Seduction of Polytheism

Throughout the Old Testament, the children of God were seduced by the worship of multiple gods of the heathen peoples around them.  From the days of Adam, Satan worked upon the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve to lead them astray with false gods.  The gods roughly fell into three or four categories.  They had different names in different cultures, but they had similar functions: fertility, death and the afterlife, war, revelry, etc.  Part of the seduction came from the rites associated with the worship of these gods and goddesses.  Some involved human sacrifice, often of children or virgins; others involved fertility rites including what we would consider sexual debauchery; still others involved the drinking of wine to drunkenness.  Such was the appeal of these pagan gods.


Astarte

The Book of Genesis gives us a little background on the early life of the patriarch Abram (Abraham.)  The Book of Abraham fleshes it out.

Abram's father was a man named Terah, 6 generations descended from Shem who was Noah's son.  The teachings of the one true God, El, was taught through this line from Noah.  Terah lived in Ur of the Chaldeans.  He had 3 sons: Abram, Nehor, and Haran(Genesis 11:26.) 



Moloch

Terah and probably other members of the family began to stray after the pagan gods. Abraham wrote: My fathers, having turned from their righteousness, and from the holy commandments which the Lord their God had given unto them, unto the worshiping of the gods of the heathen, utterly refused to hearken to my voice; . . . Therefore they turned their hearts to the sacrifice of the heathen in offering up their children unto these dumb idols, and hearkened not unto my voice, but endeavored to take away my life . . . Even the thank-offering of a child did the priest . . . offer upon the altar which stood by the hill called Potiphar’s Hill, at the head of the plain of Olishem (Abraham 1: 5, 7, 10.) [1]

A famine hit the land of Ur.  Abram's brother, Haran, died in Ur.  Abram knew that if he was to save his family from both famine and polytheism, they would need to move out of the land of Ur.  He later wrote: In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my fathers, I, Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence; and finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness (Abraham 1: 1, 2)

We don't know how old Abram was when he moved with his family to Haran, but we do know that when he was 75, there was a famine in Haran.  Once again, his father, Terah, had fallen away from the worship of the one true

[1] An ancient inscription, not discovered and translated until the 20th century, mentions a town called “Ulisum,” located in northwestern Syria. https://www.lds.org/topics/translation-and-historicity-of-the-book-of-abraham?lang=eng.

 

© Gebara Education 2016