Rebuilding Babel

"Nearly one in five people living in the United States speaks a language at home other than English… The number of immigrants nationwide reached an all-time high of 37.5 million in 2006" says Associated Press writer Stephen Ohlemacher, reporting on new U.S. Census data.

America is indeed a nation of immigrants, but the trend of mass population movements is not unique to the United States, as millions who have struggled in poor rural farming areas crowd into booming industrialized centers, seeking steady employment.

China is a prime example, as its teeming masses flock to Shanghai and other metropolises. Great Britain is becoming home to ethnically and religiously diverse millions from the lands that were its former colonies. Mexico City has become a magnet attracting poor people from across rural Mexico and Central America.

Where is this mass movement of humanity leading – and what will be its ultimate outcome? The Bible tells us what happened on a previous occasion when mankind gathered together in a great city with lofty ambitions. Eager human beings had crowded together in a city, where they crafted their own laws, styles of worship, educational systems and forms of government. Yet their Creator recognized that these efforts would lead to no good, so He put a stop to them: "But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, 'Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech'" (Genesis 11:5-7).

Had God not intervened, mankind's creative powers would have led to its premature destruction, foiling His 6,000-year plan for humanity before it had run its course: "So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth" (vv. 8-9).

The cities of today often remind us of Babel, as men gather together to flagrantly violate God's Ten Commandments and provide safe haven for criminals and perverts. God's law pronounces a curse on those who pack themselves tightly into apartment blocks, living in conditions that breed filth, crime and disease: "Woe to those who join house to house; they add field to field, till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!" (Isaiah 5:8).

When we fail to learn the lessons of history and Scripture, God allows us to suffer the consequences of our national and individual disobedience to Him. We have "soiled our nest," and God's word warns us that a time is soon coming when, "the earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left" (Isaiah 24:5-6).

Thankfully, Bible prophecy explains that those who do survive will learn to look to the God who created them. When Jesus Christ returns to rule this earth, He will grant each nation and tribe a homeland and show them how to build towns that will be a pleasure to live in, free of all the evils which engulf them today. We call that time Tomorrow's World!

If you would like to learn more, please read our free booklet, Your Ultimate Destiny. It will tell you more about this amazing future time of world peace under the reign of Jesus Christ, and explain how you can be sure to be there.