The words “alter” and “alters” are used over 300 times in the Holy Bible, approximately 75 times in the New Testament.  Biblically the alter is the place where one goes to meet with and worship God.  Obviously, the alter has played a significant role in the lives of God’s true saints in the distant past.  But what about the end-time church?  Do church people recognize the alter as did those of the distant past? Questions come to fore: what was the alter of the Lord anciently? where was it located? does the New Testament church have an alter? and if so, where is it and how is it used?

Anciently, the alter of the Lord was the material, hand-constructed object located in the geographical location where the people of Israel met the Lord and worshiped Him.  Following their fall away from Him and the institution of blood sacrifice s for their sins, the alter in the Temple in Jerusalem was where they brought their sacrificial animals once each year to atone for their sins.

In the New Testament Church God’s alter is spiritual and is therefore found wherever His true saint happens to be at any time.  Because God is available at all times God’s Very Elect are advised, as the Apostle Paul said, to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 2:13; 5:17).  He was speaking figuratively, of course.  The idea is to live in an attitude of oneness with God in the same sense as expressed in Deuteronomy 6:6,7; 11:18,19, 26-28 where we are told to speak of the Law when we rise up and when we lie down, when we come in and when we go out.  There is symbolism involved in this statement also.  Simply put, we are commanded to live our lives by the Word of God so that everything we think, say and do is in concert with the Word of God which is His Law Genesis to Revelation, which He condensed into Ten Commandments, not one of which can be removed, replaced, added to or taken from.  This includes #4–the Sabbath commandment–which 99.99% of professing Christendom deliberately rejects before the world, thereby proclaiming that the counterfeit church (Catholicism/Protestantism), not God, is actually in charge of all things religious.  Unbeknownst to her, she is also proclaiming that she hates/despises both Him and His Son (Deut. 7:7-11/Lk. 10:16).  The rest of the world looks upon professing Christianity as a sham.  And they are right.  THE TWO-HEADED, MULTI-BODIED, SATAN-DIRECTED SYSTEM WHICH CALLS ITSELF “THE CHURCH” IS AN ABOMINATION IN THE EYES OF GOD.  WHY?  BECAUSE HIS ALTER HAS BEEN TORN DOWN AND REPLACED BY SATAN’S ALTER.  Satan has deceived billions of salvation seekers into believing that while they are praying to, worshiping and serving him that they are doing so unto the Biblical God (Rev. 12:9).  Read Bait and Switch.  Key word–Switch.

This is not a new occurrence.  In Exodus 32 we find that Aaron the priest has fashioned a bull calf out of the Israelites’ jewelry, built an alter to it and declared that: “These (bull calves) are your Gods, O Israel, who will take you back to Egypt.”  He then proclaimed a “A FEAST UNTO THE LORD” no doubt before that same alter.  While Israel was gathered before Satan’s alter Moses was meeting with the Lord atop Mt. Sinai and receiving His Ten Commandments written in stone.  The Israelites thought nothing of worshiping the god of their former owners, at the alter the backslidden Israelite priest had created while preparing to celebrate a feast unto the Lord Who had brought them out of Egyptian slavery with mighty signs, wonders and miracles.  Following these festivities, they would follow the bull back to Egyptian slavery where they could sin at will.  Only Moses’ intervention kept God from killing all of them.

Nothing has changed.  Church people do the exact same thing by gathering in their citadels of sin where they pay homage to the sun god on his day (Sunday).  Following this they spend the next six days sinning and showing the world that they can defy God and get away with it.  THE CHURCH (PROFESSING CHRISTENDOM’S GOLDEN CALF) HAS “CAST THE TRUTH TO THE GROUND” BY CONTINUING TO SIN (DAN. 8:9-12).  The “little horn” of Daniel 8:9, which is the “woman” (church) exposed in Revelation 17:1-5, is the “great whore” and her “harlot daughters,” today known as Catholicism and the Protestant cults.  These false churches have destroyed the Lord’s alter.  Their sins have cut themselves off from Him (Isa. 59:2).

Though no longer in physical form, His alter is as important today as it ever was because this is where true holiness seekers meet with God.  Recall that God’s instructions are, when coming before Him, to “enter into your closet and lock the door.”  The true saint’s alter is his ever-present sanctuary where he is alone with His Master.  If necessary, the true saint can be before God’s alter in a crowded room.  Religious man has walked away from God and, in so doing, has destroyed His alter.  One cannot return to God unless one has repaired His alter.  Which is why His true servants are today showing His followers how to rebuild their personal alters by following in the footsteps of Elijah, which brings us to 1 Kings 16:30-33.

Here we are introduced to King Ahab, the most wicked potentate Israel had ever produced.  Ahab had taken as his wife a Baal-worshiping woman who had persuaded most Israelites to worship her god.  She had assigned 450 followers of Baal to be his prophets and 400 other men to help them lead the Israelites in their mound and grove worship services.  Ahab had built mounds and planted a groves where Baal could be worshiped throughout Israel.  The area where they lived was called Samaria.  The true God had been pushed aside by Jezebel who had killed all but 100 of His prophets.  Their lives had been saved by a man named Obadiah who had hidden them in a cave and provided for them (18:4,13).  Ahab and Jezebel’s actions had “provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger.”

In 1 Kings 17:1-4 we find the Lord telling His prophet Elijah to inform King Ahab that there would be neither dew nor rain in the land for three years, and then only by Elijah’s words.  Concerning the power of a true prophet’s words, Elijah would later speak life into the dead body of a child.  His mother summed up the prophet’s power source by saying: “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth” (17:24).  Such is the power of God’s true, Holy Spirit-empowered servants.  Read The Unknown Power of God’s Very Elect.  Key word–Unknown.  And God did exactly what He said He would do through Elijah’s words.  Beginning on that day drought and famine began to ravage the land of the Israelites.

Three years later God told Elijah to announce to Ahab that rain was on the way (18:1).  When Ahab saw Elijah he said to him: “Are you the one who troubles Israel?”  Elijah answered: “I am not the one who troubles Israel, but you and your father’s house HAVE FORSAKEN THE COMMANDMENTS (LAW) OF THE LORD AND HAVE FOLLOWED BAAL.  Now go tell all the people of Israel to meet me at Mount Carmel.  Also tell the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the groves who eat at Jezebel’s table to meet me there.”  L.J.