BAAL-WORSHIP AND

THE LONG DELAY

Donald K. Short

1
 Introduction
Recently a group of school children came to the
campus of Andrews University and made a tour of
the newly refurbished Horn Archaeological
Museum. They came away very impressed. More
than one was intrigued by the ancient enemy of
Israel after-seeing the image of Baal on display.
One child said, "I really liked the image of Baal,
he’s just so skinny." Another child said, "I really
liked ... that miniature figure of Baal." Not only
children have been fascinated by this false God.
The idol of Baal; the worship of Baal; and the
subtle far-reaching influence of Baal has held the
children of men in sad secret bondage throughout
all the ages.

History tells us that the devious path of Baal-

worship leads back to the Garden of Eden. Of
course there was no actual image set up in that
beautiful place, but that in itself is a part of the
delusion that we have inherited. The last thing
anyone needs for Baal-worship is an actual image
of Baal.
2
 Visible evidence of the deep seated enmity
towards God began to be seen very soon after the
Eden episode. The record says the world’s first city
was founded by the world’s first murderer. It was
Cain who "builded a city and called the name of
the city after the name of his son Enoch" (Genesis
4:17). Men began to praise men and build
monuments to themselves. Cain had little
confidence in God’s assurance of protection. His
faith would be put in the works of man, the
splendor of buildings, the protection of stone walls.
The root of this counterfeit allegiance, the mystical
delusion of Baal-worship was established when the
holy pair in Eden called in question the word-of the
Lord.

"Hath God said," was the sinister insinuation of

the serpent which laid the foundation for the great
controversy in this world. There followed the
fateful nibble of the forbidden fruit which has until
now shackled the human race in depravity. On the
surface this may appear not to have anything to do
with Baal-worship. But the work of the enemy has

3
always been shrouded in mystery and darkness. We
must pursue this.

Even the heroes of faith who hold places of

esteem in the sacred record testify to the duplicity
of human nature and rarely does spiritual triumph
stand untarnished because of either open or secret
Baal-worship. The wisdom, love and justice of God
made provision to overcome every vestige of this
false allegiance. The promise is that the time would
come when the Israel of God would understand the
terrible sin of Baal-worship, and "then shall the
sanctuary be cleansed" (Dan. 8:14). In this positive
pronouncement is good news. It proclaims that a
process is envisaged that will free forever mankind
as well as God Himself who will stand separated
and cleansed from the stigma of sin.

4
 Chapter 1

Baal-worship
over the centuries
All too many Seventh-day Adventists are prone
to think that Baal-worship has something to do
with sun-worship but most of all they think it was
only the terrible apostasy in the days of Elijah.
That denial of the Creator was merely evidence in
that day which shows the long-standing enmity of
the human heart that has roots in Eden.

The apostasy of Adam’s firstborn son bore a

harvest so corrupt that "it repented the Lord that He
had made man on the earth" for "the wickedness of
man was great ... every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis
6:6, 5). Cain became the father of the unfaithful
who established a system of rebellion that
culminated in the flood. It was a way of life, a
strategy that rejected the word of the Lord.

5
 It took only three generations after the flood to
lay the cornerstone of the great apostasy so deep
and tenacious it would endure until the end of time.
Ham, one of Noah’s three sons who was saved in
the ark, seems to have learned little from his
experience. The descendants of Ham are notorious
for their depravity. His son Canaan was the father
of Israel’s implacable enemy, the Canaanites. His
grandson was Nimrod, and Nimrod was "a mighty
one in the earth" (Genesis 10:8) who became the
founder and first mayor of Babylon. It was this city
that was destined to become "BABYLON THE
GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND
ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" (Revelation
17:5). It was not the splendor of the buildings that
was to be great, although archaeologists to this day
are amazed at the ruins of the city, but it was the
"abominations" that would be great and make the
world drunk. The charter of this city would endure
until the sanctuary is cleansed. We live in that
cleansing time now.

After about another thousand years the children

of men had reached the place that the Lord was

6
again faced with a crisis. The faithful line of Shem
had nearly disappeared from the earth. What could
the Lord do? He seems to have been left with only
the family of Abraham. He was constrained to try
again. He would need to get him out of his own
land, away from the idol-worship, away from false
ideas, into a land that the Lord Himself would
show him. And so it was.

