WASHINGTON – Baal was a false god of power, fertility and child sacrifice for the ancient Canaanites and Phoenicians – a particular favorite of the apostate Queen Jezebel.
So, you might wonder what the Arch of Baal is doing lurking on Capitol Mall from Thursday through Sunday.
Well for those who show curiosity about such things and ask questions, here’s what you’ll be told.
The exhibit has been traveling around the world for the last few years and last week was its turn in Washington. Previously it has spent time in London, New York City and Dubai. Known as the Arch of Palmyra, the original was destroyed by ISIS in 2015. So, of course, internationalists decided to rebuild it and turn it into a traveling roadshow.
The fact that Baal, also known colloquially in the Christian world as Beelzebub, was another name for Satan, didn’t raise many questions.
He’s kind of the Bible’s anti-God, mentioned more often in Scripture than any deity other than the God of Israel.
The central tenet of Baal worship, the most distinguishing characteristic, involved parents gathering around a monstrous idol that included a furnace into which the adults would sacrifice their children on the burning hot altar. Drums would be ritualistically pounded to cover-up the screams of the kids.
So, you still don’t understand why it was there?
Neither do some on social media asking the question.
“Maybe this monument should be de-faced and torn down like the left does to Civil War monuments,” commented one.
“This arch is NOT a U.S. monument nor is it part of our ‘history.'” said another.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-CA, and ranking member Eliot Engel, D-NY, both longtime advocates for the protection of “global cultural heritage,” jointly unveiled what they called the reconstruction of “Palmyra, Syria’s, iconic Triumphal Arch on the National Mall.” Engel said at the unveiling: “When you look at this beautiful Arch, we are seeing through the eyes of ancient civilizations, and to have it right here, set against the classical columns of the Capitol, is really extraordinary.”
The reconstruction is carved from the same Egyptian marble as the original.
“The thugs of ISIS destroyed the physical arch but we will not and never allow them to take that profoundly important piece of human history away from us, away from the people of Syria, away from anyone,” said Engel.
Baal and its arch are very much a part of ancient Israel’s history. Messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn, author of the bestsellers “The Harbinger” and, most recently, “The Paradigm,” explains the significance.
“Israel is the example, ancient Israel, when they turned away from God, what happened?” he asks. “Baal’s importance, or his dynamic, is that when a nation has known God, as Israel knew God, and then they turned away from God, they turned to Baal. Baal is the anti-God. Baal is the substitute god. Baal is the god of apostasy, of the turning away from God.
“Once you create your own god, you can create your own truth. Once you create your own truth, you can overrule everything, call good evil and evil good. … Idolatry is linked to relativism, because you’re creating truths. Once you change your gods, everything else changes. It starts with that.
“Then one more step, you have the offering up of children. You have this big statue of Baal, with bronze arms and bull head, and they would place their baby on those arms and have it rolled into the fire. This is what happened in ancient Israel. This was a long-term apostasy.”
Some are asking the question of whether the craziness that enveloped Washington last week might be connected with Baal – kind of like a full moon.
Who made the decision? Why? Who knows? Maybe it’s just a coincidence – even though many observers of the Supreme Court nomination hearings that took all the oxygen out of the capital last week note that the entire process had to do with abortion.
Other are questioning whether the disposition of the Arch of Palmyra might bring a semblance of normality to D.C. today.
