The Paradigm: The Ancient Blueprint That Holds the Mystery of Our Times

by Jonathan Cahn

The replacing of God with idols of wood and stone and the invisible with the visible, physical, and tangible represented as well a descent into materialism, carnality, and sensuality.

Baal was carnal, a deity of impulse and passion. He dwelt in a pantheon marked by sexual licentiousness.

The idols would not be called idols or gods. And they would assume modern forms—the idols of money, success, pleasure, prosperity, comfort, addictions, materialism, self-obsession, self-indulgence, self-worship. As in the ancient metamorphosis, with the turning away from God and the turning to idolatry, the culture became increasingly materialistic and increasingly obsessed with and addicted to the sensual.

emerging from the shadows and came out into the open, from hedonism and sexual immorality to atheism and godlessness.

Just as few in the modern world would ever admit to serving idols, far fewer would ever admit to serving Baal. Yet when a civilization that has once known the ways of God turns away from those ways, it inevitably turns to Baal. The name of Baal will never be spoken; nevertheless he will be served—in one form or another. When a culture or life gives itself to serve the spirit of increase, gain, profit, materialism, prosperity, and self-interest above all things—it has given itself to Baal.

He will be a man in conflict, compromised, complicated, and divided.

Jezebel would undoubtedly judge the faith of Israel as restrictive, narrow-minded, religiously conservative, parochial, exclusive, and intolerant.

Who was Astarte? As Baal was Phoenicia’s fertility god, Astarte was its fertility goddess. She was, on one hand, seductive, the goddess of sexuality and erotic passion, but on the other, the fierce goddess of war and destruction.

whisper a spell, to enchant, to practice sorcery, witchcraft.

Israel’s apostasy, and the goddess of Queen

The account reveals that he worshipped God in the form of an idol—in other words, a god the Israelites had made, a god of subjectivity. He could be comfortable with that, but not with the living God of the Bible and not with His ways. And as for those who held true to the ways of God, the king found them to be at best an enigma and at worst an obstacle.

Though the heir may invoke the name of God, the ways of God will ultimately be alien to him. He will not be comfortable with those ways nor with those who uphold them. He will see such people as an enigma and obstacle to his agenda. His words and actions will reveal a distinct and marked hostility to the things of God.

To the same degree that a civilization calls what is evil good, it will call what is good evil. To the same degree that it hallows the profane, it will profane the holy. And to the same degree it legitimizes unrighteousness, it will delegitimize the

As the culture accepts what it had once known to be sin, it will begin to reject what it had once seen as righteousness. It will cease to reverence it. It will then only tolerate it and then marginalize it, then vilify it, then criminalize it, and then persecute it.

He could and would shake up the status quo of his day. He was a destabilizer. He was an agent of chaos. He would destroy. He would overthrow. He would tear down. He would turn everything around him upside down.

Though there were undoubtedly mixed motives involved in his rising, and though he may have never fully grasped the significance of his role in the larger scheme of things, he was nevertheless a chosen vessel, an agent of change, a sword of judgment, an unlikely instrument anointed to hold back the sealing of the apostasy, to provide God’s people with a space in time, and to overthrow a kingdom that warred against the ways of God.

He was radical, dramatic, unafraid, bold, and powerful. And it was just such a figure that was required for the challenge of the times. He would stand as a counterforce to the nation’s apostasy. He would be hated by the priests of Baal and their followers and

by Jezebel, who would threaten his life. Yet he would confront the king face-to-face. He would refuse to bend to the times or give any ground to the dictates of the apostasy. He would not be intimidated but would stand unyielding, uncompromised, and unashamed for the ways of God. And his life and ministry would be used to change the course of his nation’s history.

Elijah speaks especially to our day and is critical in revealing how God’s people are to stand, act, bear witness, overcome, and be a light to the days and world in which they live.

the ways of God represented the ruling principle of the nation’s culture. Biblical faith was society’s reigning worldview, and biblical morality represented its prevailing code of ethics.

