The Answer to the World’s Greatest Fear

Posted on Aug 23, 2018 Topic :
Posted by : Dr. Neil T. Anderson

“I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid…” (Genesis 3:10)

The immediate emotional consequence of being separated from God was fear.

Why was Adam afraid?

There was nothing in the Garden of Eden to be afraid of. He had no neurological illness that needed medication. There were no learned phobias that had to be unlearned, or flesh patterns that had to be crucified.

There is only one explanation for his fear. He was separated from God. There is nothing more fearful than to be totally abandoned and utterly alone.

Throughout history people have been terrorized by the idea of impermanence. They have gone to extreme measures to overcome their mortality. Fanciful beliefs have been formulated by false religions to give them hope for an afterlife. Explorers have searched for the mystical Fountain of Youth. Scientists have experimented with drugs to stop the aging process. Some have turned to cryogenics hoping they can be resuscitated from their frozen state after a cure has been found for the disease that led to their death. Silicon Valley techies are trying to upload their consciousness to a computer. People attempt to alleviate their fears by saying someone is in a better place when they die, when there is often no basis for making such an assertion.

This primordial fear exists in all humanity, and there is only one antidote.

When Adam moved away from God he brought death, because sin had cut him off from the source of life. God in His great love and mercy sent Jesus to die for our sins, but He came to do much more than that (see Romans 5:8-11). He came to give us eternal life, which is not the same as the temporal life that defines our physical existence.

“Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, so that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Hebrews 2:14,15).