"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,
and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof:
But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
(1 John 2:16-17)
It was the early hours of 15 April, 1912. Up in the loft of his father's old corn mill at Gelligroes, just south of Blackwood in the South Wales valleys, keen early amateur radio enthusiast Artie Moore was ensconced at his home-made wireless station. One can only imagine his consternation when a Morse-coded urgent SOS signal came through faintly on his receiver: "Require immediate assistance. Come at once. We have struck an iceberg. Sinking..." Artie rushed to alert the local Constabulary. But neither they nor the neighbours he told believed him. After all, wasn't the 'RMS Titanic' unsinkable? It just couldn't be true... but in due course everyone found out that it was!
I happened upon this little-known piece of local history some years ago now, but today the story has taken on a whole new level of meaning for me, for I see in it such striking parallels to where we as an entire society are at some 110 years on. Friends, if you would be so gracious as to bear with me for a few moments, I'll endeavour to explain why I consider this tragic episode of so long ago to have an inestimable relevance as an aid to understanding the ultimate in human disasters that is right now globally so fast unfolding. Ignore the analogy if you will, that is your prerogative, but please be aware that you do so at potentially your own peril. I can only urge you to heed the warning while there is yet time to do so.
Consider. The passengers on that ill-fated super-liner trusted in the shipbuilders, the technology, the strength of the steel, the rivets and the nuts and the bolts of it all, its impressive sleek lines, its powerful engines... they trusted in the captain and the crew, the stokers and the stewards, the bosuns and the baggage handlers... and the proud fluttering flag of the White Star Line. That their passage was safe and secure was never doubted; they dined and they drank, they danced to the band or slumbered in their comfortable berths until the very moment the iceberg sliced through those thick steel sheets like a knife through butter. When that hull got suddenly holed, the ship was going nowhere except down; its fate was irrevocably sealed.
Most folks today are like those doomed passengers on the Titanic; they are trusting to the wrong things: the devices and artifices of men. They are putting their faith in the likes of Big Pharma and Big Tech, scientific advancement, a renegade religiosity and a political sharp lancing of the boil. And why is this? Because they love the world, and the things of the world which they are unwilling to let go of; and in this determined bear-hugging of the temporal is their immense folly made manifest.
Curiously dove-tailing into this parable is the grim tale of another doomed steamship which was recently told to me, and I in turn am much moved to share it here to further nautically illustrate the point I so very urgently wish to make.
It was the Autumn of 1859. The 'Royal Charter' was rounding the Isle of Anglesey, returning to Liverpool from Melbourne on what would prove to be the last of its regular sailings between the UK and Australia, being torn apart in a terrific storm with hurricane force winds. Most souls aboard, which included a large complement of goldminers returning home with their spoils after striking it rich on the other side of the world, were lost. Whilst many of the unfortunate travellers were killed by being dashed against the rocks by the huge waves, it would seem that others were drowned, unable to swim to safety owing to the heavy belts of gold strapped around their persons weighing them down. Their unwillingness to part with their glittering earthly gain caused them to perish with it.
And as it was with them then, so too will it be with us now, if we cannot bring ourselves to unbuckle our own weighted belts. Those vain things which we so highly prize will prove to be our demise! As it is written:
"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world,
and lose his own soul?
or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
(Matthew 16:26)
We have a stark choice to make. We can either manacle ourselves to this fallen world or cement ourselves to the solid Rock. My friends, don't make the wrong choice. Eternity is an awfully long time for regrets! Let this Scripture, in the grace of God, cling like a limpet to your understanding:
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it;
but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's,
the same shall save it."
(Mark 8:35)
Or as John rendered it:
"He that loveth his life shall lose it;
and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal."
(John 12:25)
Let's be under no illusion. The inescapable reality is that the hull of this great vessel that we have been voyaging on is now fatally fractured; it's taking on water at a colossal rate, and it's going down into the very darkest of depths, and fast. DO NOT BE DECEIVED THAT IT IS OTHERWISE! The Restrainer is holding it up only until the last person prepared to let go of the rail and take to the lifeboat that is Christ Jesus has done so. Then will close the age of grace. If you're still gripping for all your white-knuckled worth onto the rail of this stricken ship as she so rapidly sinks beneath the waves, then you're going down with it.
LET GO!
"Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting,
and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Watch ye therefore, and pray always,
that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass,
and to stand before the Son of man."
(Luke 21:34-36)
