Salt and Light

We are the Salt and the Light of the earth?

Matthew 5:13-14

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden."

It is true as Christians we are the salt of the earth. What is salt for? Salt is used to flavour food. We are used to bring to life those that live in death.

But what happens when too much salt is added?

Salting the earth refers to the practice of spreading salt on fields to make them incapable of being used for crop-growing. This was done in ancient times at the end of some wars as an extremely punitive scorched earth tactic.

According to the Book of Judges (9:45) in the Old Testament, Abimelech, the judge of the Israelites, sowed his own capital, Shechem with salt, ca. 1050 BC, after quelling a revolt against him.

It is a fable that the Romans salted the fields of Carthage after the destructive war against Hannibal, so that Carthage would never again rise to challenge Roman power.

Too much salt renders food tasteless. So this means that if, as Christians, we throw ourselves at non-Christians, they lose their taste for us and for Christ. We must remember to use salt with reserve.

As Christians, we are the light of the world; we are the bearers of the light of Christ to a world fraught with darkness and despair.

But what happens when there is too much light?

As study was done about the effects of too much light on plants. What happens when a plant is subjected to light on a continuous basis? Well, many plants are stunted in their growth. Some plants even shrivel up and die.

What happens when a human receives too much light? SUNBURN!! Everyone knows that if you are out in the sun far too long, your skin will get burnt, which hurts quite a bit.

The same can happen with non-Christians who receive too much of our (Christians) light. They are stunted in their possible growth, or they immediately shrivel up and die (a spiritual death).

Matthew 13: 3-9

Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear."

Hinduism v. Christianity: Evolving or Set in Stone? Part III

Krishna or Jesus?

I want to begin by telling all I know of Krishna, the human carnation of the god Vishnu.

Krishna came about because the people that worshipped Vishnu needed help. So Vishnu changed into Krishna. This seems like no big deal, I mean, God did it right? Well, the thing with Krishna is that while Krishna was on earth, Vishnu ceased to exist as a God; there was no Vishnu while their was Krishna. And even though Vishnu had changed into Krishna, Krishna did not know he was the god Vishnu.

The reason why this is important is because it shows that Vishnu as a god was boxed in, his power had a definite limit, and he was not all knowing or eternal.

But Krishna did save people. He saved villages from marauding bands of evil men, from monsters, from natural disasters, and brought them peace. He married, had a wife, but also fought quite a bit. He was both peaceful and warlike. But the fact is that he did not know he was a Hindu god, and he did die. Although when he died he just turned back into Vishnu. Therefore, Krishna ceased to exist and Vishnu came back into existence.

Now I want to explain Jesus and his differences from Krishna.

Jesus came into existence because God had promised a way of redemption and salvation to our broken world. We are sinful creatures who strive to get as far away from God as we can through our sin. We are destined for Hell, and we deserve every bit of it. But God loves us, and birthed himself as a human in the form of Jesus the Christ.

Now this seems very much like the Vishnu/Krishna story, except for a few things. God never ceased to exist, he continually rules in heaven, so it was the case that he was two persons at the same time: God and Jesus. Jesus also knew that he was the Son of God, and the Son of Man, but also that he was one with God and God was one with him and that they were whole in one person through the Holy Spirit. God's power in this is what His power is continually, limitless. God is eternal, never stops existing, and is all-knowing and always present.

God is not boxed in, and we cannot box him in. He is the creator of all, and in Jesus Christ was tortured, died, went to hell, and was rebirthed from the grave all for our sake. He saved us from the grave and is forever and eternally our only door to heaven. He doesn't force us to acknowledge him as our savior and king, he gives us the choice. He loves us and is ever knocking at the doors of our heart. Three iron pegs held him aloft on the cross, as his blood washed down to the earth. God in three forms - God, Jesus, Holy Spirit - are waiting to enter our hearts and wash our sins away. All we have to do is allow Jesus into our hearts and admit we have sinned in the eyes of God and ask for his forgiveness and Holy Spirit to reign inside of us.

The different between Krishna and Jesus: Krishna is just a story.

