Fear-Bound

should be only the title of a 1925 silent film, not also the mode of operation of anyone who preaches.

Yet, it appears to me that "fear-bound" has been the mode operation for plenty of preachers throughout the last two millennia.

I say this because all preachers are creatures of flesh, and when something threatens the survival of their flesh, they can fool themselves into believing that a particular idea comes from the Bible when, in reality, the idea comes from the subconscious desire to protect their flesh.

Can I support my claim with historical evidence? I believe so.

Paragraph 105 of the UMC Book of Discipline states, "But the history of Christianity includes a mixture of ignorance, misguided zeal and sin."

How much of that misguided zeal and sin was produced by fear dwelling within the people who were in positions of church leadership?

In his book Remains of the Jews: The Holy Land and Christian Empire in Late Antiquity*, Page 158, historian Dr. Andrew S. Jacobs writes, "In the Christian capital of Jerusalem [mid 5th-Century], however, there would always additionally be something foreign about the past as it was imperially transformed; there would always (so the Christian feared) be Jews lurking in the shadows, waiting to sneak in and reassert their treacherous hold on the city, if the imperial presence does not prevent them."

One thing that can produce fear in people is a lack of separation of Religion and State.

If one has never lived where there is no separation of Religion and State, then one might not be aware of how much a lack of such separation can influence what religious leaders teach in public.

For example, when Adolph Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany, he worked to put Nazi ideas into the public teachings of Germany's churches. Hitler demanded that all German churches be loyal to him, and plenty of Germany's clergy sided with Hitler. 

However, German clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer did the opposite.

States Bill Hull, co-founder of The Bonhoeffer Project, "What was the cost of Bonhoeffer’s choice? He ended up in a small prison yard in a now Polish town, Flossenburg, at the end of rope with his body burned in a pile of fellow-conspirators."

Are we to believe that preachers in Germany didn't fear what the Nazis would do to them if they openly opposed Nazi teachings?

What about the way that preachers in the USA responded to the slavery issue during the mid-1800s? Why is it that preachers in the northern USA and in the southern USA read the same Bible but preached opposing claims about the enslavement of Black Americans?

Which of those preachers had something to lose if they had preached against slavery?

It certainly wasn't the preachers in the northern states.

The ones in the southern states could easily have lost their jobs and incomes if they had sided with the northern preachers.

One might say, "That was then. This is now." Yet, can we rule out the possibility that a fear of something might be influencing the teachings of modern-day preachers?

In 1 Corinthians 3:7, the Apostle Paul writes, "So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth." Yet, it is not unheard of for preachers to believe that they must lead churches because God allegedly needs them in particular.

Well, if God doesn't need those particular preachers, then certainly churches need things that must be purchased in order for non-Christians to become Christians, right? It isn't as if Jesus meant what he says in John 6:44 and John 6:65, right?

Fear of a lack of things can set in when one forgets that God the Father is the one who draws people to Jesus, not sermons or programs or church bells and whistles.

Even James T. Kirk understands that God doesn't need anything of human origin in order for his sovereign will to be done.

As I see it, preachers and non-preachers alike can have an unbiblical fear of what might happen if their works don't take place.

Sure, God the Father uses us as instruments of his grace, but we err when we act as if we are the source of anyone's spiritual salvation.

So, go out there and fill the role that God has for you to fill, but keep in mind that you are not the one who is making the fields ripe for harvesting. God is the one who does that, and he was doing so long before the advent of modern-day church system.

We should keep in mind what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7:

"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." 

* Quote Source: Jacobs, Andrew S. (2004). Remains of the Jews: The Holy Land and Christian Empire in Late Antiquity. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804747059 . The bracketed part in purple font was added by me in order to provide historical clarification.