And after this there was the destruction of

Sodom; Joseph in Egypt; Moses to lead Israel; the
Passover; the exodus; the sanctuary and its
services; the spies, faithful and unfaithful; the
apostasy at the borders of the promised land; the
lusting for a worldly king to take the place of the
Heavenly King which eventually brought Ahab to
the throne. And then came the deplorable display
of deception and blindness at Mt. Carmel. The
crisis was the fruit of years of failure to heed the
words of warning and reproof the Lord had sent.
Each refusal to repent had deepened their guilt and
driven them farther from heaven. Year after year,
for about a century, Israel had been departing from
God’s way.

7
 Elijah could face King Ahab only because he
exercised strong genuine faith in the unfailing
power of God’s word. He did not seek the job. At
the same time he dared "not hesitate to obey the
divine summons." He recognized that "unbelief
was fast separating the chosen nation from the
Source of their strength. ... Oft-repeated appeals,
remonstrations, and warnings had failed to bring
Israel to repentance. The time had come when God
must speak to them by means of judgments. ... The
apostate tribes of Israel were to be shown the folly
of trusting to the power of Baal for temporal
blessings."

8
 Chapter 2

Do we recognize
Baal-worship?
It needs to be repeated that many Seventh-day
Adventists are under the delusion that Baal-
worship primarily has something to do with sun-
worship and climaxed with the apostasy at Mt.
Carmel. Others would add that it is also the
infiltration of worldly and even pagan influences
into our church. It would be mentioned, for
instance, the growing trend to have Easter sunrise
services; the increasing display of symbols of the
cross in various arrangements in our church
architecture but which was shunned in former
times as a sign of the Roman Church. Others would
refer to the growing fashion of ear rings, wedding
bands and other jewelry. Some would suggest that
the ordination of priestesses in the Adventist
Church is to accept the heritage of Baal-worship
with roots in Babylon and cannot in any sense be
supported from the Bible.

9
 A growing number of "traditional" Adventists
readily enumerate increasing apostasy, financial
and theological corruption and label this Baal-
worship. In a certain crude sense all of this and
much more may be true. But in reality these evils
are but altarpieces in the temple of Baal. They
constitute the outer trappings that conceal a deeper
and more subtle deception; a deception so refined
as to situate itself in the midst of the most
conservative orthodox Pharisees that we have in
our church. Every last one of us stands in danger!

Of all the perils that Jesus foresaw as He

looked beyond Olivet into the future, none stand
larger than the warning against Baal-worship.
Listen to Him:

"There shall arise false Christs, and false

prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders;
insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall
deceive the very elect" (Matthew 24:24).

Who are the "elect"? If we are not the very ones

10
to whom this special warning was sent by Jesus,
then we have no reason to exist. Surely the Lord
would not stoop to send us in 1888 "a most
precious message" that was to be brought
"prominently before the world," if He did not want
us to understand clearly the difference between
truth and error. 4 The confrontation at Mt. Carmel
is but a dim shadow of the terrible battle facing
God’s people today. A false Christ is nothing more
than a modern Baal. The struggle facing the
Remnant Church is not just one of apostasy and
deteriorating standards, but rather the
commandeering of the whole system of salvation
by the great archenemy himself, or as we have
been told, "Satan ... trying to carry on the work of
God."

A mere denunciation of backsliding and

worldliness, or a call to more fervent Christian
experience, or what some would call a
"relationship," is not enough. The thrust of Satan’s
deception is to erect Baal in the heart of every
believer without the believer being aware of the
transfer of allegiance. This accounts for thousands

11
praying to a Jesus who has left His former work
and now ministers in the holy of holies within the
veil-and they know it not. The "elect" must know
the lie of Baal-worship. The truth they have been
given must overcome Laodicean stupor, destroy it
and cast down every idol of Baal.

The resolution of this conflict and the

perfection of God’s people involves more than
celestial book work. Merely opening the heavenly
archives and checking the books will not resolve
the issues of sin and righteousness. The "elect"
must know Baal-worship for what it really is. Truth
is being contested. The struggle to assimilate and
understand this truth constitutes the "shaking."

