Who was Baal? | GotQuestions.org

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What does Baal mean? What was the practice of Baal worship? In this video we answer your question: Who was Baal? Source: https://www.gotquestions.org/who-Baal.html

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Hi there, many others like you have asked, who is Baal? Let's find out, shall we?
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You can also discover more on GotQuestions .org. We're happy to answer your question today.
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Baal was the name of the supreme god worshipped in ancient Canaan and Phoenicia.
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The practice of Baal worship infiltrated Jewish religious life during the time of the judges and became widespread in Israel during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel.
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The word Baal means Lord and the plural is Baalim. In general,
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Baal was a fertility god who was believed to enable the earth to produce crops and people to produce children.
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Different regions worshipped Baal in different ways and Baal proved to be a highly malleable god.
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Various locales emphasized one or another of his attributes and developed special denominations of Baalism.
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According to Canaanite mythology, Baal was the son of El and Asherah. Baal was considered the most powerful of all gods, eclipsing his weak father.
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In various battles, Baal defeated Yam and Mot. Baal's sisters and consorts were
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Eshtereth and Anat. The Canaanites worshipped Baal as the sun and storm gods who defeated enemies and produced crops.
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Baal worship was rooted in sensuality and involved ritualistic prostitution in the temples.
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At times, appeasing Baal required first -worn human sacrifice, ecstatic cries, and self -inflicted injury rites.
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Before the Hebrews entered the promised land, the Lord God warned against worshipping Canaan's gods, but Israel turned it to idolatry anyway.
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At the height of Baal worship in Israel, God directly confronted them with his prophet Elijah. First, God showed that he, not
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Baal, controlled the rain by sending a three and a half year drought. Then Elijah called for a showdown on Mount Carmel to prove once and for all who the true
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God was. All day long, 450 prophets of Baal called on their God for lightning, but there was no response, no one answered, and no one paid attention.
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After Baal's prophets gave up, Elijah prayed a simple prayer and God answered immediately with fire from heaven.
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Additionally, Jesus called Satan Beelzebub, linking the devil to Baal Zebub, a
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Philistine deity. The Baalim of the Old Testament were nothing more than demons masquerading as gods.
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Ultimately, all idolatry is devil worship. Alright, that answers your question, who was
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Baal? On our website, gotquestions .org, you'll find an in -depth article with citations and resource suggestions.
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