Is Fear A Sign Of The Second Coming Of Jesus?

Tweet

Is fear a sign of the second coming of Jesus Christ or a sign of the end times? What does the Bible say about fear?

Fear of God

As humans, we tend to think that fear is a bad thing, but is it? From a human perspective, it may appear that way, but fear keeps us alive. In our everyday lives, we don’t like to take chances with our lives or the lives of others for fear that they or we might get hurt, and that’s a good function of fear. I was cleaning the gutters and my fear of falling kept me safely away from the edge of the roof. A healthy and proper fear keeps us from doing things that might get us hurt or killed, so fear in itself can help preserve lives, but what about the fear of the Lord? Is that the same thing? No, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov 9:10). When you fear God, it doesn’t mean you fear being struck dead by a bolt of lightning. It means you respect, revere, and are in awe of God and His Word. You obey the written Word out of a reverence and respect for God, but also out of devotion for God and what He’s done through His Son. I love my wife and do things for her because I love her, not because I fear I’ll have to sleep on the couch. If I never did anything for her, I’d have good reason to fear that.

Fear makes us more selfish.

Driven to Fear

I went to the store recently and because of a recent pandemic, the store shelves had been almost emptied. There was no bottled water, toilet paper, and several other essentials. The store clerk said that someone had come in and bought almost all of the tissue paper and toilet paper. One person bought 63 rolls of toilet paper and 36 boxes of tissues, so that’s one of the things that fear will do. It will make us irrational and make illogical decisions, and make choices that we’ll probably regret later on. Another thing fear does is that it makes us more selfish…we want to make sure to take care of our own needs first and foremost, even if it means leaving nothing for our neighbors. I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes and I’m sure it’ll happen again, but you won’t see Christians displaying such behavior (I hope) because God gives His children a great and precious promise: “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3). Outside of faith in Christ, there will never be any perfect peace or absence of fear in this world.

Fear at Jesus’ Return

The Apostle John wrote in the Book of Revelation about the day of Jesus second coming and it’s a fearful thing for those who had never trusted in Christ. John wrote, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen” (Rev 1:7). Why would the tribes or nations of the world mourn or “wail on account of him?” Because He will judge the world in righteousness, and those who have heard the gospel have rejected it. They know that the time of their judgment has come, and so they are fearful, and crying out because of His appearance. Jesus actually told us whom we should really fear, and it’s not man. The Lord said that “I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him” (Luke 12:5)! They can kill our bodies, but they can’t touch our souls. Not so with God.

Living in Fear

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Pho 4:7).

Is fear a sign of the end times or Jesus’ second coming? I believe it is because people’s hearts melt like wax so easily today. We react to fear immediately and impulsively, and to the hurt of others. If you are living in fear right now, it’s probably because you haven’t trusted in Christ. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God and if you’re not saved, you should fear God’s judgment, but if you repent of your sins and put your trust in Christ right now and hear, there is no more reason to fear God’s judgment because you are secure in Him hands (John 10:28-29). You are cleansed and forgiven (1 John 1:9), so there is nothing to fear anymore. That’s because of God’s love for you and why “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 John 4:18).

The punishment that was due upon us was placed upon Christ for our sake’s, however, outside of those in the faith, there is every reason to fear. Jesus could appear at any moment, and all of us are one heartbeat away from meeting our Maker. We will either stand before God with the righteousness of Christ and be saved (2 Cor 5:21), or we will face the worst of all possible outcomes, so we must “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water” (Rev 14:7).

Conclusion

The Apostle John “saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done” (Rev 20:12). That’s bad news if you’ve not trusted in Christ because our works are like filthy rags to God (Isaiah 64:6), and none of us are good enough to save ourselves by good works (Rom 3:10-12). Tragically, over 90% of Americans believe they’re a good person and their works ought to get them into heaven, but the truth is, “if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15), so why not put your trust in Christ this very moment and remove all doubt…and all fear. He has paid for your sins at Calvary. If you refuse, you will spend the rest of eternity paying for them yourselves. Today is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2). Tomorrow may be too late.

Here is some related reading for you: End Times: Are We in the Last days?

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: End Times, Fear and end times, Jesus' coming, Second Coming