#6 Tower of Babel!!!! Nimrod is SANTA???
On this episode we cover the story of the Tower of Babel and we ruin Christmas trees forever.
Explore "tower of babel" with insightful episodes like "#6 Tower of Babel!!!! Nimrod is SANTA???", "Day 5: Tower of Babel (2024)", "The Tower of Babel: The Bible Can Be Trusted with Bodie Hodge", "The Tower Of Babel: What Really Happened" and "The Tower of Babel" from podcasts like ""The Greater Meaning Podcast", "The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)", "Master Books Podcast", "RADIO FPC" and "FCCO Sermons: Take 2"" and more!
On this episode we cover the story of the Tower of Babel and we ruin Christmas trees forever.
Bodie Hodge, author of The Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors, joins the Master Books podcast to discuss how to defend the Biblical account of the tower of Babel. On this episode, Mr. Hodge answers specific questions homeschool families asked about this part of our biblical, historical, and cultural history.
Written in layman’s terms, The Tower of Babel is an excellent way to find your cultural connection to the Bible. It is also a great reference for Biblical classes, ancient history, and apologetics training.
Show Links:
Tower of Babel
Preview of Tower Of Babel
One Blood for Kids
One Race One Blood
Gospel Reset
Timestamps:
2:39 - The Tower of Babel by Bodie Hodge is a perfect supplement for high school students. It touches on the following subjects: Bible, history, archaeology, geography, language and more.
3:47 - Quote: "Scholars write off what occured at the Tower of Babel as mythology and deny it was a historical event. Racism runs rampant fueld by the false belief in higher and lower races." pg. 8
4:12 - The connection between the Tower of Babel and Racism
5:10 - An evolutionary worldview is inherently racist because they believe people were evolving in a higher and lower race.
6:38 - God is the absolute authority on everything.
8:51 - How is mythology and interpretation of Genesis 11 related to the Tower of Babel.
11:54 - What happened at the Tower of Babel
15:06 - Did pre-European inhabitants of North America come from the Tower of Babel?
16:50 - Several of Noah's grandsons have been traced to the America's
17:45 - The Flood of Noah created unique conditions to trigger an Ice Age.
19:14 - Were there pyramids present before the tower of Babel? Do they resemble the Tower of Babel.
God told the people to go outward - to be fruitful and to multiply across the globe.
Instead, the people decided to go upward - to build a tower into the heavens.
In today's study, we'll consider the construction of the "Tower of Babel" in Genesis 11, and see why God came down to deal with its builders.
Questions That We'll Answer:
A) Why was God angered by the building of this particular tower?
B) Why did God confuse the language of the builders?
C) What relationship does Genesis 11 have with Acts 2 (Pentecost)?
Speaker: Rev. Dr. Toby B. Holt
Church Website: www.fpcgulfport.org
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
(Sermon preached July 16, 2023) The story of the tower of Babel is found in Genesis 11:1-9. This sermon is the third in a series titled the Kindom of God: Among Us, Within Us ( a series created for congregations of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in anticipation of the General Assembly of the church held in Louisville, July 29 - August 1.) When we compare the story of the tower of Babel to the story of Pentecost we see that there are two kinds of unity. Unity based on conformity and uniformity and unity rooted in purpose; unity with diversity. Note which one God prefers.
It’s a Sunday School Summer where we look at classic Bible Stories you may have learned in Sunday School.
This week we look at three reasons why the Tower of Babel was a bad thing. The sin of pride animated the Tower of Babel and pride still lurks in our hearts today. How can we root our pride in our lives?
It's meant to be a funny line because often people argue that if only we really understood exactly what other people were saying, people of other cultures, languages, faiths, and so on then there would be world peace. I will be honest and say there are times when I don't say exactly what I think and there have been times when I have been very glad that people have misunderstood what I was saying because what I was actually trying to say was not good or perhaps just foolish.
The Babel fish by translating exactly what people are trying to say would mean that we would hear and understand the best of what our fellow human beings are saying but we would also hear the worst.
The Tower of Babel story is about how God gave us separate languages because we were trying to make a great name for ourselves. Instead of receiving and caring for creation as a gift from God we were seeking to do the very thing that Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden to be like God, to make ourselves great. This is what the Bible calls pride. Pride is not taking pride in the achievements of our work or craft or our children, spouse or family. Pride is believing that we are better than others. It is believing that we should have special privileges because of our knowledge, our wealth, our skill or our position. As Psalm 10:4 puts it "Psalm 10:4 (NLT)
4 The wicked are too proud to seek God.
They seem to think that God is dead.
That is what is happening with the tower of Babel. "Let us make a name for ourselves." God recognises their pride and that "this is only the beginning of what will do", and so scatters them. This division of people by race and language is a result of sin. It is not that any race or language is better or worse or that there are not magnificent things in every culture, but the underlying division between them is as a result of sin, just as the underlying division in the relationship between us and God is also the result of sin.
The story of Acts 2 of the first Pentecost Sunday is a reversal of the story of the tower of Babel. It is a story of people being gathered together from the corners of the world. It is a story of the division of language being broken down so that everyone hears the same message from the same people in their own language, the language of their heart. Those building the tower were scattered to the four corners of the earth and their languages were confused. Those who hear Peter and the disciples preach are gathered from the four corners of the earth and they hear together without confusion the message.
