The latest on the Russia earthquake and Pacific tsunamis

One of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded struck yesterday in Russia’s Far East, triggering tsunami waves in Hawaii and Japan and prompting warnings and evacuations across the Pacific. The 8.8-magnitude earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula ranks among the six strongest on record. 

Such quakes are capable of producing deadly tsunamis. Accordingly, nearly two million people were asked to evacuate in Japan and Russia’s Kuril Islands in the Pacific. 

Hawaii was braced for the most severe impact, but the alert level there was downgraded to a tsunami advisory just before 5 a.m. ET, allowing residents to return to their homes. There were reports of flooding on the Big Island, but no reports of widespread damage.

Other alerts were issued for the California coast, Alaska, and Peru, as well as in China, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Mexico. Such concern is warranted: a tsunami in 2004 caused 230,000 deaths, and a 2011 tsunami caused $243 billion in damage.

“Going surfing because there’s a tsunami warning”

At this writing, casualties from today’s earthquake and tsunamis have not yet been reported. If, in fact, casualties are not high, we will obviously have cause for gratitude.

But in that case, there would be a cloud with this silver lining: the more we are warned about natural disasters that do not come to pass, the more desensitized we can become to such warnings and thus unprepared when a real crisis strikes.

For example, an emergency alert in 2018 warned Hawaiians, “Ballistic Missile Threat Inbound To Hawaii. Seek Immediate Shelter. This Is Not A Drill.” Thirty-eight minutes later, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency’s public information officer said the alert was sent in error: “During shift changes [with] outgoing and incoming staff, someone selected the wrong item on a computer. It was user error.”

Similarly, one Hawaiian said about the current tsunami threats, “It makes me not take the sirens as seriously, unfortunately. We get a lot of alarms in Hawaii, and you see people going surfing because there’s a tsunami warning.”

Death in the age of modern medicine

In a way, tsunamis are an especially apt metaphor for the reality of human frailty. They are produced when earthquakes or volcanic eruptions that we cannot see beneath the ocean’s surface produce giant waves that we can. By the time the waves are closing in, if we don’t take advance warnings seriously, it can be too late.

So it is with death in our age of modern medicine. There was a time when most people died at home, surrounded by family and friends. These days, however, hospitals and hospice units make it easier than ever for us to separate death from life.

As a result, we can often ignore the reality of our death more easily until it is upon us.

It is the same with the Second Coming of our Lord. Early Christians lived in imminent expectation of Jesus’ return. Twenty-one centuries later, in a highly secularized society desensitized to the spiritual and the miraculous, such expectation seems minimal.

But as yesterday’s earthquake and today’s tsunamis show, even with all our scientific and technological sophistication, the future is as unpredictable as ever. And we are one day closer to eternity than ever before.

“Put away the gods that your fathers served”

I believe God would redeem the earthquake and tsunamis by using them to remind us not only of our finitude but also of our frailty. Recent generations have seen the greatest advances in controlling nature in human history. But a giant tsunami is stronger than anything humans can build against it, which is why millions of people were told to evacuate their homes and structures.

This reminder flies in the face of our self-reliant Western culture.

Joshua warned the children of Israel after they had taken their promised land, “Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lᴏʀᴅ” (Joshua 24:14). Some of America’s “fathers” were godly Christians who served the one true God, but others served the “gods” of Enlightenment reason and self-reliance.

Even our Declaration of Independence considers the fact of our creation by God to be “self-evident” rather than divinely revealed and seeks a government that will “secure” our “unalienable rights” to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But no government can truly secure these rights, as each day’s news of crimes and criminality demonstrates.

In his brilliant 1796 Farewell Address, George Washington identifies “religion and morality” as “indispensable supports” of “political prosperity.” And indeed they are. 

But “supports” can also be a means to other ends rather than ends in themselves. Far too many Americans view religion and morality in just this way, as transactional activities and commitments intended to help us in our “pursuit of happiness.”

In his iconic Inaugural Address, John F. Kennedy closed:

With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.

I resonate with his soaring rhetoric and stirring call to action. But in light of the biblically promised rewards for obedience in eternity (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:11–15), I do not believe that a “good conscience” is “our only sure reward.” In light of the coming judgment of God (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:10), I do not consider history to be “the final judge of our deeds.” And in light of salvation made possible only through Christ and transformation empowered only by his Spirit, I do not believe that “on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”

Why we are “ignorant of the day of our death”

My purpose is not to criticize Mr. Kennedy but to note that his address resonates with us so deeply because it speaks to the self-reliance at the heart of Western culture. But such self-reliance can take us only so far. It cannot convict us of our sins, save our souls, or grant us a place in paradise.

And as today’s tsunamis show, it cannot protect us from the power of nature in this tiny world we inhabit.

As a result, let us use the tsunamis as an invitation to trust our lives and our future more fully than ever to our Lord. If we have not done so already, let us ask his Son to forgive our sins and become our Savior and Lord. Let us submit this day to his Spirit, seeking his empowering and guidance (Ephesians 5:18).

And let us live each day for the glory of the God who created the universe and measures it in the palm of his hand (Isaiah 40:12).

Andrew Jones noted,

“God will have us ignorant of the day of our death that we may be ready every day.”

Are you ready today?

If not, why not?