With little fanfare, a
replica arch from the Temple of Baal was unveiled in a New York park, but one
righteous man took a stand. Robert
Boatwright quite literally took up his cross in City Hall Park in New York City
to protest of the arch this week.
"I felt led to carry a representation of the cross that the Son of
God spilled His blood on that we might again dwell in the kingdom of God,"
Boatwright tells Charisma News. "I also wanted to call attention to the
absurdity involved in a tribute to Baal by any affiliation. A temple that
involved the sacrifice of infants does not reflect the God-given instinct to
survive in humanity. It is akin to placing a reconstructed gate to Auschwitz
after it was destroyed and stating it represents humankind's most endearing
qualities." Boatwright says he
initially planned to carry the cross by the arch, also known as the Arch of
Palmyra, when plans were unveiled for an April arch placement in Times Square.
However, plans for that arch where scrapped.
According to Gothamist, the Islamic State destroyed the actual Arch of
Palmyra. The arch was originally the entryway to the Temple of Baal, but was
later converted to a Christian church and, eventually, an Islamic mosque. When he learned an arch would indeed be
placed in New York in September, he felt the Holy Spirit lead him to protest.
Boatwright's Florida pastor prayed over and commissioned him, and his boss
funded the trip north. With America at
a tipping point, Boatwright felt there was a prophetic anointing on his actions. "I do not believe that God left out the
United States in the dream that Daniel interpreted for Nebuchadnezzar. If He had, He would have left out the most
powerful, most exporting of culture and of goods nation, and the richest nation
to exist in this epoch," Boatwright tells Charisma News.