December 30, 2014
Shades of Baal
The Winter Solstice
Celebration I attended at a New Age church had 20 people assembled in a circle around
an altar. The altar, a raised circular platform about 12 inches off the
floor, held a large lit candle surrounded by a green wreath. On the
floor around the mini-altar were tambourines and small drums. During the
appropriate chants and songs worshippers were invited to pick up the musical
instruments and participate. The gist of the worship was to imagine that your
feet had roots growing down deep into the ground where you could tap into the
energy of mother earth. The energy would come up through the body, out
through heads and form a collective light
of worshippers. A subdued image of the prophets of Baal came to my mind. “Then
they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “O Baal, answer us!”
they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced
around the altar they had made" (1 Kings 18:26b).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----“Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’ ‘Knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up.” (I Cor 8:1) Knowledge is an important thing. It makes the difference between survival and demise, self support or dependency, and even joy or sorrow and happiness or sadness. Although the first principle of all things (every existing thing is precisely what it is) requires knowledge to match its concepts exactly to every detail of the thing it knows before knowledge can be considered true, the limitations God created in us preclude this possibility in its entirety. Thankfully, God is very forgiving towards our aberrant concepts, for they are all faulty at some minute level of detail at least. And fortunately, that level of detail is usually well enough below the line of relevancy so that our imperfect knowledge yet suffices to serve its purposes.
-----Paul acknowledges that his Roman readers are filled with all knowledge (Rom 15:14,) and that he was spreading the knowledge of Christ everywhere (11 Cor 2:14,) and that the knowledge of the glory of God is given into our hearts (11 Cor 4:6,) and that there is a measure of the knowledge of the Son of God to be attained (Eph 4:13,) but still, knowledge will pass away because it is imperfect (I Cor 13:8b-9a.) So there must be a line regarding the incorrectness of knowledge below which it becomes too false for salvation to bear up? Is that what we’re saying about these New Agers?
-----I don’t think the condition of one’s knowledge is a saving factor. Some folks are born with no more mental capacity than a toddler. Other folks have been rendered unto that intellectual level by severe blows to the head. I don’t believe these physical factors are so controlling over their possibilities of salvation. However accurate or not it may be, knowledge is more of a manifestation of heart condition. The heart can seek to know what it wants to know, or it can seek to know what is real. The heart inclined to its own self has little prospect of eternal joy.
-----You’ve got to hand it to these New Agers; they’ve discovered a few important things about the earth in seeking to know what they want to know. First, very much and very important energy must come out of the earth into us for survival. I think of last night’s five degree temperature. Without stuffing some logs (which indeed drew nutrients out of the earth’s soil through its roots and made energy) into my stove, Char and I would have run out of energy called heat and would have frozen to death. Also, they have struck upon the fact that we are related to the earth. It’s just that she ain’t our mother; she’s our sister (God made her, too.) And finally, whether it’s sucked up through their feet or made up in the selfishness of their deceit, the twisted knowledge of deceit most always forms collectivism as manifested in governments throughout world history, such as Nazis, Marxists, Socialists, Islamic fascists, the left wings of America’s Democrats and Republicans, and unfortunately, it is also the same mentality responsible for denominationalism in Christ’s fractured church and such other excesses of authority which you and I have noted in the past.
-----I’m always ready to raise a good-fellow stick with a neighbor, regardless of what they do or don’t know. But I even more stand ready to yank it back before its marshmallow bursts into flames.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment