If you have not noticed it, this old snake is being thrown back and forth. There is clearly no respect for gray hair here. What we also read here in these two passages from Revelation is a confirmation of what Jesus said about Himself in Matthew 28:18: “I have been given all power in heaven and on earth.” So if He uses the old serpent as a ping-pong ball, no one will stop Him.
Every day we can determine the consequences of the fall into sin around us. Not only in our own lives and that of others, but also flora and fauna have been dramatically turned upside down. What “science” regards as the result of an evolutionary process (that has never been proven) is nothing but the proof that the kingdom of Satan has subjected the earth to the laws of hell. With untold amounts of death and destruction as a result. From the microbiological life to the blue whale, the wages of sin (= death) have penetrated into all facets of life. The examples of this are countless. The food chain, known in biology, is nothing more than a representation of the power structure in the realm of Satan: the strong eat the weak, i.e. the “right” of the strongest. So, this is the very terror that arises when the love of the Creator is no longer present.
Everywhere you can recognize that the fear of Satan and his demons has penetrated into every corner of life. The fear of being eaten is such an example. Many are the defense mechanisms used by plants and animals just to avoid falling victim to their attackers. An impressive example of this built-in survival mechanism can be seen as a newborn meadow bird is waiting for the parents to be fed. As soon as this animal detects the silhouette of a bird of prey above it remains motionless, so as not to be noticed by the bird of prey. What determines the behavior of this animal while it is only just in the world? The Creator put that in there. As He has done in all creation. The fact that nature as a whole is perfectly capable of sustaining itself is possible thanks to the defense mechanisms provided by the Creator. As long as mankind is put aside with its sinful hands, nature is remarkably well capable of bringing about a balance situation in which life can in any case be continued. Even if it is death and destruction that have taken hold of all nature.
This testifies to the foreknowledge our Creator had when He created the world. He was aware that it
would go wrong in the Garden of Eden. As we can read in Revelation 13:8: “And
all that dwell on the earth shall worship the beast, every one whose name is not written in the book of
the life of the Lamb slain since the foundation of the world.” From this text we learn that our
Creator Himself (= Jesus Christ) would become a man and conquer Satan on Calvary and that this was laid
down in God's salvation plan well before Satan became Satan. Once the fall of Satan was a fact, the Garden
of Eden including the two trees (the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil) was planted,
which you have already read about in the foregoing.
It was clearly foreseen in God's plan that Jesus our Creator Himself would come to earth to become human
and conquer Satan at Calvary by being obedient to death on the cross. We read about this in Philippians
2:8-11: “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient
to death, even to the death of the cross. That is why God has exalted Him exceedingly and has given Him
the name above all names, so that in the name of Jesus all the knees of those who are in heaven and those
on earth and those under the earth and every tongue should bow, and should confess: Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father!”
Concerning God's foreknowledge we also find a reference in Ephesians 1:3-4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with all kinds of spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. For he hath chosen us in him for the foundation of the world, that we might be holy and blameless before him.” And king David also knew about God's foreknowledge, as is evident from Psalms 139:16: “Your eyes saw me formless being get started; they were all written down in your book, the days that would be formed, when none of them existed.”
We now live in a world where the wages of sin, death, dominate everything. This situation of despair is described by the apostle Paul in Romans 8:19-22, where we read: “For with eager longing the creation waits for the sons of God to be revealed. For creation is subject to fruitlessness, not voluntarily, but for (the will of) Him who subjected it to it, in hope, however, because creation itself will be freed from service to transience to the freedom of glory of the children of God. For we know that all creation hitherto is in all its parts sighing and in travail.” The Creator Himself has subjected creation to fruitlessness by death. As a punishment for sin. And certainly not only because of the sin of the first human couple. That is because in Romans 3:23-24 is stated once again: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...” Because of death, everything that sinners do are temporary efforts, that passes quickly. Everything that passes and does not remain eternal is fruitless and in vain for the eternal God.
