This “Ark of God” was quite a spoil of war for the enemies of Israel and they put it in the temple of Philistine chief deity Dagon who was supposedly the father of Baal.

This image of Dagon I am sure was bigger and better than the one that Samson destroyed (Judges 16).

I am sure this one was harder to knock down as well.

It was a half man-half fish idol that was, “a personification of the generative and vivifying principle of nature, for which the fish with its innumerable multiplication was specially adapted.” (Keil and Delitzsch, Vol. 2, pg. 58).

He was apparently a god of multiplication and growth.

Like many pastors and churches today they worship the idol of church growth and multiplication selling religion to people with Christian language but at the cost of his glory and his presence.

For years, “praying a salvation/sinner’s prayer” was the quick way to get a soul saved but now we are back to the old Babylonian idea of just get’em in “church” by appeals in entertainment, magic shows and relative, up to date motivational speaking.

God does NOT add to the church through sociological studies or psychophysics -he grows his church through his word.

The book of Acts is not a just historical narrative, it is an example set up as a pattern giving us paradigms for us to follow.

It teaches that growth was due to God’s Word, “the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied… But the word of God grew and multiplied…So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.” (Acts 6:7; 12:24; 19:20). 

The apostles knew that it was not their efforts nor their exertion- it was God who gives the increase and it grows as God increases its number and strength (1 Cor. 3:6-7; Col. 2:19).

In fact, Paul knew his motivation to toil and even agonize in preaching and teaching was from the dynamite like energy the Holy Spirit gave him, “Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.” (Col. 1:29). 

We as ministers water and plant the Word like precious seed in the human heart, and God brings the harvest-real church growth, without changing the message of the gospel or its ageless method- preaching.

© 2012 Soul Health Care Ministries. If you use this article tell people about us and where you found it. Don’t plagiarize.