Re-building the Tower of Babel

In Genesis 11:1-9, we read the story of the Tower of Babel. Of how the people

of the Earth sought to make a name for themselves by developing new

technologies, starting with a tower that would reach into the heavens. It is

doubtful that they would have reached the heavens with this one construction

project, but they were not focused on God and His purposes, but on sin, and

they wanted to do great things for their own glory. 

God's response to them was to confuse their language, so that they could not

work together. People who ended up speaking the same language clustered

together and drifted away, and so God slowed down their ability to be united in sin.

God’s invention of other languages

somewhat slowed down their

technological advancement. And

so, with different languages, different

civilisations developed at the same

time. These cultures never really

united in purpose but mainly clashed

with one another as each strove for

dominance over the others. 

God knew that if people had one language and one focused purpose, it would give

them greater ability to unite in sin and develop sinful technologies through which

to extend their influence and drive the rest of humanity into greater sin. Multiple

languages meant the development of different cultures and ways of doing things.

Maximising the reach and impact of sin became more difficult with the confusion

of languages.

If God were able to predict that the Hebrews would turn away from Him and go into

exile, hundreds of years before it happened, He was more than able to see what

humans united in sin would have been able to accomplish.

So, humanity was given a divine slowdown to prevent them from falling into greater

sin.

We know that the first ones to sin were not Adam or Eve; it was, in fact, the devil, 

and according to the scriptures, one-third of the angelic host fell with him. 

These now demonic beings were united in sin, and the devil was their undisputed

leader. Knowing that God’s judgment was upon them, they sought a place of their

own in which to dwell and wage war against the Almighty. To understand their

structure, we only have to look at Nazi Germany. 

Hitler was the undisputed leader of the Nazis. Once elected to power by the German

people, he passed what was called the enabling law, which gave him the authority to

legislate independently of Parliament. He united the offices of President and

Chancellor and proclaimed himself to be Führer and Chancellor over Germany. He

was now a Dictator.

His next step was to make all the armed forces swear allegiance to him (not to the

constitution or to Germany), which particularly included the German High Command.

So, Hitler had political power and military power. Then he began to purge the judiciary

and all those who were opposed to him. 

Based on his early victories and the invasion of France, Hitler was hailed as a

military genius. But it wasn’t long before his military decisions were not so

brilliant, such as the invasion of Russia and his missteps when the Allies invaded

at Normandy. Hitler was sure that the invasion was going to happen at Calais, and

had moved the bulk of his army there, when the invasion happened at Normandy, 

people were too scared to wake Hitler up and tell him, so they had to wait for him to 

get out of bed before they could fully react.  He was still sold on Calais, though, as 

he said Normandy was a decoy and the main invasion was still coming at Calais.

We know that the powers of hell

have structure. Paul outlines this in

Ephesians 6:12,  and somewhere

in Hell, there is an agreement

that the devil is in charge and like

Hitler, he too has made a huge 

mistake by crucifying Jesus. 

By killing Jesus on the cross, the devil thought he was finally getting rid of God on 

earth, and his grip on the real estate was now permanent. God had given dominion 

over the Earth to humans, and humans were now in his power through sin. He and 

his cohort thought they were safe. But then came Jesus descent into Hell, the taking 

of the captives and the resurrection, and God’s secret plan was exposed. Jesus was 

meant to die; His blood was meant to be shed for the forgiveness of sin. The devil 

had been duped by God. With sins able to be forgiven, the devil was losing power 

and influence daily as people repented and believed the gospel.

Paul writes in 1 Cor. 2:6-8

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however,

not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; 

but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God

predestined before the ages to our glory; 

the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they

had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 

The devil did not understand the secret purposes of God, and now all is lost for him.

The clock is ticking, and the lake of fire is waiting for him and his followers and all

who are unforgiven sinners. He is like the desperate convict waiting on death row,

looking at the clock, counting down the hours, knowing that his time of execution is 

coming.

