Lord Jesus said that once He'd done planting His Church, corruption in the form of false believers would enter in. Paul prophecied to the Ephesian elders that from their own number, men would come up who would tear up the flock to get a following. He also told Timothy that lots of falsities would attack the Church. John said in his first letter that the spirit of antiChrist was already abroad in the Church. He went on to tell what would differentiate the true Christian from the false.

All of those prophecies came true even before the first generation of apostles were gone home. But it seems that while we are in full cognizance of the fact that error abounds, we have lost sight of how to recognize one another. That has led to terrible suspicions, schisms, even outright killings.

I have not finished the first edition of Thomas Bokenkotter's A Concise History Of The Catholic Church, but I have firm in my grasp right now the understanding that the Church has labored in confusion from the time of the first Apostles until today. Again and again, the Christian has had to be defined so that he could be recognizable to everyone who looks.

First off, I'd like to point out two things that Lord Jesus compared the Christian to. One is Light. The other is Salt. In subsequent posts, I'll present separate studies on each one and point out how the Christian is identical with them.

To prepare the grounds though, I wish to say that there aren't any better descriptions of the Christian than those two things in their native behaviors. The identifiability of the Christian is well explained by said behaviors.

TBC

Ihedinobi: Lord Jesus said that once He'd done planting His Church, corruption in the form of false believers would enter in. Paul prophecied to the Ephesian elders that from their own number, men would come up who would tear up the flock to get a following. He also told Timothy that lots of falsities would attack the Church. John said in his first letter that the spirit of antiChrist was already abroad in the Church. He went on to tell what would differentiate the true Christian from the false.

All of those prophecies came true even before the first generation of apostles were gone home. But it seems that while we are in full cognizance of the fact that error abounds, we have lost sight of how to recognize one another. That has led to terrible suspicions, schisms, even outright killings.

I have not finished the first edition of Thomas Bokenkotter's A Concise History Of The Catholic Church, but I have firm in my grasp right now the understanding that the Church has labored in confusion from the time of the first Apostles until today. Again and again, the Christian has had to be defined so that he could be recognizable to everyone who looks.

First off, I'd like to point out two things that Lord Jesus compared the Christian to. One is Light. The other is Salt. In subsequent posts, I'll present separate studies on each one and point out how the Christian is identical with them.

To prepare the grounds though, I wish to say that there aren't any better descriptions of the Christian than those two things in their native behaviors. The identifiability of the Christian is well explained by said behaviors.

TBC

ARE YOU CATHOLIC ?

obadiah777: ARE YOU CATHOLIC ?

Isn't every Christian?

obadiah777: ARE YOU CATHOLIC ?

Is that all you got from what he wrote?

LIGHT

Anybody know what that is?

A whole field of learning called Optics is devoted to it. But actually, with about four hundred years of research in the modern scientific era, at least since Newton, devoted to it, Wikipedia says that it "is actually something that cannot be fully imagined" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light).

While I'm not discounting here what further research might uncover, I certainly am interested in a particular phenomenon that I have observed. It seems to me that light is inconceivable and imperceptible unless it strikes some object. In other words, we never really do see light itself. We see the things that it illuminates. And we see those things because itself stimulates structures in our eyes to sense it.

I see a parallel between that and the Christian and think that it was this (perhaps among other reasons) that made Jesus called Christians light. The Christian is there without really being obvious. It's like how Jesus was when He was on earth bodily. He was so much a part of the environment that He was indistinguishable from His disciples and an insider was necessary to betray Him the night of His passion.

Light defines everything but is itself practically indefinable. Ask physicists if you doubt it. You can see what light does, even describe how it does it, but define it? Terrible task. One mark of Jesus according to Isaiah 53 was that He was nondescript while He was on earth. It's His way to be unobstrusive, just like it is God's. That's why it's so easy to discount Him. The Christian is of that stock and normally is no different. Notoriety is alien to the Christian. This is actually why Christianity, true Christianity, has survived the millenia despite the corruptions that attacked it and oppositions that rose up against it.

Men took hold of it to make it this or that, but even with all the noise and bluster, there was hidden from human perception that which was true to God. It was in plain sight but too ordinary to attract any real attention. And every effort to destroy it only produced more of it. That is the Christian. That is Christ: Light which is hidden but which reveals.

All of that says that the Christian is not discernible to any other but another of the Family. The normal behaviors of a Christian, discernible traits like charity; adherence to truth, that is, honesty; patience etc, can be copied by a really strong moral character. But the Christian essence would be missing. The Christian's knowledge of the Bible could be aped too by some professor of faith, but the livingness of that knowledge which is essentially Christian cannot be aped nor can it be defined.

