The Salt of the Earth

Some years ago I heard a song that I believe was named “The Hands of an Angry God,” and it seems to me that it was a Scott Wesley Brown song, but I haven’t been able to find any mention of such a song by him, anywhere, but I did find a reference to a song that was, at least, very similar by Steve Camp, but I can’t find it in his discography, either. I personally really liked the song, even though I found it somewhat convicting. I suspect that the song was not as popular as I think it should have been because a lot of other people were convicted by it as well. The verses talk a lot about why God is angry at mankind in general (and the listener, specifically), but then the chorus talks about the sacrifice that God made on the cross. “The hands of an angry God are pierced and bleeding…” We, as a people, have done much to make God angry. We, as a people, deserve to have the wrath of God poured out on us. We, as a people, should be extremely grateful that God has chosen to make a way for us to escape. In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, before God sent His angels to destroy the two cities, He told Abraham about His plan. Abraham, understandably, became very concerned, because, although he knew the type of people that lived in those cities, he also knew that his nephew Lot lived there. Abraham attempted to bargain with God. “Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked?” That was a gamble, in and of itself, because he hadn’t seen Lot in some time, and couldn’t be completely sure that Lot hadn’t adopted the lifestyle of the Sodomites, but he thought Lot was still a righteous man. Abraham probably wondered to himself why a righteous man would live in Sodom, but he had faith in his nephew. But, in keeping with his assertion that God would not destroy the righteous with the wicked, he asked God if he would destroy the city if He found fifty righteous there. God assured Abraham that He would not. Abraham talked God down to ten (which, of course, was easy for God, since He already knew there weren’t ten moral people living in the entire city of Sodom). Think about that for a moment, though. How many people lived in Sodom? We don’t know, but probably several thousand, maybe tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands. How big of a percentage is ten out of the population of an entire city? I think we can safely say less than one percent. Statisticians sometimes use the term, ‘statistically significant.’ To be statistically significant, a result must be unlikely to have occurred by chance. It is entirely possible for a result to be statistically significant, and still not be actually significant. The point is that there was a very small number of righteous people living in Sodom when the angels arrived and met with Lot. The experts would probably say that the number of moral people was not statistically significant. I would have to agree, if only because God destroyed the city anyway; at the same time, though, He offered them an escape so those people were clearly actually significant.Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth. Salt can be used for a lot of different things, but these days we mostly use it just to add flavor to foods that we eat. Not too many years ago, though, sailors used salt as a preservative. Meat that was salt-cured could be eaten many days after, without refrigeration, and with no ill effects. Think about that for a minute: If Lot had a bigger family, Sodom might not have been destroyed, they might have been able to preserve the city. We are the salt (the preservative) of the earth. We have a tremendous responsibility to remain righteous, because salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under feet of men; if we stop being righteous (if we lose our savor-the quality that makes us salt), then we are no longer serving as a preservative, and all we are is dirt (fit to be walked on); just as we were before God gave us life (we become spiritually dead-even if our bodies are still walking around).

Does God Know the Future?

Let us suppose that I have a friend who is convinced that if he can get an anvil into the air, he can levitate it using his mental powers. He has gone to a lot of trouble to build a gallows-type arrangement, and set an anvil on the trap door. He has asked me to come witness his grand performance. I, having a great deal less confidence in his levitation abilities, predict that, when he opens the trap door, the anvil will come crashing to earth. He calls me a skeptic, and proceeds with his performance. He concentrates on the anvil just as hard as he can, and when he feels that he is ready, he releases the trap door, and the anvil falls to the ground. Thud. He then becomes extremely angry at me; obviously, the problem isn't that he can't levitate the anvil; the problem is that I am using my mental abilities to counter his, just so that my prediction will come true. I am, at this point, starting to suspect that it isn't a question of who has what ability; it's a question of which of us is mental (and I'm as confident in my assessment of that as I was of the anvil not floating in midair). There is a clear confusion of cause and effect. Just because I knew what would happen, doesn't mean that I caused it to happen. There is a big difference between knowing something will happen, and causing it to happen.
It has come to my attention that some people object to the idea that God knew the end from the beginning, on the grounds that we have freedom of choice. If we truly have freedom of choice, then, the logic goes, God couldn't possibly know the outcome of the culmination of all those choices. It seems to me that this idea is essentially rooted on the assumption that God can only know what will happen if God causes it to happen. I think that I have shown, in the first paragraph, that we have a limited ability to know what will happen (in certain circumstances) without being the cause. God is much smarter than we are, and he has an unlimited ability to know what will happen without causing those things to happen.
Open Theists like to use examples like, in Genesis 2:19, God brought the animals before Adam to see what Adam would call them. Now, is this an example of Adam having free will, and God waiting on Adam to decide? Shouldn't God have already known what Adam would call the animals? It seems to me that this is an example of empowerment. God is saying, "Adam, I have given you dominion over all the earth, so I want you to start by naming the animals." Now God could have introduced Adam to all the animals, "Adam, this is a horse. If I had let you name this animal, you would have named it a horse, but to save time, I'm going to tell you that it's a horse, so that you don't have to waste time thinking about it." God was willing to give Adam a say in the process, even though God already knew what Adam would say. This was for Adam's benefit, not God's.
In Job 1:11-12, Satan is willing to wager with God over how Job will react. Okay, but nobody ever said that Satan knew the end from the beginning. It was pretty foolish for him to bet against somebody who did, though. If Satan truly understood the end, he would have surrendered a long time ago; but Satan has been betting for ages that God doesn't accurately know the future.
In Genesis 18:23-33, Abraham negotiates with God over the fate of Sodom. This, again, is an example of empowerment. God allowed Abraham to think that he had some say in the process, but, in the end, God did exactly what he told Abraham He was going to do to start with.
In Deuteronomy 1:8, God promised the Israelites that they would enter into the Promised Land, but they didn't. No, actually, the Israelites were ordered to go into the Promised Land, and they refused.
In Exodus 32:7-10, God tells Moses that He will destroy Israel, and create a great nation from Moses, but Moses talks God out of it. Again, God is empowering Moses, and, at the same time, making sure that Moses understands the seriousness of the situation. God already knew what Moses would say, but He’s giving Moses a chance to say it.
The bottom line is, even though God always knows what's going to happen, sometimes He wants us to feel that we have some input. I know that more than once I have gotten myself into a situation, and I prayed about it, and as the situation developed, it became clear that God had answered my prayer before I prayed it. Would He have answered my prayer if I hadn't prayed? I don’t think so, that doesn’t make sense to me. Yet, there it is; He put things in motion before I even asked. It occurs to me, too, that some people think that time is a barrier to God, as it is for us. It isn’t. God created time, and it does not limit Him.