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Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 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.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 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. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 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.”

Whenever I hear people worry about postmodernism and the loss of truth I think of Genesis 11 and this story of the Tower of Babel. In all my reading on postmodern philosophy, it seems that the two most significant contributing factors to this eroded sense of confidence is (1) the imprecision of language, and (2) the problem of diversity. When I read Genesis 11, I come to the inescapable conclusion, that this was all God’s doing. God is the author of the postmodern problem.

Of course, it was an act of judgment on us. Our sin? We were trying to be as smart as God. We were building towers, trying to put ourselves in the place of God. Sounds an awful lot like the whole enlightenment project, doesn’t it.

Even though God judged us by confusing our languages and scattering our peoples, he still requires us to know him and to obey him. Postmodern philosophy, tells us this isn’t possible. The Bible tells us that it is possible, but not if we insist on tower building. Tower building is a bottom up project, a striving to be god for ourselves. Biblical revelation is a top down project, God making himself known sufficiently, if not exhaustively for us to obey him and find fulfillment in him.

That God is making himself known is about the best thing that I know. That he uses preachers in the process only makes the blessing greater.