Israel became separated from God and turned to other ideas about God. They turned to Baal worship by mingling the teachings of Baal with those of God.
Elijah challenged all the prophets of Baal and told the Israelites that they should quit stumbling back and forth between two different thoughts about God:
And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the ETERNAL is God, follow Him, but if Baal is then follow him.” But the people couldn’t answer him a word. (1 Kings 18:21).
Elijah was only one man, so what he said about God was difficult for people to accept.
They chose to be more comfortable by supporting the soothing teachings of the prophets of Baal.
Elijah then challenged the prophets of Baal to show that either they were right about God or that he was right about God.
Elijah had those prophets prepare a sacrifice for an offering to Baal.
If Baal was God, then he should be able to consume this offering in the sight of the people. These prophets cried to Baal all morning long. Elijah mocked them because their prayers were not being answered. Elijah then goaded them by saying that they should cry out louder because perhaps Baal could not hear them or perhaps he was talking to others. Perhaps Baal was on a journey or sleeping and needed to be awakened; or maybe he was away someplace relieving himself (an expression used for going to the toilet).
Finally, by the time for the evening sacrifice, Elijah prepared an offering on an altar of wood. Water was poured over the sacrifice three different times and a trench that surrounded the altar was filled with water:
And the water ran around the altar, and he also filled the trench with water. And it came to pass at the time for the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, “ETERNAL, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things by Your word. Hear me, O ETERNAL, hear me, that this people may know that You are the ETERNAL God, and that You have turned their heart back again.”
Then the fire of the ETERNAL fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said,
“The ETERNAL, He is the God; the ETERNAL, He is the God.” Then Elijah said to them, “Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” So they took them and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and killed them there. (1 Kings 18:35-40)
It is time for the "spiritual" application of this story of Elijah to be fulfilled. Four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal died that day. Now, the time has come for a type of this same account to be fulfilled in the environs of the spiritual Israel of God, the
Church of God.
We hope that the scattered brethren who are asleep might be awakened and know that God has granted them the opportunity to repent and return to Him at this time.
As stated in a previous:
Either one of these is true or neither is true. But both can not be true [truth]
THE SPIRITUAL ELIJAH LEADING THE WAY BEFORE THE COMING OF CHRIST [THE FIRST AND SECOND]
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