Our Contemporary Tower of Babel

 

I decided to do some lighter reading – novels, books where I would not be so focused on disciplined study and the like.  So I picked up The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Yeah, I know.  Not the lightest reading.  But the reasons why behind choosing this book will be made clear at my other blog in a few weeks – basically, this novel was recommended as a good novel for a Christian man to read.

I don’t know how often I will post something from this book, but some quotes will be too good to pass up.  To begin:

In the majority of instances human beings, even the evil-doers among them, are far more naïve and straightforward than we suppose.  And that includes ourselves.

This seems to suggest that we need not find some complex plot, or deep organizational momentum behind many of the actions we see around us.  People go in the direction that they go, because that is what they want to do.

They are “far more naïve and straightforward than we suppose.”  How might this be understood?  Well, since the novel was recommended by a Christian for Christians, I will go to the Bible:

Ephesians 6: 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

During the reaction to covid, there were emerging countless articles on this idea that there had to be a spirit – an evil spirit – behind the actions of many of the government and political leaders everywhere around the world.  They all acted in concert, in a manner that was clear at the time – and even more so today – that was purposefully designed to crush humanity.

All of humanity was under siege.  From Ephesians 2: 2 “… according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”

Were they naïve?  Perhaps many who were driving humanity into darkness were not aware of the spiritual hosts of wickedness which they were serving.  Can someone always know when he or she is in the grip of an evil spirit?  As they are sons of disobedience, they just do what they do because that’s what they want to do.

As to straightforward?  This seems clear – there was an objective to crush mankind.  They did not mess around, no games or trickery.  Like bulls in a China shop.

But, note the quote from Dostoyevsky, the end: “And that includes ourselves.”  We all live driven by a spirit.  The question to ask ourselves: What is the spirit that drives us?  Pray it is this one:

Romans 8: 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Returning to the book, Alyosha (the third son) answered just the question of which spirit drives him:

No sooner, having given the matter some serious thought, had he been struck by the conviction that God and immortality existed, than he immediately said to himself: ‘I want to live for immortality, and I will accept no half-way compromise.’

Are we that driven?  Am I that driven?  No half-way compromise?  We know what is said about lukewarm Christians:

Revelation 3: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

Matthew 5: 13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

There is no such thing as a half-way Christian.  You are either all in – 100% – or you are out. 

Alyosha was struck by just this point:

By precisely the same light, had he decided that God and immortality did not exist he would have immediately become an atheist and a socialist…

In other words, if you are not all in, why pretend?  Taking on the yoke partway will not get the job done.  It will only lead to frustration – pretending you are bound yet not making any progress in plowing the field. 

But why is atheism tied to socialism?

… (for socialism is not only a problem of labour, or the so-called ‘fourth estate,’ but is, in the first instance a problem of atheism, of the contemporary embodiment of atheism, the problem of the Tower of Babel, constructed expressly without God, not for the attainment of heaven from earth, but for the abasement of heaven to earth).

I think he is saying that socialism can only grow in atheism.  But there are really no atheists; everyone has some highest value to which they aim.  And perhaps this is the point: aiming at socialism as the highest good means not aiming at Christ as the highest good.

The “contemporary embodiment of atheism,” as Dostoyevsky puts it, is a modern Tower of Babel.  There are many interpretations behind this story in Genesis.  Here is a possible key:

Genesis 11: 4 … let us make a name for ourselves…

What they were doing was attempting to build a civilization without God, one in which they could take the credit to themselves – to make a name for themselves.  And this is also the contemporary objective of man.

I recall coming across one understanding of the Tower of Babel story, I think from The Lord of Spirits podcast.  It was a story that captured the Bronze Age collapse.  A couple things were relevant: first, as the builders had the objective to reach the heavens, God need not have done anything – just let them fail, as they could never reach heaven. 

Second, and more relevant: the one language that they were all speaking at the time of the Bronze Age was the language of money and trade – trade from east to west, throughout the known world – trusted trade due to trusted money of gold and silver bullion. 

The Assyrian texts depict a flourishing market economy, based on free enterprise and private initiative, profit-seeking and risk-taking merchants, backed by elaborate financial contracts and a well-functioning judicial system (Hertel 2013). Aššur offered reliable legal procedures, a transparent system of taxation, and foreign policy that protected the Assyrian caravans and local investors involved in financing the risky long-distance trade.

God confused this language, and their civilization collapsed.

We all know something like this is headed our way, and for all the same reasons.  We have attempted to build our own Tower of Babel, to make a name for ourselves, to take the glory from God.

It never works out well.

Conclusion

When I started writing this post, I wasn’t sure what, if anything, I could do with these quotes from the novel.  I just knew they struck me. 

Hopefully, I am not too far afield….

Epilogue

Note: The Tower of Babel was built in the east, “a plain in the land of Shinar” – southern Mesopotamia.  The city of Aššur, the focal point of trade in the Bronze Age (cited above) is also in the land of Shinar.