The Bible Calls Them High Places | Part 1

Gary Stearman

In the past, we’ve written about the mystifying “crop circle” phenomenon. By now, everyone is probably familiar with the strange occurrence of designs woven through standing grain crops in farmers’ fields the world over. Usually, they are simple circles of swirled plants. Sometimes, however, they assume amazingly complex geometric or pictorial patterns. The most complex of them seem to appear in southern England’s Wiltshire Country.

They are sworn to be real and authentic, laid down in a few minutes by supernatural, invisible forces. Sometimes, witnesses have seen (and even photographed) strange flying lights in fields where crop circles appeared at the light of the next dawn. Certainly, hoaxers have concocted some of these patterns. Years ago, the infamous “Dave and Doug” claimed to have made practically all the British crop circles with ropes, boards and sights attached to their baseball caps— working overnight! Yet some of the circles range from three to six hundred feet in diameter, in open terrain beside high-traffic roads. Typically, no one sees them under construction.

The debate over the supernatural versus natural explanation continues to rumble along, as it does in virtually every mysterious phenomenon of this world. But from the biblical point of view, there is a good reason to examine the supernatural veracity of the phenomenon. Both now and in recorded history, they are places where the dark world of demonic power opens from time to time. The Bible marks them as places of dark and occultic worship. It even has a name for them.

For those who watch, they are always popping up where least expected. Recently, the world of the paranormal was preoccupied for a few weeks by the appearance of a complex “crop circle” that appeared yet again, in Wiltshire County. Speculation about the supernatural and the extraterrestrial became intense for a while.

The circle was about 330 feet in diameter, and featured a three-leaf center surrounded by a complex design, and a circle of strange letters from some exotic alphabet that at first, was said to be either an ancient Middle-Eastern alphabet or an occultic epigram. The thrill that this event might be of extraterrestrial origin rose to high levels for a few days. It was said to have appeared during a four-hour period between midnight and dawn. But the story fell through. It was merely a fraud—a hoax.

The witnesses had lied to publicize the event. The design had actually been put in place from mid-July to early August, 2016. About eight workers had been paid to produce the hoax in silence with a purpose—the “ancient” design turned out to be a modified logo for Mothership Glass of Bellingham, Washington, (see top right). It was simply a commercial for an art-glass factory, widely known for making expensive paraphernalia, used in the smoking of marijuana and other drugs. Apparently, a very large amount of money was paid for this ruse, meant to appear as an “actual” crop circle, concocted by supernatural aliens of some sort, thus connecting the manufacturer with the mystical world of the occult and the extraterrestrial.

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BUT WHY?

This strange event raises an important question: Why perpetrate this hoax? Why would a company making equipment dedicated to “getting high” pay to portray themselves in the appearance of the supernatural? The answer is self-evident, and the Bible makes the connection clear.

In Revelation 9, the society alive during the Tribulation is described as practicing the constant pursuit of evil:

“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (Rev. 9:21).

They kill, steal, commit sins of the flesh and practice “sorceries.” Here, we find that this word is translated from the Greek, “pharmakeia,” (think of the word pharmacy) clearly denoting the use of drugs. Among other things, these substances open doors into the dark world of the demonological and supernatural. It is quite easy to see why a company dedicated to drug use would amalgamate its name with a phenomenon—crop circles—known for its connection with the supernatural unknown. Its design evoked a connection with dark powers from beyond.

In the modern era, crop circles go back to a famous and often-quoted story printed in 1678, in a pamphlet dedicated to “Strange News out of Hartford-shire.” It tells of a farmer who was outraged by the high price charged by a laborer to mow his grain field. He loudly declared that he would rather have the devil mow it. That night, accompanied by strange flames, the field was mowed in a way “that no mortal man was able to do the like.

Thus was born the story of the “mowing devil.” In the centuries that followed, locals always attributed the appearance of strange circles in their grain crops as “mowing devils.” To this day, that description seems quite appropriate. Some see them as signs of a coming revelation.

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“SIGNS” AND THE BIBLE

Motion pictures have become this generation’s bellwether. They are the predictor of future reality worth watching. Increasingly, they are preoccupied with the demonic—the supernatural masquerading as science fiction.

Popular entertainment almost always reflects deep, dark, subliminal truth. These days, prophetic warnings of the end times are becoming ever more visible in the popular media. Aliens and demons (two aspects of the same, dark world) populate the mass media in profusion.

To those who understand the full spiritual depth of the Bible, their presence foreshadows the days of judgment, when the underworld will be unleashed upon a defenseless world. Today’s paganism is allowing the dark world to reassert itself.

A few years ago, a popular motion picture called, “Signs,” suggested that “they” (extraterrestrials) are coming in force … whoever “they” are. The “signs” that it used to build a narrative were crop circles in a cornfield. Its dramatic fiction featured dark and evil invaders, demonic in nature, whose crop circles were only a foreshadowing of their intention to take over the world.

In actuality, the primary feature of this movie—crop circles—are more in line with the lying power of ancient pagan idolatry.

