Salt, in one form or the other, comprises most of the earth's crust in the form of rocks. sedimentary deposits, or as dissolved ingredients of the ocean and landlocked lakes, To most of us the word salt means common table salt or sodium chloride, but there are many other compounds that qualify for that title. Common salts such as chlorides, sulfides, fluorides. carbonates, phosphates, sulfates, silicates, borates, etc., are chemically defined as compounds made up of a metal and a nonmetal. This would be a compound of an element (metal) from the left side of the periodic table of the elements with an element (nonmetal) from the right side. These elements are not bound together as molecules, but exist as ions. or positively and negatively charged atoms, trapped in a crystalline lattice. When these crystals are placed in water they are torn apart by the polarized water molecules and become invisible, and we say that the salt has dissolved. Actually, the particles are still there, but they are too small to be seen, and we know that if the water is evaporated, the salt recrystallizes; therefore there has been no chemical reaction. Sometimes the solution has a distinctive color, but usually it is colorless.
Plants can manufacture vitamins, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins, but they cannot manufacture minerals, and most of the minerals in the earth's topsoil are in the form of salts. Since these salts are mostly water soluble, this means that a lot of these soluble salts have been leached out of the soil in the approximately 4,000 years since it began to rain on the earth. These dissolved salts have ended up in the oceans and inland lakes such as Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea. No doubt the oceans were fresh water to begin with, and they have become more and more salty down through the centuries since the Flood. In fact, this increase in saltiness has been mathematically extrapolated, assuming zero salinity initially and a constant rate of leaching, it has been estimated that it would take about 4,000 years to arrive at its present state of salinity. It is said that over eighty percent of the mineral content of the top soil world wide has washed into the oceans. This means that the plants we eat have less than twenty percent of the minerals that were in the plants that Adam and Eve ate. Need we stress the importance of mineral supplements in our diet.
Isn't it very appropriate that God has chosen to refer to His followers and the gospel message as salt? As salt covers the earth, so we are to cover the earth with the salt of the good news of salvation, and that message flavors our language, our entertainment, the things we eat and watch and listen to. Satan has been steadily leaching and adulterating that sacred salt with a flood of false doctrine and tradition, so that the world has become almost saltless. How important it is that we supplement our spiritual diet by a daily study of God's word and prayer so that we can become "the salt of the earth."
