As I’ve written about before, 1,400 years before Christ there existed a worldwide religious operation that worshipped with graven images and had robed priests called Fathers.

One of the tribes in Israel, the tribe of Dan, become associated with this apostate system and settled in Zidon, part of ancient Phoenicia. (Judges 17)

“Phoenicia is where our alphabet comes from and the Phoenicians were people who settled Rome and France, and Spain, England, Europe and all over,” says Jordan. “They were sending out commerce and trade all over the world at this time and their religion went with it.”

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Jordan continues, “Where in the world would any Jew get off calling his priest Father? God never said anything about that! They got that from all those years in Babylon.”

When Jesus warns in Mark 12:38, “Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing,” he’s referring to robes.

“Do you know your Bible does everything in the world in describing the garment the Lord Jesus Christ wore except call it a robe?” says Jordan. “That’s interesting.”

From II Kings 10, we know these Baal robes were called vestments and this is where the term vestibule comes from. Priests have a little room at the front of the church they call the vestry, where they make their formal entrance from during the processional. The man who takes care of the robes, etc., is called the “vestryman.”

God says in I Kings 19:18, “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him,” revealing the apostate Jews worshipped Baal by kissing him—kissing his hand, kissing his ring, kissing his foot.

On this same matter, Hosea 13: 1-2 says, “When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.
[2] And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.”

Jordan explains, “They’re gonna plant a big smacker on that idol. You know what that is? A sign of worship. That’s part of the religious ceremony those Baal worshippers go through.

“And that old boy down there in Micah’s house in Judges 17 and 18 . . . that young Levite man who went out there and became the priest in Micah’s house and Micah called him Father and he went and became the priest in Dan. That man took over the graven images and all that business and he’s wearing a long robe just like the rest of these guys and they kiss him and all the rest. It’s all part of the religious system they’re involved in; it’s part of their worship.

“Now come to I Kings 16 and watch this stuff spread as it goes into the whole nation. You find Baal worship is made the official religion of Israel.”

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As we read in I Kings 16: 31-33, “And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.
[32] And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
[33] And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.”

Jordan says, “You know anybody who’s got a house where they worship God? Folks, there wasn’t but one place on the face of the earth at that time where God could be worshipped and that was at the temple. It was the ONLY place. This guy’s got a house here for Baal!

“Ethbaal means living with Baal and Ahab marries Jezebel who’s a priestess of Baal. He marries her and she becomes his queen. Now, you know Ahab’s a wicked rascal anyway but Jezebel, she’s about 10 times as bad as Ahab was. They worked together real good. Ahab was a spoiled brat. Jezebel was somebody who would go out and get it—she didn’t mess around.

“You remember when they went out and tried to get Naboth’s vineyard and he wouldn’t sell it to them? What’d Ahab do? He went home pouting. Here’s the king of Israel and the dude’s lying on the bed with his face to the wall. You know, poke his bottom lip out so far he could trip over it if he tried to walk around. Good thing he was laying down!

“So Jezebel comes in and says, ‘What’s the matter, honey?’ and he tells her, and she says, ‘That’s okay, you get cleaned up and ready for supper and I’ll take care of it!’ And she didn’t pout; she went out and took over the thing and got the guy murdered, that’s all.”

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Jordan continues, “You know what you do on an altar? You sacrifice. These people are sacrificing on an altar. You know what you do when you sacrifice? You shed blood. They’ve got drink offerings of blood. As Psalm 16:4 says, ‘Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.’

“There never was but one altar God ordained and that was the one in that tabernacle and in that temple. And since Jesus Christ died on the Cross, the Book of Hebrews says we’ve got an altar and it’s the Cross.

“And if you need an altar, brother, you need to go to Calvary. You don’t go to some thing that’s going to be rotted out and gone in 30 years. What good’s that going to do you in eternity? You need an altar that’s gonna be here forever and you got one in Christ and His work at the Cross.”

Ahab made a grove, something God categorically told Israel not to do in passages like Deut. 16: 21-22: “Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee. Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.”

Jordan reasons, “That sure gives you an idea what God thought about this stuff! The grove is something that’s so depraved and so filled with debauchery it’s rather difficult to describe it in a mixed audience. In fact, it’s pretty difficult to describe in nothing but an audience of men. And unless you’ve been in the heathen part of the world, where there just hasn’t been much light and there’s resistance to the Word, it’s difficult to imagine this stuff.

“I heard some missionaries just the other day—a man had been down in Puerto Rico and said you couldn’t imagine the things you see going on down there with the religious voodoo and black magic worship, and I guarantee that same stuff goes on here in Chicago and you just don’t see it; it’s just not socially acceptable.

“A grove has to do with a high place; you go up on this high place and set up this idol and this altar and a place to worship, and they set up a bunch of trees. Now, the trees are to make an enclosure so you can get inside of it and hide. You set up an image there and it has to do with a phallic symbol.”