Christians live in a modern Babel. This is how they can survive
20-08-2025
Christian Life
Egbert Schuurman
A visitor observes a humanoid robot. Photo EPA, Elvis Gonzalez
Christian Life
Christians live in a secular world, comparable to the biblical city of Babel. However, believers have a calling, philosopher Egbert Schuurman says in his essay Challenge to Christians. They must reflect on how to use science and technology in a responsible way.
Within this Babel culture, which seems hellbent for destruction, Christians must learn to see that the armor of God equips them to fight against dominions and powers, against worldly forces of darkness and evil spirits (Ephesians 6:12).
The perspective of renewal, signified by Christ’s glorification, is the perspective of responsible thought and action.
Christians may not allow themselves to be lured onto the road of counter-creation. Instead, they must follow the way of renewal. We are on the way to the new Jerusalem, and we must be pulled back to it continually. Removing ourselves from the Babel motif and speaking against it will put the Christian into a position of sojourner and cross-bearer. He will be the kind of witness found in Revelation 11. His witness is a prophecy even as it is an admonition to return to God’s norms, which teach and allow true freedom and responsibility.
We cannot, in good faith, avoid the world. The Babel culture is a perversion of the Kingdom of God, a perversion which feeds off the forces of God’s Kingdom. The Bible calls this culture the culture of darkness, and yet this darkness cannot extinguish the light that has burst upon this world with the coming of Christ (John 1:5).
Through the coming of the Kingdom of God, the Babel culture will be judged. The perspective of renewal, signified by Christ’s glorification, is the perspective of responsible thought and action.
Discovery and unfolding
If the man of science, technology, economics and politics would again choose a responsible, normative course, science and technology would no longer be threatening forces. They would present fascinating possibilities for researching and disclosing the secrets of creation. To such discovery and unfolding, there would be no end. By contrast, the way of the kingdom of man always threatens an end, for it threatens humankind with its destructive and demonic development.
If man were once again to discover the way of normativity in science, technology, economics and politics, or in other words, to seek the Kingdom of God responsibly, his efforts would generate many problems. The right way of following God's commandments would be problematic, simply because so many cultural structures are presently locked into the perspective of the kingdom of man.
Revolutionary changes cannot provide solutions for existing states of lawlessness.
We have to take this obstacle into account when we seek to pursue our Christian perspective on culture. We would first have to recognize the existing situation and find ways of dealing with it. And we would always be tempted toward accommodating ourselves, such being the nature and power of the Babel culture.
Powerful forces
Christians find it more and more difficult to live in that Babel culture and yet not be a part of it. To choose responsibility coram Deo means resisting the powerful forces of human ambition and will. Responsibility also means rejecting revolution. Revolutionary changes cannot provide solutions for existing states of lawlessness, for they themselves have no law. Christians face the enormous task of beginning with the existing, decadent situation and trying to renew it, using the norms given by God.
If Christians had more insight into what was really going on in the world, they would be misled less easily by the world's motive. An understanding of the world should be the basis for their apologetics, especially when they attempt principled action in cultural activities.
In our present culture, which is tending toward nihilism, it seems that Christians are all too willing to choose either technocracy or revolution. We often see young Christians take one standpoint and then exchange it for a completely opposite point of view. There are always convincing arguments on both sides. The winning point of view is then modified and accommodated before it is passed off as Christian. Through such vacillation and compromise, Christian political thought and action in Western European countries has all but lost its central dynamic. And why has this happened? Because Christians have failed to recognize the spiritual conflict inherent in the cultural motifs which determine contemporary development.
Religious power
In the past, the weapons of apologetics have defended the Christian faith against the spiritual force of paganism. A similar defense should now be set up against neo-paganism, the modern spiritual force and hallmark of secular culture. Such an apologetic would eagerly confront philosophies, ideologies and thought systems which, as false revelations, willed tremendous apostate religious power.
The right way can be travelled only if we allow ourselves to be led by biblical wisdom, which, while ancient, always remains new and relevant.
