What is going on in our city? It seems like the bad news just keeps getting worse. The daily news is so depressing. For example, here are the top stories on Philly’s 6ABC website for just one day, September 1st of this year:

Motorcyclist killed in Feltonville hit-and-run

Police seek statue stolen from Port Richmond church

Man shot, killed outside Mantua community center

Police: Man breaks stained-glass window, steals from church

Bicyclist shot and wounded in Kensington

Police: Woman sexually assaulted at gunpoint, family tied up

12 year-old girl, 2 men shot in North Philadelphia

   That list accounts for only ONE DAY of reported crime in Philadelphia! Sadly, some days the news is even worse.

What can be done? What is the solution? Marching in the streets for peace might make us feel better, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect on crime.

More police may help, but do we want to live in a police state? Remember that Hitler successfully cut down on crime when he took office, but he used iron-fisted police to do it. According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, this is how Hitler restored order in German: “The Nazis centralized and fully funded the police to better combat criminal gangs and promote state security. The Nazi state increased staff and training, and modernized police equipment. The Nazis offered the police the broadest latitude in arrests, incarceration, and the treatment of prisoners. The police moved to take ‘preventive action,’ that is, to make arrests without the evidence required for a conviction in court and indeed without court supervision at all.”

[See http://goo.gl/RyNUVt] Nazi oppression did control crime, but I trust you’ll agree we don’t want to surrender our freedoms in order to make that happen.

I believe that there is another tried and true solution. Perhaps you have heard the story about the Mutiny on the Bounty. There is a real-life ending to that story that gives me hope even in the face of all the bad news I hear.

In 1789, after spending five months in Tahiti, the sailors on the H.M.S. Bounty revolted and forced Captain Bligh and his officers to board a longboat (a 23-foot seaworthy vessel). They took control of the ship. Their plan was to stay in that island paradise and start a new life of ease. Before the revolt, the Captain wrote that Tahiti is “… certainly the Paradise of the World, and if happiness could result from situation and convenience, here it is to be found in the highest perfection.  I have seen many parts of the World, but Otaheite [Tahiti] is capable of being preferable to them all.”

Later, the rebellious sailors feared that the British might send a ship and have them arrested. For this reason, some of the mutineers and several Polynesians boarded the H.M.S. Bounty and began looking for a place to hide. They wound up on an uninhabited volcanic island called Pitcairn. They burned the ship, hoping that no one would ever find them.

Even though they were living in a South Pacific paradise-like setting, all did not go well. It wasn’t long before there were conflicts, anger, jealousy, and sexual immorality. Eventually disease set in, killing one Englishman after another until at last there was only one Englishman, some Polynesian natives, ten women, and many children left alive.

The last remaining Englishman was a man named Alexander Smith. One day he discovered a Bible among the ship’s cargo. As it turned out, the next-to-the-last man alive had taught Mr. Smith to read—and read he did. He began spending many hours reading and studying the Bible. Eventually he came to the conclusion that the Bible was the answer to the many problems they had on their island.

Alexander Smith started Sunday worship services and daily prayer times for those left alive there. That was the beginning of a complete transformation.

In 1808 an American whaling ship approached the island because they saw smoke coming from their cooking fires. They were startled to find a thriving group of 35 English-speaking Christians. That lawless society had been radically transformed by the Bible. The Bible could do the same thing for our community—for Philadelphia. The Bible shows us that our lives aren’t changed by our determination or by our hard work. We need God to perform the miracle of a “new birth” so that our inner desires are changed.

In the Bible Peter tells us, “you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). The first step toward changing our community begins when we ourselves are changed by God’s Word. Where should you start? Begin by reading it; move on to studying it; get to know it, and let it change you.

That is why Paul told a group of genuine Christians: “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Email me with your Bible inquiries at BethelChapelChurch@gmail.com. If you have questions, I’d be glad to help make something clear.