All the "Fear Nots" in the Bible
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Tournier's book was delayed, but finally came in today. Unfortunately, it was a dead end. With no citation, he writes: "The Bible, with its realistic knowledge of the human heart, repeats 365 times the words 'Fear not.' " The section is very interesting, on good and bad fear, but our quest presses on. It is interesting to see how what appears to be an error works through the literature unchecked.
PS This does get us to 1963. I would be interested if anyone has a book in Logos or otherwise which makes the claim earlier than that.
Using Logos as a pastor, seminary professor, and Tyndale author
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Hello,
This claim goes back further than 1987 actuallyI may be able to shed at least a little bit of light on the origin of this claim — a source that I would absolutely believe.
n 1948, Richard Wurmbrand, a Lutheran minister was living in Romania with his wife and 10-year-old son at the time that the Russians invaded. Richard had been an atheist Jew prior to coming to Christ in the 1930’s (a fascinating story of it’s own).
He had already witnessed the Nazi’s and now was facing the Communists. He writes that he “discovered that there are 366 verses in the Bible that instruct us not to fear, one for each day of the year and one for leap year.”
Now, there could be more. Because, in the 30’s and 40’s as we all know, the only search engine was his eyes helped by his fingers to flip the pages of his Bible and probably a Concordance. Also, depending on the language and translations, there could be some variances as to what verses he may have discovered (? just a thought).
He was kidnapped leap year, on February 29, 1948, by the communists. As they put a sack over his head and shoved him in a car and sped away, Richard asked them what the date was. They told him and he, having memorized a “do not fear” verse for each day of the year, was able to call to mind his verse for that day: Psalm 56:3, “What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee.”
If you have never read it, I encourage reading Tortured for Christ. The movie just came out earlier this year — but as always, the book was much more detailed and still not a very long book at all.
There is a newer book out from around 2010 that I have not read but it is titled Fearful to Fearless and contains 400 passages that direct us not to fear.
All the best, ~M
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Hello,
This claim goes back further than 1987 actually.I may be able to shed at least a little bit of light on the origin of this claim — a source that I would absolutely believe.
In 1948, Richard Wurmbrand, a Lutheran minister was living in Romania with his wife and 10-year-old son at the time that the Russians invaded. Richard had been an atheist Jew prior to coming to Christ in the 1930’s (a fascinating story of it’s own).
He had already witnessed the Nazi’s and now was facing the Communists. He writes that he “discovered that there are 366 verses in the Bible that instruct us not to fear, one for each day of the year and one for leap year.”
Now, there could be more. Because, in the 30’s and 40’s as we all know, the only search engine was his eyes helped by his fingers to flip the pages of his Bible and probably a Concordance. Also, depending on the language and translations, there could be some variances as to what verses he may have discovered (? just a thought).
He was kidnapped leap year, on February 29, 1948, by the communists. As they put a sack over his head and shoved him in a car and sped away, Richard asked them what the date was. They told him and he, having memorized a “do not fear” verse for each day of the year, was able to call to mind his verse for that day: Psalm 56:3, “What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee.”
If you have never read it, I encourage reading Tortured for Christ. The movie just came out earlier this year — but as always, the book was much more detailed and still not a very long book at all.
There is a newer book out from around 2010 that I have not read but it is titled Fearful to Fearless and contains 400 Biblical passages that direct us not to fear.
All the best, ~M
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Thanks Jack. I am doing my own study and this will be really useful to cross reference
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