I could go on and on. But my point is made: there is far more to the Christian than meets the human eye or any other human sense and I don't mean just proverbially.

The Christian is a hidden quality or quantity. It is not an action, or a word, or a thought, it is a Person Whose very essence and nature impregnates actions, words and thoughts with life and goodness. The Christian is God's dictionary or lexicon. He is the true definition of the things he is associated with. He works the same job that everybody else does but with some impossible-to-define quality that makes it not quite the same.

That's about Light. Next we'll discuss Salt.

A compelling exposition. Waiting eagerly for the next.

Nickydrake: A compelling exposition. Waiting eagerly for the next.

Thank you. I plan and hope to finish it this weekend. Please keep an eye out for it.

Ihedinobi:

Thank you. I plan and hope to finish it this weekend. Please keep an eye out for it.

Will do.

SALT


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 KJV

Salt is one of the oldest, most ubiquitous food seasonings and salting is an important method of food preservation. - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt

The two quotes above bound what I'm about to say in detail. But before I launch in, I need to provide one more quote.

19 And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren. ²⁰And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. ²¹And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. ²²So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake. - 2 Kings 2:19-22 KJV

I have considered adding others but there is a reason that I tend to use quotes sparingly. I prefer to develop the understanding that I have been given and allow my audience or readership to go and see for themselves if what I claim is indeed supported by the Bible. Anyhow, to the meat of the matter.

The first thing that comes to mind about salt is taste. How much of our feeding is dependent on it! Job in the midst of his afflictions asked his friends in Job 6:6, "Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt?" Salt renders a lot of our foods palatable. It's gotten so that most of us take for granted that the foods upon which our very bodily lives are dependent are naturally palatable! You need only eat some of them unseasoned for a day to realize what a blessing salt is. We just have to have salt, don't we? It's practically non-negotiable. Ok. Hold that thought.

How about food preservation? Given the degree of advancement and modernization of life, the average Joe does not worry so much about preserving his food. But ever before he bought the can of this and the bottle of that, the food factories had already salted the products he would consume to give them longevity. Then again, if he's a she, she probably learned one or two salt tricks from momma that come in useful when, as expected, power fails in Naija. (I mean, I'm a guy but I learned one or two too.) Anyhow, the magic of salt keeps food from going bad sooner.

How does this speak of the Christian? Here's where Elisha's story is very helpful. I could have produced a number of places where God spoke of salting sacrifices, Paul spoke of speech seasoned with salt etc, but Elisha's story captures the lessons in those well. There are a great many things to note in those four verses: namely a few, the pleasant and advantageous situation of the city, the fact that because of the water the land itself was unfruitful, the fact that Elisha went to the very spring or head or source of the water to heal it, the fact that it was a new cruse or bowl that Elisha demanded with the salt and the fact that it was salt that healed the waters. We will in one way or another touch on them all in our meditations here.

Jesus called the Christian the salt of the earth. Translate salt to healing, earth to water and Jesus to Elisha. What do you see? That's the whole message. In scattering His Life on the earth and birthing many children for God by doing so, Jesus poured salt upon the water that is earth (more correctly, the whole creation). And by choosing the human being (the spring) to redeem, he redeemed everything in creation from corruption. He in His own human body has left the earth but He left Christians behind. He has put the salt in to not only heal but preserve that which has been healed.

What does this mean? It means that, like we said in the discussion about Light, the Christian brings an effect upon everything he touches by default. That effect is always onto greater and greater meaning. If a Christian were to become a politician, for instance, he'd play politics in a way that would astound everyone looking. He'd sanitize the profession. He'd win seats and offices and political decisions without needing to resort to underhanded practices. How? Because he is different. It won't be like the magician's wand though. It'll be simply a difference in approach. The Christian would be found taking right appraisal of the realities of every political situation he's entering, he'd be found crafting an innovative and creative response to it that takes the prevailing moral conditions at least a notch higher. He'd be found trouncing opposing moral codes by a far superior intellect and moral fiber.

By doing so, he brings in healing. Those involved will sense a difference, a shift in the very depth of reality. And here's the clincher: they, if they do not have Christ, will fight it and finding that they cannot defeat it, they adopt it and try to corrupt it . . . again. Lol. But that's how it works. The point is that the Christian is necessarily an agent of healing and preservation. In fact, I would say that we simply preserve what has already been healed. Jesus Himself did the Healing, we simply preserve what He healed.

