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Jim's PERSPECTIVENovember 4, 2013And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech…and they said to one another…let us build a city and a tower whose top may reach into heaven, and let us make ourselves a name….And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. Genesis 11:1-5
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting…and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues. Acts 2:1-4
The Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11 is the tale of a people who initially speak one language, but who, through a sense of concentrated self-empowerment that inevitably comes from a unified strength, decided to construct a bridge to heaven. Presumably—the traditional interpretation holds—the point is that they are trying to get to God, or knowledge of God (or be as God), on their own terms, and, incidentally, this is pretty much the same story that began in Genesis 1 as a result of sin having entered the world. As the story continues, “God came down to see….” I love that line. They got his attention, and we can tell that it will not go well from there. In order to prevent humankind from accomplishing the means to do whatever mischief it wanted, and save people from destroying themselves, scattered them by breaking up the language, from the one to the many. Of course, modern scholars would say that this story is an account for the existence of the myriad of languages throughout the world. I agree; however, there’s somewhat more to it than that. It’s the part about God doing the scattering that intrigues me. It is not that they simply scattered. This, in my humble opinion, is another Old Testament account of an event that may not be factually true, but is actually true. The scene portraying the breakup of the language in John Huston’s 1966 film, “The Bible: In the Beginning,” shows individuals going instantaneously from one coherent language into nonsensical “babbling.” Because I believe that God is into processes, I think that it took a while longer for that transformation to occur than what Brother Huston conveys. But that it happened, and that it is a true event, I have no doubt. In any case, this is all beside the point, which I’ll get to in a minute. Pentecost is the polar opposite of Babel. This time when God comes down, several thousand years later, the post-crucifixion disciples of Jesus gathered together in the upper room go from speaking many languages to speaking essentially one through the indwelling Holy Spirit. When each “began to speak with other tongues,” it would undoubtedly have sounded like incoherent babbling, except to the people who heard the works of God proclaimed in their own indigenous speech. And it still does sound like babbling. Parenthetically speaking, I do, in fact, believe in the reality of “glossolalia.” But there are many—particularly Christians—who dismiss the entire event because of the unintelligible aspect of it. When a friend recently said, “I think it’s just gibberish,” he was saying, in effect,” I don’t believe that it’s true because I don’t think God would do anything that apparently ridiculous.” But I don’t see how my friend could selectively dismiss this one event, which recurs throughout the New Testament, without dismissing other seemingly “ridiculous” (or impossible) things that God has done before and since. But, once more, this is beside the point. Even given that many do not stop to ask the simple question, “Could it be true?” or else they simply conclude that it is not, I wonder why more people do not at least ask the question, “What is going on here?” or “What is actually being expressed?” The simplest answer—and one viewed in the context of Babel—is that now, through the resurrected Christ, people who were divided by many languages and cultural barriers are now able to live and speak as one. But what else is going on? I believe that the heart of the Christian gospel is that now, in Christ, there is “neither Jew nor Greek, nor male nor female, nor slave nor free, nor circumcision nor un-circumcision, nor barbarian nor Scythian…..for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (a compendium of Galatians 3, Romans 12, Ephesians 2, and Colossians 3). Considering the dizzying number of divisions that currently exist within the Body of Christ, wouldn’t you think that God’s first order of business would be to get everybody on the same page and speaking essentially the same things? It should be obvious that we are all wide of the mark and that we have a long way to go, friends. By the way, this is why I am not particularly interested in “End Times” speculations. Until God’s people are united (and I do not mean “ecumenism,” which I think is just one more man-made Tower of Babel)—and this IS my interest—I’m not holding my breath until Jesus returns. Nonetheless I am still looking, watching, and waiting for his coming. And I know that when He does come, oneness is following in his wake. These divisions are going away. - Jim Radford |
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©2013 Jim Radford. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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