PowerPoint Upon Request
5 Defining Moments
Our Titanic Crossroads
Eph. 2:12-13
Titanic
It is difficult to understand why the owners and builders named this ship Titanic. The Titans were a mythological race who came to believe they’d conquered nature, who thought they’d achieved power and learning greater than Zeus himself, to their ultimate ruin. He smote the strong and daring Titans with thunderbolts; and their final abiding place was in some limbo beneath the lowest depths, a sunless abyss below Hades.
—From an editorial in the Belfast Morning News, June 1, 1911
Titanic’s Grandure
- To make the 1997 Titanic Movie- $200
Earning $1.8 billion
- To Build the Titanic Ship- $7.3 Million
- April 9, 1912 - Titanic was on her maiden voyage
- The Worlds largest man-made movable object
- The longest ship ever built - over 4 city blocks in length
- Almost 3 football fields long
- It had anchors weighing 15.5 tons each, just one link in the anchor chains weighed 175#!
- Passenger capacity of 3,500
- No ship had ever epitomized luxury as did this one: tennis courts - gymnasiums - squash courts - ball rooms (5 grand pianos on board!)
- The first ever built with a swimming pool on board
- Even elevators. That was quite something in 1912! Elevators! But NOT - enough life boats!!
- The ship had a double bottom with inch thick steel separated by 5 to 6’ thick space
- 16 water tight compartments held her 50,000 hp engines
- 2,207 aboard --only 705 survived -- 1502 souls perished with the ship!
- “In times past” - Eph 2: 2, 3, 11
Eph 2:12 - That at that time ye were
Who’s Who on the Titanic
- There was no ship that ever sailed that gave her passengers more confidence--more real security
- First Class State Room one way ticket
$4, 000.00 - Today = $65-75,000
- Dubbed “The Millionaire Special”
- The combined wealth of the passengers was $500 million
John Astor
Worth $150 million Inventor helped to develop the turbine engine & Real Estate broker - built the Astoria Hotel, New York City - Colonel during the Spanish-American War He put his personal
yacht at the disposal of the U.S. government
- Returning from Egypt with his new 19 year old bride on their
extended honeymoon which had scandalized NY
- Left his suite to investigate the accident , he quickly returned and
reported to his wife that the ship had struck ice. He reassured her that the damage did not appear serious. As his wife boarded a lifeboat, Astor asked if he could accompany her, due to her "delicate condition" She was pregnant
- Astor then threw his gloves to his wife, and lit a cigarette. He and
his dog were last seen on deck. -- He was 47
Benjamin Guggenheim,
- On board with his new mistress
- $95 million from mining & Smelting
Dressed in formal evening attire, at approximately two o’clock in the morning of April 15, 1912, Guggenheim and his valet sat in chairs on the deck, sipping brandy and smoking cigars while the Titanic sank.
- He was spoiled, arrogant, willful -- and determined to live life his own way
- He was famous for these comments made while the liner was
about to go down: "We’ve dressed in our best, and are prepared to go down like gentlemen." He later said to a steward: "Tell my wife I did my best in doing my duty."
- He was 46 years old.
Isadoore Strauss,
- Owner of Macy s department store
- $50 million
- Ida reportedly would not leave Isidor and refused to get in a lifeboat. They both died
Jay Ismay
- Was part owner of the Titanic and managing director of the White Start Company $40 million - 50 yrs old
- Ismay had the most luxurious suite on board the Titanic
- Ordered the Titanic to go faster to break crossing records
- During the sinking, Ismay boarded a lifeboat before all the women and children had been evacuated from the ship, an act that would haunt him for the rest of his life. In doing so, he left his own (female) secretary still on board.
Billy Carter extremely wealthy
- He boarded Titanic with a very fancy 25 horsepower Renault automobile and two dogs, all of which were lost with the sinking of the ship.
- He abandoned his wife and children that night leaving them to fend for themselves. He was the only other male with Ismay
- He later insisted that the White Star Line ought to repay him for his losses.Major Archibald Butt,
- Military aide to President Taft
- 45 yr.
- Died in aiding others to board lifeboats
Thomas Andrews
- Titanic’s designer - 39 yrs
- Along with his assistant who designed and & built the lifeboats
Don’t Assume You Know the Truth
The trade magazine The Shipbuilder called her “Unsinkable”
- When Mrs. Albert Caldwell 2nd class passenger (The couple were missionaries to Bangkok, Thailand as teachers in a Christian College for Boys) came aboard at Southampton, she asked a deck hand,
- "Is this ship really unsinkable?" "Lady," the crewman answered, , "God Himself could not sink this ship!?!!
-Assumption -No immediate danger
Truth - Ice everywhere
Assumption - Lookout would give warning
Truth - Warning went unheaded for 37 sec.
Assumption - 45,000 tons of Titanic travelling at 25 m.p.h. could cut through anything
Truth - when it hit that floating mountain of ice at 25 mph it was like a gigantic hammer blow equalling 947,000 ft-tons of force!
1. Without Christ
Without Christ we make assumptions
“The gospel of our making has evolved into a gospel of addition without subtraction. We believe we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior.
- We feel safe from an danger
- We listen to the elite the ones who appear to be in the know
Assumption says "No one will ever know my sins"
Bible - Num 32:23 Be sure your sins will find you out!
