Author’s note: If you are new to my blog and are interested in reading the 23.xx series, please first read the 23.01 through 23.09 in order to best get the idea of what I am attempting to communicate. They are built like chapters in a book, one building on the previous one. Consider the points made in each article to help you understand where I am coming from in hopes I can make a connection with you on your spiritual journey.
In this article the Image sources are from You-tube.com
DIVING TOWER – ESCAPE TRUNK TRAINING
Every person who volunteers for U.S. Navy submarine duty must pass a test that requires a free ascent from a certain depth using a special hooded device. This special device called a Stenke Hood is used to keep your face surrounded with a certain amount of air in your breathing environment before you make an ascent from a submarine escape hatch into the deep dark ocean. While in training, in a tall multi-story cylindrical tank called the Diving Tower, the instructors exhort that you must practice a continual exhale as you ascend. The technique we were taught was to pretend you are Santa Claus and give a continuous series of hearty “HO-HO-HOs” as you ascend, and DO NOT STOP until after you are on the surface.
The reason is simple: If you don’t you will die.
There is always the scientific explanation which helps the intellectually curious but let’s get serious, the reason you are willing to sound like a Santa Claus rising from the deep is you do not want to end up dead.
A good instructor will emphasis the “you will die” part because he knows A) It is TRUE, and B) that’s a good motivator for you, that you did not volunteer for submarines so that you can be a dead non-qual at the top of the diving tower.
NAVY DIVE SCHOOL – POOL WEEK
In Navy Dive School, one of the absolutely pleasurable experiences (I am being sarcastic) is known as “pool week”. It may not be pleasurable, but to survive training, you do walk out with a level of newfound confidence, though that is not the focus of this article.
Pool Week. This is when the Navy Diver instructors give you many opportunities to show that you will not panic underwater. Not only must you not panic, but you have to show a high degree of ability to think logically, carefully, and quickly. In fact, most of the testing is done such that, if you come to the surface, you fail – even when you do not have your air supply – which they have ripped away from you.
The job of the instructors are to impose “accidents” where they try to disorient you and scatter your equipment across the bottom of a swimming pool and evaluate your recovery. Their other responsibility is to make sure you do not die.
Again, and this is counter intuitive, the instructors want each student to breathe air out during the process of reconnecting with their stripped off air tanks, your air supply. Why? If you do not continually breathe out, you may very well die for the same reasons as in the free ascent training in the Diving Tower. In fact, the instructor will whack you in the gut to encourage you to breathe out if he does not observe the tell tale bubbles streaming from your mouth or nose. AIR EMBOLISM caused by breathing air at depth can happen even in the shallows of a swimming pool.
So why do you breathe out? Fear of death and fear of getting whacked by an instructor.
WHY TALK ABOUT THE VIRTUES OF FEAR?
I needed to bring up the issue of fear and how it can help you make correct decisions.
What you fear and why are important questions to answer, and sometimes you do not need to think about it too much. For example, when you are near the edge of a cliff fear, your inclination is not to jump off, but rather to draw back to safety. Fear often plays a critical role in your survival.
The Bible contains many passages that would generate fear were the reader to accept what is written as truth. Like diving instructors, they would not be doing their job well were they were not able to ensure your motivation exceeded a threshold to ensure your survival. In other words, the Navy doesn’t want to lose you for lack of warning or for inadequate instilling of fear.
Here are few short Bible passages out of many that come to mind which would induce a certain amount of fear.
MATTHEW 10:28: Jesus spoke these exhortative words. “… do not fear those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
MARK 8:36: For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? (note: here it is implied that losing your soul has eternal consequences, and therefore, should be a fearful proposition).
HEBREWS 10:31: The writer of the letter to the Hebrews wrote: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
ROMANS 6:23A: For the wages of sin is death…
In Proverbs, and throughout the Bible, one is faced with choices, to “fear” God. Proverbs 1:7 states: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
In regards to wisdom, the meaning of that kind of fear consists of a contrite heart, a deep and humble reverence and also a level of awe that exceeds anything you’ve ever experienced before or will until the Day of Judgment where each person must face the Holy and Righteous Judge.
Without rolling out tons of Scripture to emphasis the Holiness of God, I have few passages, from Exodus, Isaiah, and Habakkuk. The experiences of Moses and two prophets of Israel, who were righteous by men’s standards, involving exposure to God’s Holiness. These few examples, although God inspired, can only give you a glimpse of the power of God.
EXODUS 3:6 “I AM THE GOD OF THY FATHER, THE GOD OF ABRAHAM THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God…”
ISAIAH 6:1-5: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said:
“HOLY HOLY, HOLY is the LORD OF HOSTS; The WHOLE EARTH is FULL of HIS GLORY!”
And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes of seen the King, The Lord of Hosts.”
HABAKKUK 3:16: When I heard [of God’s judgment] my body trembled; My lips quivered at the voice; Rottenness entered my bones; And I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble.”
To alert you to a greater sense of the power of God, is the reference to the “Lord of hosts.” This is one of God’s titles as the Lord of His legions of angelic warriors. In one example from Scripture, only one angel was needed in a battle to destroy an force of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. I touch on the subject of “God at War” in future posts.
PARTING THOUGHTS
Some people suggest the raising of fear in Christian evangelism is undesirable or unnecessary. What do you think?
If hell and the damnation of the soul by a holy and righteous God were true and is the consequence of unpardoned sin, how would that concern you?
Would you expect those who knew the danger ahead to attempt to get your attention? Might that involve the arousal of your own fear if you do not yet understand the truth?
CKY
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