A common saying among Christians today is, "'Fear not' is in the Bible 365 times." I saw this on a Facebook post and was surprised at how many Christians agreed with the statement. The Bible does tell us not to fear, but not 365 times. Let's see how many times I can come up with.
Doing a search for "fear not" in my King James Pure Bible software, I came up with 63 occurrences, but two of those occurrences are not telling us not to fear.
Psalms 55:19 God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.
1 Peter 2:18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.
I also removed Judges 4:18 because Jael is telling Sisera not to fear so she can catch him off guard and kill him!
Judges 4:18 And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle.
And I removed from the list 2 Samuel 13:28 because evil Absalom is telling his servants not to fear to kill his brother Ammon!
2 Samuel 13:28 Now Absalom had commanded his servants, saying, Mark ye now when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine, and when I say unto you, Smite Amnon; then kill him, fear not: have not I commanded you? be courageous, and be valiant.
And 2 Kings 17:34 was removed because it's talking about people who do not fear the Lord.
2 Kings 17:34 Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;
Psalms 64:4 was removed because it's talking about evil doers who don't fear to do evil.
Psalms 64:4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
All the other verses are either the Lord telling us not to fear, or the Lord's servants telling their people not to fear.
Jeremiah 5:22 is not included in the "fear ye not" set of verses because it talks about fearing the Lord which is always in a positive sense.
Jeremiah 5:22 Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
The grand total of 57+7+4+2+4+2+26+2 = 104. The Bible tells us exactly 104 times not to fear evil happening to us!
Did I miss something? If so, please tell me in the comments below and I will add it to this article.
My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.
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