12
 Chapter 3

Baal-worship is not yet dead

It is now about twenty-eight centuries since the
Lord called Elijah to stand for truth and denounce
Baal-worship in high places. It would seem logical
that ancient history of that sort could be filed away
in the archives and forgotten. From the human
view point it could. But the Lord works on eternal
principles. The chain of history stands unbroken.
The contest continues between truth and error.

In our history it is now about one century since

the Lord sent a message to us that has a strange
resemblance to the one of many centuries ago. Two
years after the 1888 Minneapolis meeting, Ellen
White saw one of the most penetrating and serious
of all her visions. She was in communion with
God, the room was filled with light, and she saw
herself "bearing a message to an assembly that
seemed to be the General Conference. I was moved
by the Spirit of God to make a most earnest appeal;
for I was impressed that great danger was before us
13
at the heart of the work."

The danger she saw had its roots in the 1888

failure and the consequences were tied to the
unbelief and apostasy of ancient Israel. She warns:

The prejudices and opinions that prevailed at

Minneapolis are not dead by any means; the seeds
sown there in some hearts are ready to spring into
life and bear a like harvest. The tops have been cut
down, but the roots have never been eradicated,
and they still bear their unholy fruit to poison the
judgment, pervert the perceptions, and blind the
understanding of those with whom you connect, in
regard to the message and the messengers. ...
Infidelity has been making inroads into our ranks;
for it is the fashion to depart from Christ, and give
place to skepticism. With many the cry of their
heart has been, "We will not have this man to reign
over us." Baal, Baal, is the choice. The religion of
many among us will be the religion of apostate
Israel, because they love their own way, and
forsake the way of the Lord. The true religion, the
only religion of the Bible, that teaches forgiveness

14
only through the merits of a crucified and risen
Saviour, that advocates righteousness by the faith
of the Son of God, has been slighted, spoken
against, ridiculed, and rejected. ... What kind of
future is before us if we shall fail to come into the
unity of the [1888] faith?

After nearly a century we can answer very

clearly that the future she saw is the condition in
which we now find ourselves. It would be so much
more comfortable if the things portrayed in the
post-1888 experience of the church could be
applied to the world or completely overlooked. But
the word of the Lord will not go away. Satan
persists in his endeavors to destroy the uniqueness
of this people’s mission. His deceptive methods are
laid bare in these words:

Everything may move forward amid apparent

prosperity; but Satan is wide awake, and is
studying and counseling with his evil angels
another mode of attack where he can be successful.
... The great controversy will wax stronger, and
stronger and will become more and more

15
determined. Mind will be arrayed against mind,
plans against plans, principles of heavenly origin
against principles of Satan. Truth in its varied
phases will be in conflict with error in its ever-
varying, increasing forms, and which, if possible,
will deceive the very elect. ...

Unsanctified ministers are arraying themselves

against God. They are praising Christ and the god
of this world in the same breath. While professedly
they receive Christ, they embrace Barabbas, and by
their actions say, "Not this man, but Barabbas."...
Let the son of deceit and false witness be
entertained by a church that has had great light,
great evidence, and that church will discard the
message the Lord has sent, and receive the most
unreasonable assertions and false suppositions and
false theories. ...

Many will stand in our pulpits with the torch of

false prophecy in their hands, kindled from the
hellish torch of Satan. ... The conflict is to wax
fiercer and fiercer. Satan will take the field and
personate Christ. He will misrepresent, misapply,

16
and pervert everything he possibly can, to deceive,
if possible, the very elect.

This solemn evaluation and prediction of Baal-

worship concerns our church, our members, our
ministry. Baal-worship did not die at Mt. Carmel.
Indeed we may not really understand what the
children of Israel were saying when they cried, "O
Baal, hear us." In the Hebrew this meant, "O Lord,
hear us," for Baal simply means, "lord," or
"master," and the name with slight variations is
found in numerous ancient languages, from
Babylonian to Greek. In particular, Baal was the
god of the Canaanites, the apostate children of
Ham. The false and rebellious idea of Cain that the
fruit of the ground would suffice for a living
sacrifice was handed down to the Canaanites and
Baal was accepted as their chief god who ruled
nature; hence they had a religion of pantheism.

