Baal-worship and The
Long Delay
 Do We Recognize
Baal-worship?
It needs to be
repeated that many Seventh-day Adventists are under the delusion that
Baal-worship primarily has something to do with sun-worship and climaxed
with the apostasy at Mt. Carmel. Others would add that it is also the
infiltration of worldly and even pagan influences into our church. It
would be mentioned, for instance, the growing trend to have Easter
sunrise services; the increasing display of symbols of the cross in
various arrangements in our church architecture but which was shunned in
former times as a sign of the Roman Church. Others would refer to the
growing fashion of ear rings, wedding bands and other jewelry. Some
would suggest that the ordination of priestesses in the Adventist Church
is to accept the heritage of Baal-worship with roots in Babylon and
cannot in any sense be supported from the Bible.
A growing number
of "traditional" Adventists readily enumerate increasing
apostasy, financial and theological corruption and label this
Baal-worship. In a certain crude sense all of this and much more may be
true. But in reality these evils are but altarpieces in the temple of
Baal. They constitute the outer trappings that conceal a deeper and more
subtle deception; a deception so refined as to situate itself in the
midst of the most conservative orthodox Pharisees that we have in our
church. Every last one of us stands in danger!
Of all the perils
that Jesus foresaw as He looked beyond Olivet into the future, none
stand larger than the warning against Baal-worship. Listen to Him:
"There shall
arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and
wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very
elect" (Matthew 24:24).
Who are the
"elect"? If we are not the very ones to whom this special
warning was sent by Jesus, then we have no reason to exist. Surely the
Lord would not stoop to send us in 1888 "a most precious
message" that was to be brought "prominently before the
world," if He did not want us to understand clearly the difference
between truth and error.4 The confrontation at Mt. Carmel is but
a dim shadow of the terrible battle facing God’s people today. A false
Christ is nothing more than a modern Baal. The struggle facing the
Remnant Church is not just one of apostasy and deteriorating standards,
but rather the commandeering of the whole system of salvation by the
great archenemy himself, or as we have been told, "Satan ... trying
to carry on the work of God."5
A mere
denunciation of backsliding and worldliness, or a call to more fervent
Christian experience, or what some would call a
"relationship," is not enough. The thrust of Satan’s
deception is to erect Baal in the heart of every believer without the
believer being aware of the transfer of allegiance. This accounts for
thousands praying to a Jesus who has left His former work and now
ministers in the holy of holies within the veil—and they know it not.
The "elect" must know the lie of Baal-worship. The truth they
have been given must overcome Laodicean stupor, destroy it and cast down
every idol of Baal.
The resolution of
this conflict and the perfection of God’s people involves more than
celestial book work. Merely opening the heavenly archives and checking
the books will not resolve the issues of sin and righteousness. The
"elect" must know Baal-worship for what it really is. Truth is
being contested. The struggle to assimilate and understand this truth
constitutes the "shaking."6
Baal-worship is Not Yet Dead
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