Elijah #11 Did Elijah Persecute the Prophets of Baal?

If God ordained civil government to be His minister (“the minister of God to thee for good”) so as to restrain and punish him that doeth evil, there must be a righteous standard that measures what is good and what is evil. And there is—it is the infallible and unchangeable Moral Law of God imprinted upon the heart of man from
creation (Romans 2:15) and especially summarized in the Ten Commandments (Matthew 5:17-19).
Are worship of false gods, blasphemy against the triune God of the Bible, and the practice of false religion violations of the same Moral Law of God (summarized in the Ten Commandments) as murder, rape, theft, and perjury? Yes they are. Then in all consistency and justice these violations against the Lord God should likewise be restrained and punished by civil government as much as murder, rape, theft, and perjury (Matthew 22:36- 40). If nations that are enlightened by Scripture do not defend the honor and supreme right of the Triune God of the Bible, why should we expect them to defend the honor and civil rights of man who is made in His image? We shouldn’t, which is why we see increasingly the trampling upon the civil rights of people because the divine rights of Almighty God are ignored, resisted, and despised.
What does all this have to do with Elijah? The question arises, “Did Elijah persecute the prophets of Baal when he commanded that they be executed for leading God’s people from God and into Baal worship?” He did not as we shall see from God’s Word today. The main points are the following: (1) God Is a Consuming Fire (1 Kings 18:38-39); (2) Restraining and Punishing Evil Is Not Persecution (1 Kings 18:40).