The Beginnings

BabelGenesis 6-8

“…the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”

Genesis 11

Theme

The sudden and complete

appearance of language

reveals Gods

creativity, majesty and love.

IntroductionWonders that tell a very different story about the origin of all things:• The complexity of the eye• The presence of conscience and self-

sacrifice in people• The appearance and use of music in

people• And the amazing sudden and complete

appearance of language

1. The IncredibleNature of Language

“The eternal mystery of the world is its

comprehensibility... Without language, there could be

no study of physics.”There is no comparison

between the problems of physics and “…the problem

of analyzing the nature of everyday thinking” which is

the nature of language itself.

Albert EinsteinGenius

“Unless man has a natural bent in accordance with nature's, he has no chance of understanding nature at all.”

Charles Sanders PeircePhilosopher

Mankind has a “special design” with

“cognitive structures of great complexity and

interest” that “develop fairly rapidly and with little

if any conscious effort.”Noam Chomsky

Linguist

A. Facts About Languages

• According to Ethnologue, there are 7,105 known

languages across the world

• No tribe or peoples is without language.

• No primitive language is known to exist.

• 92 Proto-Languages have been discerned, breaking

down to regional languages

• Examples:

• Proto-Indo-European (PIE), 449, 45% of world

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan (PST), 403, 22% of world

• Genesis 10 table of nations is the starting point

B. What Is Language?

• It is the means whereby information is

created, perceived, shared and

evaluated.

• Without language we do not

understand anything.

C. How Does LanguageReveal God At Work?

It is the evidence of God in humans:“In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1)“…God made the heavens by the Word of His command…”2

Peter 3:5“…You have been born again… through the living and enduring

Word of God.” 1Pe 1:23Psalm 19:1-41 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the

work of his hands.2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they

display knowledge.3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends

of the world.

D. Is Language Accidental?

• Mathematically and biologically, the language mechanism in our brain is such that it COULD NOT be formed by random events. (Oller & Chen)

• Studies of neonatal movement synchronicity with adult speech reveal the profound depth of the speech mechanism in newborns (Condon & Sanders)

E. What Is The Future of Language?

A language disappears every 2 weeks (26 a year) and

the number is accelerating.

It is estimated by at least one credible source that 50%

of all languages will be gone in 100 years

What is driving this?

• Simplification of language (languages becoming

simpler)

• The migration to cities world-wide

• The end of tribal isolation

• The rise of the internet & 1 language taking over

2. The Invitation From God Ignored

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common

speech.

2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and

settled there.

3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake

them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and

bitumen for mortar.

4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a

tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a

name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the

whole earth.”

3. The Inevitable Consequences Applied

A. God Notices

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.

B. God Knows The Results Beforehand

6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

C. God Always Has Creative Solutions

7 Come, let us go down and confuse their

language so they will not understand each other.”

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all

the earth, and they stopped building the city.

9 That is why it was called Babel--because there

the LORD confused the language of the whole

world. From there the LORD scattered them over

the face of the whole earth.

Challenge…

Language is a gift from God to be used as such.

Language is a irrefutable proof of God’s Word and Work.