So what does this have to do with the Tower of Babel? In recent years, human

technology has built a thing that is designed to overcome the language

and culture barrier, help further the effects of sin, it is called the internet. On the

internet, I can use Google or other means to translate in real time a conversation

I am having with someone who does not speak English. The ideas I want to express

to them are clearer because of the internet, and it does not take all that long for them

to understand the substance of what I am saying to them.  

Social Media is also able to reduce the language barrier, and events such as TikTok

challenges happen all over the world. People take up these challenges in the hope of

being noticed and becoming an influencer by getting people to follow their channel

as they do these challenges and other antics that usually get them into trouble. One

challenge was to try to kick in someone's door in the middle of the night and run

away. The problem is that in America, a lot of people have guns, and if they think

someone is trying to invade their home to rob or harm them, they tend to shoot first

and ask questions later.  One kid has already died doing this “prank”. But there

remains a large community of people out there who think this kind of content is

funny, and they fund it. These are people who are uniting in sin. Some influencers

who have been arrested doing such things have told the court that they were only

“pranking” the other person. As if that justifies property damage, assaults,

defamation, and many other such acts of lawlessness.

Terrorists can use the internet to communicate with sympathisers in other countries

and to set up attacks on foreign soil. These, too, are people who are united in sin. 

So in these last days, we see sin moving at projectile speed, causing incredible

damage because language differences are now irrelevant. Did you know that by 

using AI, I can make an unfactual movie that shows people doing things they did 

not do, and I can circulate that on social media? I can try to justify this as freedom 

of speech, but it is, in fact, the desecration of truth.

Sin is not a bad choice; it is the worst possible choice, and it always has serious

consequences for us, for others and for our relationship with God. God sent His

Son, Jesus, to save us because He loved us, despite our sinfulness.

Love, compassion, justice and mercy are what God gives to us in Jesus and are 

things that the devil cannot offer us in any form. The best he can offer is a 

composite package of lies that will only drive us further away from God and send us 

back to the futile work of trying to rebuild Babel. 

Rebuilding the Tower of Babel is the devil’s only post resurrection strategy. Unite 

people in focussed sin, and get them to focus on themselves. Give them a sense 

of their own self importance.

God on the other hand asks us to look to Him, believe that Jesus’ death is enough 

to pay for all of our sins, and receive His forgiveness. He will then change us to be 

like Him.

The smartest thing we can ever do is turn to Jesus and accept His free gift to us, 

forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him.

The attractiveness of God

"For I Proclaim the name of the LORD;

Ascribe greatness to our God!

"The Rock! His work is perfect,

For all His ways are just;

A God of faithfulness and without injustice,

Righteous and upright is He.

Deut 32:3-4

When I first joined YWAM, my first job was as a teacher in the International Christian

School that they ran on the now-defunct Goulburn base.

Every school morning, our teaching staff used to start the day with a staff devotion,

where we shared around God's word and sang worship songs. One song that we

sang a lot was based on these verses. Over the years, these verses and others like

them have interested me because they are descriptive of who God is.

If we were to survey Christians as to why they accepted Jesus as their Saviour,

many may say, "coz I don't want to go to Hell! Fullstop. And they are quite right,

Jesus died to save us from the eternal second death, mentioned in Revelation 20.

However, to look at salvation solely as fire insurance is a narrow view of salvation.

Salvation is a doorway; Jesus saved us from something, unto something.

The Bible does not describe God's personal looks very well, but it does describe

His character and its His character that shows us His attractiveness.

When we die and see Jesus, there will not be blissful pregnant pauses because

we are unfamiliar with Him or our new abode, and don't know what to say or

what to do. We will not be forever asking angels for directions!

Heaven will be familiar to us, and we will have a sense of belonging there, because

we are familiar with God and know a lot about who He is and what He is like before 

we even get there.

I said before that Jesus saved us from something unto something. We have been

saved from Hell, unto an infinite, intimate relationship with the living God.

In order to prepare us, the Scriptures reveal God's character to us, and as we walk

with Jesus, we directly experience His character just as it is written. So, we can be

assured that when we arrive, Heaven will be familiar to us.

The Scripture in Deuteronomy tells us about God's character. It tells us that He is,

Great

A Rock

Perfect

Just

Faithful

Righteous

Holy and upright

Without injustice.

