Warnings

In mid-January there was a spate of warnings about how ready Britain was or was not to defend itself and its interests from attack. The headline warning seemed to come from General Sir Nick Carter in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute. He announced that if war were to break out between Britain and Russia, Russia would very likely win. Britain needed to study closely the ways other countries were exploiting international situations to gain advantage to themselves.

Cyber warfare looms as a particular threat. In this interconnected world, mischief makers can bring down whole systems and disrupt people’s everyday lives.

How far the warnings from the military top brass will be heeded is not certain. We have learned to distrust experts. I think of the way in which academic after academic was wheeled on to tell us what disasters would befall us as soon as we voted to leave the EU. In the end, nothing drastic happened, and we won’t be nearly so ready to listen to those experts next time.

Warnings are also part of the armoury of any religion that reaches out to people. The public is just as dismissive of these as it is of other self-styled experts. The man with the sandwich board announcing 

“Prepare to meet thy God” 

has long been a figure of fun. Perhaps, the thinking goes, he’s seen a danger that we can’t see … but then again, he may simply be an addle-brained zealot.

Our mediaeval forebears heard their fair share of warnings from preachers about a future in an eternal hell for those who committed the Seven Deadly Sins. Hell was presented in lurid terms. There is evidence that they took these warnings enormously seriously. They could be driven, for instance, to bequeath stupendous riches to monasteries (which probably didn’t need them) to avoid hell or at least a long period in purgatory.

We no longer have that culture. Even those of us who take Jesus seriously (and I do) when He teaches,

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched’” (Mark 9:42-48 ESV)

will most likely not spend nearly as much time worrying about going to eternal torment in hell as our distant ancestors. We have every confidence that the work of Jesus Christ on the cross is sufficient to cover all our sin and keep us clear of hell. But that doesn’t excuse us from being grateful for such a great deliverance and from stirring ourselves into action. “Strive,” counsels the Master:

“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:24).