PRÉCIS ON MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN: THE TOWER OF BABEL & TRUMP TOWER – (WITH VIDEO)

I. SCRIPTURE. “And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens;’ let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’” ― GENESIS 11:4, NKJV

KEY TERM: “TOWER.” ‘Migdal’ [מִגְדָּל]: “A rostrum or castle; an elevated stage or pulpit of wood; a raised bed (of flowers); a podium or watchtower.” N. WEBSTER (1828): “A building, either round or square, raised to a considerable elevation and consisting of several stories … ‘Before the invention of guns, places were fortified with towers and attacked with movable towers mounted on wheels, which placed the besiegers on a level with the walls.’”

QUOTATION. “As no generation of men can hope to complete the High Edifice, as engineering skills are constantly growing, there is time to spare. More and more energies are diverted to the erection and embellishment of the workers’ housing. Fierce broils occur between different nations assembled on the site. Added to which was the fact that already: ‘The second or third generation recognized the meaninglessness, the futility (die Sinnlosigkeit) of building a Tower unto Heaven—but all had become too involved with each other to quit the City.’” ― GEORGE STEINER, After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation, 1975; edited

COMMENTARY. “The purpose of their hearts is now more fully expressed. ‘Let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may be in the skies.’ A City [as a] fortified enclosure or keep for defense against the violence of the brute creation. A Tower whose top may be in the skies for escape from the possibility of a periodical ‘Deluge’ [as with The Great Flood of Genesis 6] …

This is the language of who wishes to know nothing above himself, and to Rise beyond the reach of an over-ruling Providence. ‘And let us make us a name!’ A name indicates Distinction and Pre-eminence. To make us a name, then, is not so much the cry of the multitude as of ‘the few, with Nimrod at their head, who alone could expect what is not common, but distinctive.’ It is here artfully inserted, however, in the popular exclamation, as the people are prone to imagine the glory even of the Despot to be reflected on themselves. This gives the character of a lurking Desire for Empire and self-aggrandizement to the design of the leaders – a new form of the same ‘Selfish Spirit’ which animated the Antediluvian men of name; Genesis 6:4.

But Despotism for the few or the one, implies slavery and all its unnumbered ills for the many. ‘Lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole land.’ The varied instincts of their common nature here speak forth. The social bond, perhaps even of God, ‘the thirst for absolute power,’ all plead for Union; but it is Union for selfish ends.” ― ALBERT BARNES, Notes on the Old and New Testament, 1834, 1884; edited

II. THE TWO TOWERS. With properly respectful reference to J.R.R. TOLKIEN’S magnificent second book (1954), my point here is to identify Both Towers as Evil: ‘The White Tower’ (Sauron’s Minas Morgul) and ‘The Black Tower’ (Saruman’s Orthanc).

Without apology, I liken these Two Wicked Forces to the WHITE AMERICAN CHURCH AND DONALD TRUMP, respectively, in increasingly Diabolical Collusion with one another to seize absolute control over the Spiritual and Political Centers that govern the Nation.

THE PURPOSE: ‘To Make America Great Again!’

That said, let me borrow from a profoundly sharp-edged and prescient Commentary by Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics Emeritus at Southern Methodist University, DR. JOHN C. HOLBERT. His essay is titled, “The Bible as Mirror: Trump Tower and the Tower of Babel” (Patheos, May 25, 2017; edited).

Prepare for my ubiquitous BULLET POINTS as a means of efficient review.

• TRUMP TOWER. “The photographic image of Donald Trump’s Signature Tower in New York City has appeared in newspapers for years, but has become ubiquitous since the shocking election of November, 2016. The fact that the First Lady of the land, along with her son, spends nearly all of their time there, as opposed to the White House, makes the tower all the more well-known. It is fantastically, obscenely fitted out with features only the Super-rich can afford … Trump’s Manhattan Palace is truly fit for a king, a sultan, a potentate of fabulous wealth, all descriptions that I imagine The Donald would readily embrace. It is, in short, ‘a Tower with its top in the sky,’ as its counterpart in Genesis 11 is described. Today I wish to compare these two towers to discover whether, once again, the ancient Bible offers insight into the 45th president of the US.”

• ONE LANGUAGE. “There are several revealing characteristics of the Genesis Story that bear a closer look. The builders of the Genesis Tower are enabled to build, because ‘the whole earth had one language and the same words (NRSV),’ (though the phrase might also be translated ‘similar words’ or ‘a few words’). The implication appears to be that these folk could quite easily communicate since they all agreed in their speech [vernacular]. So it appears to be with Donald Trump. He uses few words in his speech—often confining himself to the 140 words of a Tweet—along with a seeming inability to speak consistently in complete sentences. Beyond those peculiarities, he speaks a language of wealth and power, a raw capitalism where only the strong survive and the weak are judged to be ‘losers,’ (his chosen designation for any who disagree with him or his vision for the world).”