As long as man continues to live in his sins, everything he does is subject to transience. I once saw a striking example of this in a TV program in which the “high society” was the main subject. The desperate attempts by a well-known American actress to conceal her aging process from the world were examined. I heard the commentary say very humorously: “She has been thirty years old for forty years.” She had indeed succeeded in doing so thanks to many layers of make-up. However, the aging process continued under those many layers of make-up. Exactly as the Creator intended. He has not subjected sinful man to fruitlessness for nothing. Fruitless, because it all passes. The frantic attempts of the actress in question were driven by opposition to God's decision. As a result, there is also fear behind it, fear of being discarded by the world as a worn-out diva that is already far behind its (short) glory days. It reminds me of Psalms 94:11: “The Lord knows the thoughts of men: they are vanity.” They are in vain, temporary, short-lived and therefore transient.
In Romans 8:19-22, however, Paul stated that this creation, still sighing under the yoke of death, will be freed from service to transience. The beginning of that liberation took place at Calvary. This is referred to in many places in the Bible. For example Hebrews 2:14-15 where the reason for Jesus' incarnation is mentioned and where also very appropriately the link is made between Satan (as the ruler of this world) and fear that the whole creation is burdened with: “Since man now shares in blood and flesh, He also participates in the very same way, so that He by His death he who had power over death, the devil, would dethrone, and deliver all that throughout their whole live by fear of death were doomed to slavery.” Fear of death. Fear of the eternal punishment for sin. Fear of Satan and his fallen angels for the wrath of God and the coming punishment is, as we have already seen, the climate in which the wicked will find themselves.
However, as long as the wicked still lives on this earth, he will have the opportunity to convert to his Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ. In John 5:24 Jesus said about this: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, because he is passed from death unto life.” In Revelation 3:20 Jesus made it clear: “Behold, I stand at the door and I knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and have a meal with him and he with Me.” Every lost sinner who answers the knock on the door of his heart and repents from his sins becomes a resident of the Kingdom of God.
And Paul wrote about this kingdom of God in Romans 14:17: “For the kingdom
of God consists not in eating and drinking, but in righteousness, peace and joy, through the Holy Spirit.”
Of course, Satan and his henchmen try to return everyone who has become a child of God to its lost state.
The weapon that he throws in the fight for this is more than once.... fear. I myself have known many of
these fear attacks over the years. So I know what I'm talking about. Great can be the fear during these
attacks. Satan can do this when he finds a weak spot in our spiritual shield of faith. Because, for example,
we have been too busy with matters that weakened our vigilance. It is not uncommon for Satan to have been
unnoticed for a long time to prepare his attack by distracting us.... until we are weak enough, our love
for God is no longer perfect so that Satan can strike relentlessly.
What I learned from all this is the fact that these attacks never come from God. When fear rushes
over you, it is really Satan who started the attack. This is confirmed in Isaiah 54:15:
“If one attacks violently, it does not come from Me; whoever attacks you will fall over you.”
That is why it is important to realize constantly that the Kingdom of God is not primarily concerned with the things of this world (the things that can distract us), not with our livelihood, not with the money and not with everything that passes but with all that which remains eternal. That is why the Bible lets us know in Colossians 3:1-3: “If therefore you are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Consider the things that are above, not those that are on the earth. Because you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
On the other hand, Jesus said in Matthew 6:31-33: “Do not worry, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or with what shall we clothe ourselves? For all these things the Gentiles seek out. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all this. But first seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all this will moreover be given to you.” In Philippians 4:6-7, the apostle Paul puts it into words as follows: “Do not be concerned in anything, but let your wishes be known to God through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” Whoever lives in God's Kingdom knows that his prayers for temporary needs are heard and answered. Because the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, stands like a wall around his mind. We read namely in 1 John 4:18: “Perfect love drives out fear.” There fear has no chance anymore because the guilt of sin has been removed. And thus the fear of the coming judgment will disappear.