Assumption says "I can make it to heaven on my
own good works"
Bible - Tit 3:5 "Not by works of righteousness which we
have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.
Assumption says "If we are put in hell we will have
a 2nd chance to repent"
Bible - Rev. 14:11 "And the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up for ever and ever."
Assumption says "A loving God will not send a
man to hell"
Bible - Lk 16:23 - "And in hell he lift up his eyes being in
torments"
Not only did this voyage prove that Truth defeats Assumption, it also proved the FOLLY of Unbelief
Eph 2:12 - That at that time ye were
2. Without Citizenship “Alienated” - To Be shut out, not welcomed (no freedoms)
- Lonely
- Without rights
- Without knowledge
- “I say old man we are surrounded by ice”
- Titanic’s reply “Shut up, shut up! We’re busy”
- Seven repeated warnings yet she sped on
- 11: 40 p.m. steel buckled and popped rivets and caved in offering no more resistance to the ice burg than tinfoil drawn over a blunt stick ripping a 300 foot 1/4 inch wide gash on her starboard side
- Letting in the ocean to 6 water-tight compartments
- If only 5 had been opened she would not have sunk
- Class distinction alienated the 1st and 2nd class people from the 3rd class passengers
- Gates were closed and guarded
- Many 3rd class passengers were unassisted
- An hour went by before the women were let out
Jn 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God
Eph 2:12 - That at that time ye were
3. Without a Promises
No blessings
Seeing only obstacles
A loss of security, fearful
- Passengers just laughed off the ides of getting into a lifeboat
- One person grabbed some broken chunks of ice from the burg
- “Get me another one for my drink”
- Ship’s stewards literally broke into staterooms in order to wake people to get into their life jackets
- Others did not want to put on the jackets for fearing to spoil or wrinkle their clothes
- Others put them on and danced around on deck while onlookers laughed
- 3500 lifebelts and 48 life rings; Useless in the icy water
- Titanic carried 20 lifeboats, enough for 1178 people
- Each Lifeboats could hold up to 60 people
- Lifeboat after lifeboat pulled away with 10-15 people aboard
- But an American banker got his pet dog into a life boat
- A series of loud explosions brought the passengers to reality
Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Eph 2:12 - That at that time ye were
4. Without Hope
“Wagnall” of Funk & Wagnall Encyclopedia – What was the Saddest words in the English language? Unloved, Lonely, Hopeless
- Without joyful expectations
Colonel John Jacob Astor
- Richest man in world- tried to get into a life boat
Daniel Buckley disguised himself as a women to get on a life boat
Bruce Ismay part owner of the Titanic and managing director of the White Start Company the one responsible for not putting lifeboats on board he crawled into a life boat while hundreds of women remained on the dying ship
Mrs. Isador Straus whose husband owned Macy’s Department Store said to her husband “Where you go I go”
- She helped her maid into a lifeboat and put her fur coat around her and said “Keep warm, I won”t be needing it”
- All this wealth could not buy one seat in a lifeboat
- One first class passenger realizing his fate went to the side of the ship and dumped out all his money
Job 17:15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintaina mine own ways before him
- Our only source of hope is in Christ
- Word brings light but cannot give sight
- Only the inward operation to the HS
can give sight
- If you have the Holy Spirit on the
inside, you can stand any kind of battle on the outside.
Eph 2:12 - That at that time ye were
5. Without God
- (2 hr. & 40 min.) At 2:20 am - April 14, 1912 = (93 years)
- She was gone. Sunk in over 2 miles of water
- 1522 drowned - 712 saved
- All that was left of this grand lady were 13 small life boats
- Only 6 people rescued who went down with ship
Rose Abbott the only woman to go down with the ship
and survive, said a man tried to climb up on her back forcing her down under the water
1 Sam 28:15 - And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me
- Experiencing God’s Hostility
- Nothing Pleases Him - Heb 11:6
Heb 11:6 – But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.- We are repulsive
Eph 2:13 – “But Now In Christ
- Pastor John Harper had preached in East Belfast where
Titanic was built
- The 40 year old was aboard with his 6 year old daughter - “Nana”
- 4 years earlier her mother had died
- Harper made sure she was in a life boat
- He was a Pastor of a Mission Church in a Glasgow
- He had been asked to come and preach in Moody
Memorial church in Chicago
- Harper had faced drowning 3 x before
- At 2 had fallen into a well and was rescued by his mother
- At 26 while swimming was swept out to sea by a rip tied but escaped- At 32 he escaped drowning on a leaking ship in the Med.
- Now running through the ship warning others of the danger and talking to them about the eternal destiny of their souls.
- Now 2 hours and 40 minutes later he was finally forced to jump into the icy water in water that was 4 degrees below freezing with 1500 other people- For 50 minuets piercing cries of help filled the air
- During those 50 minuets a man clinging to a board drifted by Harper
- Harper who was struggling in the frigid water called to him “Are you saved? the answer came back “No”
- Harper’s reply Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved
- This man drifted into darkness
- Later the currents brought them into sight of each other
- Once again the dying Harper asked the same question
- The answer came back “No”
- Acts 16:31....., Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved....
- Exhausted & hypothermia had set in & sinking
- Cried out "I’m going down!" Then with one last burst of strength, he thrust his head above the water and shouted "No - no - I’m going UP"- This man was rescued and said I was John last convert
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends
