When Faith Goes Down: Mayday for the Soul

By Mike Hogue, Senior Pastor

Many of you know I used to fly airplanes for the Air Force.  During my time instructing pilot training, I attended the Air Force Safety School’s Operational Risk Management course.  The mantra was “accept no unnecessary risks.”  As such, when we identified a risk, we were encouraged to use a strategy to reduce it, delay it, avoid it, or to mitigate it. Often when an aircraft mishap occurs, someone ignored a risk indicator.

When an aircraft accident takes place and makes the national news, it definitely catches my attention.

In the last three weeks, six aircraft accidents have made the national news – and half of them ended with the crew walking away. On Wednesday, Sept 23, both pilots ejected safely from a Royal Air Force training jet that crashed in Wales. The day before, a contractor jet supporting Navy training exercises went down off the California coast; that pilot also ejected and was rescued. And on Thursday, Sept 17, an F-16 fighter jet crashed in a residential neighborhood in Michigan – the pilot escaped uninjured.

The other three accidents weren't so fortunate. That same Thursday, a small plane crashed near the Wrangell Mountains in Alaska, killing both people on board. Two days before that, on Tuesday, Sept 15, an NBC news helicopter crashed in Los Angeles, killing both people on board and a bystander on the ground. And on September 6, an Amazon Prime aircraft overran its runway and killed five people.

These are all tragic, and have all happened within a short period of time.  It’s too early to know the cause of most of them. The Amazon Prime crash, however, is tragic in a different way -- it appears the crew could have completely avoided the mishap. Ross Aimer, a retired airline captain and CEO of Aero Consulting Experts, stated, “In my 60 years of flying, I’ve never seen such a terrible performance from a crew.”  There were multiple signs the crew should have rejected that landing attempt.  They ignored the signs, ignored a valid risk, and caused five deaths.

As I was considering what to write about, it occurred to me that another group had a wreck. It wasn’t exactly a plane wreck – Paul called it a shipwreck – but maybe Paul would have used a plane wreck had they had airplanes.  The wreck is described in 1 Timothy 1:18-20.

“This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.” (NASB 2020)

Paul instructs Timothy to fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience.  Then he explains that some reject this call, abandoning a good conscience and running their faith aground.  Hymenaeus and Alexander had abandoned correct living. They had rejected their faith.  They had a wreck.

I wonder if they saw signs this was coming.  Scripture doesn’t tell us if this was a slow decline or a sudden crash. We do know that Paul “handed them over to Satan.”  This was divinely authoritative discipline.  It is instructional and redemptive. It’s similar language to what Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 5 when someone was living in unrepentant sin.  Whatever the nature of their offense, it resulted in discipline for God’s redemptive purposes.

We know how to mitigate this risk – the risk of needing God’s discipline because we could be gradually slipping to a wrecked faith.  It’s the very instructions Paul gave to Timothy!  Are you fighting the good fight, and keeping faith and a good conscience?  Then you’re taking actions to avoid the wreck. And if you keep flying safely, you’ll eventually make a smooth landing – home with the Lord.