Other Scriptures tell us that He is,

Kind

Compassionate

Merciful

A protector

Slow to anger

Abounding in loving kindness

and much, much more.

So, as you read your Bible, don't only give thanks to God for saving you

from the fires of Hell, but also thank Him for His proven character, which

shows us that eternity with the Living God is not only attractive and

desirable, but very, very cool! Heaven is going to rock!

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor

 I would like to make a few comments about the current situation with regards to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor (AMW).

In the last few months, much has been said by many about this man and the allegations that are being made about him. And since his arrest and questioning over the alleged passing on of sensitive trade information to Jeffery Epstein, the talk on the internet has become frenetic.

People are divided about his situation, some “know” that he is guilty, some “presume” he is guilty, some “would like”him to be guilty whilst others are just enjoying the ride. After all the photos and emails and commentary that are being bandied around, I would suggest that few people think he is innocent, and therein lies the problem.

Here are the facts as we know them. AMW is suspected of being involved in the sexual abuse of minors with Jeffery Epstein, and passing on sensitive government trade information to Epstein, when he was a trade envoy for the UK.

His recent arrest is the first time a member of the Royal Family has been arrested in centuries and the last time it happened, it ended with a beheading.

To date, AMW has not been charged with any crime, but, he has been questioned under caution.

The foundation stone of our legal system is that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Although the coverage of this matter is wide, with “new information” appearing daily, we still have to presume innocence until guilt is proven in a court of law.

You may say, come on Dave, there are emails, and photos, and documents and witnesses. Yes there are, and it is the job of the police to gather all that evidence and investigate its validity. Emails have to be proven to be from an account that AMW operated, photos have to be investigated to make sure that they were not photoshopped. Documents have to be checked to make sure they are factual, and in the case of the alleged leaked information that the information was indeed sensitive. Witnesses have to be located and interviewed. Once all that is done, and the evidence is compiled, it then goes to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) who reviews it to see if there is enough evidence to warrant the matter going to court. Once the DPP have made their decision, AMW will either be arrested and charged, or he won’t.

We have to allow the system to go through these stages, and for the investigative work to be completed. It is not right that someone be rushed to trial solely because public opinion thinks they “should be guilty”; and because those close to them say that they are rude and boorish, which, in the view of some, makes them doubly deserving of a long prison sentence.

If things keep going at their current rate and the DPP does send the matter to court, will there be 12 people who will be impartial and able to weigh the evidence without fear or favour and come to a just verdict? 

We need to step back and allow the police do their jobs. We need justice to be done here, not a lynching by public opinion. 

We need also to pray, for all who are involved including AMW, if ever a man needed to find His Lord and saviour, it is him!

Making our own truth

AI is the most recent plaything we have. AI speeds up search engines and provides us with fast facts; it can help us retrieve lost information and even repair photos. Militarys around the world are now using AI for building and targeting weapons. 

Facebook and other social media platforms, AI-generated images and movies are also doing the rounds, and they are easy to make. Recently, I asked ChatGPT to make me a photo of Australia’s former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, dressed as Rambo, attending the Melbourne Flower Festival in 2025. Here’s the result.

Now this is a clever photo, but it is not a true photo. Bob Hawke has never been photographed as Rambo; he did not have the physique of Rambo, and he could not have attended the Melbourne Flower Festival in 2025, because he died in 2019. So, as good as this fake image is, it does not reflect the true record of an actual event. The story this photo tells never happened.

Truth centres around actual people and factual events in time and space. Truth is not fiction, yet if I pushed my fictitious photo around with the story that, after his retirement, Bob Hawke became a Rambo-style assassin who used to attend flower shows. Some gullible people may believe it based solely on this photo evidence. 

By making up false events and images, AI is giving us the ability to edit the truth, play with other people’s lives and can provide us with weighted evidence that the lies we tell are in some ways factual.

Historical record

We used to rely on photos to record actual events. The photo on the left is a historical photo of Bob Hawke, watching Queen Elizabeth the Second sign into law the Australia Act. This photo was taken for its historical significance, and despite the other witnesses to this event and actual pieces of paper that were signed on the day, this photo remains as evidence that this event happened.

