According to Genesis, the people of the ancient times decided to ignore God’s command to “fill the earth and subdue it” but instead they all gathered in the land of Shinar, also known as Mesopotamia. They decided to make a tower to heaven to make a name for themselves and God disagreed.

The tower of Babel is likely one of the largest of many towers called ziggurats, built as religious temples to gods. In the ancient ruins of Babylon, outside of Baghdad, archaeologists have uncovered multiples sites which probably were the base of large structures such as ziggurats. One of these sites is a square, 300 feet on each side.

There are many other theories that place the tower in Turkey, but the best description of a ziggurat comes from Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Babylon and the tower in 440 BC.

In the middle of the precinct there was a tower of solid masonry, a furlong in length and breadth, upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. When one is about half-way up, one finds a resting-place and seats, where persons are wont to sit some time on their way to the summit. On the topmost tower there is a spacious temple, and inside the temple stands a couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its side.

The tower Herodotus referred to was likely a restoration of the original tower of Babel. The fact that Herodotus was so amazed by its size is important because the tower had probably been deteriorating since the city was taken over by Persian King Xerxes in 478 BC.

Besides the disobeying of his command to fill the earth, God may have been angry at the construction of the tower for other reasons as well. The ziggurats usually had a stairway wrapping around the outside and it was built high enough so you could ascend to the heavens where the gods resided. Another possible reason for his anger is that the ziggurats were built with elaborate drainage systems to avoid erosion. Many think that since they were built to withstand water, the people thought they could use the tower to avoid being destroyed by God like their grandfathers were in the flood.

The height of the tower seems to be the most desired trivia piece, so I would be cruel to leave you in ignorance. One source claims it was 8,150 feet high, which seems impossible since it would be four times larger than the largest structures today. The other puts the tower at about 694.5 feet making it larger than the Great Pyramid at Giza, but about 300 feet short of the Eiffel Tower.

The theories about the location and specifics of the tower of Babel are based on slight references to large towers from multiple ancient documents. The true nature of the tower of Babel may have to remain from educated guesses or maybe it can be found by playing Stairway to Heaven backwards…
References:

• Genesis 11:1-9
• The UnMuseum
• Wikipedia
• Soniclight - Genesis notes (PDF)

I wonder though if there is a limit for copying material. Have you ever sat in a sermon and thought, “I’ve heard that illustration before.” Anytime a pastor starts out with a story about some young kid in class, I can guess what’s coming. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard variants of John Piper’s “look Lord my shell collection.” I won’t lie and say I’ve never borrowed material. I even changed details, like many pastors, in order to make it personal. Pastors do that because a personal anecdote has more impact.

Where is the line (if there is one)? What about when every small town church in America was doing 40 days of Purpose? What if a pastor purchased the transcript of a sermon online, then repeated it with the same voice inflection and dramatic pauses at those crucial moments? There are quite a few sites where you can do this and there are quite a few pastors who have been using this method. Some pastors have even lost their jobs when their congregation found out.

Are these pastors just utilizing those who have been given the gift of expository preaching and creative imagery? (1 Corinthians 12:12-30) Or does the pastor have a responsibility to his congregation, who pays him, to meditate and interpret the Scriptures specifically for them? (Acts 6:2-4, 1 Peter 5:1-2) There seems to be a celebrity status given recently to head pastors of large churches. Maybe if we didn’t seek out celebrity preachers in a church, then others wouldn’t feel so much pressure to entertain. (1 Timothy 5:17-18)

Another quick worst case scenario thought…what if only a few “gifted” pastors are writing the content, then pastors around the world are preaching it word for word. How much power does that put in the hands of the writers? They are no longer writing for 10 thousand but 10 million or more.

Every church I have been a part of has spent the most on salaries for their employees, usually about 50% of the total budget. A survey of mega churches showed in 2005 there were 20 full-time leadership staff, which is up from 13 in 2000. A growing staff seems to be the focus of many landlocked churches that I’ve seen. If you can’t enhance your facilities, then go for a lower staff to member ratio. In my experience, this is a much more effective strategy than just building a bigger church that’ll fit more people. But a building can usually be built a lot faster than deep, meaningful relationships.

Of the three churches I have gone to recently, the missions budget was 6%, 10% and 30% of the total budget. The most recent survey shows that the average missions budget in American churches is 5%. Of course many churches consider their entire budget to be missional. This is a great mindset to have, but I prefer a church that recognizes the “all nations” part in Matthew 28:19 and gives away a lot of money instead of adding luxuries for their members.

Another graph to consider is this one relating to the average number of baptisms over a year. Maybe all those people who were baptized in August decide to start tithing for a few month, until the spiritual high passes in January. Or maybe people are just conservative budgeters and underestimated their giving ability until later in the year. While those are nice thoughts, it more than likely people just trying to get in a tax deduction for that year. As for the baptism trends, its pretty obvious…who wants to get dunked in water in the winter.

My one complaint is that at no point did they clearly lay out the Gospel. I wanted to hear, “This is what is necessary for you to believe for salvation.” But in both the Newcomer Gathering and the Membership class, this was never said.

In the Membership class you are broken into small groups with an elder in each and you share your testimony. One of the couples in our class was a little vague in their conversion experience, dropping questionable lines like “I’ve always believed in Jesus.” It is very possible that the elders or someone is responsible for following up on this or perhaps it is covered in the baptism class (the couple requested to be baptized). I think there are going to be a lot of instances that are missed and by laying out the gospel clearly (clear like crystal pepsi…funny title right?) they could set that straight with everyone right then.

They do give you a booklet that lays out the beliefs of the church, but how many are going to read through it? When I was in youth ministry we got a new group of 7th grade kids every year. The first month of small group was all about what is the Gospel. I usually took 1 Corinthians 15:3-11 and said this is what you believe to be a Christian. I think this is important with all of the differing theologies and backgrounds out there that we at the least present the basics and make sure our members are getting those right.

UPDATE: Jennifer, who is in charge of new membership, emailed me to let me know that more than likely the elder would be following up with someone whose testimony seemed unclear.

The elders are very careful on ensuring that those seeking membership understand the gospel and are truly Christians. We have had folks who were denied membership as well as baptism because they didn’t understand, at which point the elder would share the gospel with them as well as make sure they knew about Alpha (an informational class about Christianity).

I’m still convinced sharing it upfront with the group is probably best, but people can zone that out easier than making up a doctrinally-sound testimony I guess.

If there were life on another planet, how is their approach to God different? Does Christ’s death cover their sins as well? Were they even subjected to the Fall or did they get it right the first time? Does the Bible apply to them or has God revealed different things to them? Perhaps Christ died for their sins on their planet long before (or after) He did here?

Of course this conversation can in the end come to no conclusion. You will notice I didn’t quote any verses and my stats came from Wikipedia. Many people will (probably wisely) just ignore this discussion all together for these reasons and the most surprising thing they learned was that the Vatican has a chief astronomer.