From Disaster to Destiny

The Eighth Day (Leviticus 23:36) is full of personal meaning for all of us, and though most of the world doesn’t understand its full significance yet, it will be full of meaning for the whole world! So many of us have lost loved ones who didn’t have the opportunity to be converted in this life, or who were beginning to be called by God, but maybe never had the chance to follow through before their lives were cut short.

And so many more have perished over the centuries en masse, in disasters such as war, disease epidemics, earthquakes and shipwrecks. Just speaking of deaths at sea, 1,500 people drowned in 1912 when the Titanic sank. A few years later, in 1915, another British ship, the Lusitania, sank after being torpedoed by a German U-boat. About 1,195 people drowned in that disaster! And sadly, there was a far greater loss of life from a natural disaster, the deadliest hurricane in history . . . the 1900 Galveston hurricane and subsequent flooding. Around 8,000 people perished, mostly from drowning in the 16-foot storm surge! That was 20 percent of the island’s population at the time!

Looking beyond tragedy

We read in Revelation 20:13: “The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.” (emphasis mine throughout).

This describes a time period of judging, after 1,000 years of the Millennium, rather than these individuals immediately facing final judgment as soon as they are resurrected. It’s a second resurrection, not the resurrection of the firstfruits, which occurs at Jesus’ return. For context, let’s go back to verses 4 through 5 of this same chapter:

“And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.”

These people who are raised again to mortal life, because they have yet to learn their desperate need for God, receive His Holy Spirit and have time, maybe even up to 100 years, to learn to overcome sin and walk with God, building His godly character that He expects us to be developing now, in these end times. (See Isaiah 65:20, which seems to indicate 100 years). Notice, it’s the small and great, and of course the very young and the very old, who will all be raised up together.

Not forgotten

Some famous and wealthy people perished with the Titanic. One, according to businessinsider.com, June 20, 2023, was John Jacob Astor, a millionaire, and the wealthiest passenger on board. Another, ironically, was Thomas Andrews, architect of the ship . . . the ship that was supposedly built so solidly that, in the irreverent words of the ship’s captain, “God Himself couldn’t sink it.”

Likewise, some famous personalities went down with the Lusitania. According to Time magazine, May 7, 2015, another victim was Elbert Hubbard, author of the classic essay, “A Message to Garcia,” a brilliant man with supposedly the largest vocabulary of his time.

But then there were countless more ordinary people, many of whose names wouldn’t mean much to us . . . real people, nonetheless . . . Karl and Katharine, who drowned in the Galveston flood, and likewise, Cora, pregnant wife of the Galveston weatherman who had downplayed the impending danger. Karl and Katharine had been teachers, and Cora, once a very accomplished organist, was expecting her fourth child.

From Disaster to Destiny

Has God forgotten about these people? No, He cares about all of them! He doesn’t favor the rich over the poor. He has a plan for all! We will turn our thoughts back to these personalities I mentioned, including Karl and Katharine, later on.

Death has been called the great equalizer. As the apostle Paul wrote long ago, in 1 Timothy 6:7, “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out.” What is God’s future for all of these victims?

In Ezekiel 37:3, God takes Ezekiel in vision to a valley of very dry bones. “And He [God] said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’” Ezekiel’s answer was wise, probably the sort of answer we should give if asked a hard question: “You know.” Continuing on in verses 4-6, “Again He said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” ’ ”

Although most people drowned at sea have never been found, God knows exactly where they are, and they will be raised up too, as it says in Revelation! And then what?

Let’s jump ahead to verses 10-12: “So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, “Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!” Therefore prophesy and say to them, “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, O My people, I will open your graves . . . [yes, even the watery graves!] . . . and bring you into the land of Israel.’ ” ’ ”

Although this verse is about the Israelite nations who have been scattered around the earth, God’s plan is to include all nations!

Psalm 82:8 tells us that all the nations are God’s inheritance, and Psalm 86:9 reveals that all the nations which He has made will come and worship before Him, and glorify His Name.

What a wonderful hope! So not only will God raise these people back to physical life, but He will also give them His Spirit, which will open their minds to His ways, and enable them to learn and keep His laws for their own good. Eventually they, too, will have the opportunity for eternal life, “each one in his own order,” as Paul wrote of God’s calling and resurrections in 1 Corinthians 15:23.

An unopened letter

I’d love to meet John Jacob Astor when he’s raised up again and wonders how his millions affected others after he died. I’d like to meet the Titanic’s architect, Thomas Andrews, and the ship’s captain, who practically dared God to sink the vessel, but I’d have to be very kind when they are still filled with emotion and embarrassment, and someone, maybe one of us, gently tells them, “Don’t worry! All of these people are being raised up again with you!” And most of all, I can’t wait to meet Karl and Katharine, some of the less famous victims of drowning.

You see, Karl and Katherine were a great aunt and great uncle of my husband! Yes, Katherine was the older sister of his great-grandmother Pauline! They were only middle aged when they perished. Katherine had been a schoolteacher before she married Karl, a music professor. They’d moved to Galveston a few years before the devastating flood. My husband’s great-grandparents, Christian and Pauline Braun, who lived in Michigan, kept in touch with them regularly by mail.

Some years before my father-in-law died, he gave us some photos and memorabilia which included the last correspondence between Christian and Pauline Braun and her sister and brother-in-law. The final surviving letter from Karl was sent to Christian and Pauline about a month before the flood. Most poignant of all is a letter we have that was mailed to Galveston several weeks later. Between the two letters, the Brauns hadn’t heard from them and were wondering how they were doing after news of the hurricane devastation had reached them. They waited some time, and sadly, about five weeks after the flood, their letter came back with notes on the envelope marked, “return to sender,” “uncalled for,” “house destroyed” and “unclaimed.” The bodies of Karl and Katherine were never found, but they had a young son who survived by clinging to some debris, and was subsequently raised by an uncle on the mainland. According to my husband’s uncle, the “return to sender” letter lay unopened for about 70 years, as it was too hard to come to terms with the family tragedy. It was eventually opened in order to help fill in additional details of a family biography.

We can’t wait to meet Karl and Katherine and comfort them, as their last moments of life were likely filled with terror and not knowing whether any of their family would survive. My husband and I can’t wait to meet his great-grandparents and see the joy of reunion between them and the other family members . . . including the reunion of the surviving son with the parents he lost while enduring the horror himself of trying to stay afloat in the midst of all that death and destruction.

A special hope

God’s Word tells us that there are times yet ahead of us that are filled with suffering and massive loss of life…on a scale never before seen. But for the many who don’t survive the destruction, we have the hope of the resurrection for them too . . . and the special hope that we will see our relatives, our ancestors, come back to life under much better circumstances, to be healed physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

1 Corinthians 15:21-26: “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”

Let’s be preparing now, to not only be saved ourselves, but to be there to welcome all the disaster victims and others down through the centuries, to comfort them and help them to learn God’s way!