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Who was Moloch/Molech?

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Bible guild Mule
Captain

PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 12:36 am
"Who was Moloch/Molech?"

Answer: As with many details in ancient history, the exact origin of Moloch/Molech worship is unclear. The term Moloch is believed to have originated with the Phoenician mlk, which referred to a type of sacrifice made to confirm or acquit a vow. Melekh is the Hebrew word for “king.” It was common for the Israelites to combine the name of pagan gods with the vowels in the Hebrew word for shame: bosheth. This is how the goddess of fertility and war, Astarte, became Ashtoreth. The combination of mlk, melekh, and bosheth results in “Moloch,” which could be interpreted as “the personified ruler of shameful sacrifice.” It has also been spelled Milcom, Milkim, Malik, and Moloch. Ashtoreth was his consort, and ritual prostitution was considered an important form of worship.

The Phoenicians were a loosely gathered group of people who inhabited Canaan (modern-day Lebanon, Syria, and Israel) between 1550 BC and 300 BC. In addition to sexual rituals, Moloch worship included child sacrifice, or “passing children through the fire.” It is believed that idols of Moloch were giant metal statues of a man with a bull’s head. Each image had a hole in the abdomen and possibly outstretched forearms that made a kind of ramp to the hole. A fire was lit in or around the statue. Babies were placed in the statue’s arms or in the hole. When a couple sacrificed their firstborn, they believed that Moloch would ensure financial prosperity for the family and future children.

Moloch/Molech worship wasn’t limited to Canaan. Monoliths in North Africa bear the engraving “mlk”—often written “mlk’mr” and “mlk’dm,” which may mean “sacrifice of lamb” and “sacrifice of man.” In North Africa, Moloch was renamed “Kronos.” Kronos migrated to Carthage in Greece, and his mythology grew to include his becoming a Titan and the father of Zeus. Moloch is affiliated with and sometimes equated to Ba’al, although the word ba’al was also used to designate any god or ruler.

In Genesis 12 Abraham followed God’s call to move to Canaan. Although human sacrifice was not common in Abraham’s native Ur, it was well-established in his new land. God later asked Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice (Genesis 22:2). But then God distinguished Himself from gods like Moloch. Unlike the native Canaanite gods, Abraham’s God abhorred human sacrifice. God commanded Isaac to be spared, and He provided a ram to take Isaac’s place (Genesis 22:13). God used this event as an illustration of how He would later provide His own Son to take our place.

Over five hundred years after Abraham, Joshua led the Israelites out of the desert to inherit the Promised Land. God knew that the Israelites were immature in their faith and easily distracted from worshiping the one true God (Exodus 32). Before the Israelites had even entered Canaan, God warned them not to participate in Moloch worship (Leviticus 18:21) and repeatedly told them to destroy those cultures that worshiped Moloch. The Israelites didn’t heed God’s warnings. Instead, they incorporated Moloch worship into their own traditions. Even Solomon, the wisest king, was swayed by this cult and built places of worship for Moloch and other gods (1 Kings 11:1–8.). Moloch worship occurred in the “high places” (1 Kings 12:31) as well as a narrow ravine outside Jerusalem called the Valley of Hinnom (2 Kings 23:10).

Despite occasional efforts by godly kings, worship of Moloch wasn’t abolished until the Israelites’ captivity in Babylon. (Although the Babylonian religion was pantheistic and characterized by astrology and divination, it did not include human sacrifice.) Somehow, the dispersion of the Israelites into a large pagan civilization succeeded in finally purging them of their false gods. When the Jews returned to their land, they rededicated themselves to God, and the Valley of Hinnom was turned into a place for burning garbage and the bodies of executed criminals. Jesus used the imagery of this place—an eternally burning fire, consuming countless human victims—to describe hell, where those who reject God will burn for eternity (Matthew 10:28.).

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 6:28 am
Yeah, and nowadays, Planned Parenthood and other abortion places could be considered a modern day cult of Molech. Just saying.  

D-BoyTheFighter

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cristobela
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 11:54 am
We shouldn't make it sound like God hates all human sacrifice (which this article, the way it is written, makes it sound like). He hates unfit human sacrifices. He hates human sacrifice when:

    1) it is a human who hasn't repented from sin / is not sinless
    2) that human does not give their own consent to be a sacrifice


Ergo, children do not qualify: they are sinful and can't give consent. They don't really know what is going on. Unlike Jesus, who knew full well the consequences of what he was walking into, and he was without sin.

Then there are people who die as martyrs for God (humans who are sacrificed at the hands of the enemy—not to atone for anything though) and there are those who die to self (living human sacrifices). They're all a human sacrifice of some kind. But there's only one who God made an offering for sin (Jesus).

      • Revelation 2:13 (KJV)

        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.


      • Revelation 17:6 (KJV)

        6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.


      • Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

        12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.


      • Romans 8:3 (NIV)

        3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,[a] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.[b] And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

        Footnotes:

        a. Romans 8:3 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit; also in verses 4-13.
        b. Romans 8:3 Or flesh, for sin


Even if we lay down our lives as a martyr, we're dying at the hands of the enemy, not our own hand. I say that to distinguish between us and a suicide bomber whose motives are different. I will say, however, that the latter is walking in the spirit of Samson (destroying self as one takes out the idolatrous enemy) but Samson (and those who walk in his ways) were / are looking to destroy the sinner instead of seeking to reconcile the sinner. We're seeking to soften their hardened hearts by voluntarily being the victim in their hands (thus spare their lives and move them to repentance). But suicide bombers are just seeking to destroy the human entirely and send them into the realm of the dead unreconciled. I'm sure God will glorify himself and do away with sin either way. But our service to God and martyrdom is not equivalent to Samson's/a suicide bomber's. Though I wonder if we should consider Samson a martyr. question

Anyway, whatever the kind of human sacrifice, it must fit those two criteria (repented from sin/is sinless and can give consent fully knowing what they're walking into); otherwise, it is unfit.
 
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