Christians often oppose truth and unity. Evangelicals are inclined to leave unity to the mushy mainline, to eclectic ecumenists, and devote themselves to the rock-hard truth, regardless of its divisiveness.
The New Testament doesn’t permit this opposition. The rock-hard gospel truth is a truth about unity. The gospel announces the fulfillment of God’s plan to reconcile Adamic humanity with God. At the same time, it announces the fulfillment of God’s plan to reconcile Babelic humanity with itself.
From one man God formed all nations (Acts 17:26), but soon after the fall those nations fell into violent rivalries and wars (Genesis 6:1-22). God cleared the earth in the flood, and rebooted humanity through the family of a second Adam, Noah.
Shemites and Hamites gathered at Babel to build a city and a tower reaching to heaven, so the Lord divided and scattered them. The so-called “Primordial History” ends with Noah’s descendants as splintered as Adam’s.
Yahweh was just getting started. In the immediate aftermath of Babel, He called Abram from Ur and promised that he would be God’s agent for the restoration of humanity. In Abram’s seed, the Babelic nations would be united under the blessing of God. In him, all the families of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).
Thus began God’s slow, patient restoration of the human race to itself.
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