The Future, Fear and Fellowship
By Teri Emerson and others

Sometimes I grow weary of things that are constantly presented in the media but this does not allow me to ignore the times that I live in. For the record, there have been 8 articles about Y2K since the first submission in August of 1997. This total is from 17 issues with well over 100 articles and 200 pages of print. I'd just like to say a couple of things from my point of view, since as the editor I have remained silent thus far.

First, from a technical aspect, my husband works in computer networking (both PC's and mainframes) at a major corporation. For over two years, Y2K has been a priority push in many departments. As a result, his company has been on the cutting edge of Y2K conversions and many smaller companies have flocked to them for their very existence--knowing that it was already too late in the game and entirely too expensive to try to update on their own. I have been told very little of the actual information involved but have been convinced for some time that Y2K is not something I can ignore or take lightly.

Secondly, I am a little concerned at the dissension that I hear from opposing sides on the prepare/not prepare issue. Let me ask you. Is it crucial to you that every homeschool be operated like yours? Or perhaps you would like to be asked to have yours run like someone else's. I beg you to be wise in choosing grounds for division! As editor, I encourage your submissions, but I again urge you to temper your words and actions with kindness. Without love we are only clanging cymbals.

Thirdly, do a little deductive reasoning here. Is mankind selfish? Do most governments have the well being of families at the top of their priorities? Is America affluent? Are you prepared to live whether "abased or abounding?" Isn't media hype often self-fulfilling prophecy? Did you know this week the National Guard has announced they are training in order to handle expected looting and rioting as a result of failures in Y2K?

In an urgent plea to some of you, I ask you to consider what would have happened if the Ten Boom family would have sat by saying, "This is too big for us, God." In my own life it has been a foolish thing when I tell God what I am going to do rather than listening for Him to tell me what He is going to do.

I find many things overwhelming from here. It would take perhaps a lifetime for my family to change our lifestyle from that of fairly affluent Americans to whole earth homesteaders, but I must not give up on doing what I can. Like Moses, I must be reminded of what I have in my hand. I realize faith is an exercise in stretching.

I have received many comments this month. The following are excerpts and relevant ideas. As you read, I ask you to be open to what the Spirit of the Lord living in you calls you to do. Wisdom produces balance. Truth sometimes causes anger before it liberates.

  • The autonomy trap is a futile effort to maintain the illusion of self-sufficiency, which pervades this culture. There is more than one way to stumble into it. One popular caricature is the nearly comical scenario of a hustling Rambo wannabe stuffing his personal survival hideout with everything that an avid Soldier of Fortune magazine reader could wish for to help beat back the starving hordes and keep his fortress secure through the next decade of complete-chaos-that-is-surely-coming. It is also possible to fall victim to the illusion of self-sufficiency at least for a while. You can ignore your vulnerability to the possible failures of these artificial life support systems and presumptuously transform the Lord’s promise of provision into a guarantee that He will continue to channel His provision through these familiar instruments of human technology (our banking, power, communication, manufacturing, and transportation systems.) Will someone help me locate Scripture supporting this notion that God is obligated to share His glory with these devices of our imagination and effort? I couldn’t find any. There was an example of God’s working in the Exodus, however, showing how, after repeated, solemn, rejected warnings, God used the false gods of Egypt to judge the oppressors of Israel, turning their idols of prosperity and security into curses.

    There is no support in Scripture, either, for the statements: “Fear is not from God, but from the devil”, or “Fear has no place in those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” In fact, as we look around us in this “it’s the economy, stupid” culture, does not Romans 3:18 ring true as a description of its prevailing attitude. Is not Proverbs 1:20-33 a solemn and appropriate warning to its inhabitants? As Dave Barry often says: “I’m not making this up!” Just as we have a choice of whom to serve, but not a choice of no masters (Romans 6:15-23), so we have a choice of what to fear, but no wise choice that involves total absence of fear (see Luke 12:4-5). There is a secular proverb that reminds us of this: “There are old pilots and there are bold (fearless) pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.” Similarly, there are godly societies, and godless societies, but no divine heavenly guarantee that assures the continuation of godless (fearless of God) societies, and several Scriptural examples of godless societies coming to a sudden ignominious end.