When reading the Bible, there is a tendency for us to look at man’s early behaviors, and think of them as having been extinguished forever. Actually, it is a truism that history repeats itself. The old becomes the new, over and over again. It has been said that individuals may grow old and wise; society grows neither old nor wise, but always remains in its infancy.

This is particularly true of society’s level of spiritual maturity. Again and again, with each passing generation, a recycled version of the ancient idolatries emerges to plague humanity all over again.

Today’s “modern” man thinks of himself as far too civilized to allow himself to fall into the obsolete pagan practices of archaic man. The worship of pagan gods who once demanded the sacrifice of infants is regarded as hopelessly old-fashioned. But today, the worldwide infant death toll from the “abortion machine” eclipses the numbers of Canaanite infant sacrifices.

Pagan idolatry is at an all-time high. It includes shamanism, divination, and clairvoyance through “spirit masters,” who are sending mankind mysterious messages through crystals, mediums and designs laid down in cereal crops. The latter are thought to be centers of great force.

The visible presence of such spiritist “power centers” evokes the memory of a phenomenon commonly evoked in the Old Testament as the basis of God’s judgment. In the language of the New Age, it would be termed paying homage to a place of spiritual command. Today, there are many such locations, literally numbering in the thousands. They may be an awe-inspiring location like the mountains around Boulder, Colorado, or Mount Fuji in Japan. They may be places of surpassing, mystical beauty, like the rocky canyons around Sedona, Arizona. They may be silent grottos or ancient monuments like Stonehenge, in England. The Druids there believe that it is a place of incredible energy and spiritual intensity.

In terms of geography, there is something in the heart of man that tends to link the craggy, windswept heights with a sense of religious significance. Although true worship may focus upon such places—like Mt. Sinai or the New Testament Mount of Transfiguration—paganism is often seen to appropriate such places for its rituals. The attainment of height meant separation from the commonplace of everyday life. As one drew nearer to the sky, there was the feeling of proximity to the dwelling places of the gods.

More than that, certain elevated places whether natural or manmade, were deemed “power points”—places where the presence of the gods was especially favorable. In the ancient days, they were points of contact for the spiritually impoverished, who sought favor and blessing.

In the Old Testament, there are many references to pagan worship and its association with so-called “high places.” When castigating his people for their pagan degradation, Ezekiel described their odious form of worship:

“20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, 21 That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?” (Ezek. 16:20, 21).

His scathing denunciation of their behavior is linked to the detestable high places, which scar the spiritual landscape of the early Israelites.

In the same chapter of his prophecy, Ezekiel describes the form that their worship took. It was a place that gave forth a spiritual aura, chosen not by the Lord, but by the fleshly worship of the Canaanite tribes. Had the Lord’s will been followed, it would have been wiped out in the days of Joshua.

The Israelites illicit adoration of Ashtoreth, Molech, Baal and others, took the form that had earlier been established by the pagan societies in the region. In the same chapter, Ezekiel describes the common practice:

“23 And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;) 24 That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street. 25 Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms” (Ezek. 16:23-25).

The troubled prophet also mentions how remarkably common and pervasive the practice had become. His people had totally embraced the false forms of worship formerly reserved only for those who didn’t know the Lord:

“In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire” (Ezek. 16:31).

The result of their debauchery would come in the severe judgments of the Babylonian captivity:

“38 And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy. 39 And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare” (Ezek. 16:38, 39).

In the above passages, Ezekiel uses the Hebrew word, ramah, [to be high] to describe the pagan practice of finding natural elevations for shrines and idols. But there was far more than physical elevation in their worship. In fact, the concept of height was more of a spiritual expression than anything else. In these high places, the people felt that they were drawing near the gods. To be “high” was their way of expressing closeness to the world of the gods.

In modern language, we would more likely say that they were attempting to penetrate the veil between this world and the world of the spirits.

Ancient circular ‘high place’ used at Megiddo.

BROKEN COMMANDMENTS

The apostasy of ancient Israel was simply breathtaking in its brazen practices. Idolatry of all kinds was common. Ritual sexual practices were virtually universal. Child sacrifice was considered perfectly acceptable. In all these practices, it was common to call upon the names of many, many other gods. To make matters worse, they know the opening words of the ten commandments, the first two of which expressly forbid appealing to any false god:

1 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments” (Ex. 20:1-6).

In spite of this warning, Israel had eagerly adopted the practices that they were charged to eliminate. In the centuries between Joshua’s entrance into the Promised Land and the foundation of David’s kingdom, the practice of building landscaped shrines on high ground became thoroughly established.

The books of I & II Kings refer to the high places with the word bamah, meaning “elevation” or “ridge.” Of this word, the Hebrew dictionary states, “… high places, as places of worship, at first on hills and mountains, later on artificial mounds or platforms, under green trees, and in cities; still later for the chapels erected thereon, and once apparently for a portable sanctuary … the ancient worship of Israel was conducted on these high places. In the times of Samuel and David they ascended to them, descended from them and offered sacrifices on them.” [Hebrew and English Lexicon, Brown, Driver, Briggs, p. 119]

Part 2 will be available on April 2, 2026.

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