Personification of Fear

Zach Williams sings a song "Fear is a Liar" *.   It's not a bad song, but is it theologically correct?  And does it even matter?

The abridged Lyrics of the song are:

When he told you you're not good enough
When he told you you're not right
When he told you you're not strong enough
To put up a good fight
When he told you you're not worthy
When he told you you're not loved
When he told you you're not beautiful
That you'll never be enough

Fear, he is a liar
He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
'Cause fear he is a liar

When he told you were troubled
You'll forever be alone
When he told you you should run away
You'll never find a home
When he told you you were dirty
And you should be ashamed
When he told you you could be the one
That grace could never change

Fear he is a liar

He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
'Cause fear he is a liar

Let Your fire fall and cast out all my fears
Let Your fire fall Your love is all I feel...

Let's analyse it:

The first verse refers to "someone" who tells you something.   That "someone" is a "he".
The things that "he" is telling you are bad things; things that have potential to draw you away from God.   That sounds like a character we are introduced to in Genesis chapter 3; the serpent who is the personification of the Devil (Satan).   In fact, he is the father of lies:

He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  John 8:44 ESV

Anyone who is not for God is against God:  Jesus said, 

Whoever is not with me is against me (Mt. 12:30)

Words and thoughts leading us away from God are not okay.   Being passive in our relationship with God is not okay.  If we are not God's friend, we are His enemy.

The second verse of the song introduces fear as a character, that is, a person.  Not only is fear being portrayed as a person, it is portrayed as a liar.   Can fear be a person or a liar?

Psalm 128:4 tells us that the person who fears God will be blessed.  A blessing from God is a good thing, so this leads to the conclusion that fear can also be good.   Romans 3 talks about righteousness, and verse 18 says that the unrighteous do not fear God; Proverbs 9:10 says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.   So fear has a good and healthy meaning, but it's not a person.

C.S. Lewis in his classic Screwtape Letters, identifies that,

"...the emotion of fear is, in itself, no sin..."

So fear is also an emotion.

When David feared for his life and acted like a madman before Abimilech, he repented:

I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.  (Ps. 34:4)

and

there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear (1 Jn. 4:18a)

So fear can be bad too, as we see that David needed deliverance from it, and fear needs to be driven out by love.

For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.  (2 Tim. 1:7 NET)

Fear is (1) an emotion (ie. a noun - David felt fear), and (2) an action (ie. a verb - David feared for his life).   

Fear is good and fear is bad.  Fear is a noun, and fear is a verb.  But fear is not a proper noun.  It is not a person, nor a person's name.

Similar to Anthropomorphism (the attribution of human features or actions to God), personification is also a legitimate literary instrument in the bible.  For example, Isaiah uses personification of the moon and sun:

the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed (Isaiah 24:23)

and Solomon personifies wisdom:

Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square (Pr. 1:20),

and "lifts her voice", "takes her stand", and "cries out" in Proverbs 8.

So, can fear be personified and still express the truth of the bible?

Zach Williams and his songwriting team certainly have poetic licence to use whatever literary technique they wish to express their desired message, but this song has the potential to mislead people to think that fear itself is manifest as a person.

This matters.   It's not just semantics.

It is important to understand precisely what we read, think, sing and teach.   The New Testament has plenty to say about sound doctrine:

For the overseer must ... (hold) fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.   Titus 1:7,9

Paul goes on to exhort us to

...speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine (2:1)

There is a warning in 2 Timothy about moving away from sound doctrine:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires (4:3)

Being nourished on the words of faith and building sound doctrine will make you a faithful servant of Jesus as you teach others.  (paraphrase of 1 Tim. 4:6)

So we have a mandate to know and teach sound doctrine, which leads to the conclusion that we should examine what we hear, read and sing, and identify whether it lines up with scripture.

Fear does not manifest as a person, but it may be a tool or technique of the Devil to damage one's relationship with God.   The emotion of fear is not of itself bad, but allowing fear to control your thoughts or actions is bad. 

We should remember that God takes away the negative fear that we may experience, and when we have thoughts that generate fear, God is the One and Only One Who we can turn to for deliverance from that fear.



References and resources:

Fear is a Liar Official Music Video on Vivo

*Songwriters: Jason Ingram / Zach Williams / Jonathan Lindley Smith

Fear Is a Liar lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Audio version of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters:  The Screwtape Letters (Audio)