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Noah’s three sons carry out God’s command to multiply, producing 70 families, the progenitors of the present human race. Nimrod, grandson of Ham, is not counted in, evidently because he becomes “a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.” (10:9)
He sets up a kingdom and starts to build cities. At this time all the earth has one language. Instead of scattering over the earth to populate and cultivate it, men decide to build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that they can make a celebrated name for themselves.
However, Jehovah thwarts their intention by confusing their language, and so scatters them. The city is called Babel (meaning “Confusion”).
This account teaches us many things but regarding unity & diversity - At man's creation, as well as after the Flood of Noah’s day, it was true that there was only one religion, but this account shows why there are so many religions today.

Since Nimrod “made the start in becoming a mighty one in the earth,” he obviously started something new. The words “the beginning of his kingdom” give us a clue as to what that is. If Nimrod had a kingdom, then he must have been a king, a ruler. So the German Bible commentary by Dr. August Knobel correctly calls him “the first post-Flood ruler,” explaining that no one like him had existed before. Accordingly, The Bible in Living English renders Genesis 10:8: “He was the first to become a potentate on earth.”

Nimrod set himself up in opposition to the Creator, who had never intended that humans rule themselves. And when “he went forth into Assyria,” Nimrod proceeded to expand his political realm, possibly by force of arms. If so, this made him “a mighty hunter” not only of animals but of humans as well.
Nimrod’s political system, designed as it was to supplant God’s rightful rulership over mankind, thereby took on religious overtones. People began building “a tower with its top in the heavens” to “make a celebrated name for [themselves],” not for God.—Genesis 11:4.
Nimrod, the first to merge religion with politics, set the pattern for all like subsequent alliances that would not have divine approval.
Originally, all earth’s inhabitants spoke the same language. But when Nimrod and his supporters undertook to build this tower in Babel, God manifested His displeasure. We read: “Accordingly Jehovah scattered them from there over all the surface of the earth, and they gradually left off building the city. That is why its name was called Babel [from ba-lal′, meaning “to confuse”], because there Jehovah had confused the language of all the earth.” (Genesis 11:1, 5, 7-9) How frustrated the builders must have been when suddenly they were unable to discuss what had happened, much less reach a consensus as to why it happened! No doubt many theories were advanced, their diversity augmented by the inability of the language groups to communicate.

When these groups scattered into different parts of the earth, they naturally took along their religious theories. As time passed, these ideas, although basically the same, became colored by local tradition and events. From “only one religion” there soon arose “a hundred versions of it.” Clearly, this first experiment in religious-political activity had turned out badly.

Now, consider for a moment some of the major religions of today. Do you know of any that teach that the human soul is immortal, that teach that God is a trinity of three gods in one, that allow immorality among its members to go unchallenged, that meddle in politics, or that have members who are more willing to sacrifice their lives to a god of war than to the God of peace? If so, then you have recognized modern daughterlike organizations of Babel, still propagating religious holdovers from the days of Nimrod’s tower. Appropriately, the name “Babylon” is used in the Bible to designate the entire world empire of false religion.—See Revelation, chapters 17 and 18.

Of course, not all post-Flood peoples fell into Babylonish religious confusion.
For example, Abraham, born ten generations removed from Noah, maintained true worship. God made a covenant with this descendant of Shem, promising him at Genesis 22:15-18 that in association with the one true religion, all families of the earth would be blessed. This covenant evidently went into effect in 1943 B.C.E., which meant that the lines of conflict between the “only one [true] religion” and the “hundred versions” of false religion were now due to become more sharply drawn.

:)

2007-03-20 13:37:45 · answer #1 · answered by New ♥ System ♥ Lady 4 · 0 0

That organized religion is devisive & creates an "us v them" mentality.

2007-03-20 20:27:37 · answer #2 · answered by huffyb 6 · 0 0

is that the talking snake and adam and eve

2007-03-20 20:14:41 · answer #3 · answered by andrew w 7 · 0 1

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