By Kerwin Holmes, Jr.

“We all could very well die!” cried the poor mortal.

It has become evident to many of us that the “fear of death” need no longer be put in quotation marks as a proper anthropological or societal or even personal phenomenon. Nay, it need be put into proper English: it is the Fear of Death. This fear is what is running all of our society currently, or at least, it is what is most enthroned upon that special place in our hearts. For Evangelicals, that is through the newly minted “greatest commandment of God” to “Love our neighbors” (apparently by also lying to them and shoving God off of that special place’s throne). For non-Christians…hey, not much has changed there.

In passing I will remark that this election is far from over. By that I mean the US presidential election. And by “far” I mean that we are a month out (as of me beginning to write this). A lot can happen in a month. Just remember March 2020.
Joe Biden has recently proclaimed that “Democracy prevailed.” Well, I hope not. Subtlety in dire times is to be suspected with hostility. Language (and all the more so terminology) in politics always matters and therefore is always suspect. We in the USA inhabit a constitutional republic over against and opposed to a “democracy.” Democracies are notoriously tyrannical, and I would rather not be ruled by the mob or some privileged minority (which…yes, taking into account what has happened this year…dire times indeed).

But the problem is that some heard Biden’s words and celebrated, the couple thousand who attended his rallies and the millions more who believe that the establishment candidate is a push against the system that took away (zero) civil liberties from citizens these past four years and which will finally cause the systemic change the system so often resists.
…And about an equal number of people (or more) heard the sounds of troops crossing the Rubicon.
As the would-be restorer of the US republic, with results like that, Biden should keep in mind that even if his victory is solidified and is proven to be legitimate after all is said and done, many will not forget the words he has said about them for well over 2 years. Over half the nation will not be supportive of him, and they now have 4 years of his own example with which to show that sentimentality.

Yet, as the would-be restorer of the US republic, at least currently, Biden has yet to put on that glorious Augustus victory wreath. When more information is available, as I am able, I will write more on that.

…But I say all of that in passing. What this post is actually about is what is in the first paragraph: that special place where the throne upon which the Fear of Death now sits that resides in the hearts of many a child, woman, man, governor, government, and religious pulpit. The present panic set to be over and done in two weeks has now taken up the rest of the year.

Who would’ve thunk it?

And that is the conversation that I would like to briefly have. Look, I have already written on what we could and should actually do for safety in previous posts. Redundancy isn’t my strongest suit, so any accusers (of which there seem to be so many I’m sure that Satan has taken a break…even celestial beings tire) who wish to take my words here and string them up like Christmas lights around the latest sign of “You HATE your neighbor!” go right ahead.

No, seriously. Stop reading (as it won’t do you any good) and go do that now. This is for reasoning purposes only, and clearly you are one of the unreasonable ones. I would rather not throw my pearls, I have precious few as it is. Pearls are meant to be given to receptive hands anyhow…like other things such as charity and phone numbers (no, thank you, political phone spammers).

We are fast approaching many things, and there are some men and women who have spoken more adequately and consistently than I have on these issues. One of those persons (and I will only highlight one) is Douglas Wilson out in Moscow, Idaho. Now, as you can recall from one of my previous posts, I disagree(d) with Douglas Wilson on the power and the purview of the civil authorities to proactively call lockdowns upon the US citizenry and to restrict the First through Fifth Amendments with what information was first presented about this illness. I also disagree with him on the nature of Christian baptism. But my disagreements do not bar me from listening to him. I listen to many a Christ-hating, Christian-hating intellectual in my professional life. I even learn to get along with them. Pastor Douglas Wilson and I are not so diametrically opposed rationally and confessionally as I mutually am with those intellectuals, so it is a lot easier to use the skills of maturity and forbearance to listen to what he has to say.

I now encourage you all to listen to what he has to say:

It is true that we live in times that we are not familiar with. We are all mortals bound in time and space, our chapter turning the book ever closer to its inevitable end, our sighs since birth (if we were so fortunate to dodge the abortionist’s/our mother’s chemical-vacuum-knife combo) yield us further into that sweet sounding last breath– the most perfected form. We are always unfamiliar in the times we are in to some degree, lacking the ability to peek into the coming chapters of our story.

We are simultaneously dying of things we either know of or don’t know, and yet we are living.

But are we?

This Fear of Death guy sure has been deadly. In riots in the US dozens have been murdered in the name for people to stop being murdered. Many of these murdered people were black and murdered by the anti-murder protestors on their behalf– much like many of the homes and businesses and political opponents violently assaulted were so done by the anti-fascists, you know, to stop the political bigotry of fascism. Food shortages have occurred beyond the normal state in various parts of the world. Harmful drug usage (particularly in the USA) and domestic abuse (and let us not forget that domestic abuse also affects boys and men) have allegedly inundated sequestered homes obedient to the will of the State. A large wealth transfer is being enacted even as many who started their small businesses or have stewarded them for generations close for good due to fascistic edicts from state governors. You may already be seeing passersby on the sidewalk exchanging distrusting glances from behind their unconcealed brow lines, or you may even be one of those persons who yelled at someone else at the market for not wearing a mask or staying far enough away.

So, are we really living while we are all surely dying? Are we doing it well?

That depends upon your vantage, and here is where I pivot to let other arguments work for me (such as that video above) so that I may keep this short:

The Fear of Death may be enthroned upon your hearts… but if it isn’t, something else will be.

And it does not much matter that you replace the Fear of Death with some other fear. Not all fears are useful and all but one have their debilitating weaknesses. But there is another fear that need not be capitalized, need not be put in quotations, but which stands upon its own record as a fear proven to produce all that is necessary in this life to guide our way. It, in fact, is The Way.

What is that fear? Well, grab a Christian and he or she ought to be able to tell you. If they cannot, then go find an actual Christian who can.

But, to wrap up, we need to see whether this Fear of Death is the source of wisdom and knowledge that we desire so incessantly to be ruled by as we [breathes in, breathes out] come to our final moment upon this plane. The inevitable must occur. Triage will take place (though depending upon whom you entrust upon the thrones of government, let alone the throne in your heart, you may not like how). Look upon all that this has wrought to us mortals. Is the Fear of Death a just and liberating tyrant?

What say you, my fellow American, my fellow human being worldwide– families and neighbors throughout these lands? Shall we press our own great “reset” button?