Earlier this week, I returned from an Open-Air Mission team event in Oxford. It was a short 2 day mission speaking to people attending St Giles Fair.
One of the preachers, based in London, began a talk that I don’t remember having heard before. He had the heading “Ignored Warnings” on the board. As people started to stop, he put up some pictures of the Titanic, a failed NASA mission and Grenfell Tower.
Then he asked people what happens when a fire alarm goes off in the middle of the night in a hotel. He suggested that everyone would come to their doors and look out into the corridor. If there didn’t seem to be any problem and the noise had stopped, people would go back to bed. The assumption is always that it’s a false alarm.
He explained each of the pictures and the warnings that had been ignored. With the Titanic it was the fact that there were icebergs, engineers had warned the 1986 NASA launch team about mechanical problems and with Grenfell Tower there was a campaign group warning about fire risks in the building.
In fact, with most accidents of this nature, there have been multiple warnings prior to the tragedy.
By this point, a small crowd had gathered and were listening intently. The preacher then placed the word JUDGEMENT on the board and explained that God is warning us of a coming judgement. He has sent prophets and messengers and they have recorded these warnings in the Bible.
At the judgement, people’s lives will be examined and each person will be found guilty because of sin. They will be sentenced to eternity in a horrible place called Hell.
He asked the listeners how people had survived the Titanic. Someone said they had clung on to pieces of wood. The preacher pointed out that whilst that was true it was only a temporary solution as those objects would sink or the person would die of hypothermia. Someone else then said that they were rescued by lifeboats.
The preacher explained that through Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, He is the lifeboat, and can save us from the coming judgement.
By this point every person, including the team members, were gripped by this message. The preacher challenged people to respond by getting into the lifeboat and being rescued before it was too late.
With the help of God’s Holy Spirit, he conveyed a sense of solemnity and urgency that isn’t always present during these talks and encouraged people to be brave and step forward to take Gospels from his hand. After an initial pause, multiple people went forward and the team had conversations with them afterwards.
I spoke to a girl who thought she was a Christian. When I asked if she was sure of Heaven she said that she wasn’t and that this was why she had gone forward to take the Gospel. She wanted to be sure and to avoid the judgement to come. We had a good conversation.
I don’t think any of those present will forget that warning of the judgement to come.
Afterwards, I realised that we all ignore warnings constantly about all manner of things:
- we silence alarm clocks or put them on snooze
- we remove batteries from the beeping fire alarm rather than replacing them immediately
- we put pieces of tape over flashing lights on our car dashboard or just hope the light will go off
- we fail to investigate burglar or car alarms when they are sounding
- we drive past signs saying the road is closed or move the cones out of the way
- we sack or demote whistle-blowers aiming to permanently silence them
- we ignore red flags in relationships
I’ve twice heard and seen security vans with loud speakers shouting that they are being attacked and for the police to be called only for people to just carry on as normal.
Why do we do this when as a society we are supposedly more safety conscious and risk averse than ever before? Why do we do this when most people are afraid of dying?
I think it’s because we don’t really believe bad things will happen to us. We don’t really believe the warnings and we don’t want the inconvenience or cost of having to change the way we do things.
Even after the accident happens and the tragedy occurs, a few years down the line, have we not reverted back to the same patterns that caused the problem in the first place. We don’t seem to learn from our mistakes no matter how many times we are warned.
God’s warning of judgement is the most serious warning of all because it applies to all humanity and how we respond determines where we will spend eternity.
Don’t silence the alarm or put it on snooze as there’s no guarantee you will wake up. The wise thing to do is to heed the warnings in the Bible and to flee from the wrath to come.
Ask God to forgive you for the things you’ve done wrong in your life. Believe that Jesus died for you on the cross. Turn away from those wrong things (repent) and commit your life to Him.
Do it today, you might not have tomorrow.
