Tag Archives: Baphomet

Devotional, Series

Not Ashamed

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By Rev. Todd R. Lattig

Read 1 Kings 18:20–39

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16 NLT)

“If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns…” (Mark 8:38 NLT)

Image: AI-generated using DALL·E and customized by the author. Used with the devotional “Not Ashamed” at Life-Giving Water Devotions.

For those who know me, it’s no secret that I’ve been a long-time fan of the Christian heavy metal band Disciple. I even have a tattoo on my right shoulder inspired by their Back Again album — a fiery tribal emblem representing the Holy Spirit. Around it are the words Not Ashamed, anchored by two scriptures: Romans 1:16 and Mark 8:38. One reminds me that I carry the gospel unashamedly; the other reminds me never to be ashamed of the One who called me. I wear it on my body because I live it with my life.

One of my favorite Disciple songs of all time is God of Elijah. It’s loud. It’s raw. It’s righteous. And it captures something the Church too often forgets — that prophets weren’t just preachers, they were protectors. They were the staff that stood between the sheep and the wolves. Elijah didn’t just confront 450 prophets of Baal because he liked a dramatic showdown. He stood there on Mount Carmel because Jezebel had already slaughtered countless prophets of YHWH, and the people were next. This wasn’t a debate. It was a rescue.

Recently, I made a video online that used the image of Baphomet — a symbol that has long been misunderstood by the church. Originally invented during the Inquisition as a false charge against the Knights Templar, Baphomet later became a visual shorthand for “the devil” in Christian imagination. But over the centuries, the image has been reclaimed by various groups — not just Satanists — as a symbol of balance, resistance to authoritarianism, and the freedom to question. I didn’t use it to provoke for the sake of provocation. I used it to hold up a mirror. To confront how fear, misunderstanding, and projection have become the golden calves of Christianity — and they remain well polished today. Some didn’t like it. That’s fine. Prophets rarely win popularity contests. But I didn’t speak up to stir the pot. I spoke to protect the people I love — the ones most harmed when religion worships fear instead of God.

Elijah wasn’t there to win approval. He was there to draw a line — a line between the living God and the idols we build out of fear, power, and control.

By the time Elijah steps onto Mount Carmel, things in Israel have gone terribly wrong. King Ahab has married Jezebel, a foreign queen who brings with her not only Baal worship, but the state enforcement of it. Under her reign, hundreds of YHWH’s prophets are slaughtered. Those who survive are forced into hiding. The altars of the Lord are torn down, and Baal’s priests are given the king’s blessing and the people’s loyalty.

Ahab is not merely a compromised leader. He’s a cautionary tale — a man who trades covenant for convenience, allowing his position to become a puppet string in the hands of empire. And Jezebel? She’s not just a queen. She’s a symbol of what happens when power is wielded without mercy. Her prophets eat at the palace while the people starve for truth.

That’s what Elijah is walking into. He’s not some hot-headed preacher picking a fight over theology. He’s a prophet standing alone in a state-sponsored religious system where the cost of faithfulness is death. His confrontation on Mount Carmel isn’t about flexing spiritual superiority — it’s about saving a people who have been spiritually manipulated and politically deceived. It’s about calling them back from the edge.

So Elijah sets the terms. Two altars. Two sacrifices. Two cries to heaven. And the one who answers by fire? That’s the true God. Baal’s prophets shout and cut and bleed. Elijah mocks them, yes — but not out of arrogance. Out of clarity. Because the stakes are life and death. The people needed to see just how silent their idol really was.

Then Elijah — confident but humble — douses his altar in water. Three times. No room for tricks. No shadows to hide in. He calls on God, and fire falls. Consuming fire. The kind that leaves no question. The kind that doesn’t just burn… it purifies. And when it hits, the people don’t cheer. They fall facedown. They don’t see ego. They see truth. And they remember who they belong to.

This wasn’t unholy rage. It was holy resistance.

It wasn’t about theological disagreement. It was about stopping the machine that was physically and spiritually devouring a nation.

Sometimes, speaking truth will make the very people you’re protecting think you’re the problem. But that’s the risk prophets take. That’s the cross they carry. And when the time is right…God still falls like fire.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Prophets don’t just preach—they protect. Even when it burns.

PRAYER
God of Elijah, You are the One who answers by fire—not to destroy us, but to refine us, to wake us up, and to draw us back. When fear dresses itself in holiness, give us courage to speak. When love feels like confrontation, give us compassion to protect. We are not ashamed—not of You, not of the truth, and not of who You’ve called us to be. Amen.

Devotion written by Rev. Todd R. Lattig with the assistance of ChatGPT (OpenAI).