• PRIME LOCATION. The Genesis Tower builders select a choice spot for their magnificent project ‘on the Plain of Shinar,’ just as Trump chose downtown Manhattan, perhaps the most expensive real estate on the planet, for his Pleasure Tower. The ancient Tower builders say to one another, ‘Come let us make bricks and fire them well!’ No doubt, Trump instructed his builders to do the same in modern terms, namely, employ the very finest materials for his tower. Or did he? We know from various stories of his real estate activities in other places in the country and world, that Trump has often abused his workers, refusing to pay them what they are owed, and threatening them to take less than agreed for their work, or else to face him and his battery of lawyers in court. Is it possible that Trump’s Towers are not all that they are cracked up to be, the very finest towers ever seen, since many who created them are disgruntled and furious at what went on in their creation?”

• SHABBY C0NSTRUCTION. “In similar fashion, the Genesis builders, we are told, used ‘brick instead of stone, and bituminous pitch instead of mortar.’ To get the humor of this phrase, it is important to remember that an Israelite wrote this story, however ancient the roots of the story may be. In Israel, mud brick is simply not the best material one can use to build with. Stone is far superior, and in Israel, is found everywhere. In fact, in modern Jerusalem there is a law that all buildings must be built with stone; after all there is an abundance of the stuff! No Israelite would ever venture to build a gigantic tower of mud brick! Why, one would not dare build an outhouse out of mud brick, let alone a tower! And to use ‘bituminous pitch instead of mortar,’ is the height of idiocy. That sloppy and sticky stuff, so easily harvested from the Dead Sea in ancient days, is hardly a lasting material in the climate of Israel … Mud brick and pitch cannot last; it is doomed to collapse in a very short time. The writer here is having fun, perhaps, with one or more of the great Towers of Babylon that were, in fact, made of sun-dried mud bricks and pitch, like the massive tower constructed by Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century BC called ‘Etimenanki,’ a truly gigantic ziggurat pyramid, in the enormous capital of Babylon, perhaps 20 stories high. When the Israelite exiles gazed at that structure, they must have been struck speechless, since the tallest buildings they had ever seen were no more than two or three stories tall.”

• FOOL’S ERRAND. “I am reminded of Trump’s noxious and xenophobic cry of ‘America First!’ as he careens his way around the country and now the world. He, the needed Strongman, will make his name great, and his magnificent Tower is the very symbol of that greatness. But now comes the divine humor of the tale. ‘YHWH came down to see the city and tower,’ we are told. In other words, YHWH could not even see the thing from where YHWH lives! It was so miniscule, so tiny, in God’s eyes that God had to come down to catch a glimpse. So much for the greatness of the Tower of Babel! So much for the greatness of the Trump Tower! And the result of the mud brick building? YHWH determines that the builders must be stopped. Why, thinks YHWH, who knows what they might decide to do? They might decide to build a mud brick bridge over the Mediterranean! And for good measure, YHWH confuses that simple and unified language so that the builders are no longer capable of communication. And the tower building comes to an abrupt End.”

• MAGA DESTINY. “Why? Human beings, whoever they are, however grand they think themselves to be, when left to their own devices are inevitably doomed to cover their nakedness with fig leaves (Genesis 3) or to attempt sky high tower building with mud brick and pitch. Donald Trump’s simplistic language and grandiose plans will in the long run come to nothing, for they are forged out of mud brick and pitch and covered with scratchy fig leaves. As we said in our last installment of the Bible as Mirror, ‘God wins in The End according to Revelation,’ and Human Hubris and self-serving actions will not last. ‘Trump Tower, like the Tower of Babel, is a symbol of nothing more than uncontrollable greed and unfulfillable Promises of Power. ‘All towers collapse;’ only God’s call for Justice and Righteousness for all Creation, not merely for the few, abides.”

CODA. Beloved, the basal arrogance of the entire Trumpian Christian Nationalist Movement is Pre-destined to fail, and fail colossally. But also, to bring countless millions of so called ‘believers’ not the Foot of Christ’s Cross, but to the very Altar of Satan and Eternal Perdition. But because our Pastors and their Congregations know so very little of the Theology of the End, they ignore it, or scoff at it, or worse – ‘They preach against it!’

Thus am I once again compelled to close with a Word straight from the Throne of Heaven, one of several Final Warnings to a lifeless, bloodless, lukewarm and largely loveless American Church about the emasculated gospel they dare to teach.

The Great Apostle fairly shouts at the top of his lungs:

“For [you seem willing to allow it] if one comes and preaches ‘another Jesus’ whom we have not preached, or if you receive a ‘different spirit’ from the one you received, or a ‘different gospel’ from the one you accepted. You tolerate all this beautifully [welcoming the deception] … But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we [originally] preached to you, ‘let him be condemned to destruction!’” – 1 CORINTHIANS 11:4; GALATIANS 1;8, AMP

THE QUESTION OF THE AGE. My dear friends, I ask you with both tears and fury: Is anyone in the American Church listening with a most fearful trembling at the Consequences of their collective failure? ‘The Lion of Judah is Coming’ I tell you! But when He Arrives, who shall He find standing at The End?

A Remnant, and no others. Only those of Smyrna and Philadelphia, beloved, and none more (cf. Rev. 2:8-11; 3:7-13). Are you now finally willing to forsake all for Him in this Last Hour and leave Babylon and its Dark Prince once and for all?

Oh, dearest Lord, I pray so! While it is still a little Daylight, beloved, before Nightfall fully descends. Selah.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/XdnxCP5BX0s