How quickly after the Flood did people turn to pagan worship?
Within about 200 years after the Flood—only a generation or two—the expanding population descended from Noah’s eight survivors gathered around the Tower of Babel and were ready to embrace pagan worship. That rebellion under Nimrod became the beginning of all pagan idolatry, as man rejected God’s authority.
Les explains that before the Flood there was never any instance of idolatry, no temple worship, and no organized worship. After the Flood, only eight people—Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives—had a knowledge of God. Yet within 200 years, only a generation or two, their expanding population was gathered around the Tower of Babel and ready to embrace pagan worship. Under Nimrod, the first world’s totalitarian despot and hunter of men, they were not merely building with clay and pitch; he was setting up a religion that reached toward heaven and would usurp the very throne room of heaven. That is where the beginning of all pagan idolatry lies, and where they began to worship in various ways. Les also connects this to the New Age movement, which he says is bringing the world right back under the same idolatry that began at the Tower of Babel.