Devotional, Previous Post

REVISITED: Bewitched

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Read Galatians 3:1-5

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.” (Romans 6:14, NLT)

The lights darkened, the room silenced, and the discordant sound of stringed instruments filled the air in an unsettling and disturbing manner. The sounds of violin and cello cut through me like seraded steel as the theater screen faded in from black to the image of a teenager’s stone pale and frightened face. It was clear from the way that she was dressed that she was living in seventeenth century New England and that she was among a group of people known as the Puritans.

As it turns out, her father is standing trial for not adhereing to the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at the time a British colony, because he believes those laws to stand against the teachings of the Gospels. As such he and his family are banished and end up moving out of the village they were in and settling in the wilderness of New England on the edge of a think and dark wood (aka forest). While I will not give away anything, as I run a tight “no-spoiler” ship, this is where the 2016 film, “The Witch”, opens up and where the horror begins.

This film, as I see it, is a work of fine art and there is much for us Christians to pull from it. On the surface, the horror is centering on a potential witch that lives in the woods and is preying upon a New England family that is doing everything they can to remain godly and to stay together as a family. But as misfortune after misfortune happens, and as the family becomes more and more certain they are “witched”, the more and more it is that the real horror is revealed.

Right from the opening scene onward, we are made aware that this family is hypersensitive to their sin, to the sin of others, and to the soveriegnty of God. It is not wrong to be sensitive to those things in a healthy kind of way, but this family is overly sensitive, to the point that every conversation is filled with talk about their sinfulness, the wickedness of the world and the uncertainty of their own, let alone anyone else’s, salvation.

At every turn, the family is reminded that they are wicked and sinful and they start to have the feeling that they are “witched” because God is punishing them and handing them over to the devil as a result of their wickedness. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere, is God’s grace really at play here in this film and in the psyche of the family. Even when God’s mercy is mentioned, it is with the understanding that they are in need of mercy because of their wickedness, and their pleading for it betrays their theology that they worship a God who just might not show mercy to them.

It becomes clear to me, without giving anything away from the actual story line of “The Witch” itself, that the family is bewitched by their own stringent, and horrific, theology. While it is true that God is  sovereign and it is true that we fall short of God’s glorious standard, it is NOT true that God is out to get us for our fallenness. Their theology is so damning that they could never, ever experience the grace and mercy that was already there waiting for them. They were so busy worrying about the prowling devil in the woods that they could not see that they had all they needed to thrive in the wilderness: their family and their faith.

Today’s challenge is this: don’t let yourself get bewitched by a negative and graceless theology. Rather, at every turn, steer clear of the devil by choosing to see the grace of God throughout your life, in your family, and in your community. Community is not perfect, but God is working to perfect it through your presence as well as others. Remember, God saved you from slavery to sin and death, so why negate that by making those things the foundation of your faith? Jesus Christ is the grace of God. That, and that alone, should be your faith’s foundation.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
The devil’s work is division and separation from others.  God is the great uniter.

PRAYER
Lord, keep me from bewitching myself with bad theology. Remind me daily of your grace. Amen.

Devotional, Previous Post

A LOOK BACK: Bewitched

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Read Galatians 3:1-5

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.” (Romans 6:14, NLT)

The lights darkened, the room silenced, and the discordant sound of stringed instruments filled the air in an unsettling and disturbing manner. The sounds of violin and cello cut through me like serrated steel as the theater screen faded in from black to the image of a teenager’s stone pale and frightened face. It was clear from the way that she was dressed that she was living in seventeenth century New England and that she was among a group of people known as the Puritans.

As it turns out, her father is standing trial for not adhereing to the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at the time a British colony, because he believes those laws to stand against the teachings of the Gospels. As such he and his family are banished and end up moving out of the village they were in and settling in the wilderness of New England on the edge of a think and dark wood (aka forest). While I will not give away anything, as I run a tight “no-spoiler” ship, this is where the 2016 film, “The Witch”, opens up and where the horror begins.

This film, as I see it, is a work of fine art and there is much for us Christians to pull from it. On the surface, the horror is centering on a potential witch that lives in the woods and is preying upon a New England family that is doing everything they can to remain godly and to stay together as a family. But as misfortune after misfortune happens, and as the family becomes more and more certain they are “witched”, the more and more it is that the real horror is revealed.

Right from the opening scene onward, we are made aware that this family is hypersensitive to their sin, to the sin of others, and to the soveriegnty of God. It is not wrong to be sensitive to those things in a healthy kind of way, but this family is overly sensitive, to the point that every conversation is filled with talk about their sinfulness, the wickedness of the world and the uncertainty of their own, let alone anyone else’s, salvation.

