Ba’al is Satan
It’s strange to me that many Christians see Satan as a real spiritual being at war with God and humanity, yet they consider Ba’al as a make-believe character that existed only in the minds of his Old Testament followers.
I believe as we begin to see that the gods of the Old Testament were real spiritual beings, influencing man, we begin to understand the Bible more clearly. We start to see the battle between God and “the gods” in many places. Places where God shows himself to be the only true God, the creator and ruler of the universe. The cosmic war starts to be revealed to us in these episodes.
The most prominent of the Old Testament gods is Ba’al. We see him in Canaan and also in Egypt. But who is Ba’al?
Twice in the New Testament the Lord Jesus reveals the true identity of Ba’al.
In the first of these instances, Jesus heals a demonized man who is mute and blind (we are left to assume that his demons were causing his illness and when Jesus removed them, the man was healed). After the public saw this healing they began to wonder if Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. The Jewish authorities respond by trying to discredit the source of Jesus miracles with this:
Matthew 12:24 “But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.“
Beelzebub or Beelzebul (/biːˈɛlzɪbʌb/ bee-EL-zi-bub or /ˈbiːlzɪbʌb/ BEEL-zi-bub; Hebrew: בַּעַל זְבוּב Baʿal Zəvûv) is a name derived from a Philistine god, formerly worshiped in Ekron, and later adopted by some Abrahamic religions as a major demon. The name Beelzebub is associated with the Canaanite god Baal. Source: Wikipedia
According to: M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain:
Beelzebub (Gr. form Beel’zebul), the name given to Satan, and found only in the New Testament ( Matthew 10:25 ; Matthew 12:24 Matthew 12:27 ; Mark 3:22 ). It is probably the same as Baalzebub (q.v.), the god of Ekron, meaning “the lord of flies,” or, as others think, “the lord of dung,” or “the dung-god.”
Jesus responded to them and in so doing, referred to the devil as both Satan and Beelzebub.
Matthew 12:25-28 “And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.”
The second instance is in the Book of Revelation.
Revelation 2:13 “I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.”
The city of Pergamon was a center of cultish pagan worship. Chief among the city’s features was a temple dedicated to the king of Greek gods, Zeus. The masterpiece of this great temple was an altar featuring a statue of Zeus up on his throne. This monument is what Jesus was referencing when he calls Pergamon the place of “Satan’s throne.”
Jesus is identifying the Greek deity Zeus with the devil. Zeus is the Greek counterpart of Ba’al and was considered by their respective followers to be the same being in different cultures. Both the Greeks and Canaanites believed that Ba’al and Zeus were the same deity, they came to this conclusion for a few reasons.
Ba’al was a storm god whose weapon of choice was the thunderbolt and in his iconography he is typically shown with lightning, just like Zeus. Both Ba’al and Zeus defeated sea monsters to gain control of the universe. The parallels between the two gods clearly indicate they were the same god, represented similarly in two different cultures.
As we study the religions of other cultures, we discover that Satan has been called and worshiped by many names, including Ba’al, Zeus, Jupiter, and even in Chinese religion, the old dragon is a major character in their theology.
Satan has been deceiving humanity for a very long time. His role in the Old Testament story is much deeper than just tempting Adam, Eve and Job. He is the main adversary of God in many scenes like the Red Sea crossing, we just haven’t recognized him because he was going by his alias Ba’al. But beyond just Scripture, the devil’s role in human history runs deep. For thousands of years he has been using the other religions of the world to trick our fellow humans into serving him.
The only thing that Satan has ever created is falsehoods, the only language he knows how to speak is lies (John 8:44). When we shine God’s truth on the shadows that the devil has created for himself and begin to strip away the masks we can see him for what he truly is, a pretender, a trader, a rebel who has already been defeated.
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