The motto of the United States, “E Pluribus Unum,” was purportedly first proposed by a committee on July 4, 1776, the day our Declaration of Independence was signed. It took many years for a seal of the United States to be finalized, but when it was, this motto was scribed on the scroll in the beak of a bald eagle. What does it mean? “Out of the many, one.”

      It was believed originally to be a reference to the thirteen colonies established by England in the New World, who realized that if they wanted to overthrow the tyrannical King of England because of his unjust ways of dealing with the colonists, they would have to unite as one in order to be strong enough to succeed in breaking free from the most powerful empire of their day.

      Over the years, however, it has come to mean a whole lot more. In the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, immigrants were swarming into the country for a taste of the freedoms they saw the Americans living under. For them, the motto became inclusive of all who were willing to work to become American citizens because of the freedoms endowed to them. They were proud to become Americans and acknowledge that their liberties were derived from God, not some ambitious political egomaniac. Consequently, the country enjoyed a strength that few other nations have enjoyed.

      In fact, it was the strength of the citizens pulling together in the 1940’s that allowed them to wage war on two fronts—the Atlantic conflict and the Pacific theater—to the point of unconditional surrender by the enemies of a Nation and its allies determined to rid the world of such diabolical evil. And at least partly because of their Judeo-Christian values, they turned around and helped to rebuild the Axis nations to where Germany, Italy and Japan are all economically potent trade partners today.

      When I was growing up, I learned from my American history classes that one of the nicknames the US was called was “the melting pot of the world.” What an apt description for a nation comprised of people from very diverse backgrounds coming together to live in a covenant relationship with one another!

Because of our desire to be united as one in the belief that our freedoms are endowed to us by our Creator, we have become the number one world superpower; we can boast of the accomplishment of sending men to the moon, and we still appear to be a “city on a hill,” holding out the light of hope in an ever darkening world.

      And then someone introduced the concept of multiculturalism: “a situation in which all the different cultural or racial groups in a society have equal rights and opportunities, and none is ignored or regarded as unimportant (Collins Dictionary).” In other words, society is now led to believe that the diversities within a nation are to have pre-eminence over the unifying features of the nation. This attitude may be the downfall of our nation.

The First Multicultural Experiment?

      There is a biblical precedent that shows the natural result of a people who begin to focus on their differences rather than the unifying elements of the culture. It is found in Genesis 10 and 11, where the concept of multiculturalism is introduced by none other than God Himself! It took place sometime after the flood of Noah’s day.

Noah’s family had begun to repopulate the earth, and as the number of people grew exponentially, they migrated westward until they came to a large plain, in a land which they named Shinar. This was most likely somewhere in the area that is modern day Iraq. It must have been a beautiful land at that time because the people settled there and continued to grow in numbers.

      I’m not sure if it was Nimrod who came up with the idea to build a tower, but it could have been. His name is associated with the word “rebel.” He was the grandson of Noah’s son, Ham, and the Bible describes him as “the first on earth to be a mighty man (Gen. 10:8).” I’m not exactly sure what made him a “mighty man,” but it may have had something to do with leadership skills. Dr. Allen Ross in the Bible Knowledge Commentary (BKC) suggests that he was a tyrant.

The Bible also calls him “a mighty hunter before the Lord (10:9).” Again, I’m not sure what qualifies a person as a mighty hunter, much less a mighty hunter before the Lord, but it sounds to me that the description could just as easily be an inference that he was a charismatic leader, able to get people to do pretty much anything he wanted to. There may have been some strong-arm tactics used as well; nevertheless, I believe he was an incredible leader.

      Genesis 10:10 says that “The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar.” Nimrod was the great grandson of Noah through the line of Ham. He may have been the leader of one of the people groups who left Shinar when the language was confused. He led his group up the fertile crescent, and into the area that became Assyria, where he built Nineveh and several other cities.

      Regardless of whether he was a tyrant or a charismatic leader, the suggestion that he was a rebel would support the idea that the tower “with its top in the heavens” might have been his idea. The Lord had told the people to multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and they were in direct violation of that as they became comfortable congregating on the plain of Shinar. Their argument for staying there is recorded for us: “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower . . . and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth (11:4).”

      One of the most amazing things about this passage is God’s assessment of man’s capabilities if they work together: “And the Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them (Gen. 11:6).”

Wow! Who knows but that we might have started space travel 2 – 3 millennia ago if God hadn’t nipped our pride in the bud! (Actually, I think we would have destroyed ourselves quicker). God knew their hearts then, as He knows our hearts today. He knew that the people needed to disband before the pressure of living on top of one another became too great.

      So God introduced multi-culturalism into mankind by confusing the language. Now, obviously the scenario then was not like it is today. Mankind did not come together from various places around the world into one “melting pot” of a nation with their multitude of cultural differences, and then tried to dominate the other cultures. I picture the scene differently.

      As the population exploded on the plain of Shinar, the people became increasingly crowded, and what started as a great idea to hang together became a pressure cooker to live in. Much like today, I would surmise that families clung together in ancient ghetto style communities and began developing their own dialects—inspired by God [“Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Gen.11:7)].

This led to a mistrust of those who couldn’t “speak the lingo,” and the mistrust led to an uneasy feeling of insecurity, until the family groups felt the best thing to do was to escape the ghetto altogether. And God’s plan for man to fill the earth and subdue it began in earnest.

      So, if God used multi-culturalism to accomplish His purpose, how could it be a bad thing? The answer lies in how, and for what purpose it is used. Find out in the next segment what lessons were learned about mankind that made multi-culturalism a weapon to be used against the human race.