What makes this a real reversal of Babel is that what gathers those people together on this morning is not the wonderful works of human beings, the wonderful work of a great tower, or the wonderful work of creating a new organization, what brings them together are the wonderful works of God. "In our own languages we them speaking about God's deeds of power"! the crowd says. Moreover, what brings them together is not their pride, them making a name for themselves it is the Name of Jesus who brings them together. And so our Acts reading for today concludes "everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."
Babel has been reversed the scattered have been gathered, the confused have heard of the wonderful works of God with one voice and with one tongue and they have been brought together not because of their own power or special achievement, but in the Name of the Lord, the name of Jesus.
And this message, this pouring out of the Spirit on that first Pentecost Sunday is not just for the 100 or so disciples, men and women gathered in the upper room, it isn't even just for that crowd gathered together 2000 years ago, it is for all people including us.
Acts 2:17-18 (NLT)
17 'In the last days,' God says,
'I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young men will see visions,
and your old men will dream dreams.
18 In those days I will pour out my Spirit
even on my servants-men and women alike-
and they will prophesy.
All people have this gift of the Spirit, the power from on high, the Advocate , the Spirit of truth from the Father who takes us into the relationship between the Father and the Son. We have the Spirit, we have seen the Son and so we have seen the Father. We are not orphaned, we are not by ourselves, we are no longer alienated from God and each other. We are one great fellowship of love and this is true for us and ultimately it will be true for all Creation which groans for the Children of God to be revealed so that it may be freed from its bondage and "obtain the freedom of the glory of the Children of God." (As Romans 8 reminds us.)
This story in Acts 2 is the beginning of this new creation. It is the reversal not only of the divisions of the tower of Babel, it is the reversal of the broken relationships that began with Adam and Eve who in their pride rebelled against God. It is the reversal the division between of Cain and Abel and Sarah & Hagar, Jacob and Esau, Mary and Martha. To quote Colossians 3:11 This day, Pentecost, marks the beginning of the renewal of all things the in which "there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!" (Col 3:11)
This is the very heart of our faith. Essentially we are in the unity and reconciliation business. We have been separated from God and each other, but Jesus through his, life, teaching, friendship, ministry, death and resurrection has reconciled us to God and to each other. In the last week I have been reading Reconnected: A Community Builder's Handbook by Andrew Leigh, Nick Terrell. As I type this I am only up to chapter three. The first two chapters are about how Australia and other Western countries are becoming less and less community minded and more and more individualistic. Involvement in all kinds of community, political, religious, and community life are declining, as is trust, and volunteering. On average people also have fewer close friends and much less contact with neighbours. As people in the unity and reconciliation business we should be concerned about this not just because it means the church is in danger of fragmenting but because the community is too. It is an attack on not only the church but on the world God loves.
As Chistians we believe that this is not the ultimate truth or destiny of the church or the world. We believe that in Jesus and through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit all people are reconciled to God and each other and all people are being reconciled to God and each other. This current fragmentation is not the final end. Our call is to live out that truth, to quite literally love our neighbours and make community connections through the church and in our family and community life.
We have the same Spirit and we are called to the same thing that Peter and the disciples of the upper room were called to do. We are called to proclaim the wonderful works of God. We are called to announce the Name of Jesus by which everyone can be saved. We are part of the same story of the reversal of the tower of Babel, the beginning of the unity of all people and all peoples by the Spirit. We are the fellowship of reconciliation, not only for ourselves but for all the world.
This is our purpose! This is what it means to be salt and light for the world. This is what it means to shine God's light from the hillside into our community. If we are faithful to the Spirit's call it may be that some will say we are crazy, that we are drunk, but others will be amazed and look beyond us to see the Lord.
At the 2019 Synod meeting the Norman and Mary Millar lecturer Professor Anne Tiernan from a purely secular point of view spoke about how the division and polarisation of our nation and the world could be reversed. I quote, "I want to suggest that creating a strong, healthier, more vibrant, inclusive and fair Queensland (and Australia) is a shared task," said Professor Tiernan. "I strongly believe that we-the Churches, universities and other civic and public purpose organisations-have the capacity and potential to do what modern politics cannot." End of quote.
I believe she is right! We could do that even in our own strength. But even more wonderfully we have the Spirit of the Living God, we have God's love poured into our hearts, we have the Advocate and Witness drawing us into the relationship between Jesus and the Father, the one who made all things and who is making all things new. If we recognise this and are faithful in our witness, how much more can God do with what we bring.
God will bring this new creation, with or without us, but it is God's desire that like Peter and the women and men of the upper room, like the woman at the Well and like Andrew who brought the Greeks to see Jesus and the boy to share his bread and fish for the multitude we should be a part of the story. The story which ends with the nations gathered from the East and the West from the North and the South, with God dwelling among us, where there will be no more morning and crying and every tear will be wiped away and we will be united in one great fellowship of love.
Join pastor Jacob Tapia as he teaches this session in the series "Exploring God's Word." This lesson includes:
- The tower of Babel and the beginning of nations
- Abraham & Isaac
- Jacob & Joseph
We invite you to join us soon for one of our Spirit-filled, Bible teaching worship events at Promise Church Minneapolis. Please visit our website https://www.yourpromisechurch.org/ for more information.
Sermon by Pastor Ryan Beavers
"Nothing that they have a mind to do will be impossible for them!". Mankind's hubris and rebelliousness led them to build a tower to reach the Creator. They probably wanted to kill Him.
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