Hinduism v. Christianity: Evolving or Set in Stone? Part II

I believe that there is so much involved in Hinduism that it is impossible to full comprehend, even for those practicing the religion. A Hindu Professor on a religious panel discussion here at Longwood in Fall of 2007 said, "Hinduism has so much in it. We have something for everyone, if you have it, and we don't, we will add it in just for you." To me that seems very wrong, how can you just decide to add something into your religion, without concern of doctrine and theology? But it seems like that is a common practice with Hinduism.

When talking to the honors student that is instructing my mythology class through the Hindu Myth portion, she herself being a Hindu practitioner, I found out that it is a common practice to mold Hinduism to suit your needs. There is a base for all Hindu beliefs. That base is Brahma (Ultimate Incarnation of the Most High God) then on top of him, is Krisha, Shiv, and Brahma (In a Lower Incarnation). Those gods, really just all originating from Ultimate Brahma, are the basis of all Hindu beliefs. After that you take whatever it is you need and throw it on top. So if you don't like something in the religion, you don't need to worry about it, it doesn't have to be a part of it for you.

But there is a problem with her theology that I found. We were discussion how new gods are popping up all over the place continuously. They come and go like fall leaves, she said. I asked her how this can be, how someone can just create a god, spur of the moment type thing. She replied saying that those of lower classes, without much education of the actual gods, just create their own gods to suit their needs. So if you have a plumbing problem, they would sort of create, let's say: "Pumbeoya - Goddess of the Waterways in our Sink." And then begin to pray to this "new god".

So the problem in her theology of the religion having a base and then build on top of it what you need is highly flawed. Because as she later put it, those of lower classes without education will not know about the base, so their creation of their own god or goddess is pagan worship, at least in my opinion. It seems like a lot of this could be seen as two priests sitting in a small dark room with a pencil and paper coming up with random names and little stories and feeding it to the people who will believe it. Of course I am sure that a lot of other faiths would view Christianity in much the same light.

All of this Hindu theology really doesn't make any sense at all for me. I get the point that it can be viewed as a very open, less controlling religion. That is very attractive to many people. But it is a religion without any consequences or punishments for those that break rules. The only thing that they have is karma. With karma, though, if you make a bad mistake, to fix it you just go and give money to the poor, or help your neighbor fix his roof. You can get out of trouble. There is nothing that will truly keep a practitioner accountable for what they do in life.

With Christianity, yes there is a book of laws, stories, lessons, wisdom literature, and revelations of the apocalypse that was written a few hundred years ago. But it is a living word, it is continuously changing. It is the Word of God given so his people may interpret his will. I will read a passage in Romans, and for whatever circumstance I am in it will shed light on what God may intend for me to do. Two weeks later, different situation, same passage, different intention for me from God. It is a living, changing word. Christianity is very much a relationship of love, faith, and trust in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his blood, had his body broken, so that we may join him in paradise for eternity, not come back to this hell hole as a beetle or a rat if we were bad.

That relationship that we have with Jesus is continuously changing. If we do wrong in Gods eyes, we have to repent or he will punish us much the same way a father will punish his son, or a mother her daughter. We will lose favor with him, not love, just his favor and his blessings. So we repent of our wrong doings to create a right relationship with our Father in Heaven. We are continuously tempted to do evil, to do wrong and become sinful in his eyes. That temptation and ability to repent for our wrongdoings it was defines our relationship, changing it in the different trials and tribulations that we as Christians go through in life. Non-Christians are broken, and it shows in their daily lives, they are broken and have holes in their lives that no matter what they try they are unable to fix. As Christians we are very much broken humans, but we are also made whole through the actions of our Savior Jesus Christ.

The differences between Hinduism and Christianity become more apparent. Hinduism is a religion based upon the whims of the practitioner, and Christianity is a religion that is a relationship built on the trust and faith of the salvation and grace granted to us by the sacrifice of God's only son, Jesus Christ.

One thing I find very interesting, is that many religions or mythologies have a Jesus figure. How are Jesus Christ and Krishna the same? I will address what I believe on that issue in my next post.

In Christ's Love,

Eric