This is not written for children-so fair warning against reading this aloud where young people are present.

There was a time I wondered if the Prophets of the Old Testament embellished reports of the sins of Israel. Surely no humans, especially the people of God, could have been that depraved. Maybe the words meant something different in that day than today. Was it hyperbole? Metaphor?

Or maybe it was written about an ancient superstitious culture. We've evolved past those primitive actions. Could the words of Jeremiah and other Prophets apply to our modern world?

Then I was reading about the current fad in some circles to have sex with the earth. Yes, really. There are such activities going on in your community and, worse, they are being openly advertised to young people.

Lest you think it is an underground practice, Teen Vogue magazine is promoting it. You read correctly, TEEN-as in children who don't know better-are being indoctrinated by perverted people to adopt lifestyles that are abhorrent to right thinking people.

Teen Vogue, a sister publication of Vogue Magazine, had a circulation of over 1 million magazines. It lost readership and switched to other media formats and now reaches over 25 million.

The article in question-written for teens-describes 25 ways to have sex with the earth. They are instructed on ways to find the earth's erogenous zones with graphic comparisons between the same human locations.

The religious aspect of these practices cannot be overlooked. It is a deeply spiritual relationship, not with God, but with Mother Nature. Young people are threatened with grave consequences if they fail to engage in these love feasts. In fact, global warming is caused by you-yes, you haven't made love to the earth and therefore the earth has turned against you.

God instructed Jeremiah to write, "When Josiah was king of Judah, the LORD said to me, "Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods." (NET Bible, Jeremiah 3:6)

What things occurred? Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible says, "Fertility rites were practiced at the numerous shrines which dotted the land, as well as at the major sanctuaries... A characteristic feature of the fertility cult was sacral sexual intercourse by priests and priestesses and other specially consecrated persons, sacred prostitutes of both sexes... Child-sacrifice was also a feature of the rites..."

The history of God's people, as recorded in the Book of Kings, says the following. "Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than those who were before them had done. They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. (I Kings 14:22-24)

What were the detestable practices the Israelites copied from other religions? For one, there was a practice called "sympathetic magic" which they believed could influence the gods' actions by performing the behavior they wished the gods to demonstrate. They needed the crops to be fertile and produce so they wanted Baal and Asherah to engage in a sexual union. The worshipers acted out the sexual perversions to cause the gods to join together. This practice, according to the Interpreter's Dictionary, became the basis for the religious prostitution described in 1 Kings 14.

Centuries later in the 1st Century Christian Church, John writes about a woman by the name of Jezebel, who appears to be a prostitute in the Church at Thyatira. She called herself a prophet and misled people into sexual immorality. So Jesus instructs John to write, "I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely." (Rev. 2:22)

Like the Priests of ancient Israel, Jezebel had brought fertility worship into the worship of God.

When the focus of worship is no longer the God of the Bible, and nature becomes revered by media and education, what else can we expect but the perversions described by Jeremiah?

Groves on hills; child sacrifice; male prostitution shrines; nature worship, you can read all about them in the Bible. But now they may be coming to a town near you.

Until next time,

Jim O'Brien

Pastor, Church of God Cincinnati