The message of Christianity is not just that there's a Day in the Future when all will be well. It is that today all has been made well. Is it a lie? Of course not. Money has been put in the bank, we're no longer paupers but even at that, we can die of hunger. Doesn't mean we're not as rich as the bank balance indicates. All has been made well. Immediately Jesus rose from the dead and the Father glorified Him, everything was done. The Christian's part was to learn what that "everything" is and live in it. In his living in it, he preserved it and witnessed to the truth that everything was finally ok. And in witnessing to that truth, he calls to everyone to taste and see that the Lord is good and not necessarily with a bullhorn or a vast public address system. A quiet life lived under the Hand of the Spirit does a lot more than many words screamed at uninterested people.

Now, that last sentence brings me to a very important aspect of the salt matter. In solution, salt vanishes. Like I have already said, this is typical of Christians. It is not Christ's way to be notorious. He is the little rock hewed out of a mountain without hands that struck the kingdom of darkness at its foot and pulverized the whole structure. And without so much as a whisper. Have you heard the furor that is so easily created by some rumor that tries to attach Christ in some way to this economy? But even in His day, He was nondescript. Nothing about Him was such a big deal. At least not until He opened His mouth.

This does not mean that the Christian is a mouse. If anything He's a lion . . . but also a lamb. He does not roar indiscriminately. The Christian very quickly goes to war against all that is not Christ, especially when such a thing masquerades as Him. But the same Christian is the mildest friend one can have. For instance, Jesus could have torn earth apart if He wanted but He went quietly to the Cross, but there was a time that He spoke terrible crushing words to the rulers of His day. That is the Lion and the Lamb.

Salt vanishes. It dissolves into the water, becomes one with it. The Christian is not naturally anti-life, anti-society, anti-interaction. That is so not Christ. The Christian is an engineer, a doctor, a journalist, an architect, a lawyer, an actor and he doesn't see these professions as an excuse to bash people over the head with a Bible. He uses them to bring the quiet fragrance of Christ, maybe by a touch, or an architectural design, an argument in court or other such things, into the lives of all that they touch. It is possible for the Christian to shut up and yet create heaven right where he is. In fact, that is the normal thing. It is only as of necessity that the Christian need talk Scripture. And such a necessity does not arise every day while meeting an editor's deadline.

The Christian is part of the world even while being completely separate from it as you will see with salt in solution. It should be that when one walks into a company run by a Christian, one should wonder who runs the place and whether they can pick their brains for some ideas like they see surrounding them to implement in their own setup. It's curious whenever the Christian is the one needing to be helped.

I personally get quite upset with a great many plaques I see in offices that seem more like talismans meant to ward off evil and bad business fortunes by claiming Christianity when the very same offices are in squalor. Christianity is not a magic wand, it is the power to stand out and above the prevailing conditions. And first morally before anything else.

What I have been driving at is this the Christian is salt in the sense of flavor/savor/taste (meaning) and preservation (prophecy).

I am an entrepreneur and a writer. As a Christian, it means that my writing should go to the root of things. I cannot be superficial in my writing because I'm a Christian. In my enterprises, I cannot be arbitrary in the businesses I pursue. I cannot make business deals that are meaningless. As a Christian, I bring meaning and solid reality into every sphere I penetrate. I take things back to the Truth and I keep them there.

That's what it means to be salt: clean things up, spice them up and keep them sweet and clean.

Next and probably finally, we come to what makes a person a Christian at all.

TBC

WHAT MAKES THE CHRISTIAN ONE?


From the foregoing, the Christian is a very phenomenon. It's actually impossible to define him. He's a quantity hidden from human perception. All that the unbelieving human being can perceive is something different and attractive/irritating depending on the person's heart condition. However, the Christian looks just like the unbeliever, probably speaks the same language, works the same job, roots for the same soccer clubs and so on. What then is the big deal? What makes him different? And how is that thing discerned?

First off, it's not good moral behavior. Even nonChristians can manage that within limits and we're told that the devil masks himself as an angel of light. Good behavior may be consequential upon a person's becoming Christian but it isn't it that made him so. It's just a consequence. Second, it is not easy material conditions or circumstances. I don't even want to start attacking the notion that being Christian somehow exempts a person from hardship and suffering. In fact, I assure you that it opens a person fully up to them. Why? Because the Christian is by nature indestructible. If half the stuff that falls upon the Christian were to fall upon the unbeliever, they'd be crushed. The Christian though is supposed to use the time of his life this side of eternity to learn how to use the enormous ability that comes with the Nature that He has received therefore his Father exposes him to Satan's full power to force him to grow and expand that ability. Third, it's not Bible reading/knowledge or great religious activity. If it were, the Pharisees should be in eternal roundtable conference with God. But Jesus's testimony of them was "ye are of your father the devil". Fourth, it's not by family tradition. If it were, no nation on earth apart from Israel has any kind of hope for salvation. But the Bible says, "they are not all Israel that are Jews after the flesh".

