The most famous mutiny in history was the rebellion aboard the HMS Bounty in April 1789. Being the subject of multiple movies and books, many people don’t realize that it actually occurred. But it did. Three weeks after the Bounty left the port of Tahiti, the crew overthrew its leaders and took control of the ship. First Mate Fletcher Christian was the leader of the mutineers. Together they forced Captain William Bligh and those sailors who remained loyal to him into a small boat and set them adrift.
The mutineers took the captured ship back to Tahiti where some decided to stay. Fletcher Christian and eight others took a group of the islanders and set sail in search of a hiding place. They chose a hidden, uninhabited island called Pitcairn.
One of the sailors began to make whiskey from local plants. The ensuing drunken orgies eventually turned into increasingly violent brawls. Though located in an island paradise, their behavior turned it into a prison where all but one were eventually murdered, killed in their sleep, or fiercely done in through other ways. Even their leader Fletcher Christian died violently.
In the end, Alexander Smith was the sole survivor of the original murderous crew. As the last living male, he felt responsible to care for the remaining women and fatherless children. As he dealt with the reality of the situation, he began to regret his past and admit his lack of wisdom to make the necessary changes.
Looking through a sea chest, Smith found a Bible. Over the next few weeks, he read it from cover to cover. In response to the Gospel message, he asked God to take control of his life. He began to teach the women and children to read the Bible as well. Over time the children grew up, married, and had children of their own.
In 1808, the American whaling ship Topaz stopped at Pitcairn. The Americans were the first visitors to the island since the mutiny on the Bounty eighteen years earlier. The sailors from the Topaz were astounded to see an orderly society free of disease, alcoholism, crime, and illiteracy.
Pitcairn had been hell on earth under the reign of Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers. The people had been suffering under what the Bible calls the “wrath of God." This is the inevitable result of mankind living under the influence of hearts filled with selfishness, lust, anger, envy, rebellion, and entitlement. But when Smith, the last man, turned his heart over to God, the “wrath of God” was replaced by the “love of God” and Pitcairn became a paradise on earth.
The transformation of that island is a glimpse of what happens and can happen in the homes, families, businesses, and churches of our culture as we, God’s people, choose to live in dependence and obedience to Him. As we receive the love and mercy of God , we escape the wrath of God being experienced in those lives that ignore Him and His ways.
Pastor Tom Johnson