How to Save a Life - 6/3/09
This probably isn’t the first time you’ve heard the word ‘bushfire’ in the last month, but I promise not to sell you a tribute cd. You’re probably aware that the ‘Black Saturday’ fires killed around 210 people, destroyed around 2000 homes, and constitute the worst Australian disaster since the Polio epidemic of the early 1950’s (it’s at least the worst disaster in my memory). There are plenty of things being done now to help rebuild, cleanup and so on, but what should we be doing as Christians? Should we care about different things than the mainstream charities?
Certainly we must practically support those who are suffering - how can we say we love our neighbours if we are unwilling to clothe, house or feed them? And thankfully there are many Christians and Christian organizations doing this well. But is that the extent of our involvement? Should we be satisfied when every displaced Australian has their home back? Or when all the schools have been rebuilt?
I think the answer is ‘no’ for one simple reason – hell. We all agree that everyone deserves to go to hell. We all agree that it will be eternal. We all agree that it will suck. And that we all agree that the only way to escape hell is to turn to Jesus.
Yet we barely lift a finger to help them escape. Surely this is abominable!
We throw money at them because of the bushfires, but do nothing to save them from the fires of hell. We strive to minimise the effects of temporary suffering, but eternal suffering hardly rates a mention. We pray in Church and Bible Study about the ‘relief effort’, but not that people will repent of their sin and be forgiven. (Even though repentance is by far the most common reason that God sends disasters). We cannot be satisfied by merely rebuilding homes and schools, in the same way that a sailor cannot be satisfied by scrubbing the deck of a sinking ship.
I don’t think our inconsistency is due to a lack of care. Christians care heaps about the suffering of others. I think our inconsistency occurs because we don’t actually own the reality, horror and certainty of hell. We don’t think it warrants the same scope of warning that an imminent bushfire does. It’s too abstract, too far off, or even, too severe. So I am not trying to appeal to your ‘compassion for the lost’. I don’t think compassion is the problem. I am appealing to your belief in hell.
Before I moved to Wollongong, I would occasionally have dinner with a group of missionaries, one of whom was Bian. Bian was a quiet, gentle sort of person. She had worked in Spain with drug addicts for a long time, but moved to Australia to start up a similar ministry in Marysville, Victoria. When the fires came through on Black Saturday, everyone evacuated the rehabilitation centre at really short notice, but after reaching safety it was discovered that Bian had accidentally been left behind. Her friends weren’t allowed to go back and look for her - the risk was too great. A memorial service was held for her last week.
When the fires of God’s unquenchable judgement arrive, how many of our friends will come with us to safety? How many will be left behind and consumed? What are we going to do about it?
(By the way welcome to ECU, I hope you have a good year!)
By Pete Reeve. Pete is the President of Ecu and is doing his DipEd. Contact him with any questions or comments at thepresident@ecuwollongong.org
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