James Cameron And A Tale of Two Ships.

Category: Applied,Articles
Author: John Malone
Date: 27th February, 2007 @ 07:28:20 PM


It is ascribed that circus magnate PT Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Barnum was an entertainer, and counted on suckers to pay for his shows.

Some else might have said, “Hucksters are a dime a dozen,” but usually they cost more than that.

If Barnum was right, popular huckster James Cameron – whose claim to fame is the titanic blockbuster film “The Titanic” (although it is now 10 years old) – only needs four years of sucker births to claim his new “documentary” to be a success. Cameron “claims” that he has found someone who has found the tomb of Jesus Christ, and that he did not rise from the dead after all.

Whe should probably place our comments in the correct context. Cameron is now claiming to have made the most important discovery in all of humna history. Cameron is claiming to have succeeded in the discipline of archaeology where all others before him have failed.

Caneron has claimed to have discovered that Christians, of all men on earth, {are the most miserable|1cor 15:15-19}, because he – and he alone – has found that Jesus Christ did NOT rise from the dead. In fact, he discovered that apparently, after his crucifixtion, he got married, had a child, and lived a quiet life only to be buried at some later time in an upper middle class neighborhood in Jerusalem.

Well, no one seems to be taking Cameron seriously, so I am not about to, but I find this a convenient occasion to write about two ships: Cameron’s beloved ship the RMS (SS)Titanic, and a little known steam ship called the SS Carpathian, which was the first to arrive on the scene of the famous iceberg-induced shipwreck.

The sinking of the Titanic is a study in catasophe, and perhaps Cameron would do well to take heed. It featured three fatal characteristics.

Arrogance. – When the RMS Titanic departed, making it’s only voyage, the media claimed it was a ship “even God couldn’t sink.”

The ship didn’t last long. It was sunk only a short time after it went to sea, albeit it spent a few days picking up passengers in England.

The ship was receiving a constant barrage of warnings from other ships concerning ice flows and icebergs. These warnings went unheard and/or unheeded.

Mauro wrote as follows: “The destruction of the Titanic is a foreshadowing of what is about to happen to the great “civilization” upon which man has expended his energies, and in which he puts his confidence. For the unconverted, the obvious lesson of this tragic event is to inquire concerning the lifeboat.

Darkness. – The fatal night for the Titanic was a moonless night: the observers in the ship’s crow’s nest had no light. The Scripture teaches us that Jesus Christ is the light of the world, and that, now that He is risen, ascended, and glorified, Christians are the light of the world.

Travelling in darkness is extremely dangerous. One is bound to stumble and fall eventually.

Silence. – One of the main problems the Titanic faced was not hearing messages. Many they had received, but did not read. the messages were all warnings for their own good. That is what the Scriptures, predominantly. Messages of warnings that men do not heed.

Confusion. – Confusion marked the time of the collision between the Titanic and the iceberg. The iceberg wasn’t moving, at least not perceptably. By the time the observers saw the iceberg, it was too late. Or was it? There rre arguments about this. The ship captain gave the orders for a hard left turn. And yet he was thinking perhaps that was precisely the wron move to avoid the iceberg. Confusion reigned not only in the navigation, but in the emergency arrangements on that ship.

{Confusion|Jer 7:18-19} is what the enemies of God always experience.

Helplessness. Hopelessness. – Finally, the Titanic was without hope. Just as they surmised, when 5 aft compartments filled with water, the ship was sunk. What was remarkable was how fast and certain was its sinking.

The survivors were marked as much by reports of cowardice as heroism. Such is what we find normally in men.

HOWEVER …

We have the seldom-told story of the SS Carpathia, the steam ship whose brave Captain Arthur Rostron navigated a hasty recue route of over 50 miles – by any account – dodging the dangerous ice flows near the Titanic in order to collect survivors who wer at sea. Later knighted in the UK, and given the Medal of Honor in the USA, Rostron demonstrated the fruit of a clear sense of purpose, a straigh course, clear vision of distress flares: many opposite things of the Titanic.

Aboard the Carpathia that night, no doubt inspired by the events of the evening, was Philip Mauro, one of the fine Bible students of the early 20th century. Mauro wrote perhaps his most insightful work – “God’s Pilgrims: Their Dangers, Their resources, Their Rewards” while the Carpathia set about on it mission of mercy, and subsequently steamed into New York harbor.

Mauro wrote, in the introduction to his first edition:

“The destruction of the Titanic is a foreshadowing of what is about to happen to the great “civilization” upon which man has expended his energies, and in which he puts his confidence. For the unconverted, the obvious lesson of this tragic event is to inquire concerning the lifeboat. “

Mr. Cameron would do well to inquire accordingly, rather than to promote his circus act upon the unsuspecting.


© John Malone, 2007