YAHWEH vs BA’AL, A BIBLICAL ACCOUNT: PAGANISM, PART 3

There are two sermon videos below that are intended to provide readers with a biblical interpretation of BA’AL, his followers, and their inevitable ends.

The first sermon was preached by pastor John Piper on 1 Kings 18 and 19, the story of Elijah vs the 450 prophets of BA’AL. Pastor Piper preached the sermon in London, possibly after the unveiling of the Arch of BA’AL? It seemed that he was preaching to a pastor’s conference.

I think that all Christians would be blessed by hearing this sermon; that it would help them in understanding God, prayer, Christian struggles…. I was greatly blessed and moved to tears listening to it.

I hope some Pagans listen to this sermon and that God would bless them by opening their eyes to their end if they should continue to worship BA’AL.

 

The following sermon, by R. C. Sproul, is about God’s end purpose in the world. Listeners who have viewed parts 1 and 2 of this series on Paganism, may be able to glean from Sproul’s sermon a biblical perspective of God’s status in His creation and man’s vain assumptions about his own status. Below Sproul’s sermon, I will note a few points that could have been gained from these two sermons, and this series.

 

 

 

In closing, I just want to note a few points inherent in these sermons that are frequently repeated in scripture about man in God’s world:

  • God is Sovereign ruler in natural events and in man’s state of affairs
  • Mankind is commanded to seek God and to obey His commands: to repent of sin and believe the gospel
  • All human beings naturally hate God and rebel against Him unless He changes their hearts
  • Participating in Paganism is an act of rebellion against God and will have consequences in this world and in the next
  • God is directing all human affairs in respect of His goals for His creation
  • God’s goals in His creation are clearly stated in the Bible
  • The heart and natural state of man is clearly shown in the Bible and if one sampled the Bible by reading, for example, Genesis, Isaiah, Matthew and Revelation, he would see that society has always been morally decadent since Genesis 3; that man is naturally selfish, lustful…and oppresses his fellows; that man hates God; that man worships idols…. That is, unless God changes man’s heart, he worships idols like the demon goat in the clip from the Gotthard Tunnel in the last post.
  • That man, as is stated in Romans 1, believes himself to be wise despite all the above