At three critical moments in history, God intervened and radically changed humanity or delayed its intended aspirations.
The first intervention was at the fall of man (Genesis 3). God came down in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden and met the hiding Adam. He ultimately barred Adam from the Garden lest he should partake of the Tree of Life. This tree had the power to impart imperishable physical life: “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever” (Gen. 3:22). Perhaps we must understand the conceptual power of this tree. No tree of itself can possess such virtue or inherent natural qualities; we must view this power through the Word of God, Who was pleased to ordain that such should be the effect of partaking of the fruit of this tree. This separation was an important restraint; man in his fallen and sin-torn, sin-defaced body would have been a grievous creature had he lived forever on the earth. He would never have been able to get rid of the powerful effects of sin upon himself.
The second intervention came during the days of Noah (Genesis 6–8), when the imagination of the thoughts of man was only evil continually. God saw the violent and fleshly manifestation of the sins of the flesh. He looked upon the earth and discerned the end of all flesh before Him. It is evident in Genesis that man had gone the gamut in his knowledge of the flesh in the principle of sin. Through the Flood, God brought an end to that world-system.
The Beginnings of the City of Babel
The third intervention of God (Genesis 11) was at the city of Babel approximately 110 years after the Flood. How did this spirit of rebellion arise after the Flood? It arose in the heart of the man Nimrod, and perhaps his father Cush (or Bel). Over a process of time within this family, a mood or spirit rose to dominate their living. Through Nimrod’s logic and words, he convinced a number of relatives of the family of Noah to leave the patriarch and the others of the family in order to begin a new life away from the Lord. Rising from the heart of an individual, a collective spirit arose within a group of people. This spirit created an environment or an atmosphere that became an influential, controlling factor of all who lived in that environment away from God. This collection of thoughts, words, and deeds was embellished and cultivated to such a proportion that it became the controlling spirit of a people. Oh, how this has been seen over and over again in history: one man able to control a people’s thinking and mood, to eventually build an empire with a unique, identifiable spirit.
One day this group of people made a decision to leave Noah and his family. Genesis 10:25 records that the land was divided in the days of Peleg. Is this statement referring to the separation of the land into continents, or was this the announcement that Nimrod and his followers left Noah and traveled to the land of Shinar? Although this division could refer to both possibilities; it may more specifically reference the crucial division that took place in Genesis 11:1, 2.
Following the Flood, Noah pronounced blessings upon his sons Shem and Japheth, but curses upon Canaan. As a result, surely there was a growing spirit of rebellion against the LORD God of the Noahic religion. It seems that this curse upon Canaan contributed to the division of the lands and peoples that occurred in the century leading up to the city and tower of Babel.
This move recorded in Genesis 11:1, 2 should not to be viewed as a spur-of-the-moment decision. No doubt their rebellion in heart had been in a progressive stage for quite a length of time. Finally, their minds and hands conspired against the Lord and Noah. Rebellion is always led by a man or men rising up among men. (Such was the action of Lucifer in Revelation 12, drawing one-third of the angels with him in rebellion against God.) Nimrod was the man who became the mighty one; he set the mood and the spirit for other individuals who already were in a spirit of rebellion within their hearts.
Genesis 11:2 states, “And it came to pass.” Time is a crucial key for the spirit of a man and men to be revealed: the crisis revealing their rebellion “came to pass.” A large group from the family of Noah was convinced by Nimrod to leave the rest of the family and move to the land of Shinar, a geography that would eventually be called Babel. We read in these early verses of Genesis 11 the plural pronouns, “they,” “we,” and “us,” which declared a unity or union, a oneness of spirit. A few of these unions should be noted. There was the union of speech—their talking back and forth to one another, “They said one to another” (11:3); the union of labor, “Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly” (11:3); the union of politic, “Let us build us a city” (11:4); the union of purpose, “and a tower” (11:4b); and the union of religion, “Let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (11:4c).
Finally these people wanted “a name.” The Hebrew word for name is the word shem. They were seeking a shem in confrontation with Hashem, “the Name” whom Noah worshiped. This union of language, industry, government, and purpose collectively came together to achieve a union of religious worship. They collectively wanted to make a name for themselves in contrast and in opposition to the Name of the Lord.
God Came Down to Babel
Out of the abundance of rebellious thoughts, the men of Shinar purposed to build a city and a tower:
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech (Gen. 11:5–7).
Here at Shinar the imagination of men had gone beyond the vileness of sin and its violence of the flesh depicted in Genesis 6 before the Flood. These men believed they could be as God in the earth.
Nevertheless, God intervened that day by confounding their language and scattering the people into geographies that ultimately created the ethnic groups listed in Genesis 10. Up until this time in history (as is so often in the affairs of the children of men), God simply allowed things to take their course. But at Babel He manifestly intervened to hinder man’s own course of self-destruction. In the Genesis account here, the LORD notes that they had only begun their project: “this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (11:6). These words suggest that following their enterprise to build a city and tower, they had more planned in their rebellion against God.