    As each of us evaluates the evidence that God makes available to us, and seeks His leading as to the proper response, in our families, congregations, and wider communities, may there be an appropriate measure of godly fear factored into our reckoning, especially as we consider who we truly rely upon as our shepherd (Psalm 23, John 10:7-14). Is it the Lord that is your Shepherd, or are you unwisely reposing your trust in a collection of unreliable, perhaps fatally unreliable, hirelings? --Frank Meyer

  • By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. --Hebrews 11:7

  • That's the fun thing of putting yourself in the midst of another culture. All the things you take for granted, all of a sudden you realize, "Well, maybe not everybody in the world thinks the same way as I do." And then you also realize, "Maybe I'm not right about everything," and then you also begin to realize how unique and how wonderful our own set of hang-ups are. --Rich Mullins in an earlier interview

  • I have two prophetic words about Y2K. First, the greatest need on Jan.1, 2000 will not be basements stocked with food and water and generators, but hearts stocked with the Word of God. You will be fruitful, you will flourish, you will be life-giving not by seeking the very things the world seeks (Matthew 6:32), but by delighting in the Word of God and meditating on it night and day. What the world will need and does need from the church is the Word of God that fits us to say, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, peril or sword?.... In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." (Romans 8:35-37)

    The other prophetic word about Y2K is this: Nothing is going to happen on January 1, 2000, nothing, that is as bad as what is already happening to persecuted and starving Christians in Sudan, or to the staggering number of orphans in Malawi and other AIDS-devastated countries in Africa, or to survivors in Honduras or Nicaragua, or to lonely, dying old people in dozens of skilled care centers around the Twin Cities who have outlived their families.

    There is something that smells of hypocrisy in the talk about stockpiling supplies in our homes to "minister" to others in the coming Y2K crisis when there are more places to minister this very day that are worse crises than anything that is going to happen a year from now. Y2K will happen to someone everyday in 1999--many of them within your reach. Delight yourself in the Word of God, meditate on it day and night, and then take the fruit of your life and go minister to the lost and the hungry and the thirsty that are already so many. Then you won't even notice when Y2K happens. --John Piper (submitted by two different FHE members)

  • Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. --Matthew 10:16

  • It is unfortunate that some have been turned away from looking at the Y2K situation because of all the commercialism that has surrounded it. Just because profiteers have moved in, though, doesn’t mean the dangers aren’t real.

    Psalm 37:25 is a verse used in my speech last December: “I have been young, and now am old; I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” I think the key word here is “righteous.” Who is a righteous person? More than an attitude or spiritual condition, righteousness implies action: doing the right thing. How are we to determine what is the right thing to do in such a situation as Y2K presents? When the Scripture doesn’t specifically address it and there are so many unknowns? That is where I think God has given us not only the Holy Spirit, but also a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7) to discern truth from a multitude of conflicting information. Being able to recognize and act upon such truth when one sees it may be one mark of a righteous person.

    I, too, have prayed for a direct revelation from God and have not received it. However, the dreams or visions of three people in the homeschooling community have been vouchsafed to me. The visions were all different and the response to them has been different, but they all spoke of difficult times coming soon. It is my belief that the warnings I have received from various sources have been revealed to me indirectly from God, who speaks “at sundry times and in divers manners” (Heb. 1:1).

    Of the eight people who entered into Noah’s ark, how many had received a direct revelation from God? The Scripture mentions only one, but through his actions, humankind was preserved on earth (Heb. 11:7). Joseph and Pharaoh were apparently the only people in Egypt to receive information from God about what he was planning to do, yet because the rest followed, the course of at least two nations was changed. While my part in issuing these warnings is not on that scale, I have spoken out in an effort to preserve life and well being. I could not have lived with my conscience, and I feel I would have betrayed the responsibility that God gave me as president of FHE.

    If Y2K proves to be not much of a problem after all, I will be relieved and overjoyed. And I will be the first to apologize profusely if the alarm was for naught. I pray it may be so. In any case, I will not be writing on this subject for much longer (if at all). For if my greatest concerns are realized, it will very soon be too late. --Kathy Meyer

  • "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

    Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later." Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."

    Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times! John 13:34-38

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