The Beginnings Babel Genesis 6-8 “…the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11

Theme The sudden and complete appearance of language reveals Gods creativity, majesty and love.

Introduction Wonders that tell a very different story about the origin of all things: The complexity of the eye The presence of conscience and self-sacrifice in people The appearance and use of music in people And the amazing sudden and complete appearance of language

1. The Incredible Nature of Language

“The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility... Without language, there could be no study of physics.” There is no comparison between the problems of physics and “…the problem of analyzing the nature of everyday thinking” which is the nature of language itself. Albert Einstein Genius

“Unless man has a natural bent in accordance with nature's, he has no chance of understanding nature at all.” Charles Sanders Peirce Philosopher

Mankind has a “special design” with “cognitive structures of great complexity and interest” that “develop fairly rapidly and with little if any conscious effort.” Noam Chomsky Linguist

A. Facts About Languages According to Ethnologue, there are 7,105 known languages across the world No tribe or peoples is without language. No primitive language is known to exist. 92 Proto-Languages have been discerned, breaking down to regional languages Examples: Proto-Indo-European (PIE), 449, 45% of world Proto-Sino-Tibetan (PST), 403, 22% of world Genesis 10 table of nations is the starting point

B. What Is Language? It is the means whereby information is created, perceived, shared and evaluated. Without language we do not understand anything.

C. How Does Language Reveal God At Work? It is the evidence of God in humans: “In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1) “…God made the heavens by the Word of His command…”2 Peter 3:5 “…You have been born again… through the living and enduring Word of God.” 1Pe 1:23 Psalm 19:1-4 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

D. Is Language Accidental? Mathematically and biologically, the language mechanism in our brain is such that it COULD NOT be formed by random events. (Oller & Chen) Studies of neonatal movement synchronicity with adult speech reveal the profound depth of the speech mechanism in newborns (Condon & Sanders)

E. What Is The Future of Language? A language disappears every 2 weeks (26 a year) and the number is accelerating. It is estimated by at least one credible source that 50% of all languages will be gone in 100 years What is driving this? Simplification of language (languages becoming simpler) The migration to cities world-wide The end of tribal isolation The rise of the internet & 1 language taking over

2. The Invitation From God Ignored 1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 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.”

3. The Inevitable Consequences Applied

A. God Notices 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.

B. God Knows The Results Beforehand 6 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.

C. God Always Has Creative Solutions 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 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.

Challenge… Language is a gift from God to be used as such. Language is a irrefutable proof of God’s Word and Work.