My father, Dr. O. Talmadge Spence, wrote back in 1977 the following words:
We live in a time now when great stress is being placed upon the unions of life; there is the United Nations, Labor Unions, the Ecumenical Movement in Christendom, etc. There is a great difference between union and unity. There is no guarantee of unity unless a people agree to walk by the very principles of the Word of God (Amos 3:3). In these days, just prior to the Rapture and the Tribulation Period, we need to pray much, warn soberly, speak honestly, and watch scripturally, that we be not entangled in the yoke that will ultimately be placed upon man by the Antichrist. There is always an educational process for a people before the full manifestation of the power and person that leads them. Our contemporary lies in that educational period; a propaganda and brainwashing performed by so much of the modern forces of politic, religion, and morals. A great religious integration is taking place in our time; we need a spiritual separation.
Yes, dear reader, our world is ripe for the global union of mankind. There is a mood and a spirit through the powers of the media (via publications, productions, and the internet) that has established a powerful collective influence on mankind. The past seven years in America’s leadership has brought us to the precipice of utter chaos in morals, education, economy, character, and even language (such as in the ambiguity of political correctness and redefining of traditional terminology). Our nation is being forced into atheism; this godlessness is manifested in government, law, education, science, and medicine. There is a mood, yea, a spirit of atheism that has been unleashed throughout mankind to such a proportion that God is giving the world over to what it seeks. However, He will only let mankind proceed in his rebellion to a certain point.
At Babel when God came down to thwart man’s imagination at its beginning stage, He brought confusion within their language so that men were not able to understand one another’s speech. As a result, they left off building the city and tower.
The term Babel comes straight from the Word of God. In the Aramaic this name carries the meaning “the Gate of God”; later Assyrian inscriptions confirm this interpretation. However, in the Hebrew the word Babel comes from the root word meaning “confusion (by mixing).” Thus, there arose a play of meanings regarding the word Babel: “man’s gate to God ended in confusion.” We live in parallel days to the spirit of Babel. That which the world calls a “gate to God” is “confusion” to the true Christian. God sent the diversity of languages due to men’s conspiring union against Him. Four thousand years have passed since this unique, momentous intervention of God occurred, stopping man in his diabolical scheme. Our imaginations only could fathom what they would have contributed toward the early destruction of humanity. As a mercy, God’s power touched the communication, the language of man. And man was scattered throughout the earth.
The Present Prelude of Babel
Over these thousands of years since the scattering of Babel, mankind has come to its greatest diversity ever. We should carefully note some diversities that have been in the past and have led up to the present.
The world’s population has shockingly abounded in the twentieth century. After four thousand years, the world’s population reached 1.65 billion in 1900. By 1927 it reached 2 billion; 1960, 3 billion; 1974, 4 billion; 1987, 5 billion; and 1999, 6 billion. In 2015 the world’s population is estimated at 7.3 billion!
Coming from the five major Postdiluvian ethnic groups, continued intermarriage over the millennia has created a massive diversity of ethnic groups. Conservative demographic listings suggest anywhere between 16,000 to 27,000 different ethnic groups. No other time in history has known such ethnic diversity.
Today the United Nations acknowledges a total of 195 distinct nations. However, when one includes the other countries or ethnic groups which the United Nations does not recognize, the total reaches 207. Interestingly, the World Cup of Football (soccer), representing the world’s most popular sport, acknowledges 209 nations; and the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) for international coding acknowledges 249 nations. Thus, between 195 and 249 nations exist today, depending on how one defines a country.
Throughout these nations, roughly 6,500 languages are spoken. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most popular language in the world (by population) is Mandarin Chinese; well over one billion people speak Mandarin.
Throughout these nations, there are roughly 4,200 religions practiced today. The top five religions today are Christianity (both Protestant and Roman Catholic), Islam, Secularism (nonreligious, agnostics, atheists, New Age), Hinduism, and Buddhism. Under these there are several thousands of subdivisions. As one pursues his study of these major belief systems and their views of God, he finds tremendous diversity. Hindus acknowledge millions of gods and goddesses; Buddhists say there is no deity; New Age followers believe they are God; Muslims believe in a powerful but unknowable God; and, professing Christians believe in a personal, loving, and approachable God. All of these religions have divisions and subdivisions in their belief concepts. Even in Christianity the diversity is overwhelming. According to the World Christian Encyclopedia the number of denominations rose from 21,000 in 1982 to 33,000 in 2001. A denomination is defined as “an organized Christian group within a country.” The number of Christian denominations has truly exploded from 1,600 in 1900 to 43,000 today, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Within this expanding religious population throughout the earth, their sacred writings are equally diverse. Though Christianity has professed only one sacred book, the Bible, debate concerning various manuscripts has produced questions and doubtings that have led to a multitude of English versions of the Bible. Many of these versions are as different as night and day. Of all the religions in the world, Christianity is the most diversified within its religious camp. It truly is part of the clear evidence that Christianity has entered deeply into global apostasy.
