<p>2:14 <em>But I have a few things against you, because you have there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication</em>- Balaam was an apostate Jew, who sought to collaborate with the surrounding Gentile powers in order to bring Israel down. He did so by getting Israel to sin sexually by sleeping with cult prostitutes as a sign of their devotion to Gentile idols, knowing this would trigger God's displeasure with Israel, hoping it would mean the withdrawal of His blessing and protection of them. Twice it is emphasized that the false teachers will lead spiritual Israel into the worship of idols, after the pattern of Balaam and Jezebel (:14,20). Both of these advocated the use of the idols of the surrounding nations for political purposes, whilst apparently supporting the true worship of Yahweh at the same time.&nbsp;The false teaching in the early churches was very similar. As noted on 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy 2, the use of cult prostitutes entered the Christian churches. The idol worship and prostitution were therefore part of the same scene and not two separate issues. The mix of paganism and Christianity was therefore similar to the mix of Yahweh worship with paganism advocated by Balaam. And again, the source of the problem was Judaist infiltration.</p><p>Israel were on the very borders of entering the land when they succumbed to Balaam's false teaching, and the new Israel of the last days, on the brink of the Kingdom, will face and may fail a like temptation. As Balaam well understood, the way to break the strength of a fundamentalist religious movement is to morally corrupt them. The spirit of sexual permissiveness which is in this Sodom-like world of the last days, is evidently affecting the brotherhood of our age.</p><p>It may be that the Islamic powers will impose the worship of Islam upon natural Israel and perhaps upon the Western world, and may use their oil stranglehold to make the rest of the world persecute any pro-Jewish religions who will not offer a nominal acceptance of Islam. This would pressurize Christian churches to make similar compromises with their surrounding non-Christian world.</p>