Good For Nothing Christians
by Chuck Baldwin
July 10, 2009

“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,” Matt. 5:13 KJV.

Jesus said that salt without savor is “good for nothing.” Savor is the ingredient, the character that gives salt its quality–and its value. When salt is as it should be, it is a most precious commodity. Not only is it used as a seasoning; it is, more importantly, a preservative. As most everyone knows, salt was the primary source of food preservation before the days of refrigeration. Salt has been deemed to be so valuable at times that wars have actually been waged over it. During times of unusual deprivation, salt can be even more valuable than precious metals. But when salt loses its saltiness, it is absolutely worthless; it is “good for nothing.”

Jesus plainly proclaimed that He viewed His disciples as being the salt of society. In other words, when believers have the character they should have, they provide the preservation of the land. They hold back and retard the putrefying properties of spoilage and decay. But when Christians lose their character, when they lose the internal resistance to decay, they become “good for nothing” and the result is, the land is “trodden under foot of men.”

It grieves me to say that, for the most part, the modern Christian, the modern pastor, and the modern church have lost their savor. Taken as a whole, we have lost our inner character: the ability to resist decay and preserve the land has long departed, and America is fast being “trodden under foot of men.”

Our churches are no longer places of respite from the world: they are mirrors of it: the same dress; the same attitudes; the same carnality; the same spirit; the same stubbornness; the same pride. Churches are no longer bastions of truth: they are glorified social clubs or mere corporations, where Christianity is never allowed to interfere with business. Instead of being watchmen on the wall, our pastors are CEOs or, even worse, politicians. Popularity and personal ambition far outweigh commitment to truth and an independent mind. And as for Christian homes, forget it. The modern American home is straight out of Isaiah chapter three: “babes shall rule over them.” In the average “Christian” home, children rule the mothers, and mothers, in turn, rule the fathers. Discipline and instruction are out; leniency and ignorance are in.

We have a pandemic all right, but it’s not the swine flu: it is a pandemic of spineless Christianity. Parents who cannot stand up to their own children; pastors who cannot stand up to their own congregations; religious leaders who cannot stand up to politicians; and churches that cannot stand up to unconstitutional government.

Our so-called “conservative Christian” special interest groups are far more concerned about not losing financial contributions than they are about confronting the real evils of society. And as far as the Religious Right is concerned, it lost its soul somewhere early on in the first administration of George W. Bush.

If one is looking for someone to blame America’s demise on, don’t look to the prostitutes, drug dealers, or crooked politicians: look no further than the doorsteps of America’s churches. While the ominous clouds of oppression and tyranny boil overhead, our churches are content to play kid games and wallow in their own materialism and laziness. I realize there are exceptions to the rule, of course, but they are few and far between.

Sadder still is the lack of anything on the horizon that points to any kind of spiritual awakening. Look at the churches that are growing: for the most part, they are of the Joel Osteen and Rick Warren variety, where conviction has been replaced with compromise, and popularity has replaced principle. Genuine Bible prophets usually occupy the pulpits where hardly anyone attends. Truth has been replaced with entertainment, and calls for repentance are drowned out by the clamor for prosperity theology.

I can tell you from personal experience that, in more than 34 years of Gospel ministry, it has never been harder to continue to carry the torch of truth than it is today. It takes a toll on one’s physical health and emotional being, and even on one’s family. Any pastor desiring to carry the torch of truth today need not expect to have many friends. And any evangelist desiring to carry the torch of truth today need not expect to get many meetings. Truth is about as popular as a bad case of the measles, and yes, I mean among today’s professing “Christians.”

Should it surprise us, then, that we see the encroachment of our liberties and the erosion of constitutional government coming hard and fast? Should it surprise us that America is losing its conscience–not to mention our heritage? Should it surprise us when we see hundreds of large, empty internment camps popping up everywhere? Should it surprise us when we read of would-be tyrants in Washington, D.C., trying to pass egregious legislation that would strip us of our Bill of Rights? Should it surprise us when we see multinational corporations working with foreign governments to erode the sovereignty of these United States? Should it surprise us when we see both Republican and Democratic Presidential administrations look the other way while our borders are being invaded and even erased?

When the salt loses its savor, it is “cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” And that is exactly what is happening to us today.

Does all this make me fatalistic? Not at all. I am absolutely convinced that God will always reserve to Himself a faithful remnant and a land of liberty for those who desire it. But before we talk about the land, we must be sure that our hearts are willing to pay the price to obtain it. We’ll leave that discussion for another time.