I don’t know if you realize it or not, but every one in this room is part of a minority group. Less than 10% of the people in the world speak English. Estimates are that just under 500 million people on planet earth are English speakers, while over twice that many speak Mandarin Chinese. There are many, many languages on the planet today. Over 200 different languages are spoken and there are also another couple of thousand dialects that people use. It is interesting that many linguists, people who study languages, have finally decided that the Bible has been right all along. They agree that there was initially only one human language. So, how did we get from one to 2000? Linguists have a variety of explanations, but I’m convinced the best and true answer for the diversity of language is found in Genesis 11, the story of the Tower of Babel. This is our text today, Genesis 11:1-9. This account not only tells us why some folks speak English, while others speak Finnish, and others speak Swahili, but it also has a very important lesson for us. Let’s pray the Lord would again use His Word to speak to our minds and hearts.
Let’s look at the story of Babel. The events recorded in Genesis 11 occur between the times of Noah and Abraham. It is impossible to get precise dates from the Genesis genealogies, but Babel may be thousands of years after Noah. Genesis 11:2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. Trouble is around the corner. Horace Greeley’s grandfather once told him, "Head west, young man, head west." That is almost Biblical because, in Genesis anyway, when-ever someone heads east, there is trouble. Now, this doesn’t mean you should not go to Virginia this week, but it is interesting. When Adam and Eve are expelled from the garden, they move east of Eden. When Cain left the presence of the Lord, he went east to Nod. In Chapter 13, Lot will settle east of Sodom. Here in Genesis 11, the people head east and end up in the plain of Shinar, which is in modern Iraq. We are not going to get into speculations about Biblical prophecy today, but it is worth noting that Babel and Babylon, the focal points of opposition to God both in the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation, are located in Iraq. That is why some folks believe that Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, is the antichrist the Bible says will rise to power. I guess we will wait and see about that one.
When the people arrive in their new home, they start a building project. 11:4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Now, maybe that doesn’t seem like a terrible thing to do. But it is. The biggest problem is their motive for building. As we saw in the story of Cain and Abel a couple of weeks ago, motives do matter to God. Why we do something is just as important as what we do. What was wrong with their motives? They were trying to make a name for themselves. They were looking for fame. And as they do this, the people were totally ignoring God. At Babel, they declared their independence from the Lord. "We can take care of ourselves. We don’t need God." Since they forgot about God as they made their plans, it is no surprise that the Lord’s plans are a bit different from theirs. God’s response is in 11:6-9 The Lord said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel -- because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. Genesis 11 is about conflicting plans. The people want to make a name for themselves. They want to accomplish something of which they can be proud. But God has another plan. Oh, yes, He lets them make a name for them-selves: "Babel." Throughout history it will be a name synonymous with failure. Rather than becoming famous, these people become infamous. The people built a tower in order to 11:4b "...make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." That is their goal. But the exact opposite occurs. 11:9b From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Everything backfires at Babel, but that’s no surprise. Human beings are no match for God. When there are conflicts between God’s plans and man’s plans, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out who is going to win. If I went golfing with Tiger Woods, I’m not going to say it is a "surprise" if he beats me. Human beings versus God is an even greater mismatch. It is the absolute mismatch. Even if our entire race pooled all of its power, wealth, wisdom and weapons, we would still be no match for God. Psalm 2:2,4 The kings of the earth take stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. That is still true today. Stealth bombers, super computers and laser weapons don’t change the equation one bit. God is God. We are not. He alone is the Lord and sovereign of the universe.
A number of years ago Ben was watching a Bible story video and he got the impression that Moses was the Lord God. That is not what the video taught, but that was Ben’s interpretation at age three. We had to say, "No, Ben, Moses is not the Lord God. Moses is a man. Jesus is the Lord God. And there is only one God." The lesson from Babel is that man is not God. God is God. If that’s true, it is then foolish to ignore the Lord while making plans and living life. We cannot be independent of God. Our plans will always fail unless they are consistent with His will. We are no match for God.
