What Tower of Babel are we building today?

One of the most fearful scripture in the New Testament is in Luke 18:8, “I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth”? This scripture points towards the “Return of Jesus” and the belief in God and Jesus. It shows that there will be a great fallen away in the Faith that is in Jesus and God. It also points towards doors to Churches closed and the reduction in Church attendances. These all point towards the world of Christianity and their desire and zeal for Jesus has faded into a weak desire for the Lord and their belief is slowly disappearing. But what is replacing God and what is turning people from the Words of God and faith and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It takes effort to be a witness and testify to people and to convince people that there is an all-powerful God and that the Lord Jesus Christ is real. As information of technology and artificial intelligence spreads, convincing people is getting harder and as technology gets better. Too many people are putting their trust and faith in technology and artificial intelligence, especially the younger generation. As this trend continue, we can observe and see how God is slowly replaced by the God of Technology.

Technology and religion seem to exist in separate planes of existence. Fact and faith. Science and God. But if we were to turn to the Bible for guidance about the place that technology should occupy in a God-fearing civilization, what would we find? The answer is: not a lot. Prophetic though it may be, the Bible still is silent about mankind’s technological progress. That is, if you are looking for a literal commentary. In a more metaphorical sense, we can look to the book of Genesis, and to the story of the tower of Babel, for a potentially revealing look at how God feels about the advancement of mankind.

The Tower of Babel when the whole of mankind spoke just one language and worked together to solve problems, and to overcome their place on earth. They built the Tower of Babel to reach the very heights of heaven. A monument of pride and being arrogance towards God. God gave His answer by scattering the builders and confused their language, effectively putting an end to their building project. Genesis 11:4-7, “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 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”.

Some people and some religious leaders will say that the language of the Bible is metaphor and allegory; we are meant to take its teachings as symbolic, rather than literal. Given that, what is the story of Babel about, if we can insert our own modern-day interpretation? We could say that the tower is a metaphor for technology, or we could get even more specific and see it as a comment on any number of ways that we collectively play god. Playing God in abortion, in Genetic engineering, in cloning and artificial intelligence such as an android.

Another verse, this time from the book of Daniel, has frequently been cited as an indication that the advancement of technology would accelerate very rapidly as the End Times approach. Daniel 12:4, “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased”.

From Benjamin Franklin and his kites to every home with electricity. From the telegraph to telephones to cellular phones. From horses and wagons to trains, cars, and trucks. From watching a bird fly to airplanes, jet planes, to rockets, to space travel to the moon, to a space station. From herbs to medicine, from a library to the internet and the computer. From artificial intelligence to a robot, from a robot to a human like android. From the human embryos to cloning, from biotechnological to brain computer interfaces. The statement in Daniel is truly correct, “knowledge shall be increased”.

There is a reason the Bible did not go into detail about science and technology, and it is a simple one. The men who wrote the Bible did not foresee that one day we would be building machines to visit distant regions of space, or an android that is human like, that can talk and reason. How would they be able to explain the technology of our time. They wrote within the knowledge of their own time. However, within some scriptures we can see the use of technology. In Revelation 13:14-17, “And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name”. We can understand how this can take place with the use of technology and artificial intelligence. Another verse is in Revelation 11:9, “And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves”. In the pass people would wonder how the world could see this but today we know that it is indeed possible.

A man by the name of Buckminster Fuller created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve”; he noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today things are not as simple as different types of knowledge have different rates of growth. For example, nanotechnology knowledge is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average human knowledge is doubling every 13 months. According to IBM, the build out of the “internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours.

Consider Christians and their faith and belief a hundred years ago and then consider the Christians in today’s world. There is a very great difference between these two groups. Back then they did not have the advancement in the medical treatment and medicine. They relied upon their faith in Jesus. Today we rely upon the doctors and hospitals and the act of faith is fading away. Back then they believed in Jesus and God and the Bible was truthful. Today they question the Creation of God, they question the global flood in the days of Noah and even the Ark that God told Noah to build. Today they are even questioning the Birth of Jesus. They are even questioning the Rapture of the Church. Back then Christians went to the Church House on Sunday Morning, Sunday Evening, Bible Study on Wednesday, and Revivals. Today the attendance is poor on Sunday Morning and service on Sunday night and Bible Study are coming to an end. Too many prefer to watch the Church programs on their television instead of going to the House of God. Too many are forsaking the House of God and replacing it with the pleasures of the world.

2nd Peter 2:1-2, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of”. False teachers are those who practice religion in the daylight and perversion behind closed doors. They are those who would use their platform as leaders and intellectuals to spread lies and misinformation. And, if you want to circle back to the question of technology, these “false masters” could be anything we allow to stand-in as the object of our worship.

So what Tower of Babel are we building today? Are we going to become even more scattered as a true believer in Jesus or just a person who tried? Nobody can say for sure. In this and in many other things, the Bible proves to be an enigmatic road map to the Kingdom of God. Many would say that our worship of science and technology is evidence that we have evolved beyond our ancestors. It was Satan who said, “ye shall be as gods”. Genesis 3:5, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil”. In fact, there are some "scientific minds" that are now proclaiming that science will one day eliminate belief in God altogether.

For example, the following comes from an article entitled, Will Science Someday Rule Out the Possibility of God? “Over the past few centuries, science have gradually chipped away at the traditional grounds for believing in God. Much of what once seemed mysterious in the existence of humanity, the life-bearing perfection of Earth, the workings of the universe can now be explained by biology, astronomy, physics and other domains of science. Although cosmic mysteries remain”,

Sean Carroll, a theoretical cosmologist at the California Institute of Technology, says, “There's good reason to think science will ultimately arrive at a complete understanding of the universe that leaves no grounds for God whatsoever. Carroll argues that God's sphere of influence has shrunk drastically in modern times, as physics and cosmology have expanded in their ability to explain the origin and evolution of the universe. As we learn more about the universe, there is less and less need to look outside it for help”.

Let not the advancement in technology replace your Faith in Jesus. Let not the advancement of the medical field replace your Faith. Let not these devices to replace your worship to God, nor your Faith in Jesus. Let not the teaching of Science and the Higher Level of Education replace your Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

These people who looks at the universe, forget that it was God who created our universe and all the universes. All the elements that are seen and that are unseen that science and technology will use, it was God who created these elements. However, the Educational systems have and are leaving the Creations of God out of their teaching and the world of science are proclaiming the Words in the Bible as fables. No wonder this younger generation has no Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is written in 2nd Timothy 3:1-7, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”. 2nd Peter 3:3, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts”. The sad part is that too many Christians are scoffers also.

Are we building our Tower of Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we building it with the Truth that is in Jesus and the Apostles and the Prophets of Old? Is our Tower grounded upon that solid foundation that is only in Jesus? Are we building our Tower to give Glory to God? Are we building our Tower with help from our Lord Jesus Christ? What type of a Tower are you building with your Faith, Belief and Devotion to God?

Jesus made that statement, “shall he find faith on the earth” this statement is becoming very truthful in today’s world because Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed fading away and being replaces by their gods of technology. In 2nd Thessalonians 2:10, “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved”.

The Day of the Lord is not a time of light, but it is a time of darkness and destruction. The mercy and grace of God is only because God still sees the Blood of His Lamb. But the day will come when God will delay no longer. It will be a world that has turned their faith towards the gods of technology and when their world begins to crumble then they will find no place to hide from the Wrath of God. In 2nd Peter 2:4-7, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked? 2nd Peter 2:12, “But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption”.

It is true, “when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth”?

God help us.