Baal is God: A Second Look at Elijah

Israel had left God. Slowly but surely, the influence of the nations around Israel had corrupted  them and turned their worship to the false god Baal. The leadership of Jezebel had turned the heart of king Ahab, and he had surrendered the nation to the rule of a wicked queen. At least that is the story we are taught from the time we are little kids. We place all the blame on the wicked queen Jezebel. It is true that she was an evil person, we see her in the Bible many times over as a representation of apostate Israel, but would it surprise you if I told you that Jezebel actually worshiped the one true God, and in fact Jesus Christ himself? 

We often see a huge difference between God, and the god that Israel would adulterate with. We have a birds eye view and we can easily see the difference between Jehovah and Baal. Yet to the Israelites it was not this way. You have to understand, the Bible is often written years and years after the fact, at a time when the writer could overlook the entire process and tell you exactly what went down. The process of rejecting Jehovah, however, was not an overnight process. The rejection of God often stretched over a century. A hundred years would pass before a total rejection of God was accomplished. It was small steps and little adjustments in understanding that ultimately led Israel to reject their God. This is what occurred in Elijah's time. 

This is the kicker, Israel did not know they were worshiping the false god Baal! How can I say that though? They called god Baal, they must have known exactly what they were doing. Let me tell you the story of Baal. Baal was the son of El, the almighty God, ruler of heaven and earth, Lord of all and creator of the world. Baal had a great adversary, the great serpent, there was an epic battle fought between these two powers, Baal against this devil. In this struggle over humanity, Baal was killed by the serpent and was dead for several days, yet he did not stay dead, he arose and brought with him life and a new creation. He caused the rain to fall on the earth and brought about all good things. You see, Baal is Jesus. Baal is God himself! You don't believe me still? How about the word of God itself? Isaiah 54:5,    "For thy Maker is thine husband (Baal); the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called." You see, Baal means husband, that word used is actually the word Baal. God calls himself the "Baal" of Israel many many times throughout the Bible. God and Baal are the exact same thing. When Israel turned from the worship of the one true God to the worship of the false god Baal, it was not a total rejection of God himself, but rather a turning away from a true understanding of His character. It only took 100 years for the people of God to misrepresent the character of their redeemer. 

So what was different about the israelite's philosophy of God and the the philosophy of Elijah? It was a very subtle change, it was the idea of judgement and appeasement for sin. You see, Baal required sacrifice in order to be appeased. Baal was upset at humanity for causing his death, his wrath was fearful to behold and it was necessary to sacrificed animals to send a soothing aroma to Baal so that he would continue to save humanity rather then to destroy them by withholding his blessings. To Elijah, God was a God of love who desired friendship. God was personal, he was not angry, he did not need appeasement, he needed friendship. Elijah was the friend of God.

This paints a different view of what happened on mount Carmel that day. The priests of god were desperately trying to appease Baal once and for all. God had withheld the rain for 3 years. It was the wrath of god being poured out on Israel, and they needed to appease him, and so they sought to get his attention with all their actions and works. They prostrated themselves before the throne of god and they begged god for forgiveness. They sacrifice animals, and they punished themselves for their failure by cutting themselves and humbling themselves before their god. And god did not answer. After hours and hours of trying to get the attention of god by their works, the priests of Israel finally sat down in exhaustion and frustration. What more could they do to appease the wrath of god almighty? 

Elijah stands up, he kneels down before the alter, and he prays a simple prayer from a human to his friend, his true Baal, the friend of his life and the ruler of his soul. Elijah had a deep abiding relationship with Jesus, with Baal. And in answer to that relationship Baal answered. Yet even Elijah did not understand his God. He proved it when he fled to the wilderness after the threat from Jezebel. He ran to the wilderness and he sat out there and he complained to God. With ally the fire coming down from heaven, and the deaths of the false prophets, Elijah lost his understanding. God showed him in the wilderness that The Lord is not in the fire, God is not in the rain, or the storm or any thing created. God is a relationship. Elijah heard that still small voice, the voice he had heard many times as he had communed with his friend, and Elijah suddenly realized what God was about. Elijah realized that he had a very similar view of God that all of Israel had. God was something to be manipulated and appeased. He thought that the slaughter of the false prophets would appease God and God would solve all his problems. So you can understand why, at the slightest hint of opposition, Elijah runs. He assumed that God was finally appeased, the rain had come and all would now be better. He thought he had done everything required of him. But that was not what it was about. It was not about proving who's God was more powerful, it was about the revelation of God's character. The character that did not need appeasement, but love and friendship. 

