God Made Them "babel" Series

Their fear was based on the belief that they could NOT trust God. God (if there was a god) would forget them, and He definitely wasn’t going to protect or supply for them.

When people don’t believe they have God to supply for them, they tend to engage in the worst kinds of evil. We’ve seen proof of that in our own recent history. Just think of nations who embraced communism – Russia, China, North Korea and so on. What stand out about these countries? First (because they were Communist) they rejected God. And second (because they rejected God) they were known for tyranny and oppression. They allowed no freedom for their people, because they feared that free people would overthrow them, and they eliminated huge portions of their population because of any perceived threat to their authority. They were afraid and so they embraced evil.

This type of thing can even happen to Christians. If we live our lives like God isn’t there for us we can engage in evil as well. James says “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.” (James 4:2) WHO did these Christians NOT ask for help from? God. And because they lived like God had no influence on their lives, they fought and quarreled… and worse.

That’s what happens when you live your lives under a bad theology. When folks leave God out of the picture they can become afraid. I’ve always been amused by this “Charlie Brown” cartoon where Lucy and Linus and looking out of a window at the falling rain. Lucy says: “Boy, look at it rain…. What if it floods the whole world?” To which Linus replies “It will never do that… In the ninth chapter of Genesis God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.” The next frame has Lucy saying “You’ve taken a great load off my mind…” and Linus replies “Sound theology has a way of doing that!”

ILLUS: Sound theology deals with fear, because sound theology makes us focus on a God who has the power to deal with the evils of this world. By contrast, bad theology breeds fear. As I was reading the story of the tower of Babel in preparation for this morning’s sermon, an example of modern-day bad theology came to mind.

How many of you have ever heard of the conspiracy theory that they’ll one day be a “One World Government” (most of the audience raised their hands). Don’t listen to these guys, they’re crazy. It’s not going to happen. Do you know WHY I know this isn’t going to happen? Because Genesis 11 is God’s guarantee it won’t happen. He won’t let it happen! The people who sell this idea are really selling FEAR. They’re selling the idea that God can’t help you – and if God can’t help you, you should be afraid! Very afraid. But that’s just bad theology. It’s false thinking. It’s heresy. You need not fear. If God really wanted a One World Government… you couldn’t stop it anyway and God would still be in control So don’t let these fear-mongers chain you to bad thinking.