Beyond AI
“Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confusedthe language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.” (Enence “instant translator” purportedly handles 36 languages (getenence.com))
Introduction
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1978) the fictional “Babel Fish”, when inserted into the ear, simultaneously translates from one spoken language of any species to another. The author of this work, Douglas Adams, was a self-described “radical atheist”, and saw the extraordinary ability of this Fish as an argument for the non-existence of God. God is, by definition, beyond reason and can be known only by faith and not by evidence. Adams, like other fictional authors, e.g. H.G. Wells, is strangely prophetic. Today, AI, is moving forward exponentially, doubling computer power about each 6 months, and heading towards what Adams could only imagine might be possible with the “Babel Fish”, reversing “the strife of tongues” (Ps 31:20). I see in the breakneck pace of AI God releasing great spiritual possibilities.
Babylonian Beginnings
In Scripture, there are but 2 “types” of cities, Babylon, doomed to destruction (Rev 17-18), and Jerusalem. Babylon is of this lost world, a symbol of exile from God (Jer 52; Ezek 11:22-25Acts 7:43), Jerusalem is chosen as “the city of the great king” (Jesus. in Matt 5:35). Christians must set their moral and spiritual compasses not from the temporal earthly plane (2 Cor 4:18), but by the 4-square dimensions of the “Jerusalem above…our mother” (Gal 4:26 cf. Rev 21:16). The roots of Babylon are totally corrupted for Babel, literally “gate of God” is founded in rebellion, “Nimrod” the first settler of Babel, means “we shall rebel” (Gen 10:8-10). The story of the Tower of Babel is a thinly coded reference to Babylon. This famed eastern empire, for “east” is away from God’s presence (Gen 4:16), with its artificial temple mountains (ziggurats) reaching to the heavens, is powerfully ridiculed in Genesis 11:1-10. The plain of Shinar is an unlikely place for something essentially spiritual, given the Bible’s focus on “high places” (Sinai, Zion, Tabor etc.), it represents an artificial human attempt to aspire to the likeness of God doomed to fail.
Image of God
God said, ““Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over…” and declared this “very good” (Gen 1:26, 31), the fallen Babelites repeatedly “say to one another let us make…” (Gen 11:3-4) bricks and mortar out of materials as fragile as clay and bitumen. This is an idolatrous attempt to avoid the distribution from Eden commanded by God, “lest we be dispersed” and to make a name for oneself rather than to bear the stamp of God’s image (Gen 11:4). Driven to survive, those who have lost God’s glory (Rom 3:23) must build themselves an enduring monument by unaided toil (Gen 3:19). In this respect, nothing has changed, whether the construction is the Trump Tower, a famous royal family line, a ministry, or a megachurch! Both pagan and Christians build dynasties and empires! The builders of Babel had erased from their minds the memory of the times when the Lord was so grieved to his heart about the totality of human depravity (Gen 6:5.). that he resolved to destroy human civilisation by Flood. The common/general grace of God expressed unconditionally in the rainbow (Gen 9:9ff) lulled them into a sense of false security. Today, the “rainbow people” today act shamelessly as if the divine decree “I have no wrath.” (Isa 27:4) is independent of the blood of the cross (Col 1:20)! The Babelites aspire to ascend into the heavens, but the sovereign Lord must come down to save these minnows from themselves (Gen 11:7)!
Perfected in Christ
Babel speaks to us today about the incurable pride of the human condition. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9). Only Jesus understands our Babylonian desires because he alone “came down” from heaven to assume the cost of our prideful depravity on the cross (John 6:51). Only by his sacrificial descent to “the lowest parts of the earth” (Eph 4:9) did Christ destroy in himself (Rom 8:3; Heb 2:14-15) the incurable disposition of fallen humanity to magnify its own achievements. Since, ““knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor 8:1), the limitless love of our Saviour is constantly committed to see and do only what “the Father is doing” (John 5:19; Acts 16:7). The fruit of reversal of Babelism in the ongoing life of a purified Church is truly remarkable. Few Western believers hold to the subtle message of Acts.
Marvel through the Church
Acts records multiple instances of “gazing/staring” (atenidzein/ ἀτενἰζειν) more dynamic of the presence of the kingdom of God than originally meets the eye. Of first importance is the angelic revelation imparted at the ascension, “And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”” (Acts 1:10). Gazing reveals not only Ascension but Second Coming. Further “gazings” are followed by a sequence of miraculous healings (Acts 3:4; 14:9); looking into heaven and seeing the glory of Jesus (7:55), staring at a false prophet before uttering an effective curse of blindness (13:9), staring at angels and other manifestations of God (6:15; 11:6, 16; 23:1). In every case a particular Greek verb is used that indicates an attending divine revelation of God/Christ (theophany). These remarkable phenomena, normal in the Early Church, are about to be regifted to the Western Church so that it might give effective witness to Jesus amid a global explosion of anti-Christian sentiment and an exploding AI revolution.
Conclusion
The devil’s designs to mimic God are highly predictable. Knowing that the New Jerusalem descends from a “great high mountain” (Rev 21:10) he took our Lord up “ to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” (Matt 4:8-9). Jesus refused the offer of a substitute for the heavenly vision because he knew our salvation depended on his “descent into hell” on the cross (Mark 15:34, Apostles’ Creed, John Calvin.) AI, however neutral its technology or great its promises, can never grant those called to the image of God in Christ (Col 1:15) a share in his eternal kingdom. The conquests of the Lamb come not from superlative human achievements t but by being raised on a cross as the greatest symbol of shame (John 12:32; Heb 12:2). “in all these things (tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword) we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Rom 8:37). Compared to such a triumph, Babel/AI has no glory!