This seems like a basic and simple lesson, but it is one which we have a hard time remembering. Because of this, the spirit of Babel is still very much with us today. The primary example is secular humanism, a philosophy which dominates many parts of our society. Nothing captures the spirit of Babel better than modern secular humanism. Over the past twenty years, some Christians have really focused on this movement and treated it like a bogey man. They have blamed it for every problem in our society from falling stock prices, to severe weather, to long lines in the grocery store. But, the fact that some may have exaggerated the threat, does not mean that secular humanism is an innocent and harmless view of the world.
What is secular humanism? It is essentially a belief which ignores God. It claims humanity, not God, is the most important part of the universe. Advocates of this view spelled out their beliefs in The Humanist Manifestoes of 1933 and 1977. These documents do not deny that God exists, they just say God doesn’t matter. They say we, as humans, determine our own morals. We get to decide what is right and what is wrong. Instead of looking to God for those standards, we use reason and ex-perience to determine what is moral and what is not. The humanists also claim that God cannot tell us the purpose or meaning of life. It is our job to figure out why we are here. The Humanist Manifestoes are indeed declarations of independence from God. They proclaim, "We as human beings control our destiny. We will take the blame for mistakes, and we will take credit for accomplishments. If we work hard, if we work together, there is nothing which can keep us from accomplishing what we want to do."
Now, maybe you are thinking, "Pastor Dan, I don’t get what the big deal is. Isn’t it good for people to take responsibility, work hard, and work together?" Yes, it is. But it is arrogant, foolish and even blasphemous for human beings to claim they can control their own destiny apart from God. My fear is we have gotten so used to listening to secularist propaganda, that even many Christians have unknowingly bought into some of the deceptions and don’t realize how wrong it is to declare independence from God. Others of you might say, "Well, yes, Pastor, I agree that this is wrong, but I really don’t think it is such a big problem. I don’t know anyone who claims to be a secular humanist." No, there are not a lot of people around who carry a card which says, "I am a secular humanist." But many leaders, es-pecially in the media and education circles, have adopted this view. Thus, this way of thinking, which ignores God, permeates our culture and does influence us.
The influence of secular humanism is especially evident in a couple of places. The first is the media. On Sunday nights we are looking at how religion is treated, or rather mistreated, by Hollywood in the movies, but let’s think about TV. Outside of a few exceptions such as Touched by an Angel and Promised Land, most TV shows portray people living as if God doesn’t exist. Char-acters on TV rarely go to church. That may be because surveys show that 95% of the people who work in the major media seldom attend church services. One Sunday evening in Chicago, a radio reporter began her news story this way, "Most of you probably spend Sunday morning as I do, reading the news-paper and going out for brunch..." She then went on to tell of a fellow who spends Sunday mornings cleaning up a park. After the broadcast, one of the older news writers told her, "That was a good story, but you had one mistake. On Sunday mornings most people in Chicago go to church." You would never get that impression from watching TV. Secularism is so dominant in media that God, the church and traditional religion are often treated as irrelevant.
The influence of secular humanism is also felt in the morality, or lack of morality, in our society. We no longer talk about what is right and what is wrong, but about making "responsible choices." Sexual behavior is now a private, rather than a moral, issue and the only concern often seems to be whether it is safe or unsafe sex. On the issue of abortion, many claim there is no right or wrong. Whatever decision a woman makes, after consulting with her physician, is a good choice. Abortion rights advocates shout, "It is our decision, we want control over our bodies" and then whisper, "We want control over life and death. We want to make our plans. We don’t want anyone, including God, to interfere with them." That is what Babel was all about, and the abortion rights movement captures the spirit of Babel perfectly.
Recently the moral decline has sunk to a new low. Under our current law, someone who kills a baby that is just an hour old is guilty of murder. Yet, killing a baby in its mother’s womb, even if it is due to be born a few weeks or even days, is a legal medical procedure. That doesn’t make sense. But there are some who see that contradiction and instead of realizing how wrong abortion is, have decided that there is no reason why a mother should not be allowed to kill her child during the first few weeks of his or her life. That is a serious proposal, made by a sociologist at a major American university. It reflects the spirit of Babel. "We will make our own rules. If we want to decide that infanticide, killing infants, is OK, there is no one, including God, who can stop us."