The love of God is the bond that binds together and is the only force in the universe that holds God's creation together and that makes God's creatures care about each other. The saying: “out of sight but not removed from the heart” gives some insight into this greatest force in the universe, a force through which people want to make an effort for others on their own will. Make an effort to nurse, to help, to assist in times of setbacks and sorrow. The best example of this is Jesus Himself, being our Creator, who humbled Himself to be a servant and surrendered to the death of the cross, in order to save us sinners from eternal punishment. As we can read in Romans 5:8: “But God proves His love toward us, because Christ died for us while we were still sinners.” It was God's love that made Jesus make this sacrifice of obedience. Out of own will and not forced. This is how our life should be: willingness to make sacrifices for others, to make an effort to help others. Even if it costs more time, money and effort than we had anticipated. Without love absolutely nothing functions and really everything falls apart. In our current time of emerging lawlessness we see this happening around us every day. Using a lot of media violence and deception, Satan makes an effort to destroy family ties. So that current and future generations of young people grow up in a life without love. We see the consequences daily.
We find the spiritual law of unifying love in 1 Corinthians 13 of which I present here verse 2: “If I had prophetic gifts, and knew all the mysteries and all that is to be known, and had all the faith, so that I moved mountains, but I had no love, I would be nothing.”
How different things are in the realm of Satan. There is no love there. Yet his kingdom will have to be sustained because otherwise Satan will not be able to achieve anything. Jesus said about this in Luke 11:17-18: “Every kingdom divided against itself perishes, and one house falls on another. If Satan is also divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand?” So, there is also a force in Satan's kingdom that holds everything together so that the evil spirits at least do what Satan instructs them to do. And so that Satan can continue to reign over his evil spirits, filled with hatred. That power is the opposite of God's love. We already know this power. It is fear.
Love lets one person focus on the happiness of the other. So, this power is not I-focused. Fear, on the other hand, is self-centered and is fueled by resistance to the punishment for sin. That is why fear is only able to force what is being commanded to happen. Where fear reigns, every layer in the power structure of the realm of Satan is controlled by the overlying layer, with Satan himself at the very top of this pyramid. If Satan lost his power, what eventually will happen at the end time, his subjects would immediately deal with him. In a horrible way. The only force that allows him to rule is fear. Fear reigns in hell. Of the two largest opposing forces in the universe, love and fear, love is the greatest force. Jesus proved that in the garden of Getsémane and on Calvary, where, despite his fears, He remained obedient to the plan of redemption for which He had come to this world.
Examples of cadaver discipline in the realm of Satan have abounded in this world since the fall of
sin. For example, the world has already known many dictators who maintained their “kingdom of terror”
with their iron hands of fear. Names like Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, Nicolae
Ceausescu, Fidel Castro, Ante Pavelic, Pol Pot, François Duvalier, Kim Il-sung, Moammar al-Qadhafi
and many others have shown the world how Satan works.
A whole population of a country was controlled by them by the terror of fear. The fear of those who criticized
the “great leader.” The fear of being betrayed by neighbors or even family, or by one's own
children and the fear of revenge in case one was betrayed. There was a constant threat from the money-wasting
secret services that had their henchmen and informants everywhere. A threat that brought entire masses
neatly in line with a completely idiot ideology that had often emerged from the depraved brain of the
despot in question. Of course there were differences in working methods, but the main lines as just described
were recognizable in all these dictatorships. All these monsters were able to rule thanks to the
weapon of fear.
However, if it happened that the people in question could throw this yoke of fear away, then the dictator in question was done. The spell of fear was broken in that case. The end of, for example, Ceausescu (Romania) and Qadhafi (Libya) are some examples. They were killed by their own people. Because this sighing creation has no answer to Satan's domination, in such a situation the most obvious alternative is to replace one devil with another. For example, where democracy is being introduced again, another demon is already on the throne.