At every turn, the family is reminded that they are wicked and sinful and they start to have the feeling that they are “witched” because God is punishing them and handing them over to the devil as a result of their wickedness. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere, is God’s grace really at play here in this film and in the psyche of the family. Even when God’s mercy is mentioned, it is with the understanding that they are in need of mercy because of their wickedness, and their pleading for it betrays their theology that they worship a God who just might not show mercy to them.

It becomes clear to me, without giving anything away from the actual story line of “The Witch” itself, that the family is bewitched by their own stringent, and horrific, theology. While it is true that God is  sovereign and it is true that we fall short of God’s glorious standard, it is NOT true that God is out to get us for our fallenness. Their theology is so damning that they could never, ever experience the grace and mercy that was already there waiting for them. They were so busy worrying about the prowling devil in the woods that they could not see that they had all they needed to thrive in the wilderness: their family and their faith.

Today’s challenge is this: don’t let yourself get bewitched by a negative and graceless theology. Rather, at every turn, steer clear of the devil by choosing to see the grace of God throughout your life, in your family, and in your community. Community is not perfect, but God is working to perfect it through your presence as well as others. Remember, God saved you from slavery to sin and death, so why negate that by making those things the foundation of your faith? Jesus Christ is the grace of God. That, and that alone, should be your faith’s foundation.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
The devil’s work is division and separation from others.  God is the great uniter.

PRAYER
Lord, keep me from bewitching myself with bad theology. Remind me daily of your grace. Amen.

Devotional

Bewitched

Leave a comment

Read Galatians 3:1-5

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.” (Romans 6:14, NLT)

The lights darkened, the room silenced, and the discordant sound of stringed instruments filled the air in an unsettling and disturbing manner. The sounds of violin and cello cut through me like seraded steel as the theater screen faded in from black to the image of a teenager’s stone pale and frightened face. It was clear from the way that she was dressed that she was living in seventeenth century New England and that she was among a group of people known as the Puritans.

As it turns out, her father is standing trial for not adhereing to the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at the time a British colony, because he believes those laws to stand against the teachings of the Gospels. As such he and his family are banished and end up moving out of the village they were in and settling in the wilderness of New England on the edge of a think and dark wood (aka forest). While I will not give away anything, as I run a tight “no-spoiler” ship, this is where the 2016 film, “The Witch”, opens up and where the horror begins.

This film, as I see it, is a work of fine art and there is much for us Christians to pull from it. On the surface, the horror is centering on a potential witch that lives in the woods and is preying upon a New England family that is doing everything they can to remain godly and to stay together as a family. But as misfortune after misfortune happens, and as the family becomes more and more certain they are “witched”, the more and more it is that the real horror is revealed.

Right from the opening scene onward, we are made aware that this family is hypersensitive to their sin, to the sin of others, and to the soveriegnty of God. It is not wrong to be sensitive to those things in a healthy kind of way, but this family is overly sensitive, to the point that every conversation is filled with talk about their sinfulness, the wickedness of the world and the uncertainty of their own, let alone anyone else’s, salvation.

At every turn, the family is reminded that they are wicked and sinful and they start to have the feeling that they are “witched” because God is punishing them and handing them over to the devil as a result of their wickedness. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere, is God’s grace really at play here in this film and in the psyche of the family. Even when God’s mercy is mentioned, it is with the understanding that they are in need of mercy because of their wickedness, and their pleading for it betrays their theology that they worship a God who just might not show mercy to them.

It becomes clear to me, without giving anything away from the actual story line of “The Witch” itself, that the family is bewitched by their own stringent, and horrific, theology. While it is true that God is  sovereign and it is true that we fall short of God’s glorious standard, it is NOT true that God is out to get us for our fallenness. Their theology is so damning that they could never, ever experience the grace and mercy that was already there waiting for them. They were so busy worrying about the prowling devil in the woods that they could not see that they had all they needed to thrive in the wilderness: their family and their faith.

Today’s challenge is this: don’t let yourself get bewitched by a negative and graceless theology. Rather, at every turn, steer clear of the devil by choosing to see the grace of God throughout your life, in your family, and in your community. Community is not perfect, but God is working to perfect it through your presence as well as others. Remember, God saved you from slavery to sin and death, so why negate that by making those things the foundation of your faith? Jesus Christ is the grace of God. That, and that alone, should be your faith’s foundation.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
The devil’s work is division and separation from others.  God is the great uniter.

PRAYER
Lord, keep me from bewitching myself with bad theology. Remind me daily of your grace. Amen.