The pantheism of the Canaanites was no

different than the pantheism which crept into our
church almost unnoticed at the turn of the century.
Pretentious sophistries, brilliant, sparkling ideas

17
were produced by the great deceiver and passed
from mind to mind so that without knowing it the
pillars of our faith were being destroyed. We were
saved by the insistent warnings of the Lord’s
messenger at that time. The startling thing is, Ellen
White tells us that this was only the "alpha of
deadly heresies" and that the "omega" would
follow and "be received by those who are not
willing to heed the warning God has given." She
"trembled for our people." 11

It took about a century for Israel to reach their

unconscious apostate condition of Baal-worship. It
will soon be a century since we were deceived by
the "alpha of deadly heresies." Clearly then we
have the warning that God’s people can change
leaders and not know it. The peril is magnified
when it is understood that the apostasy of the
Israelites did not reside only in Ahab and Jezebel,
but there were four-hundred and fifty priests of
Baal plus another four-hundred prophets of the
grove who formed the steering committee for the
nation. Elijah recognized that Baal had usurped the
place of Yahweh. When he threw down the

18
challenge, "If the Lord be God, follow him: but if
Baal, then follow him," (1 Kings 18:19) we have in
their answer a vivid video tape of the last church.
The Record says, "The people answered him not a
word." This means they were not for, they were not
against, they were not hot, they were not cold, they
were "lukewarm." They did not know their
condition. Unconsciously they had changed
leaders.

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 Chapter 4

Does Baal-worship exist

today?
A quick check of the Index of the writings of
Ellen White, shows that there are over 100
references to Baal. We have already mentioned the
1890 Salamanca vision which revealed that in
consequence of our 1888 unbelief in the true
Christ, a false christ would sneak himself in among
us. Adventists have long known that at the very
end Satan would not only try to carry on the work
of God, but he would try to appear in the likeness
of God. This counterfeit impersonation referred to
by Christ, is explained by Ellen White in this
familiar setting:

As the crowning act in the great drama of

deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. ...
as a majestic being of dazzling brightness. ...
unsurpassed by anything mortal eyes have yet
beheld. The shout of triumph rings out upon the air,

20
"Christ has come! Christ has come!" The people
prostrate themselves in adoration before him, while
he lifts up his hands and pronounces a blessing
upon them. ... His voice is soft and subdued, yet
full of melody. ... This is the strong, almost
overmastering delusion.

Long before this final act of deception, Satan

will have conditioned the people to accept his
methods. This means the use of "brilliant, sparkling
ideas," "charming philosophical speculations,"
"principles of Satan" pitted against "principles of
heavenly origin," "unsanctified ministers ...
arraying themselves against God ... praising Christ
and the god of this world in the same breath." As
the vision pointed out, "The religion among us will
be the religion of apostate Israel"-Baal-worship.

Since Baal was solely the creation of man,

counterfeit from the beginning, an insult to the
Creator, made to fit the desire "to be mighty ... in
the earth," and to build cities and make Babylon
the capitol-so it must be plain that Baal-worship is
none other than self-worship. The verbal use of the

21
name of Christ and all other Christian terminology
means nothing so far as establishing and
identifying truth. Baal is a false christ and it should
be obvious that all worship of self, even though
disguised as worship of Christ but which evades
the principle of the cross is in reality Baal-worship.
The roots of this Satan-inspired worship go deep,
often unknown to us and beneath our
consciousness.

One current refined and subtle manifestation of

Baal-worship, is the cult of self-love. Through a
clever manipulation of Scripture, the love of self
has been transformed into a virtue. In recent years
it has been strenuously taught as a supposed
Christian duty. The divine command to love our
neighbor as we love ourselves is twisted into a
command to love self, when in fact the Lord taught
that our natural-born sinful love of self is
redirected through genuine faith to a Christlike
love of our neighbor.

Genuine self-respect is another matter. It

becomes authentic only through an appreciation of

22
God’s self-emptying love revealed at the cross.
True self esteem is therefore rooted in Christ’s
atonement. But the love of self is antithetical to
devotion to Christ and His work. It is
understandable that an enemy would promote the
cult of selfism as though it were Christ’s teaching.
This is foreign to a people who are preparing for
translation.

