"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!"
You may be thinking, 'It doesn't matter to me what the guy down the street is doing. So what if he's boasting. I'm not affected." Yes you are. You most certainly are affected. Look what happened this weekend:
The captain of the world's longest passenger vessel, a multi million dollar ship, decided to make a "bravura" move and sail close to shore and show off.
The ship crashed, and people died. The ship is foundered and thousands are traumatized. That's what verses 1-5 in 2 Timothy look like!
"The ship foundered after striking a rock as dinner was being served on Friday night. The owners say the captain swung inshore to "make a bow" to the islanders, who included a retired Italian admiral. Investigators say it was within 150 meters of shore." Some reports say the Costa Concordia was taking a “bow” specifically to the house of the ship’s chief steward, the lone member of the crew to hail from the island of Giglio. "Captain Francesco Schettino has been allowed to leave jail but is under house arrest, blamed by his employer for risking thousands of lives and half a billion dollars of ship in a reckless display of bravado."
WHAT?? Using a multi-million dollar vessel containing thousands of precious souls to make a show of bravado? How selfish is that? What a display of lack of self-control. Other reports coming out show that allegedly the captain displayed the height of cowardice. He was among the first to leave the ship.
The Costa Concordia tragedy was just that, a tragedy. The world is riveted, saddened at the apparently unnecessary loss of life. That this is all happened allegedly due to the captain's inexplicable error makes it an even worse tragedy. Now, comes reports of his cowardice.
Italian cruise captain committed 'mortal sin' by disembarking early, American Maritime Officers Union official says
"The captain of a capsized cruise ship made repeated excuses as an Italian coast guard official repeatedly ordered him to get back on the vessel potentially still packed with thousands of frightened passengers and crew, a recording released Tuesday reveals."
"Italian coastguards pleaded angrily with the captain of a stricken super-liner to return to his ship, according to recordings released on Tuesday as divers found five more bodies in the half-submerged wreck of the Costa Concordia. ... Captain Francesco Schettino has been allowed to leave jail but is under house arrest, blamed by his employer for risking thousands of lives and half a billion dollars of ship in a reckless display of bravado. ... Schettino is accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck by sailing too close to shore and abandoning ship before all his passengers and crew scrambled off."
"GO BACK ON BOARD!"
"Listen Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea, but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Dammit, go back on board!" one coastguard says. Speaking by radio from a lifeboat, Schettino pleads: "Do you realize that it is dark and we can't see anything?" The coastguard shouts back: "So, what do you want to do, to go home, Schettino?! It's dark and you want to go home? Go to the bow of the ship where the ladder is and tell me what needs to be done, how many people there are, and what they need! Now!"
How far we have descended since the Titanic's 'women and children first' policy. "Women and children first" is a saying that asserts that the lives of women and children are to be saved first if the lives of a group of people are at stake. The saying is most famously associated with the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912. The practice arose from the chivalrous actions of soldiers during sinking of HMS Birkenhead in 1852, though the phrase was not coined until 1860. Although never part of international maritime law, the phrase was popularised by its usage on the RMS Titanic, where, as a consequence of this practice, 74% of the women on board were saved and 52% of the children, but only 20% of the men." (Source)
Yet in the Costa Concordia disaster, "Retired British cop tells how men pushed past women and children to reach lifeboats".
Men showing off by swinging a multi-million dollar boat toward a rocky shore just because they feel like it, captain who violates the oldest moral law of the seas: captain stays with the ship. Bill Fowler, Maritime historian at Mystic Seaport, observed in another case, not the Costa Concordia, that "it's very, very unusual for the captain to leave his vessel in a moment of crisis. He has to set the example of courage and moral standing." Source: A Captain's Duty on a sinking ship, Law at Washington University, By Craig Allen, Coast Guard Attorney, who concludes, "A captain must remain in command at all times and do his best to ensure the safety of any passengers and crew are evacuated and accounted for."
Selfish behavior, brutish pushing women and children aside, putting others in danger because of a whimsical decision by the captain on a lark, all point to the beginnings of the worst kind of behavior Paul said is going to be evident on a wider scale from then to now on until and through in the Tribulation.
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