Have you ever been slapped in the face? Stings, doesn’t it? Personally, I hate being slapped in the face. But what if someone told you they are slapping you to save your life? I wouldn’t buy it.
Well, this is exactly what happened out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on July 30, 1945. The USS Indianapolis was torpedoed & sunk by a Japanese submarine, it took only 12 minutes to be fully submerged. 1,196 sailors were aboard that ship, 300 went down with the ship, which forced approximately 900 to try to “stay alive” in the warm Pacific waters. For three days these sailors had to survive without adequate food and fresh drinking water. As they say, “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!” But out of desperate thirst, some sailors drank, not even caring that the saltwater they were ingesting was slowly killing them. When a person is poisoned by salt, not only will they quickly dehydrate, but the mind will begin to hallucinate – – which in turn caused many of those sailors to swim outside the protective circle of the living, the only defense against hungry tiger sharks. It is estimated over 500 or more men were ravaged by the sharks.
One of the ships doctors demanded the sailors to do everything they could to keep their friends from drinking the water, even “punching” or “slapping” them if they had to. A slap in the face saved lives, and that slap was motivated out of love, not judgment. Every once in a while, we too, out of love, need to slap people. But our society frowns upon it and labels verbal slapping (warnings & rebukes) as judgmental and intolerant.
Everyone has real desires and human needs, but sadly many of those we love reach for saltwater solutions which they believe will help quench their thirst. At first, what they choose to ingest may seem to work, even making you look educated & enlightened; but over time these tempting solutions become deadly. Let me give you some examples:
– Humans all fear the idea of eternal punishment, while at the same time their natural selves still crave personal autonomy and freedom to do as “we wish!” So along comes the cool, hip, trendy voice selling saltwater, “Psst, buddy, drink this: it’s water from the universal fountain and liberal mountain stream, it offers all the freedom of human choice without any of the consequences — all love, no wrath.”
– Every person on earth has been made to desire human touch and intimacy (no one can claim they are more needy than others here), but sadly in our post-modern era, we have wrongly been told that we don’t need to bridle these cravings. It should be your individual right to freely experiment and find personal satisfaction in the arms of a lover of your choice and preference. “Psst, buddy, drink this: it’s called rainbow water. Sure we bottled it from the putrid flowing sewer of perversion, but its packaging & marketing is ingenious and sophisticated…in fact, all the celebrities drink the stuff!”
– Humans want to be right, we have a desire to know and find certainty & purpose in a confusing world; and yet we also do not like it when others disagree with our findings or prove us wrong, especially in the area of spirituality and morality. Here is how the water of tolerance is sold these days, “Just because some cantankerous white men think a 2000-year-old book contains the very words of God doesn’t mean it is so. In fact, drink this water: C. S. Lewis called it the ‘God in the Dock’ brand. God is the one found wanting, his ways are not working, & He and His Son need to be put on trial because I am not sure they even exist. The verdict on Him is still out, but we are certain that mankind is innocent (especially the smarts ones who read philosophy & the poor ones who have been oppressed).”
Have you ever noticed, extremely thirsty people don’t like to listen when saltwater is nearby? So you may need to slap them. But let me warn you ahead of time, it won’t go well. Jesus said something to the effect of “if they hated me they will hate you.” The famed reformer Martin Luther was a master at slapping, especially the pope and his cronies. They didn’t like it so they asked him,
“Martin Luther, will you retract?” Here is his response, “I am bound by scriptures…my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not retract anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.”
I am not sure post-modern people even have a conscience anymore to even go against? To them, saltwater is no longer bad for you…and the sharks probably are not real.