Family photos can also be a historical record of a family event or holiday. The picture reminds us of what happened, and we treasure those memories.

Not so with my Rambo photo, or other such photos that are generated by AI! So, wrongly used AI can mess with our perception of reality and truth, and we need to be aware of this. People can have all kinds of reasons to mess with truth and reality, some quite innocent, others with deliberate intent.

The Killing of bin Laden

 

In 2011, President Barack Obama sent a SEAL Team to Pakistan to kill Osama Bin Laden. A live feed of the event was sent to White House, and President Obama and senior White House staff watched the events unfold in the White House Situation Room. After the kill was confirmed, a photo of the President and senior staff in the situation room was issued to the press along with a press statement. An Orthodox Jewish newspaper ran the story but edited out the images of the women in the photo, including Hilary Clinton, before they published it. 

(https://www.smh.com.au/world/paper-erases-clinton-from-history-20110509-1ef5d.html)

A photo that was meant to be a historical record of an event was altered because this newspaper had a policy that did not allow the publication of images of women. This newspaper edited the historical record in order to make it fit its worldview. Now, in their defence, one must note that facts of the event were not altered, just the facts in the photo. So, they were still telling the truth in a guarded kind of way. 

However, this kind of situation only worsens when all truth is abandoned, and conspiracy theorists use AI to prove their unfounded theories; when this happens, things can really get sticky. Confusion is sewn into the minds of people who are not being presented with the “truth”, just theories supported by AI-generated material. 

A foundation has already been laid.

Recently, I was looking at some videos on YouTube that were in-depth looks at the characters of The Lord of the Rings, their prehistory and what happened to them after the storyline of The Lord of the Rings story was complete. 

J R R Tolkien was a thorough writer; he not only wrote a fantastic story, but he had also went into a lot of detail by creating prehistories, languages and a postscript to his main adventures. One could say that he created an alternative universe. Other writers have also done the same, and there is a plethora of stories and characters that exist in alternative universes. The Marvel characters can be seen as being from alternative universes that have somehow intersected with our time and universe, and so their adventures continue.

Then there are the video games and other movies that are centred on alternative universes, and things like Minecraft, which help you to create your own alternative universe. 

And of course, an alternative universe brings with it “alternative truth” as part of the storyline. New beings and characters, from other places such as elves, hobbits, Darth Vader, and even some Greco-Roman gods, and other imaginings of the human mind. These bring with them new laws, powers, and magic that, in our universe, make them super beings. 

Whilst reading and watching fantasy is a fun way to relax and an escape from the tensions of daily life, it should not separate us from reality. We live in our world, not in places like Middle-earth. We have children and other responsibilities that require our attention. Fiction is fiction, reality is reality; we should know the difference between the two. Then, there is the problem of pain.

Pain

Pain, whether emotional or physical, can drive us to do many things. Pain can be the cause of many bad choices. It can compel us with the desire to live elsewhere than the reality we now live in. But God has put us here on this earth for a purpose, and our desire to escape reality may also be us trying to escape from God, who is the only one who can stop the pain or solve the issues that we are trying to avoid.

Avoidance

Being human means that we tend to avoid difficult and painful situations, and things like our imaginations and AI will help us to create alternative realities that we can feel safe in. The only problem is that alternative realities are not true realities. We still must live in this world, difficult as it may be.  

I love the creation story outlined in Genesis.  It helps me to get a perspective on my life. One thing that I have gleaned from it is that before sin came into the world, God intended us to live with Him in a sin-free world.  Sin both tainted humankind and the creation we live in. The difficulties we face now come from sin in us and in creation. God has prepared a sinless place for us to live in after we die. A place where we can live in peace and happiness with Him. He understands our dilemma, which is why he sent Jesus to die for us. Those who believe in Jesus and confess Him as Lord will have everlasting life in a sinless place. In the meantime, we must live here. And the only way we can do that is by the power of Jesus in us. We don’t need an alternative universe; we just need Jesus.