The lie with which the woman (not Adam!) was seduced into sin came down to the prospect of a higher position for man. In Genesis 3:5 Satan claimed, “But God knows that in the day that you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” This was the same pride by wich Satan himself was banished from God's face.
In present-day Christianity (= Babylon), gospel preachers are active who apparently consider themselves
gods. These narcissistic self-made gods cannot even meet the requirements of 1 Corinthians
13. Every now and then I come across such a clown on the internet or on TV who demands the necessary
attention for himself through his impressive ministry or website, with his own name visible all over the
place. With four or five times an image of the person on the front page of his “ministry” website,
it is made clear to us who it is all about. Our Savior apparently just has to move aside a little bit
in such a case. Or take a seat on the reserve bench. To make way for the ego of the spiritual quack. In
fact, they seduce the masses with temptation and deception, just as Satan did in the garden of Eden.
In Matthew 18:1-4 apparently the disciples of Jesus were already troubled too
by these narcissistic tendencies. To correct them, Jesus took a child as an example. We read there: “At
that moment the disciples came to Jesus and asked: who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven? And he
called a child unto him, and put it in their midst, and said, Verily I say unto you, If ye do not repent,
and be like the children, ye shall not surely enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whoever now considers
himself as little as this child, is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
The gospel preachers concerned clearly have not understood this.
To emphasize it once more: temptation to pride is the stepping stone to the terror of fear. As soon as man responds to this and thus allows himself to be seduced, in disobedience to the gospel, he will be open to any error. The spiritual darkness in the heart of man will increase, and where there is darkness there is fear.
On one of the other pages of this site I placed this saying: “One of the signs of the spiritual decline within Christianity is that a gospel that was once understood by simple and illiterate people must now be explained by theologians.” Yes, yes, I know: I am now mocking the phenomenon of theology, an accumulation of mainly totally superfluous knowledge, heavily influenced by doctrines of evil spirits. And which in spiritual Babylon (= current Christianity) is set as a condition for being able to pass for a “spiritual authority”. The term theology in this regard is ridiculous anyway. The disciples of Jesus, simple and illiterate people without all this scientific ballast, understood the gospel of salvation (after they had received the Holy Spirit) better than most theologians. However, they did not have any prestige in the world.
The apostle Paul, on the other hand, could be admired because of his background and education. In Acts
22:3 he lists: trained at the feet of Gamaliel with careful observance of the law of our fathers,
a zeal for God.... In Philiphians 3:7-9, however, this same Paul confesses:
“But everything that was profitable to me was deemed to be damage for Christ's sake. Indeed, I
consider everything to be harmful, because the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord is beyond everything.
For his sake I have given up all this and consider it garbage, that I may win Christ, and may appear in
Him not to have a righteousness by law, but righteousness by faith in Christ, which is from God on the
basis of faith.”
Stated in my own words: “I no longer value my theological background, (he was educated by Gamaliel)
I therefore threw all that ballast overboard and I have my knees bowed to our Savior Jesus Christ, who
alone can give us eternal life.” Since the time of the first congregations, as already predicted,
the gospel has been polluted by the teachings of evil spirits. As a result, the world has retained
an institution like the 100% occult Roman Catholic church. The Reformation at the time unmasked this institute
on a number of points but in return has brought in other pollutions of the gospel.
Thus Protestant theology remained what theology had been for centuries: the “gospel” of Babylon. One of the Protestant theologians who allowed himself to be used for this was John Calvin. That the life work of this theologian in the Protestant Netherlands would leave his destructive traces behind, I saw at the time happen to my two Reformed grandfathers. Throughout their lives they struggled with fear, fueled by the doubt that Calvin's pernicious electoral doctrine resulted. And the same of course was also the case with masses of other believers. “The tree is known by its fruit,” Jesus once said. The fruits of Calvin could not be eaten. To have innocent women burned alive because they were supposed to be witches, the death at the stake of Michael Servet, these are just a few of the bad fruits by which this bad Calvin could be recognized as someone with a head full of theology but with an empty heart. And from this wolf it could be said what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:2: “....but I did not have love, I were nothing.” Calvin was a trader in death. His weapon was fear, which was sustained in part by his election theory. That is why Calvin can also be regarded as a dictator who used fear as a weapon.
