Churches

Let’s have a little contest – simple really. Your gods against mine. Who is stronger? Who is more powerful? Baal? Asherah? Yahweh? Who is worthy of the worship and adoration of the Israeli people (or, anyone)? Who is the one and only God of the universe?

Elijah, the prophet, called the people to come up to Mount Carmel – beautiful Mount Carmel – sacred ground to the people of Israel. He had commanded Israel’s King Ahab to bring the prophets of Baal (450 of them) and the prophets of Asherah (400) to the mountain to meet with him.

Mount Carmel, one of the ancient Canaanite “high places” in Israel where the people had come to worship and make sacrifices for thousands of years. The Egyptian Pharoah, Thutmose III listed a “holy headland” considered to be Mount Carmel among his holdings in Canaan. Even into the Common Era (CE)…or, as we continue to call it, Anno Domini (AD), the mountain was referred to as the most holy of all mountains by Pythagoras and Tacitus mentions knowing of an oracle located there. The Catholic Carmelite Monastic Order originated there in 1209 AD. The Druze people settled on Mount Carmel in the 15^th – 16^th century. There is even a religious group called the Baha’i Faith that established a headquarters on the mountain at Haifa in the 19^th century. ¹

_{Entrance Area to Carmelite Monastery Chapel on Mount Carmel}

The coastal mountain range known as Mount Carmel stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to the Plain of Esdraelon (Armageddon) in Israel. In Arabic, the range is known as Mount Mar Elias – Mount Saint Elias/Elijah¹. The word “Karmel” which means “garden land” could have been taken from “Kerem” & “El” literally meaning “vineyard of God” or from ‘kar male’ meaning “full kernel”¹. The name itself speaks of the beauty and fertility of the land at Carmel.

According to BiblePlaces.Com, Mount Carmel is also known as Antelope-Nose, Har Karmel, the Holy Headland, Jebel Kurmul, Mar Elyas, Mount of User, and Rosh-Kedesh.³I don’t really know what all those names might mean but I particularly liked Antelope-Nose so I included the little factoid.

_{On the drive from Mount Carmel, a tomb showing a stone door.}

When people speak of Carmel, they could be talking about the whole mountain range or just the northeast portion of the range, or just the headland or highest point. The range is formed primarily of limestone and flint with many caves and volcanic rocks. Those caves include many springs and have provided refuge for criminals for many hundreds of years. It also provided a place for prophets such as Elijah and Elisha seeking a safe place to hide from persecution and death.

Our tour group had traveled from Caesarea Maritima to Mount Carmel and we had all gathered on an outside roof platform at a Catholic chapel that is part of the Carmelite Monastery overlooking the Kishon Valley.

_{Carmelite Monastery Chapel on Mount Carmel}

Dr. Bramer², one of our tour leaders from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS), was telling us the story taken from 1 Kings 18 of Elijah and the false prophets of Baal that the queen, Jezebel, had brought into the land pulling the people away from worship of the true God. The odds were greatly stacked against Elijah. Just one prophet of God, Elijah, pitted against four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal.

A little backstory: Ahab became the 7^th king of Israel (871-852 BC/E)⁷. He had married this Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians. Remember Tyre & Sidon? Ahab and Jezebel had brought worship of Baal back to the Israelites in a big way. Some believe the “Baal” in question was Melqart, a Phoenician god, also known as the Son of Baal, king of the underworld and protector of the universe.¹

This evil of bringing the worship of Baal back to Israel had caused God, working through Elijah, to hold back rain from the area for three years. Ahab and Jezebel did not like Elijah at all. Elijah was the only prophet left after Jezebel had ordered the other prophets of God to be killed.

Ahab called Elijah “the troubler of Israel” (1 Kings 18:17) when he met with Elijah who commanded him to bring all the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel. Of course, Elijah was not the problem, he was the one bringing the solution.

_{View of Kishon Valley from Mount Carmel}

Elijah admonished the people who had gathered that day at Mount Carmel:

“How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him.” (1 Kings 18:21)

Elijah proposed a contest. He called for two bulls to be sacrificed to the gods. The altars would be built, the sacrificial bulls would be placed on the altar with wood for fire to burn the sacrifices, but the actual fire would have to be provided by the gods. The God who answered with fire would be the true God. The people agreed that it sounded like a good thing to do.

The prophets of Baal would go first. They began to call upon Baal to light the fire and accept their sacrifice. They gave it their all, calling for hours…all day long, leaping and jumping around the altar and even cutting themselves allowing their own blood to flow around the altar…. all to no avail. They tried. There was no answer…. not even when Elijah taunted them saying perhaps the gods of Baal were sleeping or busy elsewhere and that the prophets should yell a little louder.

