"Gentlemen, I regret to say that the Titanic sank at 2:20 this morning." This was the announcement made by Philip Franklin, vice president of the White Star Line in New York, referring to the sinking of the luxury liner that resulted in the deaths of over 1,500 of the 2,200 passengers aboard on April 15, 1912. A hundred years after the sinking of the Titanic, this horrific event still has a gripping fascination for millions of people.

So many of the events on that fateful night mirror the spiritual peril that faces a world seemingly oblivious to where it is heading. Even after the Titanic struck the iceberg, the crew couldn’t persuade passengers to take to the lifeboats when they had paid enormous sums of money for luxurious accommodations. After all, only days earlier the ship’s builders had boastfully told reporters that "God Himself couldn’t sink this ship." The Titanic symbolized the world’s sense of achievement, enterprise, invincibility and arrogance. Confidence in human ability and technological prowess convinced people to believe in the "unsinkable" rather than the "unthinkable." As a result, many of the ship’s lifeboats that were designed to hold up to 60 people left the ship with only a quarter of that number aboard.

The anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking provides a timely warning against the world’s misplaced confidence in its own achievements and failure to heed the warnings of a loving God. According to the designer of the Titanic, the interior furnishings and decorations were meticulously discussed for many hours, whilst the question of lifeboats merited only "five or ten minutes" discussion. The parallels are many, and they are uncomfortable ones. At the entrance to an exhibit of artifacts from the Titanic there is a large wall with two lists. They are reminiscent of the lists posted after the tragedy in the White Star Line’s offices in Liverpool, England. As anxious relatives waited to hear the fate of a passenger they loved, a company rep would add names to one of two lists: "Known to be saved" and "Known to be lost." There were only those two lists. And everyone reading this is also on one of two lists: "Known to be saved" or "Known to be lost." Not "rich" or "poor"…not "liberal" or "conservative"…not "Religion X" or "Religion Y"-just "saved" or "lost."

What happened to the Titanic was a terrible tragedy, but there’s a spiritual parable in the story, and we need to hear the voice of God who tells us not to assume that this world is unsinkable, but that, in the words of Scripture, "The end of all things is near" (1 Peter 4:7). Are you ready to meet your Creator? Come to Him now as a lost sinner, believing that the Lord Jesus Christ loves you and died on the cross to pay for the wages of your sin and to save you from eternal torment in hell.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

Would you receive Him as your Lord and Savior Today?