Titanic Warning
by Casey Sabella
Book Description:
Near midnight, the heralded and huge White Star liner Titanic, her invincibility never before in question, is a tiny speck on a vast ocean. Four days out on a much-anticipated maiden voyage, the luxury vessel has been fatally grazed by an iceberg.
Labeled unsinkable by an adoring public, Titanic will plunge beneath the cold waters of the North Atlantic in under three hours.
In Titanic Warning, author Casey Sabella blends a vivid re-telling of the disaster with commentary on the state of the modern-day Church and the lack of commitment to discipling the masses. How did three ships in the vicinity, called upon to rescue the 2500 stranded souls, reflect real personalities in the modern age? Are we prideful like the Titanic? Are we indifferent to the cries of humanity, like the Californian, or do we launch a rescue like the Carpathia? Does the burden to help urge us to escape from it all, like the Samson?
The questions are personal, the answers, crucial. Will we heed the warning to put salvation before gleaming monuments? May God help us board the right ship!
About the Author:
Casey Sabella has served the body of Christ as a church planter becoming ordained in 1981. His passion is to help leaders and churches work together to reach non-Christians and train them to become effective in life and ministry. He and his wife Patricia have raised four children who by God’s grace each serve the Lord fervently in ministry. Casey is the author of When a Church Goes Bad, which helps Christians break free from the pain of spiritual abuse to regain their spiritual destinies. While serving as a senior pastor of a local church in Waterbury, CT, Casey makes himself available to speak at conferences and churches that need help navigating the challenges of church life.
Book Details:
- Paperback: 176 pages
- Publisher: New Leaf Press; 1st edition (October 1, 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0892212713
- ISBN-13: 978-0892212712
My Thoughts:
I went into reading this book thinking that I’d really enjoy it, but there were several statements in the book which gave me real pause only not in a good way. Here are a couple of examples:
“While it may seem like a terrible thing to suggest at this point, could it be that God Himself sank the Titanic? When we examine the facts, no other conclusion seems possible:”
“Why would a loving God send 1,522 innocent men, women, and children to their deaths? How could a God of justice be so cruel? This appears to be a facet of God’s nature that we are terrified to consider.”
Later in the book, Casey implied that the Britannic (Titanic’s bigger, better successor) had be “cursed” by God because the owners of the shipping company were unrepentant and continued to repeat the sinning ways after the sinking of the Titanic. In other words, even though the ship was used for good at one point, because the shipping company did not see the error of their ways, God also sank the Britannic.
I guess part of my issue is that I don’t see events such as the sinking of the Titanic as prophetic. Can we learn lessons from all of the mistakes made? Absolutely. Can we compare the attitudes of those involved with what is taking place within the Christian community and churches? Sure. Yet, doesn’t mean that the events of the Titanic were prophetic. The reality is that we can take many tragedies and turn them into lessons if we really wanted to do so. We should always study the past, so we can try to learn from the mistakes of generations gone by and try to avoid some of the horrible results of sin in action.
Putting these issues aside, there were a lot of good reminders within the book about what we should and shouldn’t be doing as a church, as Christians. Casey’s careful breakdown of the tragic night were interesting and insightful. As we remember the 100th anniversary of the tragedy of the Titanic, it doesn’t hurt to take a deeper look into the events that lead up to the horrific loss of life. It’s always good to examine the short comings of those involved and use them for introspective reflection on our own lives. What would I have done? In that light, what will I do as a Christian to rescue the lost?
I received an electronic copy of this book to help facilitate the writing of a frank and honest review. All opinions are my own.
