by Frank Richey
On Monday, January 2, 2006, a terrible tragedy occurred in a coal mine in Tallmansville, West Virginia. Thirteen miners were trapped 260 feet below the surface at the end of an angled shaft about 2 miles long. On Tuesday, the body of one of the miners was found, but searchers held out hope for the other twelve miners. Late Tuesday night, it was reported that the twelve had been found alive. The family and friends of the twelve miners erupted in cheers and the town’s church bells began ringing as the report became known. “Believe in miracles,” said West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, who expressed optimism throughout the ordeal. “Twelve miners are alive,” said Representative Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV. The mood, she said, was of “jubilation, incredible happiness, unspeakable joy.”
The Wednesday edition of newspapers all across the nation led with the caption, “Twelve Miners Found Alive!” But the report was not true. The facts revealed later that only one of the twelve was alive. The great joy of so many was instantly turned to sorrow. The families and friends of the deceased miners, whose grief had turned to joy three hours earlier, were totally devastated.
In light of this great tragedy, we can learn a great lesson about spiritual things. Many times I have heard people say, “I feel in my heart I’m saved.” This is an expression that so often means that one has experienced some emotional feeling of salvation. But just as the family and friends of the miners felt that their loved ones were saved and were wrong in their feelings, people can be wrong about their feelings of salvation. The old concept of a “religion better felt than told” is a deception of Satan. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). It is truth — the Word of God — that shows us the way to salvation, not some emotional experience that can falsely be interpreted as salvation.