The City of Babylon was the first paradigm of a nation reduced to rubbles, due to poor communication. God confused their communication facility, by attending to language, which was their tool of communication. This meant diversifying their language patterns. While this was God’s plan, for the reason best known by God, it provides an example of a destruction of a nation, through poor communication.
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 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; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:1-4 NIV).
This was a brilliant idea from the Babylonian community. The social contract of humanity is facilitated by engaging in good communication. Language is the best tool used, in communication among humans. Their objective, although not primarily based on God’s communication, had the potential to reach some levels of success.
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 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. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 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 (Genesis 11:5-9 NIV).
The above Scripture delineates God’s method to thwart the Babylonian plan to continue with their project. We are not going to dwell on the merits or demerits of God’s decision to thwart their project. But we will be dwelling on the usage of the facility with which God succeeded in hindering the Babylonian project.
Language is the number one facility, with which a nation can be sustained. The proper usage of language is necessary for adequate communication, among those involved. Failure to communicate, according to agreed principles, can still cause problems even though using the same language.
Distorted communication can be driven by propaganda, used by nations to advance non-survival agendas. Any nation, poised for destruction has falsehoods as the roots of its perilous condition. Poor communication emanates from falsehoods, advanced by criminals.
Words can mean different things; so a criminal can manipulate an intended positive communication to pass a negative application. Backward nations are backward because of systematic falsehoods permeating across social systems. This reveals that communication can be used to either construct or destroy a nation.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5 NIV).
From the above Scripture, can be deduced an idea of communication, aimed at unveiling an indestructible civilization. We saw that a nation can be destroyed or upheld through violating a social contract established in good communication. The common agenda would be “survival”.
There are those who foolishly pursue falsehoods when assuming to be aiming at survival. Let us use corruption, leading to the destruction of the entire nation. It may surprise many people that those engaged in corruption, may not even be aware of the impact of their actions. As far as those people are concerned, they would be pursuing survival.
Those people would also be effectively communicating. Otherwise, their corrupt activities would not succeed. People in this world carry out conducts that appear innocent, but with the opposite impact. “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12 NIV).
Education is vital, as long as helping individuals discover their identity. This is achieved by means of proper communication. Poor communication can also be assumed to lead to life, when, it actually, leads to death. The Word, which the Apostle John referred to, signifies communication.
Although figuratively, John says the Word became flesh, (verse 14), he was referring to a principle that denotes communication. The proper usage of words leads to life, while the improper usage of words leads to destruction. Jesus was the only character, whose communication leads to life.
Without Jesus’ communication, the entire world fumbles in poor communication, leading to destruction. Jesus declared that He was the bread of life. This can be adopted to mean that each word spoken by Jesus ought to be taken verbatim. Jesus is the only one, whose communication, when taken verbatim, leads to life.
The destructive communication carries words that appear right to any person but leads to death. In this world, we have nations engaged in propaganda. One nation manufactures lies against the other, while the other also engages in counter-propaganda.
In modern civilizations, one would expect nations to be truthful to each other. But nations are often observed as seeking to advance their agenda, assumed as better than the other. There is an aspect of ego, appearing as sustained by each of those nations. Propaganda is, therefore, used by nations to outfox each other.
The mixture of falsehood and truth is used to manufacture lies. Truth can be clearly communicated without alteration. But, a person with the wrong motive can, actually, twist information to mean something else. The alteration of information may appear innocent but it poisons the structure of communication. Compare the alteration of the information by Eve, at the Garden of Eden:
“But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17 NIV). Eve, then altered the information as follows:
“But God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die’” (Genesis 3:3 NIV).
A careful observer notices that the two statements are different. What the woman said misrepresents the actual words of God. Nothing appears amiss, except being what led to the adoption of the devil’s deception. The woman appears as not having duplicated God’s words, thereby doubting the truthfulness of those words.
The formula of communication is that there has to be duplication of what is said by another person, before understanding. The wrong thing, that causes confusion among people, is to assume understanding, before duplicating what comes from the source.
There are so many people who declare having understood what they would not have duplicated. They apply the principle of assumption, which causes the greatest amount of relational problems among humans. Most people take things for granted, without spotting miscommunication as problematic.
If falsehoods were to be completely eradicated, even domestic quarrellings would be totally eliminated. War would be reduced to history books. It would be impossible for any person to be suspicious of another person. Each person would be respected for what he truly stands for.
The aspect of self-defence as a way of pursuing survival is often adopted as necessary. However, self-defence is what motivates harming another person rather than defending another person. When adopting the truth from the originator of truthful communication, what is required is defending another person, before defending oneself.
