Anything that the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve. Many believe this statement and base their lives upon it. I once did. I used it in attempts to motivate 48 sales people that worked for me. It stands as a foundation for human effort, which eliminates God and deifies mankind.
God demolished it centuries ago at the Tower of Babel. Babel began as a gleam in someone’s eyes. The people of that day had moved from Mt Ararat, where the ark had rested to the Plain of Shinar. Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait now occupy the Plain. Babylon previously settled there.
The dreamer convinced the City Council to adopt his plan for a city and a tower. The planned tower would reach the heavens. The project would keep the people in one place and create a monument to make a name for them.
The project deified humanity, displaced God (who is never mentioned in the record), and disobeyed God's command. On two occasions, God had commanded mankind to fill all the earth. The people developed this project to prevent their spread into all the world…a direct violation of God's command.
To prevent the success of the project, God intervened in their affairs. He sent confusion of languages, which halted the development. New cultures and societies arose and spread throughout the earth.
At first glance, one might praise the resulting multiculturalism. That currently popular theme elevates the diversity of cultures and makes them all equal in value. This requirement of universal acceptance of man-made religions denies the Biblical gospel.
The foundation of the variety of cultures stems from God's intervention at Babel. In faithfulness to his promise to Noah, God did not annihilate the people at Babel for their sin. Instead his judgment splintered them in to numerous groups to prevent their plans.
This process did not come as God's blessing. Rather it sprang from his displeasure for their actions. It reveals divine retribution for their sin. In God's eyes, he did not send the multiplicity of cultures as an end it itself, but rather a means to his end…the population of the whole earth.
The plans of the people of Babel stand as an illustration of the futility of the efforts of mankind in the face of God's sovereignty. He intervened to fulfill his plans and purposes, even as he does today.
The Bible reveals God's ultimate plan for the nations in Zephaniah 3.8-9. There he explains that some time in the future, he will gather the unbelieving nations of the world together for judgment and will pour out his wrath upon them for their sin.
In the same text, he states his plans for the believing nations. He will gather them together at that same day. With one tongue they will praise and glorify God and his son, King Jesus.
In that day, God will destroy this evil world and bring a new heaven and new earth. Those who have trusted his son, his provision for sinners like you and me, will enter into a new city, the new Jerusalem. The new city will provide trees of life, whose leaves will give healing to the nations. (Revelation 7.9-10; 21.24-26; 22.2)
People from every tribe, tongue, nation, and culture will join together with one voice to give Christ the praise, honor, glory, and worship that he justly deserves.
God began the ingathering from the nations on the Day of Pentecost. At that time, he poured out his Holy Spirit. Christ's disciples proclaimed the wonders of God on that day to a mixed multitude of nations, who heard the gospel message in their own languages.
Presently, God draws from the nations and cultures a people who trust his promised provision of the one who would crush the devil. He would provide salvation for all who trust him. Jesus fulfilled the promise. Therefore, all who come to God through Christ will join that multitude on the coming day.
Which band will you join: the multitude of the damned or the throngs who will enter the new city and reign with Christ? You can reign with Christ by rejecting human effort and trusting Christ as God's provision for sinners.
I pray that the Holy Spirit will give you new life and bring you to faith in Jesus Christ, the only Savior of sinners.