Dr Paul Allen

Most children who’ve attended Sunday school classes can tell you what happened at the Tower of Babel. King Nimrod wanted to be famous, so he convinced the people of Babylon to build a great tower that would reach heaven. God could see that the people were becoming prideful and decided that he should go down and mix up their language so they couldn’t understand each other. This teaches us that pride is bad and helps us understand where all the world’s languages came from. Most adults don’t really have an understanding of this story that’s any more sophisticated. So what really happened at the Tower of Babel and how does it connect to the New Testament. Interpreting the Tower of Babel story The famous Tower of Babel story and how it was built s about much more than an ill-fated construction project and language confusion. It’s at the heart of the Old Testament worldview. Babylon was where people sought to “make a name (shem) for themselves” by building a tower that reached the heavens, t...

English: Diagram of the major tribulation views in Christian theology (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) When Jesus predicts the siege and destruction of Jerusalem (Matt. 24:15–22), he asserts, “For then there will be great distress [thlipsis megalē], unequaled from the beginning of the world until now” (v. 21 NIV ). The expression translated “great distress” ( NRSV and NET translate “great suffering,” NLT “greater anguish”) is rendered “great tribulation” in older and a few recent translations ( KJV , RSV, NASB, ESV). The expression “great tribulation” or “great distress” refers to the period of horrific extreme suffering during the siege of Jerusalem. This “great tribulation” was a local event, a fact that made it possible for Jesus’ followers to flee. Neither Jesus’ listeners nor Matthew’s readers would have related this prophecy to a much later period of time unrelated to the Jerusalem temple of the first century. Revelation 7:14 The expression “great tribulation” o...