As simple as this appears to be, it contains the crux of all problems of humanity. Many of those reading through this may also not take it as seriously as conferring survival information. Blessed are those able to see what the rest of humanity has been unable to see, throughout the centuries.
The misunderstanding comes from the assumption of understanding before duplication. The mischief of Satan is not contained in the totality of evilness. It is contained in the mixture of good and evil, so that evilness appears as good. Alternatively, goodness appears as evilness. On that condition; hang all problems but glaringly ignored by the unsuspecting humanity.
Duplication requires asking questions, to be sure of understanding what is being communicated. Understanding does not always require agreement with what is being communicated. A human being is granted the power of choice, which one can exercise, over matters received from fellow humans, through communication.
For instance, what is communicated may be duplicated as requiring killing another person. If in disagreement with that communication, a normal person would not carry out the instruction, even though having understood the communication. The senior data, from God, requires abstaining from carrying out evil instructions.
All communication should be understood as flowing directly from the Godly source. Jesus’ teachings should be understood as being the only data, with ultimate truth. Information received ought to be evaluated according to God’s Word. Sadly, we have young people carrying out murderous activities on behalf of their seniors.
Under a corrupt governing system, some youths may be used to carry out evil conduct. They would be protected from above for doing such evil practices. The responsibility for committing evil remains indebted to the entire nation; if committed on behalf of those in government.
The murderous youths would be harming the entire nation, including themselves. But they would be unaware of their evil conduct. Such youths would be failing to distinguish between God and those in authority. In other words, they would be viewing those in authority, as if they would be gods.
They would assume innocently carrying out instructions from above. But, that would be miscommunication from above. Proper communication requires duplication and understanding of lawful instructions, as opposed to unlawful instruction. Good laws provide survival to the greatest number of humanity. The constitution of a country ought to provide guidelines when carrying out instructions from superiors.
Our country is in a despicable condition because of juniors, carrying out instructions from above, without reviewing the aspect of illegality. The common saying, that there is no one above the law, is not often applied. There are many junior employees who become complicit in illegalities.
They assume being innocent, as only carrying out instructions from above. However, that doesn’t fly, as long as aware of one’s identity. One may be a junior, but that does not mean one’s superior would be above God. Failure to exercise one’s duties according to the rule of law makes one complicit in evil conduct.
We are where we are, as a country in degradation, where the Head of State is assumed as having been the only culprit. However, it is wrong to absolve those juniors, having carried out illegal instructions, on behalf of the Head of State. The sad manifestation is that most of those in public service call themselves, “Christians.”
They ought to understand better, that the Head of State cannot be god. What could have been their reason to carry out illegal instructions? The answer lies in not knowing that all communication flows from John 1:1-5, leading to its articulation by Jesus in John 1:14. All communication ought to be evaluated according to Jesus’ instructions.
Christian believers are the light of the world. Some of them might be complying with illegal instructions out of fear of losing their jobs? They would have failed to pass their Christian test. One’s job cannot be more important than Christ. That person would have, unfortunately, failed to distinguish between Christ and the Head of State.
Without communication, a nation is like a vehicle being driven without lubrication. The engine would be poised to a knockout and be reduced to a wreck, as long as it would be functioning without lubrication. Throughout the centuries, some nations disappeared, either through war or poor communication.
The existence of a nation is sustained by good communication. Without communication, there would be no hope for survival. But lack of communication includes falsified information that would be doing rounds. False information is harmful, while truthful information contains survival attributes.
Whatever causes many people to flee from their country, to the Diaspora in search of greener pastures portrays poor communication. The indication of a country which is said to be either good or evil is depicted in its level of communication. Poor communication includes the adoption of falsehoods.
The blame cannot be limited to the communicators. Listeners have a share, as they also carry the responsibility of evaluating information, whether in line with Jesus’ teachings or not. Truthfulness, as emanating from Jesus can be said to be what builds. But, falsehood, emanating from Satan, aims at destruction.
Andrew Masuku is the author of Dimensions of a New Civilization, laying down standards for uplifting Zimbabwe from the current state of economic depression into a model for other nations worldwide. A decaying tree provides an opportunity for a blossoming sprout. Written from a Christian perspective, the book is a product of inspiration, bringing relief to those having witnessed the strings of unworkable solutions––leading to the current economic and social decay. Most Zimbabweans should find the book as a long-awaited providential oasis of hope, in a simple conversational tone.
The Print copy is now available at Amazon.com for $13.99
Also available as an e-copy at Lulu.com for $6.99
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
