We look at the Israelites and wonder how these people after all they had seen, why did they follow Baal? We are often quick to judge the Israelites in their worship of Baal. We often make this judgment thinking we could never fall for the same thing yet we can get caught up in the worship of the spirit of Baal which is the spirit of our world today. We are called to worship God the Father and called out of this world yet we are attracted to the very worship that Israel kept falling into. We do it little at a time until we are doing the very thing they did thousands of years ago. How could this happen?

Gary Petty

Beyond Today Presenter, United Church of God Pastor

Gary Petty is a 1978 graduate of Ambassador College with a BS in mass communications. He worked for six years in radio in Pennsylvania and Texas. He was ordained a minister in 1984 and has served congregations in Longview and Houston Texas; Rockford, Illinois; Janesville and Beloit, Wisconsin; and San Antonio, Austin and Waco, Texas. He presently pastors United Church of God congregations in Nashville, Murfreesboro and Jackson, Tennessee.