OH, THE HUMANITY!!

BY CHARLES WOODRUFF

On May 6, 1937, at Lakehurst, New Jersey Naval Air Station, while attempting to land, the German dirigible, Hindenburg, upon arriving from Frankfurt, burst into flames and crashed, killing 36 people, and injuring many others. Radio reporter, Herbert Morrison cried out “Oh, the humanity!” Those words became famous. We could have cried the same thing a few years later on the morning of December 7, 1941 when Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; destroying, or severely damaging much of the US Navy’s ships anchored there, and bringing America into World War Two. 2402 were killed,  and 1282 wounded. Oh, the humanity!

On September 11, 2001  (Now known as 9-11), four aircraft were hijacked by terrorists at Boston, two knocking down the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, killing 2753 people. One also in Washington , DC, crashing into the Pentagon with extensive damage, and killing 184 people. Then the one (Likely planning to hit the US Capitol, or the White House), that crashed instead, through the efforts of some passengers who gave their lives, in rural Pennsylvania, near the town of Shanksville. The crash killed all 93 people aboard. All totaled that day, almost 3000 people, excluding the hijackers. We say again, Oh, the humanity!

Just a little over one year ago, on January 12, 2010 there was the Haiti earthquake that devastated that poor country. Some estimates say that 316,000 were killed, and 500,000 were injured. Then just last month, on April 7, 2011 in Japan the devastation of a major offshore earthquake, with the resulting tsunami, and another part still going on now as I write (the nuclear plants leaking radiation). So far the known dead are around 13,000 people, around 5,000 injured and 15,000 missing. So far, it is the worst disaster in 2011. Oh, the humanity!

So many tragic events, reminding us that this is not a perfect world. There are a number of other events I could mention such as Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans on August 29, 2005. The total in the US killed was at least 1836 and many thousands injured. The worst disaster was the Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami on December 26, 2004, and  killed over 230,000 people in 14 countries. The largest  number was in Indonesia. Oh, the humanity!

Humanity without Christ is a lost humanity. This is in spite of Rob Bell’s heretical teaching of universalism that everyone will ultimately be saved. There is no hell, he says in his book, Love Wins, which has just been published. That is not what the Bible, God’s book, says. You see, there is such a thing  as sin, and scripture says “The wages of sin is  death.”(Romans 6:23) This is why all these people; all this humanity, had to die--because of sin‘s penalty. This is true even though many of these  people may have been Christian people. They had to die. Someone has said it well “The mortality rate for humans is at 100%! ” We all die eventually. Oh, the humanity!

Many people today don’t believe in sin. But the Bible says of sin in 1 John 2:1,2  “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” This is the apostle John talking to the “little children”, and he  says to them “sin not”. He is not writing to the lost here, but the believing “little children” He says  “don’t sin, but if you do sin, you have an advocate, an attorney to plead your case.” Guess who the lawyer is? The same one that died for these “little children”; Jesus Christ, the righteous! You see, we are not to walk in sin “that grace may abound”. We are to be a separated people. We are to “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15) That being all true, why should we expect God to ultimately save us when we go against his teaching? Why does Jesus Himself say more about hell than He ever did about heaven? If He is going to save everyone anyway, why does he need to be the “little children’s” lawyer?

God will help us. Remember Ebenezer?  “Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.”(1 Samuel 7:12). God will help us also, if we are His children. But, the unrepentant, the ungodly, the rebellious, the promoters of filth, both John and Paul tell us their fate.  “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” 1Corinthians 6:9,10). It is sad, but people go to hell. Oh, the humanity!

Rob Bell is wrong! It is not eternal bliss, but eternal damnation. You may say “What about the last part of the two earlier verses you quoted; ‘but also for the sins of the whole world’” ? To answer that is not difficult. John was like all the disciples, a Jew. To the nation of Israel, it was unthinkable (except for a few proselytes) that all the world was a target for God’s teaching. So the word “world” here expands the scope of out reach. The gospel is for “all the world” Matthew 28:19, 20, Mark 16:15, John 3:16. In other words, people from every nation, every kindred,  and every tongue will be saved. A great multitude that no man can number, but not every single human who ever lived! Far from it! Jesus told us of some that were in hell while he was on earth. He told us there was weeping and gnashing of teeth there. The worm does not die as it did in the fires of Jerusalem’s garbage dump; Gehenna. The fire was never quenched.. It is everlasting destruction. It is eternal.  “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:14,15). You need an advocate, my friend! But, before He can be your advocate, He must first be your saviour and Lord!. We need to get back to this old gospel that the Puritans preached! That Whitefield preached! That Spurgeon preached! My dear friend, In times like these, you need a saviour! He is the only hope for humanity! Turn to Him!