Using twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel, Elijah rebuilt the ancient altar to God that had previously been destroyed. He then had a trench dug all around the altar. The sacrificial bull was laid on the altar along with the wood for the fire. He directed the people to fill four large jugs with water which was then poured on the sacrifice, the wood, and the altar… three times the water was poured onto the altar and, draining off, completely filled the trench surrounding the altar.

Then Elijah prayed.

“O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel [Jacob], let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and have done all these things at Your command. Answer me, O LORD! Answer me, so that this people will know that You, the LORD, are God, and that You have turned their hearts back again.” (1 Kings 18:36)

The fire of God came down, consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and even the dust…everything! It completely consumed all of it, even drying up the water that had filled the trench surrounding the altar. The test was over. God had triumphed. The people then realized that the Lord was indeed God.

_{Cross on the top of the Chapel at Mount Carmel}

As Dr. Bramer² had told us in his narration – “Numbers don’t count, and the odds don’t matter” when you are dealing with the God of the universe… something well worth remembering.

And what became of the prophets of Baal whose false gods did not answer their cries? Elijah had them taken down to the Kishon Valley and they were killed….every last one of them.

^{Statue of Elijah Slaying the Prophets of Baal}

As you can imagine, Jezebel was not happy. But that’s another story for another day.

Scriptural Sources for Mount Carmel from BibleHub.Com:

1 Kings 18 for the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal.
Song of Soloman 7:5 – Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel.
2 Kings 2:25 – Elisha went to Mount Carmel.
2 Kings 4:25 – The woman from Shunem visits Elisha at Mount Carmel.
Isaiah 35:2 – The deserts will be given the splendor of Carmel.
Isaiah 33:9 – The land dries up…..Bashan and Carmel have been plundered.
Amos 1:2 – The Lord roars from Zion….the grass on Mount Carmel will wither & die.
Amos 9:3 – Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, I will find them.
Joshua 19:26 – On the west, the boundary touched Carmel.
Micah 7:14 – Shephard your people….in the midst of Carmel.
Nahum 1:4 – Bashan and Carmel wither and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.
Jeremiah 46:18 – One will come who is…….like Carmel by the sea.
Jeremiah 50:19 – I will bring Israel back…..they will graze on Carmel and Bashon.
1 Samuel 25:2 – Wealthy man from Maon who owned property in Carmel.

(I found no references to Mount Carmel in the New Testament and I found that to be quite interesting. If you have any thoughts on that or know of any references to Mount Carmel in the NT, let me know.)

Sources for More Information about Mount Carmel:

(Other than the Biblical parts, my research comes predominantly from Wikipedia¹ and Bible Places.Com³websites.)

Wikipedia Mount Carmel
Stephen J. Bramer (dts.edu) – Dallas Theological Seminary.
BiblePlaces.Com – Mount Carmel
New Advent (Catholic) – Mount Carmel
Haifa – Mount Carmel – Camp S’dei Chemed International (mystical Jewish)
Gems in Israel – Jezreel Valley
Wikipedia – Ahab

ICYMI (In case you missed it) – Previous blogs in the Israel 2022 series:

Pinch Yourself – April 4, 2022

Israel 2022: Caesarea Maritima – Birding Boomers – April 11, 2022

Charles Wesley preached here on March 14, 1736. It was the first service to be held at the new mission on St. Simon’s Island. There was no actual church building so Reverend Wesley preached right there under the live oak trees with limbs stretching out over an acre and with trunks so large you cannot reach your arms around them – trees that were as old as, well…. the trees.

I like to think that first sermon was in the cool of the evening after a long hot day… new settlers in from a long day’s work clearing fields, soldiers from nearby Fort Frederica, watermen brought in with the tide hauling bushels of crabs or shrimp – everyone from the small colony…. men, women, and children gathering to sing a few hymns and hear the words of the Lord. George Whitfield, who was a deacon at the Savannah church at the time remembered:

“In the evening we had publick Prayers, and expounding of the second Lesson under a large tree, and many more present than could be expected.” ^{1 (Aug 8, 1737)}

The oak no longer stands. It has long since succumbed to storms and damage and time. There is a Georgia Historical Marker at the site that commemorates the “Wesley Oak” that stands very close to another ancient oak tree, so everyone just seems to think that is the actual oak where Wesley preached. Yep, me too. Even took a photo with Jerry hugging the tree. Actually taking the time to read the marker helps. So, I have a great photo of an old oak tree that is NOT the Wesley Oak…. still a beautiful oak tree that is very picture worthy in its own right. The original oak is gone but a cross was made from the wood and now hangs inside the church to further commemorate the man and the sermon that evening on St. Simon’s Island.