No matter how much we may profess to serve

Christ, no matter what our position may be in the
church, wherever self becomes the object of
devotion, there we have Baal-worship. The myriad
forms that this takes are frightening. In a certain
sense the ministry is in greater peril than any other
segment of the church. It is among the ministry that
a kind of ladder-climbing fraternity has been
established- as if office could enhance character.
Where we have a coveting of promotion, office
seeking, with prestige and power as the
motivations of ministry, there we have the prophets
of Baal.

This denial of the true Christ and glorification

23
of self is to be found in many of our now-standard
practices. Why does the Remnant Church need
plaques, trophies, certificates, and all the other
trappings the world uses and loves? Where the true
message of righteousness by faith is understood
and believed, these emblems of greatness will fall
away. Baal-worship is the fruit of a species of
corrupted teachings that encourage a profession of
faith in Christ while self refuses to be crucified
with Him.

Just how we can find ourselves in the present

confusion is made clear by the word of the Lord
through His messenger:

The present age is one of idolatry, as verily as

was that in which Elijah lived. No outward shrine
may be visible; there may be no image for the eye
to rest upon; ... Multitudes have a wrong
conception of God and His attributes and are as
truly serving a false god as were the worshipers of
Baal.

In this age antichrist will appear as the true

24
Christ. ... But the true leader of all this is Satan
clothed as an angel of light. Men will be deceived
and will exalt him to the place of God, and deify
him.

Christ will be personified, but on one point

there will be a marked distinction. Satan will turn
the people from the law of God.

Those who are not wholly consecrated to God

may be led to do the work of Satan, while yet they
flatter themselves that they are in the service of
Christ.

The apostasy prevailing today is similar to that

which in the prophet’s day overspread Israel. In the
exaltation of the human above the divine, in the
praise of popular leaders, in the worship of
mammon, and in placing of the teachings of
science above the truths of revelation, multitudes
today are following after Baal.

25
 Chapter 5

How long will Baal-worship

prevail?
God’s people have the assurance from Malachi
that before the Lord can return there will again be a
great work performed by Elijah (Malachi 4:5).
Surely it is needed. In a morning talk given by
Ellen White at Battle Creek, January 29, 1890, she
intimates "Elijah" is that message begun in 1888.18
It is no wonder the battle lines have been so sharp
and Satan longs to maintain indefinitely a
counterfeit position.

It must be understood that the confrontation on

Mt. Carmel was the climax of a long dialogue
between Elijah and Israel. In vain he had tried to
turn them from their blasphemous blind idolatry.
His soul was grieved and his indignation was
aroused. His heart was wrung with anguish as he
went before the Lord and implored Him to save His
people-even "if it must be by judgments. He

26
pleaded with God to; withhold from His ungrateful
people dew and rain ... that apostate Israel might
look in vain to their gods. ... The Lord told Elijah
that He had heard his prayer and would withhold
dew and rain from His people until they should
turn unto Him with repentance." Thus it was by
faith that Elijah went before King Ahab and
solemnly proclaimed "there shalt not be dew nor
rain these years, but according to my word" (1
Kings 17:1).

Who, in this day, would dare go before the

Lord with such a prayer? Yet the Adventist
conscience is impressed that current events in the
church cannot be construed as blessings from the
Lord. The financial losses, the political intrigue,
the theological uncertainties, the confusion of
plans, all run counter to heavenly approbation. It is
all too much like a land without dew or rain in the
midst of a famine. We need to appreciate that now
as then "the Lord abhors indifference and
disloyalty in a time of crisis in His work." But the
Lord has not left us without help. Indeed, it seems
that He has given modern Israel just the warning

27
needed to know what to expect. Take note of this
admonition:

Unless the church, which is now being

leavened with her own backsliding, shall repent
and be converted, she will eat of the fruit of her
own doing, until she shall abhor herself. When she
resists the evil and chooses the good, when she
seeks God with all humility, and reaches her high
calling in Christ, standing on the platform of
eternal truth, and by faith laying hold upon the
attainments prepared for her, she will be healed.

Notwithstanding the frightful apostasy

portrayed in these words, there is hope. When our
boards, our committees, our conferences, and our
churches as corporate bodies, and our members as
individuals come to see our "backsliding," we can
take our place beside Peter. His Lord knew that
"which was unknown even to himself."

