THE MISGUIDED STATISTICIAN
October 2005 article
by
Recently, as I was browsing through a book shop, a book on the environment caught my eye. It was written by a statistician, who from the highlights and conclusions put forward, proposed that we had all exaggerated disaster, disease, fuel shortages, bad news etc. In fact, he concluded that we live in a beautiful world, and by our own means have great hope for the future.
Indeed, when we look at unspoilt creation we do live amongst beautiful things. My family and I have enjoyed holidays in the Lake District and the mountains, lakes and forests always take our breath away for their beauty and grandeur. However, the statistics of a statistician are one thing; clearly reality is quite different.
There was one statistic that the writer of the book on the environment completely missed. This statistic is the lack of belief or understanding of God. In daily life in my work I hear no mention of Him, except on the odd occasion where there is a natural disaster, when people ask why God had allowed this, or in terms of blasphemy in angry or surprised language. These reactions, and the situation of ungodliness are prevalent in abundance across the planet on which we live, with mankind’s thinking and actions knowing no bounds. Indeed, there are legal or moral laws, but subtleties, power, abuse of position and acceptance of ungodly ways of living are clearly evident, and cross the boundaries of the commandments and guidance as set out by God in His word, the Bible. As a result, mankind has missed the mark of God’s truth and ways. Missing the mark is the meaning of the word sin, a word that has gone out of fashion in the world today, mainly because people either do not believe in God or do not like the thought that they are wrong. However, there is no escaping the truth that ‘The wages of sin is death’ (Romans 6 v 23). What the statistician failed to recognise in his book was the hundred per cent certainty of this. No statistician can argue this away – sin brings death every time.
Before we consider this further, the statistician who wrote the book to which I refer argued that natural disasters are no more frequent and severe than in times past. Yet the reality of what we see and hear again flies in the face of this. Time after time we hear that a natural disaster in such and such a place is the worst that place has ever experienced. Clearly therefore we are seeing an increase in severity. The Times, on 12 September, ran an article stating that the number of natural disasters is increasing along with their severity. This also co-incides with the fact that many of the world’s largest cities are located in vulnerable coastal positions, or indeed that the world’s population is increasing. How many times do we hear of villages in remote places being destroyed in an earthquake? In terms of a recent natural disaster that we have witnessed through the media is the flooding of New Orleans twice.
So how do we combine these two matters of sin and natural disasters that the statistician has failed to see or does not regard? In the main mankind does not regard God, does not read His word, does not pray to Him and yet many a time I have heard those who have such a mind set blame, or accuse God, which things go wrong or when disasters happen. This is consistent with what we read in Revelation chapter 16, which is the chapter that mentions Armageddon.
vs 10-11 : ‘And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their fingers in pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.’
And also in verses 20-21 at a time of a great earthquake:
‘And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.’
So whether it be a personal pain or natural disaster, men who do not regard God take opportunity to blame Him when matters go wrong, and thereby blaspheme His name. The key here is the word ‘repentance’. In the examples of Revelation 16 man does not do this; there is no changing of his ways, no acknowledging of God’s ways, and the mercy He gives to all who truly follow Him. God is ‘not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’. (2 Peter chapter 3, v 9).
So there is a way out, namely forgiveness of sins, and thereby if we repent of our sins, whilst the wages of sin is death, ‘the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’. (Romans chapter 6 v 23). Jesus died so we might have our sins forgiven, and by which, when He returns, as promised by the words we find in the Bible: ‘And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.’ (1 Peter 5 v 4).
A crown of glory, not eternal death, but eternal life with God and His Son, Jesus, on a new earth, this planet transformed. ‘And has made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.’
And so we see two clear examples and an answer which the statistician did not see. The two clear examples are signs that Jesus is soon to return to the earth.
1 ‘But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.’ (Matthew 24 v 35). In Genesis chapter 6, in reference to Noah’s day we read in verse 5: ‘And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.’
This is the world we live in today, where mankind does not regard God and His word, is corrupt and filled with violence, totally ungodly.
2 Luke 21 verse 11 reads:
‘And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.’ Verses 25-26 read: ‘… the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken …’.
So not only will the earth, being corrupt before God, be a sign that Jesus is seen to return, but also there will be natural disasters, fearful signs. So the statistician’s probabilities pale into significance – the truth is that we have great signs pointing to the return of Jesus to establish God’s kingdom upon this earth. The challenge to us is to repent and be baptised, for those that do shall be saved. (Mark 16 v 16). Then with Jesus having returned, we will live in a beautiful world, where God’s laws and God’s righteousness will be the order of the day, where there will be no evil and where the promises of such chapters as Psalm 72 will be a reality for ever.