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Rebuilding the Tower of Babel

Written by Rick Shrader

Rebuilding the Tower of Babel

by Rick Shrader

Nimrod “began to be a mighty one in the earth . . . And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel” (Gen. 10:8-10).  God had judged the earth by a universal flood because “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).  God had also charged the post-flood generation with self-government and the necessity of spreading out, repopulating, and settling the earth.  But the people ventured eastward from the Ararat mountains to the land of Shinar between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.  There they said, “let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:4).  Piously they pretended to honor God and speak of heavenly things, no doubt remembering the severity of God’s judgment a few short generations ago.  They pretended that the worshiping of the creation more than the Creator would be accepted, that creating a new religion of astrology and Sun worship would rally all people into one homogeneous group.  This it did.  But not to God’s pleasing.  Soon God would judge again, confounding the languages and scattering the people by necessity rather than obedience.

Are we rebuilding this civilization today?  Surely we have created our own religions and worshiped and served the creation more than the Creator.  We have “changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man” (Rom. 1:23).  Will God give us “over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient?” (Rom. 1:28).  Will it really just “Take a Village” to bring the world together again?  Can mankind organize a one-world community by evenly spreading out the wealth and asking everyone to play fairly?  The utopia that man desires cannot work for two reasons:  this is a broken world and we are sinful people.  Mankind needs a rule of law and a moral code to even survive their own savagery.  History has sadly shown that this has only been accomplished in the poorest way.  It will take the return and reign of the perfect Son of God, a lifting of the curse that was imposed on the world from Adam’s sin, and a binding of the god of this world for a thousand years, to bring about such a peaceful world.  And even then He will rule with a rod of iron over the residual effects of sin that still remain.

Any attempt to rebuild the one-world community will only result in antichrist, not in Christ.  It will only organize a pooling of the selfishness and arrogance of the human nature and either result in another of a long line of human disasters, or it will bring the final judgment of God.  No one can know which, but we can know that such will be the result.  How much better to “know God and keep His commandments” (Ecc. 12:13).  How much better to give Him the glory that is rightfully His and to humble ourselves “under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt us in due time” (1 Pet. 5:6).

 

 

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God Will End the Caliphate

Written by Rick Shrader

God Will End the Caliphate

by Rick Shrader

It is amazing to watch the developments in the Middle East. It is also sad to see the lack of leadership by the United States. Our President evidently cannot accept the fact that Islam can be violent, nor can he bring himself to admit that violent Jihadists purposely kill Christians and Jews. No one is old enough today, so historians tell us, how similar this is to the 1930s when no one thought that a man named Hitler and his Nazi party was a real threat to the rest of the world. Satan’s purpose to eliminate the Jewish people, and to destroy as much of Christianity as possible, is the real driving force behind all such hatred.

The battle of Gog and Magog is coming. It is an invasion from the northern enemies of Israel to flood into the holy land and exterminate the Jews and take the spoil of the land (see Ezekiel 38-39). These northern enemies include Turkey, Iran, Libya, and other allies. It also includes parts of Russia to the “far north” (Ezek. 38:1-5). Could this invasion be just around the corner? No human knows for sure. We only know it will happen some day. I believe this happens towards the middle of the seven-year tribulation period and therefore would be a short three and a half years after the rapture. At that time God will destroy the northern enemies by miraculous means (Ezek. 38:17-23). Unfortunately, this is only the first battle in a war called Armageddon, a conflict which Jesus Himself will conclude by His glorious return.

Christians should support every effort to destroy the enemy of Israel and all other peace-loving countries, even if that means righteous warfare. Our best but least used weapon is prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, for Israel, the church, and for lost souls in the whole world. But whatever happens in the near future, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever. For wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings” (Daniel 2:20-21).

 

 

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Those Dirty Jobs

Written by Rick Shrader

Those Dirty Jobs

by Rick Shrader

Titus 3:1. “Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work. . . . Titus 3:5. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done.”

I’m always amazed at these seeming contradictions that I am asked to do in God’s Word. Here Paul tells Titus to be ready to do every good work he can think of, and then tells him that our relationship with God is not made of works of righteousness. Not only that, but we know that we obey governmental rulers only to a point. The Christian has no problem with most laws in society, but if asked to burn incense to Caesar he could not do it. But most laws we are “ready” to do. I have just come from a board meeting for a Christian college and seminary. The amount of busy work we are asked to do by the government is truly mountainous, and growing every year. But good men do it because it is obeying magistrates and therefore is a good work (until, of course, Caesar asks for the incense). On the board we have doctors, businessmen, and pastors who have the same problem. In most cases extra people must be hired (as a “compliance director”) just to take care of the paper work.

So why do we continue to do it? Well, because this Spring, a number of godly young people are going to graduate and go out into God’s vineyard. When I was a young man I was hired as an associate pastor and was told by the senior pastor, “everyone around here has a dirty job, and yours is to take care of the church buses.” I was learning that we do the undesirable jobs so that we can have the greater good—church. When I fell in love with the woman who became my wife, we thought marriage was all about holding hands and looking at each others’ eyes. But we found out that most of marriage is working a job, fixing broken sinks, painting walls, changing diapers, etc. But why do we do it? So we can hold hands and look at each others’ eyes! Sure, the time given to each seems inordinate. But it is worth it!

The danger, of course, is to get so swallowed up in the “dirty work” that we never get back to the reason for the work. In church, we make sure everyone has a job to do, a place to “serve”, but then we wonder why no one is in church! The main thing for all of us is to be in church. The main thing for a marriage is to hold hands. The main thing for a Bible college or seminary is to graduate seniors. God saved us by His grace. That is the main thing. But grace has work for us to do, even if it is for Caesar. Until he asks more of us than we can give, let us “speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness to all men” (vs. 2).

 

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