Charles was the brother of the Reverend John Wesley, the rector at the Christ Chapel in Savannah. Both brothers were sent out from the Church of England. Brother Charles had traveled to St. Simon’s Island in the Georgia colony as a chaplain for James Oglethorpe, credited as the founder of the state. Oglethorpe had established Fort Frederica on the island on February 15, 1736 and brought in Scottish soldiers to help secure the frontier. I do not suppose anyone thinks of the low country and barrier islands along the Georgia coast as “the frontier” these days and I daresay not too many people worry about protection when they visit, but in 1736, it was pretty much the edge of nowhere, full of all sorts of danger…. and possible Spanish colonists that couldn’t be allowed.

Charles Wesley established a mission on the island and preached that first sermon on March 14, 1736. In the beginning, he held services in a small tabby (cement & broken up seashells) building within the walls of Fort Frederica. He served the congregation on the island at the small mission until July 1736. The United Society Partners in the Gospel provided clergy for the mission/church during the 1700’s. After America’s Revolutionary War, the local churches broke away from the Church of England (understandably) becoming Episcopal churches in the US.

The first permanent church on the property was built in 1820. This church stood until the American Civil War when it was mostly destroyed. Christ Episcopal Church at St. Simon’s was incorporated by state legislature in 1808 and given one hundred and eight acres on the island near Fort Frederica. Reverend William Best was the first rector of the newly incorporated Christ Episcopal Church which joined other churches to form the Episcopal Diocese in 1823. On a sidenote, church history from Wikipedia ⁵indicates that in 1840, bees built a hive in the church steeple. The congregants collected and sold honey to raise money for building repairs. Two thoughts come quickly to mind; 1) this just has to be an early predecessor to more church bake sales than you can shake a stick at, and 2) I wonder if the bees “hummed” along with the singing during church services.

Christ Church continued to be served by lay ministers who visited the area as circuit riders at intervals in the 1800’s. It wasn’t clear where the congregation met once the church building was destroyed although under the trees seems to have worked out okay. In 1879, Anson Greene Phelps Dodge, Jr. (Deacon and then Rector) reorganized the parish and, in 1884, had the church rebuilt in memory of his wife who was buried on the grounds.

Reverend Dodge also established another church, St. Ignatius, nearby on Demere Road as an outreach to slaves that had been freed after the war. Anna Alexander, a deaconess who served at St. Ignatius, is noteworthy as the first black deaconess in the Episcopal Church. In 1998, she was named as a saint in the church by the Episcopal Diocese. In the 1980’s, St. Ignatius was closed and merged with Christ Episcopal Church. Christ Episcopal Church continues to be an active congregation with services still being held throughout the year. Visitors are made welcome. (According to the church website, about 20,000 people visit the church each year.)

“Our grounds and our faith are historic, built upon the foundations laid by our ancestors on this island and the host of saints who have come before us.” ⁴

We were blessed in that the church was open on the day we visited, and we were able to go inside and enjoy the beauty of the church. The interior of the building, which is quite simple and beautiful, was built with local heart pine which has never been stained or painted.

We also spent quite a bit of time in the cemetery on the grounds. Many of the tombstones there are as old as the trees that surround them. The oldest tombstone is 1803 although it is thought that there are older graves there. The cemetery includes the graves of the Rectors of the church and their families, early settlers, Officers of the British Army who served nearby, and soldiers from every war fought by the US.³

The day we visited was a quiet one with only one other couple strolling through the grounds reading the inscriptions on the gravestones, a Pastor and his wife visiting from Tennessee.

Before we left, we asked the pastor to say a prayer with us. He obliged praying for safety in our travels and asked God to bless the church and bring souls to salvation there in the future. We prayed under the beautiful live oak trees where some 300 years ago, the Reverend Charles Wesley had preached and, no doubt, had prayed the same prayer for mercy and salvation. Amen

Notes & Sources with links:

Georgia Historical Marker 063-33A, 1968, Christ Episcopal Church (I was unable to locate the link for the specific marker online so included the link for the main site.)
Georgia Historical Marker 063-34A, Wesley Oak (Unable to locate the link for the specific marker.)
Georgia Historical Marker 063-35, Christ Church Cemetery
Christ Episcopal Church Website/About Us /(ccfssi.org)
Wikipedia, Christ Church (St. Simons, Georgia)

If you’d like to visit Christ Episcopal Church:

There are two locations on St. Simons Island. The main Church and offices are located at 6329 Frederica Rd., St. Simons Island, GA 31522. St. Ignatius Chapel is located at 2609 Demere Rd., St. Simons Island, GA 31522. ⁴

Birding Boomers

Out on another road trip looking for birds and whatever comes up next.

Israel 2022: Contested on Mount Carmel

Under the Oaks – Christ Episcopal Church