#12. Two Opinions

Published by Ben Stahl on April 7, 2020April 7, 2020

I Kings 18:20-21

When the Boston Red Sox play the New York Yankees, TV ratings, ticket prices, and media attention skyrocket. The rivalry between the two teams goes back more than four generations. A great rivalry existed in Israel during the days of Elijah. It was a rivalry between the worshipers of Baal and the prophets of the Lord. As with a major sports rivalry in our day, the whole nation of Israel came out to see the showdown on Mount Carmel. Unlike with sports rivalries, the souls and lives of many people were at stake on that great day.

For too long in Israel the idolatry had been egregious. The people practiced a form of syncretistic idolatry, combining paganism and outward worship of the true God into one new system. Any time we claim to love Christianity and Jesus Christ while also adhering to false gods or philosophies of men, we are practicing syncretism.* In Israel the people gave some sort of lip service to the Lord while also bowing down to Baal. Only seven thousand in all of Israel had not engaged in Baal worship (19:18).

Elijah rebuked the Israelites for their irrational practices. Either Baal was god or the Lord was God but they could not both be gods. In giving allegiance to both they had allegiance to neither. They were stuck between two opinions: 1) the opinion of the prophets of Baal; and 2) the opinion of the prophets of the Lord. The Lord God of the Bible is a jealous God. Like a husband will not accept his bride playing wife to another man, neither will the Lord God accept His bride the church giving worship to a false god. The Israelites were treating gods like investments. They didn’t know which was better, so they held both to diversify and hedge and escape persecution. So Elijah challenged them to stop their foolishness and choose one god. If Baal is god, follow only him. But if the Lord is God, then follow Him.

Those who love the Lord God must be faithful to worship Him alone in the way He delights to be worshiped. This is the heart of the first and second commandment and the first and second petition of the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord is jealous for His name, and His people must be jealous for His name.** If someone is stuck between two opinions, between two religions, between two gods, he may have many things but he does not have the true and living God as his God. The Christ of Scripture and the Christ of our own imagination, or the Christ of Scripture and Vishnu, or the Christ of Scripture and anything else, will leave us stuck between two opinions and dead in our trespasses to sin. We must come to Christ as the Lord alone.  

In the coming verses God will show His power and glory over the foolish idols of the world and their priests. As we consider these verses and the great event that took place at Mt. Carmel let us behold the glory and supremacy of the Lord God alone and meditate on this verse from Isaiah 46:9, “Remember the former things of old; for I am God and there is none else; I am God and there is none like me.”

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* The Masons have the “Great Architect of the Universe,” who may be reached through all religions. Modernism seeks to find the best in each religion and promote it accordingly. Secularists may claim Jesus while pursuing wealth and pleasure as much or more than Christ. Syncretism and idolatry are all around us and even within our own hearts. May we bow the knee to Christ Jesus alone and renounce all other allegiances.

** Elijah was very jealous for the name of the Lord (19:10, 14). How much more is the Lord God jealous when His bride the church exchanges the truth of God revealed in His Word for images and foolish creations of created men? There are many vain imaginations of our God Jesus Christ in churches around the world. Images are set up as things to “assist” in worship and “art” is displayed with the intention of reminding us of God or to give honor to God. What could honor God less than false art and fake images of the true and living God? He who is the express image of the Godhead bodily cannot be represented with images of our own making. May the Lord lead His church away from lies and the provocation of the mighty God and back to the Lord. (More to come on this later.)

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