I have already mentioned them in the foregoing: both
my grandfathers who have sighed under their Reformed legacy and in particular under the yoke that Calvin
had imposed on them. I did not hear very much about my grandfather on father's part of the family at the
time (I was too young), but I knew my mother's father well. He too was burdened by the uncertainty that
Calvin's election doctrine entails and with it the terror of fear. One day my mother got the inspiration
to send her dad a postcard with a text from Isaiah 43:1: “But now, says
the Lord your Creator, oh Jacob, and your Creator, oh Israël: fear not, for I have redeemed you,
I have called you by your name, you are mine” For the poor man it meant a change in his life. These
words touched his heart and he knew from that time on that he was God's property and saved forever. When
we visited our grandparents in the years that followed, that postcard hung in the living room, in a clearly
visible place. This text from Isaiah had finally given him the peace of heart and the certainty that Calvin
had taken from him all those years. Shortly after his death, after cleaning his home, my mother took the
postcard in question again. I have placed a smaller representation of this postcard (but of course you
had already seen that) on the left/right/above, depending on your screen size. The poor man was freed
from slavery by these words from Isaiah 43. Slavery as a result of the uncertainty
through a teaching of evil spirits (the theology of Calvin) and as a result of fear that kept him imprisoned.
In the foregoing we have read in Hebrews 2:14-15: “Now that the children
have a share in blood and flesh, He has likewise been given a share in it, so that by His death He would
dethrone the devil who had power over death. And would free all who were doomed to slavery by fear of
death throughout their lives.” Here, in a few words, it is shown that Jesus (our Creator!) became
a human being through His birth from Mary and, as a human being, voluntarily entered the path to Getsémane
and Calvary in order to put an end to the power of Satan (as the ruler of this world). Through Jesus'
obedience to death and thus through His victory over Calvary, He was able to free sinners from the prison
of fear. In Romans 5:19 we read about Jesus' obedience: “For as many
people became sinners through the disobedience of a man (= Adam), so too many will become righteous through
the obedience of one (= Jesus).”
We read from Jesus that He in Getsémane, shortly before His capture, endured death fears Himself.
One could easily deduce from this that He Himself was not perfectly in love, according to 1
John 4:18. However, Jesus voluntarily surrendered Himself to be crucified. He told His enemies
in Luke 22:53: “While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not
extend a hand to Me. But this is your hour and the power of darkness.” Jesus voluntarily tasted
the fears of hell so that we may escape, He surrendered to the power of Satan and to the climate of eternal
loss. He had previously spoken to His disciples about this in John 14:29-31:
“And now I have told you before it happens, that you may believe when it happens. I shall not
speak much with you any more, for the ruler of the world cometh and hath nothing in me: but the world
must know that I love the Father, and do as the Father hath commanded me. Get up, let's get away from
here.” Jesus emphasized here that He went this path of suffering in obedience to the Father.
Voluntary and not forced. That is an agony that we don't have to go through. And that we sinners could
not even go. Because Jesus was and remained without sin, the ruler of the world found nothing about Him
and he had to let Jesus go when He left the realm of the dead again and took the righteous of the Old
Testament with Him so that they could stay in heaven near the Father. Think of Moses, Noah, Abraham, David,
Daniël, Job and many, many others.