Jesus desires to establish his Holy Spirit in your life. He desires a relationship with you. He does not desire you to change your life, he does not desire you to adjust your works, he does not desire you to become a better person. He desires you to be His friend, that is all, period. End of discussion. Any outward change in your life is the direct result of Jesus abiding with you. Works are the result of God becoming the Baal of your life. Jesus takes care of the change, it is none of your business. Jesus does not desire you to change yourself. He has no interest in your works. 

There is also no such thing as judgement from God. Jesus says in John 5:22 "For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son:" So we know that God the father does not judge you, so the son must then right? Wrong. Jesus says in John 8:15, "You judge by the flesh, I judge no man." Everyone assumes that Jesus said "I judge by the spirit." But he did not, Jesus judges no one. Who does that leave to judge you then? 1 John 3:20 says this, "For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things." And Paul said the following, when speaking to the Jews about their rejection of Christ, "...It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing that you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." (Acts 13:46) The only person that can decide your eternal fate is yourself. Only you can decide if eternal life with Christ is truly what you desire. God does not require appeasement in order to save you, He has already saved you. It is now up to you to decided if eternity is what you desire. 

I want to extend the invitation to you that God extended to Elijah that day in the wilderness. "What Doest thou here Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:9) What are you doing at this point in your life? Why are you running from a relationship with God? Why do you have such objections to God when the answers have already been given? Why do you accuse God of being a vindictive God who is angry at your failures, when it is so plain that he desires nothing but a relationship with you? God did not get angry at Elijah for questioning Him. He does not punish Elijah for his misunderstanding. In fact I believe that God loves it when you question and search, because he has promised that those who search will find (Jer 29:13, Matthew 7:7) God simply speaks to Elijah in a still, small voice and asks a very simple question, "what are you doing?" God has shown himself to you. He has shown himself to be absolute love, will you follow that understanding? Or do you desire a God who requires your good actions in order to save you? The truth is beautiful, why not accept it? 

The Evolution of Man

Because there has recently been a lot going around about evolution and the Adventist church, I thought I would write my perspective on the matter of evolution, Creation, and the Bible. Let me start off by making a ridiculous statement, as I often do. Evolution is no more correct, and no less accurate, than is the general creationist understanding of the origin of man. What I am saying, here, is that both views are equally as wrong.

In 1859, Charles Darwin released his book “Origin of Species” and the world of scientific inquiry changed forever. The world of religious philosophy and methodology changed forever as well. Previous to this release, most scientists were Deists. They viewed God as the ultimate creator of the universe, but nothing more. They saw God and nature as two separate realities; God had no interaction with his creation. For the first time in history, Charles Darwin had actually created a viable theory that appeared logical and seemed to do away with the acting hand of God in creation (see the first two chapters of my book for more information on this subject). The theory at the time was showing much promise for the future, and people were excited to see the scientific evidence to support this theory. Finally, someone had disproven the creation story found in the Bible.

It was not a large leap from disproving the creation story, to the rejection of God all together. If God did not create man, then he really had no purpose for us. We were not inherently special in any way; we were simply a fluke of nature. If we evolved from a single cell, if everything that makes us so complex evolved over time, than what was to say that the very first cell did not evolve over time as well? Even so, most did not reject the possibility of God starting creation, not even Charles Darwin, nor even Darwin's "Bulldog" Thomas Huxley. They still held on to a rudimentary belief in God, even if it was just a Deistic being having no interest in the affairs of man. However, with Einstein's theory of Relativity, and his subsequent discovery of the Big Bang, many scientists, especially biologists, rejected the notion of God all together. The Big Bang does not in fact give any notion that God does not exist. In fact, what Einstein did was state "In the Beginning, God" in scientific and mathematical terms (More on that in my chapter "The Big Bang, God in Disguise"). Never the less, the majority of the scientific community made the assumption that we now had fool proof evidence that God was not needed in this universe. This led to an even bigger surge in the acceptance of evolution. 