Friends, the lesson from Babel is that it is foolish to make plans and try to live while ignoring God. It is foolish to try to be independent from God. This lesson has been forgotten by secular humanists. It has been forgotten by much of the society in which we live. Yet, it is not just society, but each of us as individuals, who need to keep the lessons of Babel in mind. Most of you in this room agree totally with my critique of secular humanism. Yet, many of us, at least at times, also follow the spirit of Babel. It may be unintentional, but I think we sometimes become "practical atheists." Oh, no, we don’t stop believing in God or anything like that, but sometimes we live as if God doesn’t matter. Or, at least I do that once in a while. Practical atheists are simply folks who are living as if they were independent of God. They do their own thing, and they really don’t give any thought about what God thinks about their situation.
Churches can function like practical atheists. Though it may not be intentional, there are churches that go about their activities and schedules as if they were independent from God. Sometimes the phrase "independent churches" is used for congregations which have no denom-inational affiliation. That is not what I’m talking about today. But I think there are churches, of almost every stripe and flavor, who don’t depend on God. I remember listening to a speaker a number of years ago who asked this eerie question: If God were to remove His Holy Spirit from the earth, would your church be any different? He pointed out that a lot of things we do as Christians, a lot of things we do in church, could probably be done without God’s help. We could still have services, we could still sing hymns, we could still have potluck dinners, and softball teams. I could still get up in front and tell you what the Bible teaches and we could all still be nice to each other. Some of you are thinking, "Well, yes, we could still do those things, but it would all be empty without the Holy Spirit." That is exactly the point. We can sing songs of praise, but without God it is not worship. We can be Minnesota nice to each other, but without God it is not fellowship. I can preach heart-warming and thought-provok-ing sermons, but without God they will never provide nurture for our souls.
My fear is that sometimes even when we do church, we kind of leave God out. We do things a certain way not because it is what the Bible prescribes, not because it is what we believe the Lord is calling us to do, but because we want to do it that way. Or because it is what the church experts say we should do. Or because everyone else is doing it this way. Or because we have always done it this way. Or because more people will come to our church if we do this. Friends, whenever we as a church start making decisions based on what we want, rather than on what God desires, we are really acting like practical atheists. If we believe there really is a God who created and rules the universe, then what He desires of, and for, our church is far more important than what we want.
It is not just churches which sometimes try to be independent of God. We do it as individuals too, and there are lots of "independent Christians" around. They say things like, "I know I should go to church, but I don’t really feel like it." Or, "Yeah, I know the Bible says I should love my wife (or submit to my husband), but until he or she starts treating me better, I’m not going to do that." Sometimes I hear a Christian say, "We have decided to buy this house or this car. I’ve decided to take this job. I’ve de-cided to go back to school." Then I ask, "Have you prayed about this decision and really sought the Lord’s will?" Often, the answer is something like, "Well, not really. I just know this is a good choice for me and my family." Excuse me. If God really ex-ists, He is a far better expert on what is good for me and my family than I am. If we really believe in the God of the Bible, it is foolish for us to try to live our lives as independent Christians.
We just received a new book for the church library on Francis and Edith Schaeffer. Some of you are familiar with their ministry, but if not, it would be a great little book to read. Few human beings have influenced my life more than Schaeffer. One of the most important things I learned from him was that it is not enough just to believe that God exists. It is not enough to develop good, logical arguments and try to convince others that He exists. Rather, part of being a Christian is to live, to live life every day, as if God really does exist. If we don’t do so, we are really just practical atheists.
Friends, today I encourage you to push aside the spirit of Babel, and declare your dependence upon the Lord. Though there may not be a whole lot we can do to reverse the tragic slide into secularism which is occurring in our land, as a church and as individuals, we can declare our dependence on God. By His grace we can say, "Lord, I need You. I need You more than the air I breathe or the water I drink. I need You more than any human companion. I am lost without You. If I ignore You, every road on which I turn is going to be a dead end. I am dependent on You. Because of that, what I want in my life doesn’t matter as much as what You want for me and from me." May that be our prayer today.
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