American Babel

 “And they said, Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name.” Genesis 11:4

With a level of hubris exhibited by but a few nations  in human history,  we took a Divine gift, and thought it was our own creation.  

It all began when the Pilgrims chose to separate themselves from the Church of England because they believed it was beyond redemption...and it resisted reform. Starting in 1608, a group of English families left England for Holland, where they could worship freely. By 1620, the community determined to cross the Atlantic for America, where they would establish Plymouth Colony. 

Before they disembarked in Plymouth...speaking with one voice...they put their names to a compact proclaiming  “IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid:.”

Bestselling author and radio host Michael Medved recounts, in his book God’s Hand on America, a record of improbabilities and amazements that demonstrate what the Founders always believed: that events unfolded according to a master plan, with Divine destiny playing an unmistakable role in lifting the nation to greatness.  We are not, by definition, a Christian nation but...we would not be a nation at all we’re it not for the providence of God almighty.  And, the colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating “Thanksgiving,” days of prayer, thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought. The U.S. Continental Congress even proclaimed a national Thanksgiving upon the enactment of the Constitution.

It took only about seventy years before our united voice declaring that the providence of God sustained us began to crack. Slowly...almost imperceptibly...people began to hear other voices and the Mayflower Compact became nothing more than a historical curiosity. Even so, the Christian ethos was strong and held sway for generations.

As we grew bigger, and more powerful, we began to read our own press clippings and, as a nation, we began to regard our awesome national miracle as the work of our own hand...forgetting the God who begat us. As the sentiment grew, we could no longer speak with one voice because we no longer recognized our one source of blessing. We became prouder...and more selfish. We began to argue with one another over the best means for continuing to build out nation...now proclaiming it to be the greatest nation in human history. The debates centered around economic theory, social justice and racial equality...God was no longer part of the conversation. And, each view had its own language. Capitalists couldn’t speak socialism and nationalists couldn’t speak globalism. In short order the debate got more heated and cacophonous until nobody could understand what the others were saying.

I can tell you where this is headed...God is not mocked. So God said “Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So Jehovah scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off building the city.” Genesis 11:7-8 

So...we can prepare to be scattered like the wind or...we can humbly turn our  hearts to the benevolent God who gave us all this. Perhaps He might restore our language so we might once again speak with one voice...before everything we have crumbles.

Live boldly out there today...