“And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.” Genesis 11:4-6. NKJV
The story of the Tower of Babel is one that most people, even those who aren’t believers, are familiar with and have at least a passing knowledge of. My personal belief is that this is by design in that there are certain stories in the Bible that are intended by God as warnings to mankind, another example being the story of the Flood of Noah. While I studied this past week, my attention was directed towards the Babel story and the possibility that it might just relate to the times we are living in, especially as it deals with the subject of rebellion against God.
“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” Daniel 12:4. NKJV
Right about now you are probably wondering if I suddenly took a left turn by sharing this passage from Daniel while talking about Babel. The truth is, the Daniel passage is what prompted my thoughts about Babel, especially if we choose to consider a few points raised in both of these accounts. The first would be the phrase from Daniel where he is told by the heavenly messenger that as mankind approaches the end, “knowledge shall increase”. Now as you might expect, many would counter with the argument that knowledge has always been increasing but this is one of those times where a closer examination of the original Hebrew is warranted.
The word used here is “rāḇâ” which means “to multiply, increase, to increase greatly or exceedingly, to make great, enlarge, do much”. This to me describes something much different than the normal evolution of knowledge but rather an exponential increase at a very unusual rate of speed. Being old enough to remember the time before computers, I can attest to the fact that there is by now no part of our lives that is not somehow dependent on the technology mankind has developed in only the past few decades, and the speed at which we seem to be advancing is almost unbelievable.
There has been much talk, and even more speculation lately about the advances in the use of AI, or artificial intelligence. As I have read and studied this subject I have been at times astounded by the claims made from those who know and understand this technology about what the future holds and what might be accomplished with the use of AI. These claims are what directed my thoughts towards the Babel account and the words describing the efforts of man to attempt to accomplish anything they set their mind to.
The rate of AI’s advancement is unprecedented. In just the last decade alone, AI has improved by 40,000 times, according to a study by IARPA, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. This means that AI’s abilities have increased exponentially, allowing it to learn, reason, and make decisions at an incredible pace.
https://www.clrn.org/how-fast-is-ai-advancing/
Another point to consider comes from the Genesis passage about Babel where we are told “they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.” Well not only are the claims of what we may be able to accomplish with the use of AI concerning, there is another similarity we should not fail to take into account and that is the phrase concerning the sharing the same language. As we all know, God chose to intervene and introduce many languages which exist to this day, yet something I had never before considered is that computers all share the same language.
Machine code, also known as machine language or native code, is the elemental language of computers. It is read by the computer's central processing unit (CPU), is composed of digital binary numbers and looks like a very long sequence of zeros and ones. Binary code is the only language that computer hardware can understand. https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/machine-code-machine-language
If knowledge is increasing at an exponential rate never before seen in mans’ existence by the use of computers speaking the same basic language, as well as mankind making unbelievable claims about what we will soon be able to accomplish, might there be any other similarities to the Babel account we should consider? Interestingly enough, there is one other point that needs to be mentioned and that is the subject of worship.
Now that might sound a little strange to you but a point that many miss in the story of Babel is the motivation they had in building the Tower. Many, if not most scholars believe and teach that the Tower of Babel was designed to be a place of worship, and not to God but rather to themselves and their accomplishments. Notice if you will the use of “ourselves” in the Babel account as well as their rejection of God’s command to spread out and repopulate the world after the flood. The result of rejecting God was to attempt to replace Him with a religion that glorified self, “let us make a name for ourselves”, as well as creating a towering example of their knowledge and abilities.
Considering the facts we are given in these passages of scripture, it would appear that the only thing left to complete this picture is mankind making the choice to worship their creation of artificial intelligence. That, in my opinion, would seem ridiculous to anyone with only a few functioning brain cells but believe it or not, it’s already here. In studying this subject this past week I was floored when I found that there is actually a “Church of AI” which believes that worshipping God can be replaced with a religion based in the worship of logic rather than faith.
The question today is not about what I think, but rather what do you think? Are we about to see a Babel redoux moment? I truly believe if this is not a sign we are swiftly approaching the time when God intervenes in human history again as He has before, I don’t know what is. The question before all of us is who do you choose to believe? I for one, choose to follow God, and believe His words to all mankind revealed to us in the Bible.
Have you made the choice to follow? Have you have chosen to accept the gift of eternal life provided for us by God the Father? If not, I would urge you to do it today. Time to make that choice is indeed rapidly running out and Jesus returning to take His own back with Him to heaven could happen at any time. All you need to do is simply ask Him for forgiveness for your sin, invite Him to come into your life, and believe He died to pay the price for your redemption. A simple prayer like this is all that He wants to hear from you.
Dear Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and I believe You died for my sins. Right now, I turn from my sins and open the door of my heart and life to you. I confess You as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you for saving me. Amen.
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