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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:
So if we want to identify the Priests of Ba'al, we must first identify some
priests. But we have already pointed out that the word "Ba'al" means
"lord," and it should also be evident that the word "Ba'al" has fallen
out of favor, since the present Ba'al system considers too many people
familiar with its condemnation under that name in the Scripture.
Therefore we are looking for "Priests of [the] Lord" who, in fact, act
like priests of Ba'al. The first clue, we have alluded to is the
illegitimacy of the priesthood itself.
The
next hallmark of B a'alism that will help us identify the modern priests
of Ba'al will be the other baalim they accept. In other words, the
system has other gods, not just lip service to the Creator God. Ba'alism
always was tolerant of the pantheon of pagan gods and goddesses, but at
the same time found a way to condemn them while accepting them under different
names. Gods and goddesses have always played a major role in the
religions of Egypt, Assyria, Bablyon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Rome
for example had gods for everything, war, child birth, marriage, the gate,
the house, the river, the harvest, the rain, death, the sea, love, and
so on. Typically, one would address his prayers to whatever god or
goddess had control of that department of life or nature related to the
prayer, and so was in a position to answer it. This system of praying
to the gods was converted into the Church's system of addressing prayers
to "saints" whose image was displayed ever so prominently as the old gods.
For the saints are said to have the power to answer the prayers.
They are said to have achieved an exalted state. Thus, this system
is in nature no different than that of the pagans who evolve their heros
to an exalted state where they can interceed in the affairs of the common
man.
Thus with the system of praying to saints we have the old pagan system of prayer to the gods. Only the names have been changed. So the answer the question, "Who are the Prophets of Ba'al" we point to the Church with its Pope's, Patriarch's, Metropolitan's, Cardinals, Archbishops, and Priests, it Maryolatry, it prayers to the gods (saints) and those who have achieved godhood (sainthood).
I also mention some other qualities common to both ancient Ba'alism and its modern version. First, both systems use images of deity quite freely in violation of the second commandment. Both systems downplay the involvement of the Creator God in life. Prayers that ought to have been addressed to Him are now addressed to the gods (saints). Both systems reject the Laws and Decrees of the Creator. Sunday has replaced the Sabbath. Easter has replaced Passover. Both systems evolved rituals at the altar contrary to those ordained for the Levites and Aaronic Priests, viz. worship of the Host, turning wine or grape juice into blood (or so it is asserted).
The Laws of ritual purification have been changed also. Instead of immersion, they sprinkle or pour. They put bones under the altars of their holy places; they do not teach their people to refrain from consuming unclean things. Nor do they prohibit their congregations from approaching a woman at that time of month.
They call him "Lord, Lord"! But is their Lord the same Lord of the Bible? Yeshua said that many who called him "Lord, Lord," but who practiced lawlessness would be rejected out of the kingdom (Matthew 7:21-23). The word "lawlessness" is mistranslated "iniquity" in the KJV. They may claim that their Lord is the same as the Creator, and it is likely the ancient version of Ba'alism claimed that their "Lord" was the Lord of Creation. But Their Lord seems to detest the Laws laid down by the Lord of the Bible.
It is true that the Prophets of Ba'al would have us forget the real Lord of the Bible. His name is Yahweh (), but the translators decided to put "Lord" in all of our translations about 7000 times. That is 7000 times they have yeilded to Ba'al (Lord). The Preface to the Revised Standard Version2 of the Bible (pg. xv) says:
It is traditional to blame this supression of the divine name on the Jews, and so the Christian world tries to acquit itself of violating the divine command, "This is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throught all generations" (Exodus 3:15, RSV). But, it must be pointed out, that the Jews have not erased the divine name from their synagouge Torah scrolls or their pew Bibles. They just do not pronounce it.
Now, it is not wrong to call him "Lord," for he is master, and there is nothing sinister about the word "Ba'al" either. For our people did call him that. But Yahweh has promised that he will ban the word in the Age to Come (Hosea 2:16)1.
So we conclude that the modern Propehts of Ba'al are alive, well, and influential, and that they make their headquarters in the Vatican.
1. The KJV has LORD. It ought to be Yahweh! And not one of the other translations is correct on this verse. The definition of Ba'al in BDB (The New Brown-Driver-Brigss-Gesenius Hebrew-Aramaic Lexicon) is, "owner, lord" and also "husband."
2. The New Oxford Annotated Bible With
The Apocrypha, edited by Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger,
Oxford University Press, Copyright 1973, 1977.
legacy name: www.parsimony.org