One might think that the theory of evolution is completely stupid and that no intelligent person in their right mind could believe such a lie. However, the fact of the matter is that it is a very high probability that we did indeed evolve from a single cell. It is so high, in fact, that many things in existence right now share most of the same DNA with each other. "Ah yes!" you might say, "proof that all creation has a common designer!" Yes, that is a valid point that is not entirely without merit. However, if you come from a standpoint that God does not exist, what does it look like to you? To me, it does indeed look as though everything is related to everything else, not because of a designer, but because of common ancestry. We have seen how things evolve. In fact, we can make chickens go "backwards" in evolution and grow teeth, claws and all sorts of funny things that begin to make them look very much like the dinosaurs of old. Through genetic manipulation, we can make many different types of creations that are mutations of, and in some circumstances appear to be, completely different than the animal they originally were. On a human level our mitochondria do appear to be related to prokaryotic cells and we share 95% of the same DNA with almost everything in existence. The list can go on and on of how similar our make up is to that of everything else. When you cut up a cadaver in the lab, it is nothing more than just a cleverly set up machine of biological processes. It is extremely awesome and awe inspiring, yes, but in the end it is just a collection of biologically active compounds and cells. 

Isn't it absurd to believe that an entire human, in all of its complexity, arose from a single cell? No, it actually isn't. We know today that given the right environment, an entire human can evolve from just two single cells. Two single cells is all that it takes to create an entire human. Do I need to explain the process of conception? "Ridiculous!" you might say, "that happens inside a place that God made just for that purpose!" Yes, you are correct. What if, though, in the not so distant future, mankind creates an artificial womb? I guarantee you it is not a long way off and is not outside the realm of possibility at all. The only thing stopping us from making such advancements is likely Christians and their superstitions about creating life. So what is my point? Humans can (and do, on a daily bases) evolve from single cells, just as evolution suggests. The only difference is that it takes nine months instead of four hundred million years.

I told you that both creationists and evolutionists were wrong, and true to my word I will now explain what I meant. Please hear me out all the way to the end of this one. In the beginning, there was nothing. Then, in the largest explosion of space in the history of existence, things just “were”. Science now thinks that the expansion of our universe from the Big Bang took no time at all. That means that our universe went from nothing to everything in zero time! The entire complexity of the whole universe arose in a single point in space time. The universe has more complexity associated with it than all the biological creations combined! Think of that! Every star, every planet, every black hole, every galaxy of whirling, swirling and twirling stars was created in an instant. One moment it was not, the next moment it was. No, that is not some Biblical fairy tale of creation. That is the current scientific understanding of what happened at the very beginning. Is it any wonder that not very many theoretical physicists are truly and wholly atheistic? 

Now, apply that understanding to this little tiny speck of space dust we call earth. Is it such a hard thing to imagine that biological life arose in an instant, taking no time at all? Could it be that biological existence was not here one moment, and then here the next? Does it break the laws of logic any more or any less than the theory of the creation and expansion of our universe? After all, biological life has much less complexity than does the universe at large. We are little creatures. It is so hard to imagine that we could have arisen in an instant? In my opinion, if you believe that creation required creatures to die and evolve over millions of years, you exclude the possibility of a loving God who intimately cares for His creation. The Christians who believe in such an extended creation are not stupid, or rebellious, they just have not thought through the implications for what it does to a philosophy on God. Now combine all this with what I said about how humanity could have arisen from single cells. Let's go to the Bible for this. 

Genesis 2:7 "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." You see, God did not create man ex nihilo (out of nothing) as He did with the universe at large. The Bible indicates that He created him out of something, the dust of the ground. Humanity was created by what was already here. We are a product of what was already living. God made us to be a part of the creation He created for us. Classical Christianity took this to mean that God formed man out of clay or dirt. But why assume that when the truth may be so much more cool!? God likely formed man out of one single cell, and man then developed into a loving soul. Did it take a day for Adam to mature? Did Adam grow up from childhood? We do not know, but it is certainly possible given what we know of how we create our offspring and how they develop. What if Adam developed from a single cell, or multiple cells, as God formed living single celled organisms into living tissue, and eventually into a living soul? What if Adam grew up with Jesus teaching him about what it means to have a relationship with God? It kind of changes your understanding of what the fall really meant, doesn't it. It was not simply Adam choosing to eat some random apple and rejecting a God he barely knew. It was Adam rejecting his father. What if? 

You see, the truth is not always as obvious as it may appear to you or me. What if the truth is a combination of two falsehoods? One propagated by Christianity and the other by science? What if both falsehoods are meant to lead the other party astray? What if the creation story, as told by most Christians, is a lie invented by satan to lead true thinkers and scientists to reject God all together? What if evolution, as taught by most scientists, is a lie created by satan to cause true thinkers and Christians to reject God all together, and to cease to believe in an ultimately good God? Thoughts to wonder indeed. Keep vigilant, keep studying. Never lose your thirst for truth, never be afraid to follow it where ever it leads you.