Covenant Presbyterian Church

In several Old Testament texts, the reader of holy Scripture is given a glimpse into the seedier side of paganism. For example, you may remember several references to the fertility cult of Baal, the supreme male deity of the Ancient Near East, who together with his female consort, Ashtoreth (called Ishtar by the Assyrians) was sexually depicted and similarly worshipped (Jud. 2:13; 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:3,4). In the days of Elijah, Baal worship was again prominent through Ahab, the evil king of Israel, and his wife Jezebel, the Sidonian princess, whose name meant "Baal exalts" or "Baal is husband to." As the priests of Baal danced upon Mt. Carmel, they were cutting themselves in a frenzied attempt to obtain Baal’s ear (1 Kings 18:28,29).

Baal worship was visibly a fertility cult. Through sacrifices and orgiastic worship practices, the worshipper was not only hoping to appease Baal, thus bringing greater fertility in his economic, domestic, and societal affairs, he was also participating in the chaos in an effort to overcome it. Baal was thought to be the "Lord of chaos," and only through giving oneself over to violence and sexual ecstasy could the forces of nature be conquered, thus allowing life to "return to normal." Hence, Baal worship was more fundamentally concerned with power - man seeking to control the forces of nature by descending into the abyss of depravity and emerging from the slime victorious.

Baal worship has never gone away. It was practiced throughout the Ancient Near East. Several New Testament cities, especially Corinth, were centers of this religion, though the goddess’ name was then Aphrodite; same impulse but a different political party. Under other names, the ancient Roman Empire was also dedicated to power religion. This is evident not only in its public deification of Caesar, but also in its Bacchanalia and Saturnalia, in which the worshippers gave themselves over to sexual depravity and violence. The same idea prevailed; as the worshipper gives vent to his primal lusts, he participates in the chaos and triumphs over it.
Modern examples of Baal worship abound. The French Revolution, with all its outward allegiance to "Reason," was actually a revolt against reason into the realm of utter irrationality: bloodthirsty violence (the Guillotine) and rampant sexual perversity. At the height of the chaos a local whore was paraded through the streets of Paris clothed with nothing but a banner that read, "Reason." The sexual revolution in the United States in the 60-70’s was also a descent into the chaos of unrestrained sexuality and psychedelic drugs in order to achieve "control" and "meaning." Even the modern homosexual movement tips its cap to Baal. A growing number of homosexual men engage in reckless perversity in order to acquire the AIDS virus. The reason: once they have it, they have gained control over the disease and may then pursue their immorality without fear.
You might tend to dismiss this as an irrelevant foray into perversity, and admittedly, ancient and modern "Baal" worship is one of those religions of which Paul says, "It is shameful to speak of the things that they do in secret." It also, however, gives us insight into the depravity of the human heart; depravity is the personal and cultural constant of unbelieving man. He is on the run. He can neither understand nor control nature or himself. Yet he is plagued by guilt. At the core of his being he would be as God, defining good and evil for himself. And because he cannot escape from God, he gives free reign to the very impulses that are the cause of his guilt and sense of alienation. He hopes that by indulging them he may escape them. Nothing, however, has succeeded. The cultic worship of Baal led to the decline and eventual destruction of the ancient pagan civilizations that sought to overcome man’s creatureliness by indulging his basest passions. Roman militarism did not create the Pax Romana so praised in modern revisions of actual Roman history. It only changed the name of the gods by which local municipalities sought to escape from the authority of the one true God. The Roman Empire collapsed from within before it was ever conquered from without. The cult of reason, i.e., the en-Darkenment, similarly gave way immediately to the same principle of debauchery that has at last left Europe a sterile, impotent, and almost-extinct civilization.
Baal worship, you must understand, is not primarily about sexual license and violence. It exists whether or not men even know the name "Baal." It does not require worship services in the usual sense of the term. Baal worship is the human heart given over by God to reprobation. Fallen man hates God. He would do whatever it takes to escape from God’s claims upon his life. The triune God responds by giving him over to his basest passions; the given-over sinner capitulates in a last, furious attempt to escape from the guilt that gnaws and the conscience that calls. He would be the "Baal," the "Lord," the master of the chaos. He wants to indulge his appetites without fear of ultimate condemnation or temporal judgment. He would be God. This was Satan’s first lie and his constant deception throughout human history.
And thus we arrive at our day. Baal is alive and well in the United States; "he" has been for some time. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, survivors lined up for blocks around a local brothel. Why? The impulse of Baal, of man as God, released the furious desire within the depraved human heart to silence its guilt and fear by giving way to unbridled passion. Nature is against us; let us appease it by embracing the chaos of the moment. The "Hippie Movement" sought escape from maturity through similar sex and drug-induced ecstasy. The present practice of distributing prophylactics to middle and high school age children, all at tax-payer expense, is a very pertinent example of Baal worship. The stated reason is to prevent the spread of STDs and unwanted pregnancies. Why? Irresponsible young people and perversity-assisting government agents want to give free reign to their impulses without any possible repercussion from nature, from nature’s God. We can control and manipulate nature and still enjoy the "liberty" of sexual license. This is Baal worship. It matters not that the school nurse’s office does not say, "Office of Baal" on the door. It is the cult of Baal, of man seeking to control and escape from the order of nature imposed by God so that he can live as he pleases without fear of consequences. This is our culture. The priests and prophets of Baal are alive and well. They are legislating perversity. Political parties are irrelevant. Most serve Baal - fallen man attempting to create a new order through embracing the chaos in order to control it. It is all to no avail. Man cannot escape from God. He cannot escape from his creaturehood.