Amidst the diversity of nations, languages, religions, and religious books, there is the internet which vies for a prominent written and spoken voice around the world. In 2013 alone, the World Wide Web grew by more than one third; at the beginning of the year there were about 630 million websites, and at the end of the year there were over 850 million websites. By September of 2014 the total number of websites exceeded one billion! In 2000, only 6.7% of the world’s population accessed the internet, but by 2014, 40.4% of the world’s population accessed the internet! Between 2012 and 2014, half a billion new users were connected to the internet, an increase of 20%, bringing the total number of web surfers to 3 billion worldwide. When we stop and ponder over the many voices clamoring for the mind and the soul of humanity, it is overwhelming.
The World Is Waiting for the Man
Amidst all of this diversification in the multiplicity of compartments of humanity, a small group of leaders (especially over the past 150 years) has been bridging the gaps between these diversities. They have been attempting to unify diverse mankind with the hopes of making a new “name” in the earth to overthrow the name of God. As technology and global communication successfully unify the growing epistemology of mankind, a certain man with the right credentials and global approval is being sought who can harness all of it with an authoritative power and spirit. Satan has had his unique men throughout history whom he chose to catapult to leadership at crucial times.
This archenemy of God said to Jesus in Luke 4:6, “All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.” We have witnessed in history the authority and glory Satan has given to men who equally desired such diabolical authority and glory. Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses; Korah was called a man of renown (a man of “a name”). Other men include Rabshakeh, the Assyrian; the notorious Antiochus Epiphanes; and the Caesars of Rome. All these men were given the power and spirit of the Dragon, the Devil.
The twentieth century has had its list of men who wanted such a covenant with the Devil to take control of the world. The apostle Paul prophesied that the mystery of iniquity would produce such men from the Devil, and in the End Time such evil men would wax worse and worse. Today we witness the internationally-known news commentators who influence the world with their “opinions” and ideologies; fiction writers like J. K. Rowling and her Harry Potter books who have in knowledge and spirit influenced a whole generation of youth; and financiers such as the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, the Morgans, and the Gates who have controlled the massive flow and redistribution of wealth. The internet has brought to the forefront educators, philosophers, film writers, musicians, and political leaders who all have risen to powerfully contribute to the spirit and mood of the contemporary world-age. Such men and women have proved to have the intellectual and financial capacity to lead not only a nation but also an entire world through the “anointing” or “de-anointing” of the Dragon against God for the conquest of mankind.
All of these pursuits will climax with the Man of Sin, who will know this satanic power in its greatest influence. All of these men have been “leviathan” in spirit and heart—the word meaning “to join” the dragon (Isa. 27:1). Chapter 41 of Job gives a detailed description of the leviathan in the natural, and in the last verse (34) we are told, “He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.” In the next two articles of this Straightway issue, we will present moods and spirits that are endeavoring to bring about another city and tower of Babel that is the manifestation of rebellious man’s imagination against God. Thankfully, at the appointed time God will intervene and bring to naught all of man’s vain imaginations.
Conclusion
Throughout history God has had his men upon which the Spirit of the Lord has rested. Yet, in our day and time these are few and far between. The Christian apostasy has destroyed spirituality publicly; only a few men are truly seeking God and therefore know the anointing of His Spirit. Christian colleges and universities are being consumed by the world and the subtle substitute of a “social gospel” for the communities. Such schools have come to believe that what God’s men of the past called “confusion” should now be viewed as “the Gate to God.” Yes, we have come to another division in the earth: it is between the godly and the ungodly, the Neo-Christianity and the Remnant.
Our day now gives evidence that the world has intensified its oppressive evolutionary belief of the beginning of humanity, separating epistemology from any origin and allegiance to a Personal God. According to predominant voices of influence in the earth, there is no God, there is no revelation from God, and there is no accountability to a Sovereign God at the end of life. Every public forum of epistemology today screams this belief, and if one does not adhere to this worldview, he is ostracized from humanity and counted among the insane.
Dear reader, it will be a miracle now if anyone comes to believe in a Creator and the one personal God of the universe, to acknowledge that we are born depraved, alienated from this God, and that only through God’s Son, Who died and rose for us, can we be reconciled to this God. Along with these fundamentals, it will be a miracle if anyone believes that this God has given this planet through history an infallible revelation in written form, the only written revelation ever given to man, the Bible. This revelation was God-breathed, was God-inspired, and has been God-preserved throughout the centuries. It rises above all the voices of human epistemology; it transcends in power, in scope, and in truth all of the thoughts and communications of any generation. We must not simply read and memorize the Bible; we must even go deeper than simple accrual of knowledge. This Word must come into the inner sanctum of our human existence and dwell there controlling our moment-by-moment living.
May the Lord grant us discernment for these days in which we live. And may we be found, not having our own righteousness, but found “within” the righteousness of Christ Jesus, our precious and worthy Lord!