Ba’Al vs. Jehovah

“And they forsook [Jehovah], and served Baal and Ashtaroth.” (Jdg. 2:13).

Who, Ba’Al or Jehovah, is more powerful? Who can be the most destructive?

Jehovah promises:

“Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:

And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.…

Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.” (Isa. 13:6-9,17).

Ba’Al can do similar. “And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

And there was a day when [Job’s] sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:

And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:

And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:

And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.” (Job 1:12-19). “He…smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he…ruled the nations in anger.” (Isa. 14:6). Ba’Al can do some real damage.

But, Jehovah can do much more on a larger scale. “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.…

Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matt. 24:23,26,27).

“The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2Pet. 3:10).

Should we fear Jehovah? “For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that…trembleth at My word.” (Isa. 66:2). “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.” (2Cor.  5:10,11).

Should we fear Ba’Al?  “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1Pet. 5:8). “And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon [destroyer].” (Rev. 9:11).

What is Ba’Al about? He is the king of gods in every false religion, going by many different names. He was Osiris to the Egyptian, Jupiter to the Roman, Zeus to the Greek, Dagon to the Philistine, Moloch to the Ammonite, and Enshu to the Brazilian. He is “Jesus” to much of Christendom. He is Satan himself, the most irascible, tenacious master of all evil, “a murderer from the beginning” who “abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (Jn. 8:44). He invented evil. “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” (Eze. 28:15). He is the progenitor and mastermind of incomprehensible destruction toward all the goodness that exists on Earth.

In the most ancient times, his strength was communicated in hard images of powerful bulls, and in statues of men, muscular and masculine. His bull image also spoke of uncontrollable sexual domination over his votaries and translated his ugly and debased nature onto his priests and the populace, alike.

His “wife goddess,” Ashtoreth or Ashtaroth (star, as in the brightest star which was Earth’s neighboring planet, Venus), was also named Isis, Ishtar, Easter, Venus, Diana to the Eurasian nations, and Pombejida to the far-off Indians of South America. She also later became “Mary” to most of Christendom.

What was she about? She was the diametrical opposite of her violent husband—merciful to the max, personable, gentle and soft-spoken, and the mistress of whoredom, who alone could satisfy her spouse’s maniacal sexuality and who alone could mediate between his demonic rage toward mortals and those poor souls who were enslaved in this one inescapable world-wide religion which he established.

She was the god whom the whole world fled to for some reprieve from their master tyrant, Ba’Al. Ashtoreth allowed the devout to do penance and to weep their eyes sore and to allay the day-terrors and nightmares of Ba’Al. But she always encouraged them to work hard to try to trust and obey her husband. Thus, the one false religion sent its devotees back and forth between Ba’Al and Ashtoreth, like ping-pong balls, spending their endless days in a torment that nothing ever really satisfied. Ashtoreth was also the god of harlotry, blessing the prostitutes with success and protection in their profession. By making excuses for prostitution, she condoned, promoted, and institutionalized vice.  She was the favorite of everyone, both men and women, the universal Queen of Heaven, “the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” (Rev. 17:5).

The character of the one true God and His Son is justice and mercy, both characteristics beautiful in their own way, but especially so because They combine the two. Justice protects the weak from the overpowering. It protects the last from the first. Justice may not appear so necessary in a universe without sin, but the Godhead maintained it anyway. It must exist, even in a universe free from sin. Lucifer didn’t like the statue of justice, since, as he explained that everyone was holy, and he didn’t appreciate the potential for death hanging over his head, and secretly he planned to do damage to God’s kingdom.

But, in our world where Satan facilitated the first experiment with sin, the need for justice became evident to the angelic hosts. Thus, Satan’s first accusation against God, that there need not be any justice, even though God’s Law needed justice for its enforcement, has been answered in part by the many occasions throughout human history where necessary punishment was dispensed; and the devil’s accusation awaits the final answer after the millennium court of investigation, and the total destruction of sin and of fully committed sinners, as detailed in Revelation 20.

Mercy is the other beautiful aspect of God’s law, which Satan charged as unnecessary, because no one had yet transgressed, and therefore, no one needed forgiveness or grace, and neither did anyone need to forgive or be gracious. Grace serves the imperfect, ministering to that negligent one and leading him to strive for perfection. It protects the strong from the weak, and the first from the last. It tempers justice and prevents the existence of revenge by the weak.

Mercy and justice must unitedly work together. Mercy without justice destroys by enabling, such as Ashtoreth’s work of captivating her worshippers in vice. And justice without mercy destroys by violent action, seen in the effect of Ba’Al’s rage and terrorism to the soul, deeply driving it into Ashtoreth’s vice-mongering. But together, mercy and justice produce the power of God unto salvation. “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.” (Prov. 16:6). “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” (Psa. 85:10). “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” (Prov. 27:6). Separated as Satan has devised it in his world-wide, mandatory religion, mercy or justice produce the power of Satan unto damnation.

In the one true religion on earth, the Lord God mingled mercy and justice in all of His acts. His every punishment came with a promise; His every blessing had a warning. They were all given in love and His love shined out to those who were humbled and needy of a loving Father. But to the unhumbled, who Satan could deceive, and thus who preferred God to be a peer, God’s jealousy looked unfair and tyrannical. They felt disadvantaged and abused. Without responding to love and deluded, even God’s mercy appeared undesirable, prudish, self-righteous, and clad with unacceptable obligations to Him. But, to them who received it into their heart, His mercy-justice combination was the source of true peace, and joy, rest, health, and life, “and that…more abundantly.” (Jn. 10:10).

“The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (Jn. 1: 14,4). But, Satan, driven from God’s presence to a loveless, vengeful kingdom, heaps his utmost calumny upon the two pillars of God’s kingdom of love. Not for a moment can Satan allow the good effects of the mercy and justice combination to destroy his kingdom of darkness. The evil one has turned down every work of just mercy to the repentant, worthy sinner and resurrected in its place an institution of self-pity and self-indulgence. And every divine work of merciful justice he has hidden away in fury and disgust, and replaced with an Inquisition or persecution upon “heresy” or “terrorism against the state.”

In both cases, of self-indulgent pity or horrific religious crimes against humanity, the devils have pointed the astonished moral masses at God and led them to blame Him for His unrighteous, abusive insitution of mercy and justice mingled together. Remember what the servant told Job because Satan destroyed his flocks and shepherds? “The fire of God is fallen.”

Then, when everyone hates God for the grossest destruction Satan can achieve, he welcomes them into his fold, where certain capture, enslavement, misery, and death await them. And God mourns in silent grief and frustration at the delusion and loss of His children. The scripture has been fulfilled innumerable times, “Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.” (Jer. 31:15).