It was 114 years ago today that the great luxury liner Titanic sunk in the North Atlantic. It was the biggest and best form of transportation of its day. More than 1500 people, including children, lost their lives. If you bank with Chase, you are doing business with the Corporation originally owned by J.P. Morgan. He owned and controlled the parent corporation that oversaw the Titanic. The tragedy was momentous because of the loss of lives and the sinking of the most luxurious ship afloat. There are details about this event which we can use as spiritual lessons for ourselves today.
Some of the wealthiest people in the world were on that ship. Not one dollar or one diamond that they owned made any difference if they would live or die.
Over a four-day period, they received six warnings about icebergs. So many people throughout history and across the world are offered the information and warnings related to salvation and the return of Christ. However, regardless of the sincerity of those warnings, regardless of the frequency of those warnings, they were ignored just like those who have received the witness of Christ but yet have not responded.
Thomas Andrew Junior was the chief architect in the designing of the Titanic. He purposely wanted her to be opulent and extravagant. He was one of those persons who died in the sinking. So many people think they can design a good life acceptable to God but will be surprised when they face his judgment seat to experience the consequence of rejecting Christ.
The ship had a wireless method of communication called radiotelegraphy. It was the latest and greatest form of communication. In the case of the Titanic, a ship called the California was only 20 miles away. The operator was asleep at the time of the panic call for help. Had that operator been awake at his post, many people would likely have had their lives saved. Too many people in the Christian world are asleep, not receiving cries for help from the world and not offering in return guidance and communication.
The company that created and owned this communication system was called the Marconi I MCC-2. The two operators on the Titanic were its employees and not that of the Titanic. These men were assigned to work in the communication office by their employer. Those today that are trying to send out the message of the gospel are not employees of the world but are assigned by Christ to call out the desperate situation of sinners.
The radius of the radiotelography reached out 350 miles in any direction. So is the gospel message intended as an assignment from Jesus that we broadcast far and wide the good news of the gospel.
Two men were assigned to the lookout post called the crow’s nest Because of the weather, their vision was limited. The binoculars that would’ve been so helpful and perhaps saved the Titanic was locked up in a vault with no key available. The Bible says, “he that has ears to hear and eyes to see, let him hear and see.” Jesus said that we are to keep an intense vigil in the service of God.
The only Japanese passenger on the Titanic was Masabumi Hosono. He survived the tragedy but his own country harassed him for not dying an honorable death. We are to carry the cross of Jesus in our daily walk. It does not mean that we are to throw ourselves in the way of spiritual tragedy. This is why the Bible says we should not throw our pearls before swine.
It was an elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Strauss, at that time that owned Macy’s department store. She declined a seat on a lifeboat saying to her husband, “where you go, I will go.” There was a true companionship with a love interest each toward the other. She gave her seat away so that someone else could be saved. These are the missionaries and prophets and pastors who seek the seed of salvation for another person regardless of the cost to themselves.
As the ship was in the process of sinking, an orchestra played, to help calm passengers. There are those who said they played the hymn, “Nearer my God to thee.” They all lost their lives in the effort. How they are like the Angels of glory who at the critical time of life and death escort believers into the arms of Christ through the portal leaving this world.
It is not my intention by writing the blog this way to dramatize or romanticize what happened more than a century ago. I do find it curious how so many of the events and displayed courage aligned themselves with the ministry of the gospel. If there is anything for us to learn from the 28°F water temperature that day, let the tragedy point is to Jesus, to salvation through him, and to a promise of eternity in heaven.
Christian Writer 