Who are the Prophets of Ba'al?

The Ancient Prophets of Ba'al had their own priests.  In fact they were called Cohen Haba'al (Hebrew for Priests of the Ba'al).  They had their own sacrificial system, and their own pantheon of gods.  They did not, however, leave the creator God out of their system.  Yahweh was "honored" as their chief God.  They gave him a consort called "Astarte," or "Ashoreth," a female deity with the title "Queen of Heaven" (Jer. 44:15-30).  Ba'alism was the besetting sin of the People of God.  Today, it is no different.  Ba'alism is still what God's people fall into when they fall out of the true Biblical Religion.

You may ask,  "Where is Ba'alism today?"  I don't see any priests of ba'al!  The reason that you don't is because the religion of ba'alism is master at disguise and mixing truth with error.  Its basic nature remains the same, but it takes different outward forms depending on the age, and the sophistication of humanity.  If I told you what it was, you might not believe me. 

A true understanding of Ba'alism starts with understanding the most basic things about it.  First the word itself.  "Ba'al" means, "Lord," "Master," or "Husband."  It's plural means "Lords" "Masters," or "Husbands."  The gods of Ba'alism were thus called "The Lord,"  "The Lords," or "The Master."  The Scripture does us a favor and leaves out the definite article "the" before "Ba'al," because the "Lord" of Ba'alism is in fact not recognizable as the creator God, Yahweh.  For the priests of Ba'al (Lord) gave their Lord qualities and characteristics that would not fit the creator God, and they worshiped their "Lord" in a fashion that the Lord Yahweh would find repugnant and repulsive. 

Ancient Ba'alism was much more violent than the modern version.  Then the sacrificed their children to some of the "lords," and ate their flesh.  That is in fact the original origin of the word "Cannabal" (Cohen Ba'al) (The Two Bablyons, pg. 232).  But the modern world does not tolerate such barbarism any more, because the last reformation had a major impact on the human race.  The teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth (known as Jesus to most people) had a major moral impact on the peoples of the world.  So modern Ba'alism had eliminated that from their system.  That does not mean it cannot ever come back.

The last major apostacy that led into Ba'alism occured between the second and fifth centuries of the common era.  It began in the second century or late first century after the fall of Jerusalem, in which the true Levitical priests lost their position of respect and power, even if they did not lose their legitimate right to be the only priests.  The vanguard of the apostacy came from those sects of Judaism which did not accept the Levitical priesthood.  These would be sects similar to the Essenes, the Elephatine Jews, or Alexandrian Jews.  The sentiments of these sects, or others like them, found their way into sympathetic Gentile sects, which were nominal converts to Messianic Judaism.  These were Gentiles who responded to the power of the Messianic Message, but who did not want to walk in the Laws of the God of Israel. 

Now the pagan Gentile world had continually up to that time had its own priests and priestesses, who did sacrifice, so it was only natural for them to appoint their own priests or to exaggerate the concept of priesthood as applied to themsleves.  This is why as early as the end of the first century (ca. 90 c.e.) we find Yeshua referring to "Nicolaitans" and the sin of Baalam in Revelation.  The character of the Nicolaitans can, in fact, be determining by translating this Greek word into English, "overcoming laity," "conquering the people," or "ruling the laity."  This is actually what priests do.  They serve as the judges of the people.  Only, in the case of an illegitimate priesthood seizing power, this must be construed as usurpation of power over the common people. 

Again these priests who took power are referred to by Philip Schaff in his History of the Christian Church: