Several years ago, I read a book that I’m now re-reading: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. It was written in 1788, but some of his insights about the empire echo the struggles we currently face in the United States. It’s in three volumes, so I “fast-read” a few sections, but it remains incredibly compelling.

Gibbon listed five reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire, and when you make the comparison, it’s a little unsettling:

1. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the foundation of human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes: the spending of public money on free bread and circuses for the populace.
3. The mad craze for pleasure, with sports and plays becoming more exciting, more brutal, and eventually more immoral.
4. The building of great armaments, while the real enemy was within—the decay of individual responsibility.
5. The decay of religion, where leaders lost touch with life and their power to guide.

I’ve often said that the local church is the only hope for the world, through the power of Christ working in and through it. It’s a beautiful world in many ways. I enjoy my life on this Earth. But there is no doubt it is also fueled by the ways of Satan. When we compromise on the ways of God, subtle forms of degradation begin to take over.

A politician won’t save us. Our jobs won’t save us. A tax cut won’t save us. And our connection to whims and pleasures is fleeting.
It’s only Jesus.

The book is a real eye-opener. It made me think…

How about you?

~James