The Omni-Science of Jesus Christ

My Christian blog (MoralScienceClub.Blogspot.Com)  was taken down after 12 years. I still don't understand how you can have a blog for that long and suddenly have it disappear. Luckily, I can still access the articles through a back door allowing me to edit the posts. It's a great opportunity to start afresh and bring back only the best of that blog. This is one of the most-read articles of that blog.

First published on June 17, 2015

Matthew 5 - from the Sermon on the Mount

Salt and Light

13"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. 14"You are the light of the world."

Jesus' metaphors are quite amazing. They speak to us on multiple levels into our individual lives. With the salt metaphor, Jesus makes several stunning revelations. First, He's referring to His disciples as salt and light, not Himself. These aren't the fearless post-resurrection heroes yet. They can best be described as a bunch of bumbling misfits at this point. Peter is the king of insincere boasting and biblical ignorance. James and John plot to usurp the spots in Heaven on Jesus' right and left as if they were available. Phillip asks that stupid question in the Upper Room, "show us the Father and we'll believe." And, worst of all, Judas will go on to betray the Messiah.

But, as we see Jesus do again and again, He knows we will bring great breakthroughs on earth because He will do it through us. If you don't believe me, look at the following properties of salt that are  in this marvelous metaphor:

Salt flavors everything. Ever been to a restaurant where the chef suffered a bout of "Jimmy Buffet Syndrome"? He cant find his lost shaker of salt. Everything tastes bland. Why? Because the majority of your taste buds are programmed to receive salt sensations. Since the salt wasn't there to tantalize your taste buds, delivering the other flavors to your brain, your food had no taste. 

Salt is the flavor of Jesus Christ in the world. We in Christ are to carry the love and knowledge of Christ into a world that is very bland toward the true God. By bringing the flavor of Christ into the lives of people who are lost, we can change their reality. That person in Christ who steps out and helps the homeless person when no one else would or gives his meal to someone who is starving, brings the sensation of Heaven so that those who don't know God can taste and see that He is good. Based on what we know now about salt and it's effect on taste, it is reliable to say that Jesus knew more about how the tongue was put together than anyone else over the next thousand years. 

Can we have too much salt? Pastor Phil Letizia of City Church Wilton Manors says Yes. We can be too judgmental. Remember, we aren't to be judgmental at all for we will be judged in the same way we judge others. Harsh judgment of others means God will hold us to the same high standard. For example, the Westboro Baptist folks are in trouble. They're the church of Phelps family members who picket funerals with signs like "God hates f*#s" and "God hates you". On their Judgment Day, God will be in a Westboro Baptist kind of mood.

Can we have too little salt? Yes, we can be so insignificant that people might not be able to see any real difference between us and those who don't know God. Lot is one of the best examples of that in the Bible. His own sons-in-law didn't take him seriously in the critical moment when he tried to convince them that Sodom was going to be destroyed for their sin. Are you in the habit of not speaking up when the decay of sin is thick around you? Or even cheering it on? Too little salt.

Salt is the only rock that humans eat. Jesus/Messiah is characterized in the Old and New Testament as the Rock. Do we eat Him? Yes, every Sunday at City Church, in fact, we eat Him. It's called Communion. And when you eat salt/rock The Rock is in you. 

Salt prevents decay. Salt was and still is a great preservative. Similarly, the Church's role is to keep the world from totally disintegrating into rottenness. Imagine the world today without Christians! There'd be no Great Eagle to the rescue as in the US saving the world again and again. Europe would be a radical Muslim backwater. The whole world would be rotting from the inside out. Proponents of here pre-Tribulation rapture can point to the rapture before or in the middle of the seven year period as consistent with a world falling utterly apart. The salt of the earth types' presence would contradict Jesus' words on His disciples holding the world together.

Salt absorbs water. 

Those is Christ have the Holy Spirit. This physical aspect of salt explains the astonishing truth that when salt/Christ/Rock is in us, the Living Water/Holy Spirit will follow. Salt absorbing and keeping the Holy Spirit is an exact analogy.

Pure salt's natural color is white. White is also the color of pure light. The quote about light immediately following Jesus' remarks on salt are quite literally connected.

Salt is an excellent stain remover. Salt/Rock/Redeemer removes the stain of sin.

Sodium chloride, the elements of salt, are toxic when taken separately. I see this as a warning that the Father and Son must be together. You can't cherry-pick your God. To know Him is to accept who He is.

Losing its saltiness. There is a reference, link below, to a phenomenon when salt loses it's saltiness; that is, when it is exposed too much to the elements. Salt deposits that are on the outside and not close to the core rock tend to lose their savor. In short, salt loses it's flavor only due to contamination. Again, Jesus leaves many subtle qualities of his metaphor to be discovered by future generations who have more scientific knowledge available.

Jesus' points can be expanded upon as we discover more about the scientific properties of His subjects. At the time, most of these aspects of salt were unknown to science. Jesus' use of metaphors in this transcendent way is further proof that He is exactly who He said He was, the Son of God and Son of Man. 

http://evidenceforchristianity.org/can-salt-lose-its-saltiness/