Modern Baal Worship

In the Old Testament, Israel was rebuked repeatedly because of the worship of Baal—a god worshipped in many ancient Middle Eastern communities. The Canaanites apparently considered him a fertility deity and one of the most important gods in the pantheon. He was also called the Lord of Rain and Dew, the two forms of moisture that were indispensable for fertile soil in Canaan. 

Although Israel was a nation who followed the Lord, it is apparent at certain times throughout the history of Israel they would forsake the worship of the Lord for the worship of Baal or would attempt to blend the two. They would become complacent and begin to make compromises and let sin corrupt them little by little. 

Finally, God would send a prophet of warning who would call the nation to repentance. When they repented God, would have mercy on them, but often they would refuse, and God would bring judgment. In some cases this meant hardship, slavery, exile, and the destruction of their land.

The message of the prophet isn’t usually well received especially when the prophet comes into an evil situation and calls for people who are comfortable in compromise to repent and turn from their sinful ways. America is no different and neither is the American church. The Lord is calling us to return to holiness and return to his Word, because if we repent and turn from our wickedness God will heal our land. 

If My People…
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 
2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV) 

God doesn’t say that if everyone in our country repents he will heal our land, God says, “If my people, which are called by name.” If pastors, teachers, preachers, and Christians of all kinds will humble themselves and pray, and seek his face, and turn from their wicked ways, then he will hear us from heaven, forgive our sins, and heal our land. 

The Lord will not heal our land until we once again preach against sin. Many pastors across this country need to pray and ask forgiveness because they have reduced their pulpits to self-esteem clinics and turned the church into a social club and house of entertainment. They have become houses without correction and without reproof. 

Standing Against Idolatry
What should we be standing against? We should stand against all idolatry and what I call “modern Baal worship” in our country. The three basic tenets of Baal worship are child sacrifice, sexual immorality, and worship of animals and creation. 

How is culture imitating these forms of idolatry today? We legally sacrifice children at the altar of convenience in abortion clinics. The fact that we as the church of God are not completely outraged by this and don’t rebuke our culture regularly for these atrocities, just shows how cold our hearts have truly grown. 

Ten times more babies have been killed in the comfort of an air-conditioned, legal abortion clinics than Jews who were heartlessly slaughtered during the Holocaust. God, forgive our nation for exterminating precious lives that you created because we think our lives are too important to be bothered with a baby. 

I have witnessed those who shy away from talking about the sin of abortion, and many other sins that are political hot buttons, because they say they would rather talk about the love, mercy, and forgiveness of God. But once again let me remind you that there is no forgiveness for a sin that you don’t acknowledge as sin. 

The beauty about preaching the truth is that it leads people to repentance. Instead of pretending like there is no sin, we should be preaching about sin so that people will feel conviction from the Holy Spirit and come to repentance. We have abandoned holiness to “reach the world.” 

But without holiness and a set-apart life in Christ we will not see God, nor will we be able to reflect on God. Instead of minimizing sin we should preach the holiness and justice of God. It is in light of truth that we present an honest view of the love and mercy of God as displayed in the gospel. 

Sexual Immorality
The second tenet of Baal worship is sexual immorality. We are a culture immersed in immorality. We have become so used to it that we hardly notice it anymore. If you took someone in a time machine from the 1950s and transported them to today, they would be utterly shocked by the comparison of that culture and ours. Not that sexually immorality wasn't around then, but the difference is that today we celebrate it. 

Pop culture encourages young people to engage in sex with many different partners. We market everything from car insurance to candy bars with half-naked women. 

The objectification of women through pornography is so commonplace that much of what was once called pornography now is normalized to the point that children watch it, and what is considered smut is so vile that nudity and images of intercourse don’t qualify anymore. Homosexuality has been culturally accepted to the point that if you speak out against it you are called a bigot because this has become normal and acceptable behavior. 

The next wave of wickedness comes in the form of transgenderism and now children are being dressed up like the opposite sex and paraded around at gay pride marches. Meanwhile we argue if men should be able to go into women’s dressing rooms and restrooms if they are dressed like women. All the while, the American church is afraid to speak up because they don’t want to be called judgmental, or upset false converts, or put the building project behind schedule. 

I heard one preacher say that if God doesn’t judge America, God would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. I’m not saying that, but let’s be honest: The hand of judgment is already at the door and anyone who has ears let them hear. We are completely depraved, and God will not put up with sexual immorality forever. Don’t confuse his mercy and his patience with tolerance or acceptance. One day, God’s mercy and patience will give way to his justice. 

Forgetting the Creator
The third tenet of Baal worship is worship of nature and animals. I believe in being good stewards of God’s provision and his creation, but the secular atheists of environmentalism go far beyond stewardship and have crossed into idolatry. It’s a slap in the face to the Creator of the universe when we marvel at the beauty and vastness of the universe and pay no mind to the Creator of the universe. 

Environmental extremism is a symptom of a culture that thinks that it can literally control what God has made and what only he can truly maintain. If the world had any less gravity, we would drift off into space; if it had any more gravity, we would all be crushed from the weight of it. If the temperature of the human body goes up or down by as little as seven degrees, you would instantly die. 

Not only do some within our culture value animal life more than human life, we also in our weakness have tried to attach the origin of our species to mere created things rather than to the Creator of all things. 

There is no reconciling the American culture to the gospel, the Scripture, or to God. We will sit under his wrath unless we begin to weep and wail and repent of our wickedness. The Scripture says that those who live like this are storing up wrath for themselves on the day of judgment. Those who reject the truth are storing up wrath, but those of us who bear the title of pastor or teacher should realize this applies to those who suppress the truth as well. 

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 

Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” 
Romans 1:18-32 (NIV) 

A Call to Repentance
The only way we can ever break the yoke of sin that is destroying our country, the church, and our own hearts, is to repent and turn from wickedness. Freedom from sin is found in the gospel because it brings salvation to everyone who believes. 

Salvation happens when we become aware of our sin, repent of our sin and surrender our lives to Christ. It’s by faith and true belief in him that we not only find salvation but freedom from sin. Faith is knowing that we stand justified before God and will be held blameless for our sins. 

This is what it means when the Scripture says, “for in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed” (Romans 1:17). When we preach a gospel without repentance we have a gospel without a remedy for sin, and if we don’t deal with our sin we will never see God because a holy God cannot coexist with sin. Christ as revealed in the gospel is the one and only remedy for sin.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” 
Romans 1:16-17 (NIV) 

In Christ,

Pastor Joshua

Joshua West is a pastor, evangelist, and author. He is also director of the World Challenge Pastors Network.