© Merle Harton, Jr. | About | XML/RSS

In Christ we all speak the same language.  The builders of the Tower of Babel were punished for their pride and disobedience and because of them God confounded our language. So it is a good thing that we all speak different tongues: this is the price we pay for having tempted God; this would ensure that we scattered and multiplied throughout the earth. [Gen 11:1-9] But with this came a price that we are still paying today. Civil wars in which one enemy camp speaks the same language as the other enemy camp (as in the American Civil War and political battles on the South American continent) are really the exceptions in our short history and are played out at a different linguistic level. All of the great wars, all of the great conflicts, are internecine combats by speakers of different languages. There should be no surprise, then, that the tension in the Middle East, as Hebrew meets Arabic, is so intractable. It is the same face-off that has been played out on every continent on this planet. For the ancient Greeks, barbarians all spoke what sounded like "bar bar," no matter how advanced their civilization was—they didn't speak Greek.

Speaking the same language brings the most basic commonality that encourages unity, cohesiveness, and discourages the kind of separation of thought that promotes discord, disunity, and war. Efforts to bring all people together will succeed only if all speak the same language. That, for example, is the humanistic peace goal of Esperanto: "It's called Esperanto. It's a weapon for peace because it can help people all over the world talk to each other—freely, and as equals." See Esperanto Poster[.pdf]

Alas, Christians know that only in Christ will the linguistic unity of mankind ever be achieved again, when "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" [Phil 2:9-11], so that "with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" [Rom 15:6], when we all are a real part of the body of Christ: "For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink" [1 Cor 12:12-13]. It is this Spirit that will bring genuine unity to the world and effectively end the strife that divides us. This was demonstrated to us at Pentecost.

At Pentecost, the presence of the Holy Spirit gave to the Christian worshippers the ability to declare the wonders of God in many languages, a feat that so amazed the bewildered crowd that was attracted by the commotion:

'Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"' [Acts 2:5-11]

There is only one road from the confusion and turmoil created by the primordial babel of languages to the harmony of thought bestowed by a common tongue. And this road is not paved with the bricks and tar of human effort. Jesus said: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." [John 14:6] Only through Jesus Christ will we find the Spirit that will restore to us the order and simplicity of a single language.

"I've fallen and—I'm nude!"  Quaker Bill Martin is taking plain dress to the extreme with his intention to open a modern-day Garden of Eden in the City of Hudson, a north Tampa suburb. His plans call for a family-friendly, Christian-theme nudist community called "Natura," with a church, water park, and classes for family building and marriage strengthening, all conducted in the nude.

And the rationale for this vision? Says David Blood, Martin's executive director of the project: "The Bible very clearly states that when Adam and Eve were in right with God, they were naked. When people are in right with God, they do not have to fear nudity." [See Orlando Sentinel, January 6, 2004; news story archived at Religion News Blog.]

He has a point. Before the Fall, we were not ashamed of our nudity; after the Fall, we were. Therefore, in a restored relationship with God we should not have to be ashamed of our nudity. I understand that, but it doesn't at all follow from this that we ought therefore to be nude, and it surely doesn't follow that by accepting Christ we automatically get Eden back. I think it's another excuse to get naked.

A retold joke.  An exasperated mother, whose son was always getting into mischief, finally asked him: "How do you expect to get into Heaven?" The boy thought it over and said, "Well, I'll run in and out and in and out and keep slamming the door until Saint Peter says, 'For Heaven's sake, Dylan, come in or stay out!'"

"Is it safe?"  Now that I think of it, the other movie lines I'm fond of have to include the cryptic question Nazi dentist Sir Laurence Olivier asks Dustin Hoffman in the thriller Marathon Man—as he drills Hoffman's teeth right to the nerves. And then there's the handy come-back line spoken by Roy Scheider in Jaws. The police chief (Scheider) is out on Quint's fishing boat trying to capture the shark and Jaws suddenly lurches its enormous head out of the water right next to Scheider, who gets to blurt out, "You're going to need a bigger boat." That's actually the kind of line you can use in any number of canny situations: anyone who's seen Jaws will get your point.