This past Thursday the Centers For Disease Control released a statement in which they said essentially that they, and most of the medical establishment, had long been wrong about salt. In a stunning turnabout, they suggested that there is no real health benefit to the individual in reducing salt intake but that, quite to the contrary, people need salt, maybe two or three teaspoons of it daily.
Jesus of Nazareth made a similar point nearly two millenia ago, saying "Salt is good..." (Mark 9:50). He further developed the salt theme in the Sermon on the Mount, as follows: "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." (Matthew 5:13).
What was Jesus talking about? One can't answer that without considering how salt was used in ancient times. In addition to flavoring, it was the principal disinfectant and preservative. "Rubbing salt into the wound" is today a lament of insult added to injury, but back in the day it was a necessary prophylaxis against infection. And it you wanted to keep some meat or fish around for a while, it needed salt curing.
The Greek word translated "earth" in that verse is (using our alphabet) is GE, which also means "land" or "nation". And this is what I believe Jesus had in mind: that His followers were to be the preservative and disinfectant of their nation. It is no stretch to attribute the great blessedness of the United States throughout its history to the salting influence of the church in its midst. Tocqueville was spot on when he wrote that "America is great because America is good", and when he attributed the goodness/greatness of the nation to the fire from its pulpits. Periodically there have been widespread revivals which have had far-reaching civil as well as spiritual consequences. The First Great Awakening that began in the 1730's brought the colonists, who were somewhat adrift, back into a vibrant spirituality as well as a public and private morality. It may additionally have stirred the pot in the direction of independence. The Second Great Awakening, roughly a century later, was another national spirtual revival. Periodically since then there have been outbreaks here and there, none of them national in scope.
Today we, the evangelical church, mourn and lament our diminishing influence. We wring our hands over the abomination of abortion and the travesty of same-sex "marriage", and other moral and social ills. We sometimes chafe at the stripping away of what we deem our historic right to inform the culture, and feel that the culture is "out to get us" (yes, it is), and that we are being persecuted and maligned for our beliefs (if you read your Bible, what would surprise you about that?).
But it becomes increasingly and agonizingly clear that the problem is within. "We have met the enemy, and he is us", to quote the old Pogo strip. Here is my premise and my lament: we, the church in America, have become the poster children for the taste-challenged salt of Jesus' analogy. And when salt loses its flavor, as the Lord noted, there is nothing that can salt salt. At that point, He noted with divine precision and prescience, the salt is literally thrown out, and walked on by men.
What better describes the status of the church in America today, than "cast out, and...trodden under foot of men"? If you are a believer who agrees with this description of the position of the Body of Christ in America today, then you should also take to heart the reason Jesus gave for our being in that state: that is, that we've lost our taste.
Have we been the preservative in our nation? The answer may not be a simple yes or no. God's judgment, although appearing incrementally in recent years, has not yet been seen in anything like its fullness that has doomed previous civilzations. There are yet many in the land who "have not bowed unto Baal" (1 Kings 19:18), and who do cry out in intercession for this nation, and I think that is why the U.S.A. is still standing among the nations of the earth. God was willing to spare Sodom for the sake of ten righteous men. Undortunately there weren't ten, and Sodom was destroyed. The preservative function of the salt Christians is to cry day and night for the nation, that God would not only spare us His hand of judgment but would revive us again. God told Ezekiel, tragically, "...I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them..." (Ezekiel 22:30-31).
Have we functioned as disinfectant in the land? The Apostle Paul urged the Ephesian church to "...have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." (Ephesians 5:11) When an individual believer sticks his head out in the line of fire to call out some sinful behavior, he is nearly decapitated. What if the whole church stood against these things? But we are preoccupied with our own private concerns, we are passive, uninterested. Would Roe v Wade have happened in the midst of a culture leavened by the salt and light influence of a vibrant church? We have learned that Supreme Court decisions, ostensibly apolitical, are in reality quite poltiical, as witness the Roberts capitulation on the Affordable Care Act. Would the Roe majority have made up bogus new rights woven from the fabric of "emanations from penumbra" if the moral and spiritual climate of the nation had been different?
One more thing about the disinfectant mandate of the church. It is impossible for an entity such as the church to position itself as a moral arbitor of anything when said entity is riddled with public sex scandals, financial shenanigans, child abuse and other wretchedness. Cast out, and trodden under foot of men.
And what about flavoring? Have we made life in Christ attractive and desirable? Do we model Him to the world around us? Do we create a thirst for Jesus? Or do we inspire that which hypocrisy always inspires: revulsion?
We don't need to fear that the hookers and druggies and LGBTers and gangbangers and extortionists and crooked politicians are going to bring down the nation. 2 Chronicles 7:14 sets forth a very simple formula for national renewal (emphasis added): "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." My brother and sister in the Lord, the fate of America is on us. Let us seek Him for revival in the land before it is too late.