Knowing that this will not be a popular point of view, I feel compelled by prophecy’s urgency to express it. I hope that those who have ears to hear, will hear!

When I heard of the terrible tragedy of the Challenger space shuttle, I was stunned and grieved, but not really surprised. Although I tried to leave it a few times, I was glued to the TV set for the whole day. Even as my son, his wife and I talked on the phone when he called to inform us of this horror, I began to mention judgment.

As we watched the news the week-end after the disaster I said to my husband; “I believe the Lord was trying to issue a warning to those involved in the operation, with all the delays that happened.” Andy Rooney did a piece on 60 Minutes about “Whatever happened to the moon?” about his displeasure with the entire space program and I found myself in complete agreement with him.

At the risk of being the object of a lynch mob, I have to say that I do believe this is yet one more great piece of evidence of God’s judgment on the peoples of the world. He has judged the people many times in the past. The flood was the most catastrophic of these times to date. (Noah preached righteousness for many, many years while building the ark.) He has not only judged the world and people by the use of the elements and nature, but has judged his people in many other ways. There is one principle, however, that God always follows and we read of it in the book of the prophet, Amos. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7 As one studies the Scriptures it is clear that God lives up to His Word in this matter and always has. There have been many warnings, usually unheeded. The following excerpt is taken from footnotes for Amos 3:7 in the Amplified Bible:

God has always warned the world of coming judgments, in order that it may not bring them upon itself. He warned Noah of the coming flood, Abraham and Lot of the future destruction of Sodom, told Joseph of the seven years’ famine, Moses of the ten plagues of Egypt, Jonah of the destruction of Nineveh, Amos of the downfall of Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah and Israel. Various prophets were told in detail of the final events in connection with the captivities of the chosen people, and in every case the warnings were startlingly executed. At first in the case of Nineveh the judgment was postponed after Jonah’s preaching, but when later federations of Ninevites backslid, the warning of Nahum was carried out completely against them. Christ’s coming was foretold from Genesis to Malachi. Equally plain and inevitable of fulfillment are the warnings of Jesus and the prophets, concerning the future that daily comes nearer to every nation on earth.

I believe not only this disaster of the Challenger, but also the Apollo 1 catastrophe 19 years earlier when the lives of three astronauts were lost in a fire on a launch pad, was God’s voice telling mankind to stop trying to CHALLENGE AND CONQUER His domain, using a modern day “Tower of Babel”. He is warning men everywhere to stop poking around in His territory. “The secret things belong to God.” Deut. 29:29  That is, until He chooses to reveal them. “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints:” The first warning came when the three men were lost (Apollo 1). He, as always, has given mankind time to think better of what they are doing, repent and stop. Perhaps the 19 years is symbolic of judgment to come, for God’s number for judgment is nine. The previous time things stopped for a time while the pain was still there, but it didn’t last long, and man was right back to his “Tower of Babel”. I wonder how many people have any idea what the tower of Babel, Babylon, and babbling really means. I didn’t until I began to read and study God’s Word. (The root meaning of these words is “confusion”, from the Hebrew in Strongs Concordance.)

So many things came together and became clear as I watched and listened to television all afternoon on January 28, 1986. I watched over and over again the films, both at regular speed and in very slow motion, of “CHALLENGER” setting out to once more CHALLENGE the heavens and “reach for the stars”. I would suspect Peter Jennings had no idea how profound and prophetic his one sentence was when he said; “Man does not explore the heavens without risk.” I do hope Peter finds out just how great that risk is. Not only physically, but spiritually as well.

The day after the accident The Boston Herald read; “Why?” USA Today, quoting Mrs. Reagan read; “Oh God-No”! Even if not in words, almost everyone was asking the same “Why?”. But as a friend of mine said; “I’ll bet they don’t think to ask God why?” There are answers to be found to that question, and they are not to be found in the debris fished out of the Atlantic Ocean, or on the beaches, in the computer read-outs, or the wisdom of men. Maybe after months or even years the experts will come up with some physical reasons or excuses for what happened. It won’t be the real reason, though. To find the key we must go to the book of Genesis.

“And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
   He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.
   And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel…” Genesis 10:8-10

“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
   And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
   And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
   And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
   And the Lord came down to see the city and tower, which the children of men builded. (Not HIS children.) And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
   Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
   So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
   Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11:1-9

Along with all of His warnings of coming judgment, and the execution of those judgments God has left us also with wonderful promises that one day all things will be redeemed. In other words everything will be returned to the way God intended them in the first place. The promise that God will redeem those things that happened at “THE TOWER OF BABEL” is found in Zephaniah 3:9 and we read; “For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent.” Notice that at the tower of Babel they were of one language and one mind. They did not use their oneness to call upon the Lord, but to try to get to heaven by their own works, so God confounded their language. When He restores man to one language again they will be ready to; “call upon the name of the LORD, TO SERVE Him with one consent.” PRAISE THE LORD!

Footnote: There is a wonderful depiction of “The Tower of Babel” in the movie The Bible by John Houston.