The Master’s solemn warning of denial so

quickly forgotten, revealed in due course his own
ingratitude, his falsehood, his perjury, and his heart

28
was pierced with grief and bitter remorse. Then
Peter repented in agony of soul. This was the hour
of his conversion. A similar experience awaits
God’s church today, and the promise is, "she will
be healed." But "until she shall abhor herself," and
truly experience remorse and repentance, Baal-
worship must prevail.

29
 Chapter 6

The 1888 message destroys

Baal-worship
The temptation to look upon Adventism as just
another religious option, simply a church among
many churches, is to degrade the truth we have
been given. Such an attitude unconsciously affirms
that Baal-worship is good enough for us, whereas
we have been told that "so long as time shall last,
we are to cherish the sacred, denominational
distinction placed upon us. ... In a special sense
Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world
as watchmen and lightbearers."

Our view of the popular churches grows out of

a misunderstanding of the 1888 message. Because
of "preconceived opinions" and "opposition
manifested at Minneapolis against the Lord’s
message," a vacuum was created which we tried to
fill with our methods, and borrowed plans. The
result is, "Satan has succeeded in shutting away

30
from our people in a great measure the special
power of the Holy Spirit that God longed to
impart." The enemy has prevented us "from
obtaining that efficiency which might have been
[ours] in carrying the truth to the world." There is
no way that research, Madison Avenue techniques,
growth seminars, or any other man-made programs
can ever replace the "power" and "efficiency" the
Holy Spirit would bring to God’s people.

For years, and especially since the 1950

General Conference session there has been much
talk of the Latter Rain. But in the 1888 message we
were to have been given the ability to carry the
gospel to the world, "as the apostles proclaimed it
after the day of Pentecost." 25 Why did this not
happen? Almost unbelievably, we get the answer:
"The light that is to lighten the whole earth with its
glory was resisted, and by the action of our own
brethren has been in a great degree kept away from
the world."

It is terrible to think that Baal-worship has

infiltrated modern Israel as it did ancient Israel, but

31
the Lord’s servant insists it is true. Our tendency
has been the same as our ancient kinsmen-to
assimilate and imitate the thinking and customs of
the people around us. The rejection of the 1888
message set the pattern for nearly a century of such
assimilation, beginning with the exposure of
counterfeit ideas at the 1893 session that purported
to be the same as genuine righteousness by faith.
Over the years we have turned again and again to
the popular churches and their leadership for ideas
and inspiration which we have assumed was the
true message, not discerning fundamental
distinctions. Already in the 1890's there were
tendencies to confuse Roman Catholic justification
by faith with the genuine. More recently Froom’s
Movement of Destiny, boasts that the 1888
message was essentially the same as a vast array of
Evangelical preachers were teaching.

This is not to suggest that there are not

countless good, sincere people and ministers in the
popular Sunday-keeping churches. They are happy,
loving, zealous, devoted and in some cases more
missionary-minded than we. Their success in

32
church growth outstrips ours in many cases. But
they do not have the three angels’ messages
because "we" have kept it away from them, from
the world Ellen White says, and the vacuum we
have filled with Baal-worship. When we
understand our situation, our relation to the "most
precious message" the Lord sent, Baal-worship will
be destroyed.

33
 Chapter 7

The long delay must end

Babylon has not yet become what it will be
when the loud cry is proclaimed. Its fall is not yet
complete. The truth of the antitypical Day of
Atonement is not understood. The churches of the
world "have no knowledge of the way into the
most holy [place]" and so they "can not be
benefitted by the intercession of Jesus there." It
would seem that this truth is being forgotten by
Adventists. The unique work of the High Priest has
been replaced by the counterfeit supplied by Baal.
This self-centered Baal-worship makes our Lord
nauseated. He feels like throwing up (Revelation
3:16, 17). But His nausea can be cured by our
repentance (verse 19). There are many in the
church who also are nauseated-maybe 7000 of
them. They see on every hand the self-centered
Baal-worship as it has sneaked into our midst.
They see the vanity, the emptiness of sermons, the
praise and flattery of men and women, the gospel
jazz and swooning crooning with screaming and
34
shouting into the microphones, the joking and
jesting, the egocentric gospel with roots in
legalism, plus the material ostentation of palatial
offices and appointments, along with dramatic
entertainments to please every fancy-no wonder
our Lord is nauseated! It is like being on Mt.
Carmel and hearing the cry from "morning even
until noon, saying O Baal, hear us. But there was
no voice, nor any that answered" (1 Kings 18:26).