Returning briefly to Mr. Calvin. He belonged to the guild of prophets who founded doom under the guise of justice. Calvinism, with its false election theology, is a stunning example of this. In a similar way all false teachings within “Christianity”, but also all religions outside, are going to work. Time and time again. They are all in the service of Satan and without exception they can be recognized by an element of fear, in whatever form, as Satan's signature. Calvinism has kept a big hold within the Protestant church and its effects are still recognizable to this day. In the religious Netherlands, many generations suffered from the demonic legacy of this robber. A robber who robbed peace from the heart of all those poor people who were bombarded with Calvin's lies by their religious leaders.
Of all the religions that come from the quiver of Satan, I want to highlight two, or rather, one. It is a religion of which there are two versions, apparently each other's enemies. One version is the Roman Catholic religion, better known as the Roman Catholic Church and the other is Islam. Roman Catholicism appears to be “Christian” while Islam is nothing but the Arabic version of the same Roman Catholicism. The gospel of the Kingdom of God is clear about the fact that we sinners cannot earn eternal life with anything. With really nothing. The only way to the Father is Jesus Christ. Whoever believes in Him and repents from His evil works will be saved. In both Roman religion as well Islam, there is a compelling duty to do good works in order to earn heaven.
A duty that always leaves an oppressive uncertainty about whether people will ultimately be found good enough for heaven. However, the Bible teaches us that through repentance, faith in Jesus Christ and by accepting His position as the only Mediator between God the Father and sinful man, eternal life is our part. And “good” works add nothing at all. These required “good” works have the side effect of man “earning” heaven only out of self-interest. This has nothing to do with love.
Also the constant repeating of prayers (with the help of the Rosary) is an obligation both in Roman religion and in Islam. An obligation that is meticulously complied with out of fear of punishment for neglecting this duty. There is no question of a personal relationship with “Mary” or with the Islamic god Allah. There are even more examples that show that fear is the driving force behind both religions. Because they both are the teachings of evil spirits!! That is an incomparably different climate than the climate of the Kingdom of God that Jesus spread. The discipel Peter testified to this, as an answer to a question from Jesus. In John 6:67-69 we read: “Then Jesus said to the twelve, You do not want to leave too, do you? Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life; and we have believed and acknowledged that You are the Holy One of God.”
The aforementioned uncertainty inevitably reinforces the fear in a human life. What a worthless life! But, the inventors of Islam have found a solution for this. Because: in Islam, voluntary participation in Jihad (“holy war”) is a guarantee that one may go to heaven. This now is nothing but a cunning method to ensure that quite a few brainwashed Muslims are only too happy to blow themselves up in a suicide campaign. Which was originally the very purpose of this demonic safety net. The drama is that after this act these lost souls will end up in a completely different place than was promised to them. Satan remains a big liar!
To summarize it in a definition: Islam is not a religion but a military system that applies a religion of fear to enforce a cadaver discipline. The similarity with the military system of Roman Catholicism is clearly visible because fear is also the driving force there. The unimaginable atrocities committed during the Second World War in Croatia (with the approval of the Pope!!) by Roman priests, monks, fathers, and even nuns(!) testify to this. Those who did not walk in that march of cruelty were crushed themselves. In short, the choice between Jesus or Allah is a choice between the voluntary love of Jesus or the compelling fear of Allah. There is a world of difference between these two extremes.
