I. Introduction
In this study we are going to assume that the descendants of Noah knew who Jehovah God was and knew His commands and requirements. We are not interested in the details of lineages or what happened to these people or why in the interim between the great Flood and the time of the Babel account. So, we start with that assumption.
God’s Word tells us that after the Great Flood that happened in the days of Noah humankind spoke a universal language; moreover, certain peoples of the line of Cush, upon resettling, decided to build a great city with a great tower in its midst. City and tower were apparently designed to:
(1) Hedge against scatter and attendant vulnerability to disaster.
(2) Centralize and facilitate human activity.
(3) Make a name for its builders.
But Jehovah God flatly disapproved (Genesis 10:8-10, 11:1-4, 11:5-9). By God’s grace we wish to look at the trend toward universality in this modern computer age, and to think about how the computer and the internet—the World Wide Web—are perhaps the Tower of Babel revisited; are perhaps the Tower of Babel reconstructed in a bold, grander, new way—Babelnet[1]. The questions beneath the surface are: Is it fair to liken the computer and the internet to Babel? If God disapproved of Babel before and utterly confused and scattered its builders, thus thwarting their efforts, it is a given He will do the same again, but when? Or, has He confused Babelnet already, and we but await the Great Scatter?
II. A Digital Universal Language and a New Communicative Universality
The world has never known the kind of language universality that we witness in this modern computer age—nowadays humankind speaks digitally, and thereby hurdles the communicative barrier imposed by differences in language[2]. While digital computer code provides the means for language universality (speech recognition, near instant textual translations, etc.), the internet for its part provides worldwide connectivity. The computer and the internet together define this new communicative universality, and Babel of old pales in comparison. Suppose for a moment that Babel was a large Ziggurat—still, it would be quite inferior not only to the structures that are built nowadays but consider how satellite technology with its myriad capabilities has reached beyond the heavens so to speak. The capacity for universality nowadays (language and otherwise) over against the same in Nimrod’s day is so lopsided that one ought not make the comparison perhaps[3]. But Jehovah God clearly stated that given such universality…’nothing would be impossible for humankind…’. And, of course, He scattered the peoples in the day of Babel it would appear for precisely that reason. So, what is going on here? Why does Jehovah God not “scatter” today?
III. Why Does Jehovah God Not Scatter Today?
Genesis 9:1 may provide a clue. After the Flood of Noah’s day humankind was commanded to spread out and replenish the earth, but clearly the “Babelites” did just the opposite. They hunkered down and centralized with no apparent intentions to spread out and replenish the earth. They were content to hedge against another disaster and stay local and make a name for themselves via their metropolitan enterprises along the way. What we see here is clear defiance of God’s command. But Jehovah God is not mocked—He scattered them by confusing their language. Maybe Nimrod hoodwinked them into uniting and localizing so he could lead and strut, but whatever the reason or reasons, God got His way in the end and in a big way to say the least. Jehovah broke asunder their universal language, He splintered it, and in turn humankind splintered. Maybe those groups that had some common remnant language clustered together and moved on together.
So, what about today then? Humankind has been fruitful and filled the earth, the Genesis 9:1 mission is accomplished, by God’s design and by His outright (Babel) and providential intervention. But humankind is coming full circle back to a universal language like of old—it is a different language now, but the idea is the same, and the defiant (anti-God) spirit is quite the same. It must be that way for the end times. We had to come full circle back to a universal language in keeping with biblical prophecy. God is not going to scatter humankind now like He did at Babel; we await now the appearance of antiChrist—the “new-age Nimrod”—who will unite (hoodwink) humankind against Jehovah God (“Matthew Chapter Twenty-four Commentary,” “Revelation Chapter Thirteen Commentary”). The table is being set in that regard: One economy, one language, one religion, one mundane leader—that is Babel on the horizon. We are not there yet, but it is coming—all the momentum is in that direction in a big way. And the much fawned over and beloved sciences are quite doing their part to get us there, especially by way of the “new reality” (not God’s Reality=Truth here) being imposed upon humankind by way of that fuzzy player called quantum mechanics—there is the darling of the sciences these days. Quantum mechanics is setting the standard in the sciences which in turn define societal norms on many diverse fronts these days. (What is wrong with that picture Christian friend?) And the computer and the internet—that defiant universality—is the muscle of the sciences.
God said it before, nothing can stop humankind from doing this or that when it is thus universally connected, nothing except God, of course. Satan and his Babel-buddy cronies will shore up their strength by way of all this universality and will appear to be invincible, but Jehovah God will break them and their universality into pieces via His Word in the end—not just a splintering this time—and it will be a Name for Jehovah on into eternity. Here is the great and final Scattering. And the only universality that shall stand in the end and forever is Jehovah’s. How refreshing the thought. Praised be His holy, sovereign Name.
IV. Concluding Comments
In this study we wanted to look at the trend toward universality in this age of computation in which we live. Babel was our model in that regard. We wondered if the computer and the internet are in some respects a sort of Tower of Babel revisited. Babel was thwarted by Jehovah God for defiance of His post-Flood “spread out and repopulate the earth” command. Probably there are other reasons too, but that would seem to be the primary one. (Others might include things such as the folly of supposed sufficiency apart from God, challenging God, making a name for self to the exclusion of God, and so on, all of which through the muscle of universality would spread in those defiant, anti-God flavors, largely unchallenged—to the detriment of humankind, whom Jehovah God loves, and for whom Jehovah God had better plans.)
Large scale universality is hands down a mark of the end times. It does not come as a shock that we have come full circle back to a universal language (and universality in general), but the capacity and reach of that language nowadays is unprecedented and so loaded with possibility that Babel of old quite pales in comparison. We speak spiritually here, not technically—the spiritual possibilities are good and bad.
The computer, the internet, the sciences, these things are not bad in and of themselves, in fact there is plenty of good that we all enjoy because of them, but once in the hands of antiChrist the satanic universal leader and his cronies they will become an unimaginable horror; there can be little doubt that they are the material vehicles of the end-time horror related by the Word of God in the Christian Bible.
Satan is so very subtle—please consider that the impending universality is but a “palatable, and pleasant, and pretty” decoy; what it really is, at its core, is the first waves of the satanic antiChrist’s Control, gently rolling onto the shores of humanity, ever so quietly, and benign; yea, rolling on, quiet and benign, for a little while yet (Figure 1). Thanks be to God even our blessed Jehovah that He will pull His people out of here before things get loud and malignant (“A Letter of Invitation”).
Praised be your sovereign and holy Name great savior God. Amen.