When the Salt Loses its Savor
If the Salt Has Lost Its Savor —?
Anyone who has not lacked the indispensable salt cannot fully appreciate its worth as a means of preservation. But after having become familiar with the power it contains and to what extent small quantities of it are capable of averting the abhorrent and annihilating putrefaction, one can imagine the value of the spiritual antitype among a people affected by the cancerous ulcers of unbelief.
The property of the bituminous salt referred to, is very strange, for, if it loses its savor, it is useless. It cannot even be used as a fertilizer; it is of less value than the carcass decomposed through putrefaction.
Christ, therefore, makes use of salt as an illustration with respect to the power of God’s Word in connection with the flesh it controls, and He also warns against the frightful spiritual danger which threatens if such connection is not accomplished.
The law and the prophets were given to the children of Abraham who thereby became the spiritual salt through whom God sought to elevate their contemporaries, the Gentiles, out of the pool of corruption. But when this powerful health remedy was no longer permitted to penetrate the Israelitic social body, the corruption, as a result thereof, assumed such a repulsive form, that their deeds were even more offensive than those of the Gentiles, the light and teachers of whom they were meant to be.
They had by means of the law and the life-giving words of the prophets attained an elevation of an unsurpassed wisdom, honor, power, and wealth, so that want, poverty, oppression, complaint, and weeping were unknown in the land. Their wisdom was admired by the high among the benighted Gentiles, and their fame went out to every nation.
From this happy throne of honor they plunged themselves into the deepest debasement, yes, so far that they even became tributaries and serfs of their former admirers. An indescribable calamity! The salt had lost its savor, Israel became the slave of idol worshippers! Why? Because they forgot their dependence on the God of life, and their former state of degradation. They became haughty, and nursed in their bosom the lusts of the Gentiles, learnt their customs and mixed the holy with the unclean. It was so pleasant to remove the old way-marks, to let the growing generation become fraternized and to cast aside the sharp lines of demarcation so that all could be alike in the social life. Both sides yielded a little; thereby the salt ceased to be salt, the cleansing and preserving power disappeared, and an irremediable spiritual putrefaction conquered the once so mighty Israel. Their governmental sun then set in blood and tears!
The gospel, embodying both the law and the prophets, appears. This was a stronger life preserving means than the old, but, like all powerful remedies, easier to misuse.
Now there is no longer a Moses with his thundering, “Thou shalt,” or a Jeremiah’s, “I command thee!” But now there is a tender “wilt thou?” attracting the ear of the hearer. Nevertheless, one soon detects the power contained in this “wilt thou.” It is the very same old salt, but now appearing in and controlling a human being, who, like an enticing fairy, gathers to himself the meek in heart. They become so penetrated by the Word of God that its salty savor constitutes their shield. The inviting wilt thou touches their innermost feelings and takes expression in the tenderest: I will! 0 Lord, help me in life and death, so that I may eternally own Thy peace.
A new Israel, consisting of individuals from all nations, was united in one name, the name of the Father, to whose heart the names Jesus and Messiah constituted the key. That Israel was one in conviction and was baptized with one baptism to become heirs of the resurrected Savior’s inheritance. They had a higher degree of wisdom than the old Israel. In order not to deprive the salt, which had penetrated their beings, of its effect, they separated themselves so wholly from the world of death that they did not even own a sod of earth, nor did they have a cent’s worth of interest in it.
Poor and rich, high and low, learned and unlearned, sat at a common table, thanking God for the riches of the gospel, which through Christ had brought forth this new Israel. They were persecuted, but increased, nevertheless, in wisdom and power. They were slain, but it appeared as if ten sprang up from one who had been planted in the earth. They were burnt, but the ashes were blown to all ends of the earth. The penetrating salt pressed forward to all nations, so that the very existence of the world empire was threatened. They were a glorious and a holy people.
But soon the tactics of threatening them were reversed. With the enchanting enticement of cunning and flattery the least salted were overcome; the others were sacrificed. They were deceived and became linked to the kingdom of death. No longer did the new Israel eat at the common table of a common Father. One became esteemed and rich, the other one poor and despised. The conviction produced different results from what it formerly had; words and deeds did not correspond. The names in which they assembled became numerous, and the enmity between the elevated gods became very great.
The new Israel, like the old, had lost its savor. The spiritual Israel of today is in a state of dissolution, bidding defiance to all remedies; it hastens toward destruction. There is no longer any resemblance of Christ in Christendom, judging from its present day appearance. The Christendom of today consists of a decaying people, who are in darkness both as to faith and deeds. Their strength is gone; their unity has disappeared. Ceremonies and an unbridled desire throne over their governmental scepter. They are no strangers and pilgrims, but instead coveting to become glorious kings among the fallen children of men.
In spite of all this they pride themselves on account of their high distinctions, claiming to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the new Israel, taken out from the Gentiles and grafted into the genuine lineal tree of Israel, etc.
Their back is disdainfully turned to the Jews, because they were cut off to give room for the Gentiles. The Christians smile at the Jews’ undemonstrative fear of God. They scoff at their bondage to the law, and, as one swimming, they throw themselves into the oil sea of the gospel. Ah, they need not deny themselves anything good — God loves them so!
On one side of the comfortable highway is an overflow of temporal riches, ambition and voluptuousness, where they leisurely drive along in sleeping cars, entertained by hallelujah music, while on the other side of the road lie in their own blood such as have been crushed to body and soul, pitying themselves and wailing because of the pain inflicted on them by the heavy wagons of the saved occupants as they roll by. Like waves of the sea, curses, cries, and tears follow the riders. What! Is this the result of the gospel? Is this the spiritual welfare, happiness, and peace that this pre serving essence of life has brought forth? The non-religious world looks on and smiles. “Behold,” they exclaim, “we are all alike!”
Yes, indeed, the rotten flesh is of more value in the earth than the salt which has lost its savor. All this is only mockery to the gospel. The gospel has been abused so that after about an 1800 years trial period the putrefaction is seven times more disgusting than was the case with the old Israel.
Christendom has elevated itself above the Jews, but has forgotten the warning of the “apostle of the Gentiles.” He says:
“And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them (do not forget that Christ and the apostles were natural children of Abraham — Jews), and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. (He guessed right when he adds:) Thou wilt say then, The branches (the disgusting Jews) were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.” (Rom. 11: 17-21.)
Their table became unto them “a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block.” Still their feasts were nothing in comparison with the insane feasting mania of the Christians. The Prophet therefore said concerning those who were invited to the marriage feast and who were unworthy:
“For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden (the marriage points to the second and not to His first coming) shall taste of my supper . . . . If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple . . . . Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 14:24, 26, 34, 35.)
0 pitiable fallen mass! For you is reserved a sevenfold worse fate; for, although you knew you were Gentile, you have dared to abuse the freedom of the gospel to your everlasting destruction! Return to the pure and humble fear of God!
SECOND EDITION
1962