Tower of Babel
Genesis 11 English Standard Version (ESV)
The Tower of Babel
11 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone,and bitumen for mortar. 4 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 dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 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. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Diversity, so highly praised by the politically correct progressive left, was given as a curse to stop mankind from working against God's purpose. God had said to multiply and inhabit the earth, and mankind wanted to build a big tower and make a name for themselves. So why is something given as a curse, different languages and different tribes, praised by secular humanists today?
Diversity in ethnicity, culture, and religion is viewed as belonging to the natural world order. People who do not believe in Jesus may think that one religion is just as good (or bad) as another, part of the natural landscape. Atheists seem to think that all religions based upon the Bible are an imposition upon their unbelief, so many are anti Christian. And many promote Islam as an alternative to Christianity, in support of diversity.
When people were scattered after Babel, each nation and tribe established their own religions, mostly pagan idolatry and animism. A culture reflects the values of its religion. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. When we examine the history of nations, the most blessed nations in the history of mankind were those who worshiped God as revealed in the Bible.
Diversity in religion is a curse, and God planned to lift the curse by bringing together in unity all who put their trust in Him.
John 17English Standard Version (ESV)
The High Priestly Prayer
17 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh,to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world,just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.[a] 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them[b] in the truth;your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself,[c] that they alsomay be sanctified[d] in truth.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may bewith me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
But Christianity has been a terribly divided religion. Obviously, Jesus' prayer for unity has not been answered. How can we have unity? We must go back to the beginning, and renew our love for the very Jewish Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah.
A terrible mistake was made when Christianity in the west rejected its Jewish roots and took up the Greek love of logical argument. Instead of trusting in the righteousness by faith in Jesus, "Christians" began to kill each other over disagreements related to theological arguments. One third of the inhabitants of Europe were killed during the thirty years war between supporters of the Reformers and supporters of the Pope of Rome. Diversity in religion is deadly.
In the beginning, the gospel went out from Jerusalem into all the world. Now the gospel is returning to Jerusalem. But the Jewish culture must give up its hateful rejection of Jews who believe in Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah. The believers are the real children of Abraham.
Messianic Jews and Israel
Yeshua is the answer for unity. Diversity kills, but unity gives life. The gospel is for all nations, so that all nations can be one in Jesus.