It is by spiritual birth. An operation must occur within the deepest recesses of a person's being, right at the very core of his nature that changes him forever. Jesus used the metaphor (well, not really a metaphor, it's actual), "to be born again" to describe it to Nicodemus. Paul and the rest of the apostles called it being saved. And it occurs because a man casts himself upon Lord Jesus. There may be a prayer involved in that casting of oneself, there may not. It may happen in a church service or it may not. Someone may have preached to you directly or they may not have. Whatever the material circumstances, one thing happens in every case: the Spirit of Christ takes residence in the human being. That act and that act alone is what makes anybody a Christian. Nothing else does. Baptism is simply intelligent consent on one's part to the Truth of the Gospel. But the Spirit of God must come in before the transaction is sealed.


HOW DO WE DISCERN THE CHRISTIAN?
Now, truth be told, one can't take a peep in another's shirt to see if the Spirit is in that other. We cannot tell merely by looking or listening. And we were told severally that Satan does nothing so well as counterfeiting Christ. We are also told that there are degrees of maturity among Christians and that among them are those who act as though they were not saved at all! In other words, by mere observation to an untrained eye, a Christian can be called an unbeliever and an unbeliever called a Christian. And that is not a very good thing.

Discerning one another is a thing of enormous importance to Christians. It is only in one another's company that the fullness, the full power of Christ is activated. For this reason, communication between each other is vital. How then can Christians discern each other? (I think I have already said that the Christian is inscrutable to the unbeliever.) The Scriptures say that deep calls to deep. The Spirit is One. There is that in me which senses another Christian. But this sense is not that well-developed. Jesus said that had the days not been shortened the elect themselves would have been deceived implying possibility of deceit to those who have come into the Truth. So it is possible that while we think that the call of the deep within us is being answered by that in the next guy, we're actually hearing an echo.

For this reason, we're told to test all things and hold to the good. Jesus in one of His letters to the seven churches commended one of them for testing those who claimed to be apostles but found them to not be. The Christian must test. He must examine the claim of the next guy to Christianity to confirm that the call is being truly answered.

That is not to say that the Christian ought to be suspicious.

TBC

True tests assume that the claim(s) being examined are true. They assume that the next guy is really a Christian. In other words, what we are calling a test is necessarily a hand of true fellowship. Say, so-and-so says that they are a believer, or maybe some way they behave or talk gives the Christian the impression that this is family. The natural thing to the Christian is to accept the person in question as belonging in the Faith and treat them likewise. Why? Because otherwise, you'll destroy your own brothers.

BUT, behaving toward people as a Christian tends to make people react either toward Christ or away from Him. It's just natural. It can't be helped. Christ forces things to come to light. So just by being Himself, that which is hidden is revealed. If I were to talk to a person just like a Christian normally talks to a Christian, his responses will tend toward Christ if his heart seeks or knows the Lord and away from Him if he repudiates Him. And the really nasty impostors to look out for necessarily violently tend away from Christ. But unless one's senses have been exercised to discern between good and evil, they can be swayed.

Herein lies wisdom. Only such as know the Lord can discern Him in others. It is possible to be a Christian and be abominable ignorant of the Lord Jesus. If one is taught in Christ, shown by deep experience under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit Who the Lord Jesus is, they will possess strong ability to discern Him in those with whom they deal. If they learn to do so, suspicion and all the terrible things that it births will be torn away.

Therefore, I end with "they that know their God shall be strong and do exploits".

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

I've only just run through your latest posts because i've got other very pressing issues to attend to right now, but even the skimming was enough to arouse keen interest, and i have now saved the page so i can take a more careful look later.

Good work you've done here, and may God's Grace be with you too.

Nickydrake: I've only just run through your latest posts because i've got other very pressing issues to attend to right now, but even the skimming was enough to arouse keen interest, and i have now saved the page so i can take a more careful look later.

Good work you've done here, and may God's Grace be with you too.

Thank you, my brother. Looking forward to any comments you may wish to make.