Since I’m a Christian, I believe in the prophetic, which means I think God lets us know some things before they actually happen. Now just the mere mention of the word Prophet conjures images of mystic sages, supernatural thunder and Charlton Heston with a long grey beard.
That’s not really what I’m talking about. I think some of the most powerful ways the supernatural side of God is seen is so natural and casual that we tend to miss it altogether. I think God is naturally supernatural.
For instance did you know that there was a prophetic word that went out through a novel in the late 1800’s? I don’t know if the guy who wrote it knew it was but if you’ve got an eye to see, its all right there in bold print.
Morgan Robertson had penned a novel called “Futility” about the largest and grandest ocean liner of its time. It was considered to be unsinkable because she had multiple watertight compartments that could be sealed in case of an emergency. In his fictitious story the grandest ocean liner in the world sank after striking an iceberg and most passengers lost their lives because the liner did not carry enough lifeboats. The name of the ship was called “The Titan”
Fourteen years later on April 14th, 1912 an ocean liner called the TITANIC struck an iceberg and sank to more than 13,000 feet. The huge majority of the passengers on this ship died in the icy waters without a lifeboat to accommodate them. This wasn’t a fictitious story but a real life sinking that took a lot of people down with it.
The publishing house of the book wanted to cash in on the amazing coincidence and republished the title as The Wreck of the Titan. Thousands bought that book thinking it was a true account of what had just happened but a closer examination would show it was actually a novel and was first published in 1898.
As my late grandfather would say, “How about them apples?”
Retro ReelIf you have heard that, you might not have heard this. A much lesser known but still incredible coincidence is that at the very moment the Titanic struck an iceberg, the film The Poseidon Adventure was being shown aboard the ship.
Now it’s a little hard to wrap your head around what a big deal this is but let me fill you in on how people thought about movies back then.
In 1912 movies were still brand new. You couldn’t download “Jumper” to your iphone like my bass man did last week. Movies were usually seen through crank devices called Kinescopes. Cutting edge technology was just allowing images to be projected onto a silver screen and the White Star ocean liner would debut this technology onto the Titanic.
Sparing no expense for luxury Titanic carried its own projector and rented several movies from a U.S. movie distributor. Now a problem they didn’t anticipate was that movies were mostly seen in Nicolodeans and was considered something akin to a bowling alley by the high class of the day.
To avoid offending the First Class passengers, movies were screened only in the Second Class dining saloon and not until after 11:00 P.M. By then, the orchestra would be finished with its evening concert for the First Class passengers and was free to provide music for the otherwise silent movie.
This movie, The Poseidon Adventure was an amazing 53 minutes long in a time when most movies were ten minutes. It was about a group of six passengers and crew members who struggle to stay alive after the ocean liner they were on was capsized by a tidal wave.
It’s the same movie that would be remade in 1972 and in 2005
This movie was actually being shown at 11:40 when Titanic hit the iceberg and the people in the theater were so into the movie they didn’t feel anything. After the viewing it was such a big hit that The Poseidon Adventure was immediately shown for a second time just after midnight.
By the time the second screening was finished after 1:00 A.M. a few hundred Second Class passengers filtered back out on deck and finally learned the Titanic was going down. Most of the lifeboats had already been sent off and nearly 170 2nd class passengers were left behind to freeze to death in the cold Atlantic.
Here and Now
Do you get it? There were people so caught up in the drama of something that wasn’t real they actually failed to take action for what really was real. I have never been on the Titanic but I have been in that same boat.
May God help us to not get caught up in what’s not real so that we have enough strength to fight battles that are. If my ship is going down I want to know it. But it’s hard to be aware of what really does matter when you are so caught up into what doesn’t matter at all.
"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." Ephesians 5:8
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