A Christian apologetic should give a united and biblically responsible, biblically normed vision of man, culture and history. Such an apologetic would help Christians test the spirits and would enable the church to remind its members of the privilege of having the Kingdom way of life open to them despite all the anguish and problems that arise from their culture's way of death.
Developing Ethical Awareness
We have dealt with the problems of scientific life and technological culture, pointing out that these problems are signs of man's self-willed ambition to form culture. Escape from this road to death is possible only if one chooses a different road. And we maintain that it is the church's prophetic task to point out the better road.
However, because of the church's rightful limitations, it cannot solve the technological crisis. To this task, there are called Christians, either as individuals or in groups. The church's task is to warn against wrong motives. The right way can be travelled only if we allow ourselves to be led by biblical wisdom, which, while ancient, always remains new and relevant.
In the biblical dynamic, man is not the centre of reality; he is not a totally self-willed, ambitious creature. Scripture shows how man is created according to God's image and thus emphasizes man's responsibility. As a responsible creature, man is to love God above all else and his neighbour as himself.
Lust
Practical political results of such love would mean that man gives up his lust for power and seeks to promote justice and righteousness. For the economy, love means that man is no longer driven by an absolutized profit motive but instead exercises responsible stewardship. For science, love means that knowledge is no longer raw power but that it serves the interest of wisdom. We must come to see that science and technology can be humanity's helpful servants rather than our tyrannical masters.
We can better understand the service science and technology should provide for culture when we return to the original motif.
We need not deny the great significance of science and technology; however, we should resist the belief in man's self-willed independence that has become part and parcel of science and technology. Through man's apostate faith, the development of science and technology have come to determine the course of our cultures; actually, their function should be limited to being the roads that lead towards building culture. Both science and technology need to be subjected to responsible thought and action.
The Bible teaches us that man is permitted to build upon creation, but only with the intention of preserving creation.
We can better understand the service science and technology should provide for culture when we return to the original motif. The Bible teaches us that man is permitted to build upon creation, but only with the intention of preserving creation. Only to preserve creation without developing culture leaves fallen man in the grip of natural forces. On the other hand, to build without thought of preservation is arrogant. Ignoring judicious and discreet preservation will eventually turn into a situation in which natural perils are replaced by cultural perils; menacing technological forces will threaten to bring about total ruin.
Within the context of this harmonious calling both to build and to preserve, man sees himself as the image of God. In both building and preserving, he confirms his love towards his Creator and Redeemer. He will then treat creation with the concern and respect it deserves. Responsible humanity recognizes the need both to develop creation and to resist every form of distortion and chaos.
Modified strategy
If man allows himself to be empowered by scriptural norms, his cultural endeavour can be a blessing even for the realm of nature. Such was the case in the days of King Solomon (1 Kings 4:33, 34); such can also now be the case if we allow our economics, politics, science and technology to become a harmonious action of building and preserving or, put differently if they become part of our search for the Kingdom of God.
Admittedly, achieving harmonious interaction between building and preserving is not easy. Many people will strongly resist biblical direction. Even after rejecting the idols of science and technology, many people turn to other idols, such as the idol of revolutionary freedom or the idol of nature. Others try to design a modified strategy for science and technology but continue to rely on a closed view of the world and life, which still excludes God.
But God does not permit Himself to be excluded, and so He permits cultural developments within this closed world to run haywire. We recognize His judgment here, and yet, at the same time, hear His call to return to Him and follow His norms. This gives us hope. The horizon of our hope is the horizon of the Kingdom of God, which will be the fulfilment, reconciliation and renewal of the entire creation.
Sojourners
With this perspective, we do not need to consider ourselves sojourners or spectators in the world but rather citizens of a Kingdom that has once come with Christ and will come again. We belong in this world, even though we are exiles in a Babel culture!
Exiles, while not builders of the hostile culture, are also not its slaves. Their relationship with that culture is one of tension. God’s love demands that we reject such a culture, but it also demands that we address that culture in love. Thus, a Christian cannot avoid his cultural environment.