We will now briefly list the three culprits:
As may be known, the world population is occupied by many more religions. Under the spell of fear. In order not to elaborate too much, I now limit myself to the so-called “primitive” peoples. It is striking that the less material prosperity man knows and the harder it is to provide for the daily necessities of life, the more the wicked are aware of the presence of evil spirits. In that situation, the immaterial matters determine life more than the visible possesions. Of wich there is a lack of anyway. The opposite situation is that Western man with all his modern technical blessings has much less to almost no interest in supernatural things. But that aside. Paris Reidhead, an American missionary, once told about his experiences in Africa. Here is a quote from his story:
Quote:
“When my wife and I went to Africa in 1945, we had just undergone an average education that you
would expect from a good Bible school. So we had no high expectations of what people knew who had never
seen a missionary or heard the Name of Jesus. But when I went to that tribe that lived in the Sudanese/Ethiopian
border region, where they said I was the first to come with a Bible and the first to mention the Name
of Jesus opposite them, I discovered that these people knew amazingly much. Much more than I was taught
to expect. For example, they knew the God who created the world. All you had to do was break a branch
or pick up a stone, or whatever, and ask, “Who made this?” Then they gave you the name, in this
case it was “Wannamish” (comment from the webmaster: this word is only a sound reproduction),
that He was holy and that He was angry with them because of their sins. They also knew about the existence
of Satan. “Then why don't you offer your chickens to Wannamish?” And then their answer was:
“We don't even know if He wants those chickens. We can't waste them on Him because we don't know
if that's what He wants. We do know that if we do not sacrifice our chickens to the evil spirits, our
goats will die and our crops won't mature. That's why we save all our chickens for those who want them:
the evil spirits.”
End of quote.
The most startling discovery that Paris Reidhead made was that these so-called “primitive” people, running around with chopping knife, blowpipe and spear, knew very well about the existence of the God who created everything. Nevertheless, they preferred to have their lives terrorized by the evil spirits while these bastards demanded sacrifices. They did all this in the hope that the evil spirits would be satisfied by sacrificing their chickens. It is obvious that nothing good can be expected from evil spirits. The best thing these pagans had in their miserable lives was the shaky hope that the evil spirits would listen to them. Their uncertainty dominated their lives. And with the uncertainty the fear. They nevertheless chose to ignore the supreme God and fear was their part. How foolish man can be!
Thinking about this, a few lines came to mind from (the Dutch church hymns): Church Song 165:1. I have
retained that knowledge from the Dutch Reformed legacy of my parents and from my own partly Dutch Reformed
education. These are a few lines that crossed my mind more than once. So again I was reminded of the foolishness
of lost sinners who, against all odds, do not want to grasp God's outstretched hand. These Dutch lines
in rhyme are as follows:
Ontwaak en sta op, het gevaar is zo groot!
Wie kiest, o verdwaasde, voor ‘t leven de dood?
English translation: “Wake up and get up, the danger is so great! Whoever chooses, o dazed ones, death for life?” In other words: “Why would you fools instead of choosing life, choose for death?” Who does such a thing? Yes, who does such a thing? Many are the fools who ignore the knowledge they have of the supreme God and choose eternal fear. Exactly as Jesus foretold in John 3:19-20 “This is the judgment that the light has come into the world and that people would rather have the darkness than the light, for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not go to the light, so that his works are not shown.”
Yet God's outstretched hand remains for every lost sinner. Thus, remains the opportunity to choose eternal life with Him. He really does everything to convince sinners in this world in time of their lost condition. To underline this, I repeat once more what has already been mentioned above, namely Jesus' words from Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and have dinner with him and he with me.” There is no room for fear. Because, as we read in Jesus' invitation in John 5:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; for he is passed from death unto life.”
For those saved the reality will be like Revelation 21:4 says: “And he shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither grieve, nor lamentation, nor trouble shall there be any more, for the first things are passed away.” Where death is there fear. So if we read that death will no longer be, we can also read: and the fear will no longer be....
However.... for those who continue to oppose God's invitation, only the warning from Hebrews 10:26-27 will be left: “For if we deliberately sin after we have come to the knowledge of the truth, there is no longer a sacrifice for sins, but a terrible view of the judgment and fierceness of a fire that will consume the rebellious.” Do not make the mistake here of thinking that “coming to the knowledge of the truth” only applies to those who have ever been converted. Even the bushman (with his chopping knife, blowpipe and spear) who has recognized who the supreme God is, the God who created everything, but nevertheless continues to seek refuge with the evil spirits will stay forever under the wrath of God. For all these stubborn people, fear of death means: God's judgment for eternity. Reader, are you part of that too?