What is an Emergency?
Editorial by Bob Nilsen
Medical Missionary, Dominican Republic
I joined the Detroit Fire Department as part of the Emergency Medical Service in 1974. As young medic driving around the murder capital of the world (a dubious distinction the city has held and lost numerous times), my job was emergencies–everything from “my child has a fever” to delivering babies.
An emergency occurs when a hydroplane explodes in the middle of the Detroit River–the driver is not breathing and has broken bones; when a 20,000 volt electric arc encircles a factory maintenance employee and burns 100% of his body while he changes a three foot long fuse; when gunmen barge into the wrong house emptying their guns on an unsuspecting family. It changes you.
After I became a trauma nurse I gained a different view of what an emergency is.
An emergency is a mother with a broken leg and facial injuries from a car accident, strapped to a back board, screaming her child’s name, because the child hadn’t been found yet; it’s having your gloved hand inside someone’s chest while squeezing his heart, trying to circulate the little blood he has left. It changes you.
These are just a few examples from the unique world known as the Emergency Room. The greater world is full of tidal waves, earthquakes, heart attacks, shipwrecks, SIDS, wars, house fires, and many more such tragedies. I have literally held hundreds as their lives slipped away despite our best efforts to save them. I have also held hundreds at the point of death or physically already dead, and have them come back months later to thank me for helping save their lives.
But there is an emergency that dwarfs all others: thousands are being ushered into eternal condemnation and there are not enough people trying to rescue them!
It is estimated that two people die every second. That means after we finish going out for a movie and return three hours later, 21,600 would have entered eternity.
If only we Christians treated missions as a privilege we would reach more for Jesus. If only we treated evangelism as a duty we would reach millions. At minimum, if we treated evangelism as a job we would at least do it regularly. My dear brothers and sisters it is our obligation to cast the only lifesaver available to rescue souls from drowning spiritually and suffering eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire. Their ship is sinking while we are sunbathing!
Ezekial 3:17
Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. (If we do not reach OUR generation, then whose responsibility is it?)
A. B. Simpson says, “This is not merely a duty, but it is the supreme duty of every Christian. This is not merely one of the questions of Christian privilege and responsibility, but it is the one question of Christian obligation. It is not merely an opportunity, but an emergency, and the voice of God concerning it is, “Redeeming the time”—”buying up the opportunity because the days are evil.”
It is an emergency situation because more than six billion people inhabit the world, and 378,000 people are born every day. Missions of all denominations professing Christianity include only about 200,000 people, and 50% of all missionaries return home at the end of their four year term.
We are becoming a church of spiritual wimps, and are raising a generation that lacks passion for souls and courage to commit to reaching them.
John 4:35
Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
The extent of the emergency is staggering because of the lost condition of these vast multitudes. They are not sick, misguided, confused, wandering, or lacking opportunity–they are ‘dead in trespasses and sins.’ The condition of their souls is a matter of eternal life and death.
Acts 4:12
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
This is our generation! Do we have no compassion for those who have been placed in our world? They are passing into eternity at the rate of 160,000 per day. What are we doing to reaching them?
Ephesians 5:16
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
It is AN EMERGENCY because cults and false religions spread their deceptive doctrines far and wide. Here in the Dominican Republic there are 500 Mormon missionaries, while Christian evangelicals are a mere handful. More and more people are being enslaved in Voodoo practices, worship of Mother Earth, and materialism. We must act today!
1John 2:18
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. Beloved, this is the only time we have to rescue this generation. There will not be another age of grace in which we may preach the glorious Good News of Christ.
Will THIS EMERGENCY change you?