Thus God’s people must, in turn, move to the Elijah stage. The Judeo-Christian faith must change from functioning as a cultural phenomenon to a countercultural one. Its people must increasingly become a revolutionary people, a prophetic people.

Those who refuse to go along with the culture’s apostasy, those who remain faithful to God’s ways, will now be labeled as radical, troublemakers, dangerous, even enemies of the state. Their very existence will bear witness of what the culture had once upheld but had now forsaken.

a rebellion against the eternal laws of God.

A civilization in apostasy will attempt to redefine not only good and evil but the people of God themselves. Therefore the righteous must reject all redefinition. They must refuse to be redefined by the apostasy. They must hold unshakably to the eternal laws of God.

In the days of apostasy the people of God must become increasingly independent of the culture that surrounds them, especially separated from its corruptions. Only then will they be able to bring light into its darkness.

In order to become independent of the corruption of his times, Elijah had to become all the more dependent on God. He was thus a man of deep prayer and communion with God.

The ability of God’s people to become independent from the corruption and defilement of the

surrounding culture will be proportionate to their increasing...

In order to be unplugged from the darkness, one must become all the more plugged in to the light. So in the days of apostasy it is all the more critical for believers to become all the more plugged in to God through prayer and communion in His presence. The more dependent they are on Him, the more independent they will...

the one who will most commit to living undivided, uncompromised, and wholeheartedly for God will also be the one most powerfully used by God for His purposes.

In the days when immorality becomes a culture’s ruling principle, the temptation for God’s people will be to soften their stands, to bend under the pressure, and to compromise with the dark. But those who do so will disqualify themselves from being used of God as they were meant to be used. The righteous must instead commit to living as did Elijah and to resist all temptation to compromise and all pressure to soften their stand. Rather, they must move in the opposite direction. When the dark grows increasingly darker, it is then that the lights must grow increasingly bright. When evil goes from bad to worse, the righteous must go from good to great. In a Christian civilization the candles shine in the light of the sun. But in a post-Christian civilization they shine in the darkness of the night. They become lights of contradiction. But it is the contrary light that changes the history of lives and nations. It is the radical light, the light of the candle in the night, that lights up the world. Elijah was a man of faith and confidence, of boldness and courage against all odds, of a stubborn hope that would not yield in spite of all that was arrayed against it. Despite his circumstances and despite those who sat on his nation’s throne, he knew who was King above all kings and which side it was that would prevail in the end.

In days when darkness rules, the righteous must see beyond the dark and hold by faith to a stubborn uny...

and to the assurance of the victory that waits at the end. They must be bold, courageous, and ...

So in the days of mass apostasy it will often look as if God’s people are on the losing side. But they must be all the more stubborn in faith, all the more bold in truth, and all the more confident of victory. They must resist the temptation to be silent. They must be as Elijah and fight their good fight and take up their stand as if they are on the winning side—as, in fact, they are.

For a civilization given to idolatry and materialism will ultimately devalue the altar of the cross. A culture obsessed with self-gratification and self-worship will reject that which epitomizes self-sacrifice. Thus it will disparage and break down the Lord’s altar. The pursuit of prosperity, success, and self-realization has caused the cross to be neglected and broken down as well in many of the houses that bear His name.

For there to be revival and restoration, there must be repentance. And for there to be repentance, there must be decision.

And only through repentance can there be revival. And only through decision can there be repentance.

We must pray for our civilization’s Mount Carmel moment

and call for the decision that must be made. But we ourselves must likewise have our own Mount Carmel moment. We must each bring to an end any lingering indecision or wavering that still remains. We must each choose whom we will serve. For the one who serves the Lord completely, wholeheartedly, and with no reservations will be the one whom God will anoint, as He anointed El...

God is slow to judge. Yet He must and will ultimately bring all that is evil into judgment. It is His necessity to bring judgment, but it is His heart to show mercy. Thus He calls all to repentance and salvation.