Look Up, But Look Out!
Warren B. Smith
(Book excerpt from 'The Titanic and Today's Church: A Tale of Two Shipwrecks,' pp. 146-148)
SADLY, the warnings issued by those of us who came out of the New Age have been as casually and complacently disregarded as the iceberg warnings given to the Titanic before it collided with the iceberg. As church leaders minimized and marginalized our warnings about the New Age, they were simultaneously injecting New Age concepts, teachings, and language into their sermons, talks, and writings. And when absolutely forced to deal with the subjects of the New Age and spiritual deception, many of these leaders would quickly dismiss New Age teachings as being “silly,” “stupid,” or as Rick Warren put it—“a bunch of baloney!”1 As a result, the New Age has been allowed to flow into the church just as surely as that North Atlantic sea water flowed into the Titanic.
Jesus told us to “look up” (Luke 21:28), but He also told us to “look out” (Matthew 24:3-5). After His strong warning in the Olivet Discourse to “Take heed that no man deceive you” (Matthew 24:4), He warned about false prophets, false Christs (Matthew 24:24)—and the coming of Antichrist (Matthew 24:15).
The Titanic had lookouts, and ships today have lookouts. These lookouts are the “eyes of the ship.” They are there to spot danger and warn about it ahead of time. The church also needs lookouts. These lookouts are watchmen on the wall. They are the “eyes” of the church. They are there to spot danger and warn about it ahead of time. And, actually, any believer who spots danger has a responsibility to warn those around him.
Titanic had been warned by other ships of the danger that lay before them, but they were complacent. They did not take the warnings seriously. They believed they were on an unsinkable “Ship of Dreams” as they raced toward New York City. They did not slow down. They did not post extra lookouts. Disaster resulted.
In similar fashion, today’s professing church has been warned about the spiritual danger before them, but they have been complacent. They have not taken the warnings seriously. They believe they are on an unsinkable “Ship of God’s Dreams” as they race toward an “international awakening”—a great “worldwide revival.” They have not slowed down. They have not posted any extra lookouts. In fact, they have not posted any discernable lookouts at all. Nor have they bothered to listen to the lookouts that were sent to them from outside their usual church leadership circles. The lookouts were sent because most church leaders have abandoned their God-given responsibility to spiritually protect the church.
Today’s church leaders are like the head saying to the body that it has no need of eyes. And because they have no need of eyes, they do not have the eyes to see what is before them and already in their midst. Rather than having their eyes “wide open,” their eyes are “wide shut.” Like the Titanic to the Californian, they tell those trying to warn them of danger to “Shut up! Shut up!” Somehow, in the rush of today’s world, church leaders have forgotten the importance of having lookouts to serve as watchmen for the body—to be the eyes of the church. But this is not so with our United States Navy.
The Navy has a Lookout Training Handbook. The utter and absolute necessity of having lookouts—even with today’s sophisticated computer technology—is stressed in the handbook’s introduction. It reads:
In the United States Navy, with its nuclear-powered warships, computerized guidance systems, and the most accurate search radars in the world, you, the lookout, play a critical role in safe ship operations. Your trained human eye is far superior to the most sophisticated equipment. As a lookout, you are the eyes and ears of the ship, and your alertness and skill ensures the safety of the ship. In the naval service there is probably no Rule of the Road more conscientiously observed than Rule 5 of the Navigation Rules, Commandant Instruction M16672.2, which states:
“Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and sound as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.”2
When the rescue ship Carpathia headed into the dangerous ice field to rescue the Titanic survivors adrift in lifeboats, Captain Arthur Rostron doubled his lookouts. As today’s church moves into an even more dangerous future, it seems to have no lookouts at all.
Titanic lookout George Symons, who was on duty with Archie Jewell just prior to Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee’s infamous last shift, said he could “smell” ice as early as 9 p.m.—more than two and a half hours before the Titanic struck the iceberg. At the British Inquiry, he said, “As a rule you can smell the ice before you get to it.”3
Similarly, many of us who were formerly involved in the New Age movement can sense—“smell”—New Age teachings as they enter the church. However, like those six “last-day” warnings to the Titanic, our “last-days” warnings have been similarly disregarded and mostly dismissed. Today’s professing church is so focused and distracted by “revival,” it is overlooking the Bible’s prophetic description about spiritual deception in the latter days. In False Christ Coming: Does Anybody Care? under the subtitle “Where is the Church Heading?” I wrote:
Expecting only revival and the return of the true Christ, will people calling themselves Christians be deceived by the one who will come in the name of Christ and pretend to be Him? Caught unawares, will they mistake the counterfeit Christ’s “Planetary Pentecost” for the great “move of God” they had been told to expect? Is this all a set up for the great delusion described in the Bible? Is there any good reason to not at least consider this possibility?4
Endnotes:
1. Richard Abanes, Rick Warren and the Purpose That Drives Him, op. cit., p. 96.
2. Lookout Training Handbook (NAVEDTRA 12968-D, Special Publication, February 2007, Navybmr.com/study%20material/NAVEDTRA%2012968A.pdf).
3. Tim Maltin, 101 Things You Thought You Knew About the Titanic . . . But Didn’t!, op. cit., pp. 78-79.
4. Warren B. Smith, False Christ Coming: Does Anybody Care?, op. cit., pp. 119-120; Formerly published as: Warren Smith, Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel (Ravenna, Ohio: Conscience Press, 2002), p. 68. (RJC book free online at newagetoamazinggrace.com).
1. Richard Abanes, Rick Warren and the Purpose That Drives Him, op. cit., p. 96.
2. Lookout Training Handbook (NAVEDTRA 12968-D, Special Publication, February 2007, Navybmr.com/study%20material/NAVEDTRA%2012968A.pdf).
3. Tim Maltin, 101 Things You Thought You Knew About the Titanic . . . But Didn’t!, op. cit., pp. 78-79.
4. Warren B. Smith, False Christ Coming: Does Anybody Care?, op. cit., pp. 119-120; Formerly published as: Warren Smith, Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel (Ravenna, Ohio: Conscience Press, 2002), p. 68. (RJC book free online at newagetoamazinggrace.com).