Nov 03 2009
“Tower of Babel” Two
We all, at least most of us, have heard the following Bible story of the “Tower of Babel”:
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. (Gen 11: 4-9 RSV)
In the story, man was so united that they were becoming like gods in the sense that nothing they put their mind to was impossible. Our Lord decided that this was not to be and scattered them across the earth unable to communicate with each other.
Although there are still many languages and people are scattered all across the globe, I see us getting very close to a “Tower of Babel” like situation today. Why I see this is twofold.
First, the technology today makes it so distance, and in many cases language, barriers have practically fallen. People communicate at the touch of the button and it is getting to the point where those communications can be automatically translated into their own language.
The second reason is more of ideological in nature. With the rapid onslaught of secular based society due to the plagues of Relativism, Socialism, Liberalism, Materialism and Global Capitalism, man is either putting himself above God and/or saying God is irrelevant or non-existent.
Now, I am not saying that we need another “Tower of Babel” scattering, but I see this as a real threat to the moral fabric of society. Will God have to do something or will we discover the folly of our ways and return completely to the fold. I do not hold out much hope of the latter, but I am praying that God does not take too drastic of action (although a return to the Medieval type society would not be undesirable).
