Hartland Fall Convocation 2021: Christ, Emotional Intelligence, and End-Time Events

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Chris Holland

Fear, EQ and the Final Crisis

It's good to be with you here this morning on this wonderful fall day.

And as we consider God's leading and God's moving, we're going to study scripture.

And we are going to study the issues of the final crisis.

A simple search of fear this morning at about 530 a.m.

On Google yields in the news section, 355 million hits in .5 seconds.

It is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or threat.

George Sewell once said, Fear is the tax that conscious pays to guilt.

Napoleon said, He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.

Fear is a great motivator, yet it also can paralyze us.

Why the talk of fear in this convocation weekend that focuses on Christ, emotional intelligence, and the end times?

This morning I wonder aloud if we aren't living in a time where fear is motivating decisions that are leading many to be prepared for the final deception of Satan in the final crisis.

Fear is, in fact, why we are in this grand mess that we are in today.

Heavenly Father, as we open Your Word, we would like to understand.

We would like to experience the transforming power of Your Holy Spirit, and so I pray that You would help us To listen to the leading and the prompting of your spirit today.

It is at the very core of the great controversy.

While it was envy and jealousy that motivated Lucifer's fall and his original rebellion, fear was the factor that he utilized to expand his rebellion beyond himself.

In Patriarchs and Prophets on pages 40 and 41, Ellen White writes these words, Many were disposed to heed this counsel, speaking of the angels, to repent of their disaffection and seek to be again received into the favor with the Father and His Son.

The mighty revolter now declared that the angels who had united with him had gone too far to return, and that he was acquainted with the divine law and knew that God would not forgive.

He declared that all who should submit to the authority of heaven would be stripped of their honor, degraded from their position.

For Himself, He was determined never again to acknowledge the authority of Christ.

The only course remaining for Him and His followers, He said, was to assert their liberty and gain by force the rights which had not been willingly accorded to them.

The fear of not being able to return into the favor of God.

It is that which motivated those angels who had the opportunity to return and be fully restored by God and reconciled to God, it was fear that motivated them to follow through on the rebellion.

But then we know the story of the rebellion well, Because the rebellion did not stay in heaven.

As the rebellion was brought to earth, Eve, you'll remember, partook of the fruit.

Adam was deceived by something far, far more nefarious.

The book Patriarchs and Prophets once again gives us the behind-the-scenes motivating factor on pages 56 and 57.

Adam understood that his companion had transgressed the command of God, disregarded the only prohibition laid upon them as a test of their fidelity and love.

There was a terrible struggle in his mind.

He mourned that he had permitted Eve to wander from his side, but now the deed was done.

He must be separated from her whose society had been his joy.

Adam enjoyed the companionship of God and of holy angels.

He had looked upon the glory of the Creator.

He understood the high destiny opened to the human race should they remain faithful to God.

Oh how I wish the sentence would end there.

She continues, Yet all these blessings were lost, yet all these blessings were lost sight of in the fear of losing that 1 gift which in his eyes outvalued every other.

Love, gratitude, loyalty to the Creator, all were overborne by love to Eve.

She was a part of himself and he could not endure the thought of separation.

He did not realize that the same infinite power who had from The dust of the earth created him a living, beautiful form and had in love given him a companion could supply her place.

After all, he reasoned, might not the words of the wise serpent be true?

Eve was before him as beautiful and apparently as innocent as before this act of disobedience.

She expressed greater love for him than before.

No sign of death appeared in her, and he decided to brave the consequences.

He seized the fruit and quickly ate for fear." and quickly ate for fear.

And then this would lead to the encounter in the Garden of Eden.

Remember, it says that Adam enjoyed the companionship of God and of holy angels.

He understood the high destiny open to the human race, should they remain faithful to God.

But out of fear, he enjoyed the companionship of Eve more than the companionship of God, so much so that as God entered the Garden of Eden, there in Genesis chapter 3 And verse 9, the Bible says, Then the Lord called to Adam and said, Where are you?

And so he, Adam, said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked and I hid myself.

How is it that Adam went from enjoying the companionship of God and the holy angels to now being fearful and trembling before God.

So much so that the Bible says 50 times, do not be afraid.

Over a hundred times does it give this idea that Fear is not to be a part of the life of the follower of God.

Joshua 1.9 says, Have I not commanded you?

For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Isaiah 41 10 says, fear not for I am with you be not dismayed for I am your God I will strengthen you yes I will help you I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

This is not just an Old Testament concept.

Jesus said in John 6, 20, but He said to them, It is I.

The Apostle Paul writing to young Timothy said in 2 Timothy 1.7, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind." And Jesus, In the sermon and teachings that He gave to His disciples prior to His crucifixion said, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your heart be troubled neither, let it be afraid." Fear, not a part of God's plan for God's people.

Yet with all of that said, in a tension that I believe exists intentionally in the Bible, the message given for God's people at the very end of time, The message given for God's people at the very end of time.

The message given for God's people to survive the final crisis.

The message given to God's people to announce to the world how to survive the final crisis begins with the words, fear God and give glory to Him.

Why are there so many passages in the Bible that commission us and command us to not be afraid and to not fear, yet the final message is to fear God.

Is it possible, my dear friends, is it possible that in these last days, God is calling upon us to fear Him alone.

In fact, the word fear in the context of all of those do not be afraids, comes in the context of fear of temporal or earthly things.

Could it be that just as there were the 5 solas of the Protestant Reformation, sola scriptura, Scripture alone, sola fide, faith alone, sola gratia, grace alone, solus Christus, Christ alone, Soli Deo Gloria, glory to God alone.

Could it be that maybe, maybe, that there is a sixth all-important sola for God's people at the end of time who are being reformed by Him, and that being God alone.

And in the Latin, and although I didn't take Latin as a good Catholic boy growing up, it would be the words, Deum Solum Timent, fear of God alone.

The only positive usage of the word fear in the Bible is to fear God.

The many expressions, fear not, do not be afraid, not the spirit of fear, come in the context of temporal, carnal, and earthly matters of which the Bible is clear, we are not to be afraid of.

The reality is that if we fear anything other than God himself, it is a demonstration of our lack of trust in God alone.

In fact, it is very interesting, in a powerful and quite compelling article, Adventist scholar William Shaye wrote about the literary and theological parallels between Revelation 14, 15 and Exodus 19 through 24.

Let me kind of break that down and make it clear.

William Shay takes a look at a fascinating parallel, A fascinating parallel between Revelation chapter 14 and the giving of the 10 Commandments.

The opening scene of Revelation 14 occurs where?

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Fear, EQ and the Final Crisis

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