Bible Studies

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After Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan God understood the future problems that the Canaanites would create. God was concerned the Israelites would succumb to Berith. The Canaanites made a covenant with their God Berith. Later Christianity changed that name to Baalberith. This Baalberith was a fallen angel under the command of Satan.

To start with you need to understand that the covenant God made with Abraham was an unconditional covenant. Basically it meant that no matter how many times or how evil the Israelites could become God would not break his covenant with the Israelites. They are his chosen people.

Following God’s command Joshua conquered the Canaanites. As God had feared as soon as Joshua had died the Israelites turned to the god of the Canaanites Baalberith. Led by Deborah the Israelites returned to God. Then after a time the Israelites returned again to Baalberith. Then God turned to Gideon to lead the Israelites away from Baalberith. Gideon initially went in and destroyed the altar to Baalberith and the symbol of the goddess Asherah beside the altar.

No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baalberith. They set up Baalberith as their god again and did not remember the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.(Judges 8:33)

There is one other reference to Baalberith in the bible. They gave him (Abimelek) seventy shekels[a] of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, and Abimelek used it to hire reckless scoundrels, who became his followers. He went to his father’s home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal.(Judges 9:4)

According to God’s command to Gideon “You shall not leave anything alive that breathes.” (Deuteronomy 20:17) Gideon did systematically eliminate all the men, women, and children of Canaan. Unfortunately the Gibeonites tricked Gideon by saying they are were Canaanites. Gideon enters into an alliance with them. Eventually the Gibeonites are enslaved but are not killed. Therefore not all the Canaanites are destroyed.

Later Esau marries Canaanite wives and their offspring are called Edomites. The Edomites are so evil in the way they treat the Israelites God condemns forever. This is the consequence of all the Canaanites not being eliminated. Jesus calls them sons of the devil. “Thus, says the Lord: For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because he (Esau) pursued his brother (Jacob) with the sword, and cast off all pity, and his anger tore perpetually, and so he (God) keeps his wrath forever.” (Amos 1:11) This seed has been condemned by God forever. The Edomites are the property of Satan. And they are sons of the devil as Jesus addresses them in John chapter eight.

That was not the end of Baalberith. I would imagine we all know about exorcisms. Exorcisms are not only done by Catholics but also by Orthodox and Lutherans. In a book ‘Admirable History’ written by Fr. Sebastian Demichaelis in 1612 tells about a possessed nun in Aix-en-Provence named Madeleine. Sister Madeleine was possessed by several powerful demons. After several priests were unable to exorcise the demons Fr. Sebastian Demichaelis was summoned. After Fr. Sebastian started the exorcism process Baalberith not only volunteered his name but the name of all the demons possessing Sister Madeleine. It took four months to finally free Sister Madeleine of all the demons.

Baalberith gave the entire hierarchy of the fallen angels that were in three tiers. He also told Fr.Sebastian which saints would be best to combat each fallen angel. The complete list of devils and their functions and their functions are reported in Fr. Sebastian Demichaelis book ‘Admirable History.’

In conclusion we can see there is another existence besides the one in which we live. We don’t see with our own eyes the existence of the fallen angels. We can all feel something strange going on in the world. Fortunately we have Jesus Christ to accept as our Savior. As he left the Holy Spirit came down to watch over us as well as guardian angels.

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