Our spiritual impotence can be traced to our

history. The truths inherent in the 1888 message of
Christ’s righteousness are not comprehended by us
or by any segment of Christians who do not
understand the two-apartment ministry of the
heavenly High Priest. The "gospel" proclaimed by
the "little horn" power virtually justifies sin and
therefore logically upholds Satan’s rebellion. This
is the secret of the lawlessness that pervades the
modern world on all levels. All churches, indeed,
the whole world desperately needs the three angels’
messages in verity.

This message proclaims a Saviour who

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"condemned sin in the flesh," offering the only
valid rebuttal of Satan’s charges against God. It
effectively "condemns sin," that is, demonstrates
that sin in human nature is unnecessary and is
doomed to extinction. It confirms the truth stated
by Ellen White: "The righteousness of God is
absolute. This righteousness characterizes all His
works, all His laws. As God is, so must His people
be." This message will cast down every idol of
Baal and prepare a people for the Lord’s return and
sin will not arise again because the redeemed
perceive and appreciate the true character of God.

All of this means that there is nothing in

Babylon for Israel. It is indeed "the habitation of
devils, and, the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage
of every unclean and hateful bird" (Revelation
18:2). It denies the perpetuity of the law of God,
including the Sabbath; it denies the mortality of the
soul; it denies the cleansing of the heavenly
sanctuary and consequently is not able to
appreciate Christ’s ministry on the final Day of
Atonement ministry. These "landmarks" of truth
support the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is not

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Babylon. God never planned that it become
Babylon any more than ancient Israel was to
become Babylon. Baal-worship was and still is a
disease of the body that is foreign to it and makes it
sick. But healing is possible through repentance
and reformation. The solution is not the destruction
of the church but its spiritual recovery. We have
encouragement in this assurance:

God is leading a people. ... He would reprove

and correct them. The message to the Laodiceans is
applicable to Seventh-day Adventists who have
had great light and have not walked in the light. ...
The message to pronounce the Seventh-day
Adventist Church Babylon, and call the people of
God out of her, does not come from any heavenly
messenger, or any human agent inspired by the
Spirit of God. ... God...has a work for His church to
do. They are not to be pronounced Babylon, but to
be the salt of the earth, the light of the world ... to
proclaim a living message in these last days.

Yes, we have hope! The problem is when pride

and self-seeking masquerade as devotion to Christ,

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there we have Baal-worship. And it has penetrated
all levels of the church body. Solemnly we are told:
"Honesty and policy will not work together in the
same mind. In time, either policy will be expelled,
and truth and honesty reign supreme, or, if policy is
cherished, honesty will be forgotten. They are
never in agreement; they have nothing in common.
One is the prophet of Baal, the other is the true
prophet of God."

Christ cannot come until we fully understand

the truth of our history and Baal is completely
unmasked. He has a fixed perpetual smile of
indulgence for his people. He is an idol with a
frozen smile. In terrible contrast the face of the true
Christ registers the pain of acute nausea, a divine
sickness of heart with our terrible lukewarmness,
our self-love, our professions of a devotion that we
do not really have. But this can change-it must
change-it will change.

The Record is clear; the Lord has told us the

sanctuary shall be cleansed. But more than this, the
work of cleansing is laid bare for the whole

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universe to see. After millennia of Baal-worship
and after the end-time century when open defiance
of the Lord’s plan was evident, when Baal-worship
took its most subtle defiling forms in all history,
then the Lord provides us the positive cure in a
beautiful promise:

"It shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou

shalt call me Ishi [My husband]; and shalt call me
no more Baali [My master]. For I will take away
the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they
shall no more be remembered by their name. ...
And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will
betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in
judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I
will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and
thou shalt know the Lord" (Hosea 2:16, 17, 19, 20).

The long delay is over. Baal is cast down. The

Divine Bridegroom has at last won the heart of His
bride. "That day" can come whenever the Bride
says she is ready to be married. "That day" could
be sooner than you think.

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