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Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind... Romans 12:2

The Great Christian "Baal-Out"

by Tom Rose

Each man is faced with a choice: he can worship the one true God, or he can worship one or more of the false gods of his imagination (Rom. 1:20-23). Ancient pagans worshipped gods of wood and stone; modern pagans worship all kinds of things—like self, sex, good health, mankind in general, science, and so forth. But what about truly born-again, sincere, dedicated Christians? Could it be possible that, in this age, this select group could also be guilty of worshipping a false god? Consider the following:

Eric suddenly finds himself unemployed, so the first thing he does is to beat a hasty path to the local employment office to apply for unemployment insurance.

Betty has a heart that is burdened to help people in need, so she organizes a group of volunteers who set up a hotline phone number which people in need can call to be directed to dozens of government welfare agencies. (True story: A man we will call Rev. Baker pastors a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A few years ago he received a call from a young Christian woman whose car broke down while she was driving through town with her three children. She needed money for car repairs and a motel while being delayed on her trip. When pastor Baker immediately responded to her plea for help with a deacon, the young woman said, "How happy I am to see you! Yours was the 14th church I phoned. Every other church responded by directing me to a government agency. I'm a Christian, and I want to be helped by Christians!")

Mrs. Axle is concerned about a rabies epidemic that threatens to come about because rabid foxes might bite domestic pets, so she urges her husband, who is a member of the legislature, to pass legislation which requires pet owners, under penalty of law, to take their pets to local veterinarians for vaccinations. (Note: Such legislation was recently passed by the state of Pennsylvania, which resulted in pet owners dumping thousands of unwanted pets in the countryside in order to escape the cost involved. My wife and I found two young puppies and three cats in our barn.)

Louis also has a warm heart for the plight of others. When he read that many young children go to school hungry each morning, he wrote a letter to his senator urging the senator to sponsor a bill to initiate a "breakfast on wheels" program for needy school children.

Sally is an avid reader of contemporary economic affairs. When she read that the rate of unemployment had risen above ten percent, she phoned her legislative representative to urge that the government spend money to stimulate job creation.

Mr. and Mrs. Jansen are the parents of three school-age children. They have chosen to send their children to a tax-supported public school rather than to a Christian school because they don't want to have their children "insulated" from society during their formative years. (Question: What would happen to the death rate among soldiers if they were sent directly into battle instead of being "insulated" in boot camp first?)

Joe's elderly mother and sister are without hospitalization insurance, so he has joined with others to promote the idea of socialized medicine.

What do all these people have in common?

For one, they are all truly born-again, sincere, dedicated Christians!

Secondly, they all appear to be worshipping at the altar of an idol, the idol of modern humanistic civil government. In short, they might well be regarded as modern Baal worshippers. How so? In ancient times Baal was not the name of any certain god, but the name given to the presiding deity of any given locality. Baalim (plural) were regarded as the gods of the land. They supposedly owned the land along with all that it produced: crops, fruits, cattle, etc. Thus inhabitants of the land worshipped the Baalim, sacrificed to them, and looked to them for their daily succour. The Baalim were looked upon as the ultimate problem-solvers, in much the same way that many people today look to the civil government.

Each of the Christians above, in one way or another has endorsed an activist, bureaucratic civil government that invades spheres of life far beyond its God-given authority. Where in the Bible can one find any authority given to the civil magistrate to alleviate poverty, to redistribute wealth, to educate children, or to provide health services? It is this disturbing question that Christians must answer if they are to work out the implications of their salvation in society. And, if we don't come up with the correct Biblical answer, we are very likely to engage in activities and support causes which build the kingdom of Satan rather than the Kingdom of God.

To what extent do Christians today look to our modern form of Baal for their daily sustenance? Are they in the habit of first looking to God for help, or is their first call for help directed to the civil authority? If their first thought is to appeal to the civil authority, then they are among a strongly increasing majority, for all over the world people are being urged to look to the civil government as an omnipotent problem-solver. Yet the world's problems multiply as the years go by!

The trend of mushrooming government, with burdensome taxation and monetary inflation along with increasing social and economic problems, is unmistakable evidence of the serious spiritual battle that is currently raging—and many well-meaning Christians are completely oblivious, not only of the battle, but also to the fact that they may be part of the problem instead of the solution!

The apostle Paul admonished the Christians of his day to put on the whole armour of God and warned that we wrestle against spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:10-12). The anti-Christ of today, I am convinced, has reared his head in the form of an activist civil government that wants all citizens to worship at its feet; and the objective of big government is not to preserve and enhance the freedom and self-responsibility of citizens, but to ensnare them economically as a means of enslaving them spiritually. This is certainly the spiritual battle being waged in nearly every country today. Let us first recognize the reality of this spiritual battle, and then let us, as Christians, make sure that we are fighting on the right side.

Why can't we expect good things to come from civil government, other than in its proper Biblical role as keeper of the peace? (See Romans 13:4, where we are told that the ruler is the bearer of the sword, and I Timothy 2:1-2, where we are told that the proper role of civil government is to maintain an atmosphere of law and order so that we can lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.)

Psalm 2 clearly warns against trusting the rulers of this world. We read that the rulers of this world actually conspire with each other against Gods' rule in order to break away from the constraints God has set up. Also, Moses warned the Israelites just before they crossed the Jordan into the promised land (Deut 17:18-20), that they should give the king they would eventually ask for a book of the Law to read daily. This gives us a picture, not of a government with open-ended power to solve all problems that might arise, but rather a carefully restricted government with carefully limited (or closed-ended) powers. Finally, the prophet Daniel warns Christians that God sets up the basest of men to rule over us. Certainly, with men of such spiritual caliber we can expect no good unless we carefully restrict the power of civil government to its one major godly assignment: to maintain law and order so that free men and women can live peaceable and self-responsible lives.

Let us, as Christians, not despair about the present worldwide trend to relinquish authority in all areas of life to civil governments. Let us recognize that the family, the church, and voluntary organizations all have their proper spheres of authority which should not, and must not, be invaded by the civil power. Then, once we have thought out the proper delineation of power for each sphere, let us go about the important task of dismantling the modern Baal-gods that face us in each nation.

Tom Rose is a former professor of economics at Grove City College, Grove City, PA. He is author of five books and hundreds of articles on economic issues. He and his wife, Ruth, operate a publishing company, American Enterprise Publications (tgr@pathway.net, or RD 6, Box 6690, Mercer, PA 16137) that supplies biblically-based economics textbooks to Christian colleges, high schools and home schools.

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