On the other hand, a Christian cannot expect to see too much fruit come of his Christian mandate within such a hostile culture. For the biblical motif, which features living and working out of God’s love and grace, is diametrically opposed to the motif of the Babel culture. The Bible rejects unequivocally man’s pretension that, with the use of science and technology, he can build a counter-creation to which he himself can give meaning.
In Christ the Kingdom of God has already been given to us and will, upon His return, be given to us in its recreated dimensions.
Scripture calls us to live and work with a recognition of creation order, and with the confession that only Christ can give meaning and the expectation of renewal. In Christ the Kingdom of God has already been given to us and will, upon His return, be given to us in its recreated dimensions.
This is the true view of history. Nor can this perspective be in any way altered by the pretensions of our Babel culture. The biblical perspective, it seems to me, also gives the resources with which to counter our culture’s reduction of the meaning of science and technology, for it addresses our attention to the rich and inexhaustible meaning of science and technology.
Dislocations
Our Babel culture has reduced science to a caricature of its true self. As exiles, we can witness to its genuine and full meaning by focusing on its original meaning and normativity. This concerns global issues of our time such as nuclear armament, biotechnology, computer technology and energy problems, but also the more personal problems such as abortion, crime, the dissolution of marriage and the family and the increasing decadence of our society, problems having personal roots but which have come to assume huge proportions.
Living in the midst of all these perversions and dislocations, Christians must carry themselves responsibly, which means being of service and, at the same time, witnessing to the values that society must honour. For this reason, personal cultural endeavours should not be forgotten, for it is in those areas that cultural reformation must begin. We often think in global dimensions and analyze our culture as part of a global culture, but the smaller cultural endeavours are where we must begin.
Science and technology can assist us in our endeavours, but we must always be mindful that they are potentially subversive forces that could, if not used properly, once again imprison us.
In this regard, it would be helpful to say a few things about politics, which is where people usually seek solutions. Christians should first pursue a different course, beginning with questions about spiritual and historical background matters. Given the religious background of a problem, they will then have to articulate an ethical position before they can proceed to look for responsible political solutions. To begin and end with politics is a superficial approach whose efficacy will never be more than superficial. I could mention in this connection the current political discussions concerning nuclear weapons, one of the global issues, and, as an example of the more personal issues, the discussions about the legalization of abortion.
Impractical
I suspect that many Christians will consider my approach impractical. Nevertheless, I maintain that accepting responsibility and normativity allows a great variety of possibilities and benefits, and also a stable course. The course of our current Babel culture may appear to be a road to freedom, but man will eventually find himself to be a prisoner of his own misdirection, on a course that offers no future, only fear.
Those who keep in touch only with factual developments run the risk of always accommodating themselves to those developments. By contrast, those who orient themselves to the perspective of the Kingdom of God, given to man in grace, do more than keep up with the facts. They will resist the spirit of godless development and will also accept their own responsibilities to pursue a biblically normed approach. The Bible gives us the examples of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, and the examples of the two witnesses in Revelation 11 are also encouraging and hopeful.
Gift
I conclude that we should, first of all, learn not to see the Kingdom of God as the final goal of history and of our cultural endeavours. We must constantly remind ourselves that the Kingdom of God is a gift that has been given, is also truly given now, and, finally, will be given to us again in the future.
The final renewal will show us the real meaning of our cultural endeavours. Then, even Babylon will become Jerusalem. This divine mystery, given to us throughout history, cannot be comprehended, yet it is a life-giving dynamic deserving our respect, devotion, gratitude and sense of responsibility.
A normative view of life in a culture which rejects both frenzied expectations of culture and outright avoidance of it is most accurately described by the prophet Jeremiah in his letter to the Babylonian exiles, in words that are serene yet filled with expectations:
“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (29:4-7).
And:
“...For I know the plans I have made for you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future...” (29:11).
This essay is part of the book Technology and Christianity by Egbert Schuurman published by Wordbridge Publishing
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