Sometimes Baal worship does not take the more egregious forms of ancient legend and modern practice. Postmodernism is also Baal worship. Postmodernism embraces radical skepticism. Since no one knows anything for sure, all truths claims are equally valid, equally invalid. Choose your own truth system; tolerate every other truth system. This is not only philosophical gibberish, but it is also a delightful development for fallen men who wish to escape from the responsibility of seeking truth. Postmodernism says, "Seeking truth is a waste of time; follow your impulses, your feelings, your reason." The radical moral relativism that accompanies postmodernism revels in this development. There is no such thing as sin. Conscience is a creation of culture. No one can judge you. Reassert your autonomy, your authenticity, your right to live as you please without fear of judgment. Create your own chaos. Postmodernism is Baal worship in its final philosophical garb. Every man is his own god, defining reality, good and evil for himself. Postmodernism is thus inseparable from power politics. Since there is no standard of judgment, the only arbiter is political power; whoever possesses political power gets to define reality. Baal worship, whether in ancient imperial or current postmodern form, always produces statism. Only in the all-powerful state can men finally escape from claims of God, yield the authority of God to the state, and seek protection from the nature he dreads in the state.
The temptation to Baal worship was strong in ancient Israel. Israel often adopted Baal worship as a means to serve Jehovah. Against this God frequently warned the nation, even at the very beginning of its existence: "When the Lord your God shall cut off the nations from before you, where you go to possess them, and you succeed them, and dwell in their land; take heed to yourself that you are not snared by following them, after that they are destroyed from before you; and that you enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. You shall not do so unto the Lord your God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hates, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods" (Deut. 12:29-31). The people of God must maintain an antithesis, a distinctive difference, between the pure, divinely revealed worship of the living God and the perverse, power-grabbing, licentious worship of Baal. The New Testament church also struggled against Baal worship. In Corinth, believers were seeking to join participation in the local temple, with its idolatry and sexual license, to the worship of God in Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 10:1-13). The outcome of both instances was the same: warning and judgment.
Yet what do we see in the church today? Even apart from the "regular" forms of idolatry in which God is worshipped through all sorts of human creations that have no warrant from Scripture, how many professing Christians and professing Christian congregations have succumbed to the spirit of Baal worship? "Since we cannot control the forces aligned against us, let us join with them at some level." This is evident in Christian political practices, where we align ourselves with modern Baal worshippers in order to preserve ourselves, dally with pornography because we can then have a twisted experience of God’s forgiving grace, commit fornication with our boyfriend because we hope to find love and meaning thereby, and invite pagan worship practices into our service: the unbridled frenzy of the "rock" concert, the "name it and claim it" movement where God’s sovereignty is replaced by man’s desires and "faith" manipulation, the replacing of the preached word with the movie in search of a power that will attract men and defeat Satan. This is Baal worship in the church, not much different from ancient Israel and New Testament Corinth. To overcome the chaos we see all around us, we must join it.
No, we do not. The only chaos in the world is that created by human depravity. We will not overcome evil by joining it, even a little, even if we hope to use it to accomplish good. Against Baal worship, the grace of God has appeared in Jesus Christ teaching us to deny ungodly lusts and lead holy lives in the world. The only power in the world is the power of God unto salvation through the preached word of Jesus Christ, effectually applied by the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit. We are saved not by controlling nature but by submitting to the God who made nature as a reflection of his own glory and goodness. Baal worship has no future. It is Satanic. And Satan has been crushed. There is only one future in the world, only one hope to save man from his guilt and justified sense of alienation from God. He must repent and turn back to his Creator and Savior. He alone has the power to defeat our lusts and replace our depravity with his love and light.
Dear Christian, modern Baal worship is unfortunately not limited to the above-mentioned examples. The mid-life crisis of white American males is nothing but the attempt to discover the fountain of youth through sexual chaos. The married couple seeking to rejuvenate biblical conjugality through the use of pornography is also Baal worship. Living beyond our means on credit is Baal worship, the delusion that we will escape the order of the world through financial license. Examples are infinite. Be sure you follow the example of Gideon, whose other name, Jerubbaal, means the "Baal-buster." Contend with this spirit. Fight against idolatry in your life. Resist the temptation to join with the forces of evil at any level. They have been defeated. Christ Jesus our Savior is the Creator and Savior of nature. He holds all power in his hand. Before the sword coming out of his mouth, all the Baals will be reduced to rubble.