This article will look at three causes of the Roman Empire’s collapse, and see the extent to which its defects can be applied to the decline of the USA as the leading world power. While the influence of the USA cannot be considered imperial — we technically are not an empire — nonetheless, the terms hegemony, leadership, and dominance in the world system are adjectives that apply to ancient Rome and might well apply to us.
Invasions By Barbarian Tribes. In 410, the Visigoths successfully sacked the city of Rome. The Romans rightly referred to the invaders as barbarians because they lacked the learning, skills, and organizational foundations of Rome. Further, at that point, the barbarians were pagan – they worshipped a pantheon of gods such as Woden, Thor, Frigg, and Balder– whereas Rome had already accepted Christianity as its official religion.
In the USA we now see a collapse at the Southern border. The seeming bi-partisan fence that was erected in 2006 in retrospect appears to be a sham. The fence was allowed to fall into disrepair and was inadequate for deterring illegal access. In 2016, Presidential candidate Donald Trump called out the do-nothing Congress and both the previous Republican and Democrat administrations for allowing this “invasion” of illegals to happen. As part of his Make America Great Again agenda, he proposed and then, after being elected, began to build a wall with accompanying surveillance system that was better than anything that had previously been attempted on our Southern border.
Under Trump, the USA continued to maintain its overall liberal immigration policy which admitted about one million persons a year, but had to limit immigration because of the need for proper vetting of applicants regarding criminal history, health, work skills, and goals for making that immigration. We had learned as early as 1921 that political and moral values held by immigrants, intentions towards peaceful assimilation, a willingness to live under a capitalist/democratic system, and a work ethic were all defining characteristics of successful immigration. Immigration policy which lacks any defining criteria about who should or should not be admitted is not a policy at all.
Further, President Trump clearly saw that certain nationalities were more prone to produce jihadi terrorists than others and called for more careful scrutiny of their applicants than from other countries. He was falsely characterized as being anti-Islamic in doing so. However, he did not call for restrictions of immigrants from Indonesia, the country with the largest Islamic population. Although Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen were excluded, the UAE, Egypt, or Lebanon in the Middle East were not. However, while embracing friendship and even military aid with Saudi Arabia, Trump made a speech against terrorism while he visited Saudi Arabia, and that speech will surely ring through the ages. In that speech, he said, “Terrorists do not worship god, they worship death.” Would you have the nerve to say that in front of the leaders of a country that produced 16 out of the 19 terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center supposedly in the name of Allah?
Division of the Roman Empire into East and West. We are facing so much polarization as a country that many articles are being written about the likelihood of our being engaged in another civil war. However, the Roman Empire did not collapse by having a civil war. The Western part fell to invasions by various German tribes. The Eastern, largely Greek-speaking, portion of the Roman Empire continued for centuries after the collapse of the Western portion fell in the 5th century. Most of that collapse of the Middle East was to Islamic incursions between the 7th and 14th centuries. Of course, a host of internal power struggles and disagreements made the Roman Empire more vulnerable.
Thus, America’s collapse, though likely, will not come through civil war, but through a weakening brought about by internal dissensions, corruption, incompetence, and immorality. In today’s America the forces of disunity seem to be making headway over the forces of unity. The MAGA proponents have gathered themselves around traditional positions like keeping inflation under control, having a strong military focused on armaments and not soldier sexual identity, having the family and not “the village” as the basic unit of society, and assuring that equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcomes is the proper nexus point for individual liberty and economic growth,
Additionally, MAGA affirms that social status and economic well-being should not be based on race but on other criteria pertaining to responsibility, skills, and motivation and that love of country should supersede love of one’s ethnicity. Further, freedom of speech is an important right if it is exercised non-violently, and lawful behavior must be followed at all times even if one has serious objections to some governmental policies held in place by those laws. Rioting should not be equated with “freedom.” However, if someone does riot or otherwise breaks a law, he or she is to be prosecuted, not persecuted. Habeas corpus rights are more than 350 years old and must be respected always. Regarding the so-called “fourth branch of government” – the administrative state — entrenched government employees should not have the power to make and/or enforce rules as though those rules were laws superseding the authority of those administrative cadres.
The dogmatic, name calling, internationalist, and cultural communist alliance that has taken control of the Democrat party believes that rights and traditional liberties must be controlled/limited for the good of the environment in order to help dispossessed people around the world, to assure that all races will be treated equally, and to keep power in the hands of an enlightened elite who know what is best for the “good of all” [sic]. This is what they call “sustainability” or “meeting needs” (recall: Marx’s principle “from each according to his ability to each according to his needs”). Trump arrogantly calls his individual opponents names and ridicules their mannerisms, but the Democrats have undemocratically called those who question their authority and their ideas deplorables, fascists, racists, intolerant, mean, narrow-minded, etc. when their ideas are not in agreement with theirs. Which is worse — calling one’s opponents and celebrities names or calling the citizens names?
Both Democrats and many MAGA Republicans are generally on board with homosexual marriage and Trump himself supports transexuals using bathrooms of the other sex in his hotels. Where is the outcry against drag queens in schools and libraries? How vulgar, unseemly and completely offensive to any decent citizen to see a trans person rubbing his naked implanted breasts on the White House lawn and not being arrested or at least removed. That individual, named Rose Montoya, has merely been told he will not be invited back to the White House, but arrest on charges of public lewdness should also have been applied.
Like Rome by the end of the 4th century and into the 5th century, the USA is in decline. We can expect a collapse of our dominant role in the near future. Our society is divided beyond repair. Even without a civil war, the division itself bespeaks extreme weakness. The God of the Holy Bible is no longer the clear God of our country. Godless and immoral elements supported now by one of our two great political parties have set up a barrier to compromise and unity, and the Republicans are too weak and accommodating to restore national unity.
God’s Judgment of Rome and the USA. The fall of Babylon depicted in the Book of Revelation Chapter 18 is the prophetic revelation of the fall of Rome. It reads in part:
4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. 5 For her sins [have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. 6 Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. 7 In the measure that she glorified herself and lived [e]luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ 8 Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who [f]judges her. (Revelation 18: 4-8)
No matter how many people keep taking their selfies, no matter how many people are still marrying and enjoying themselves at parties, athletic events, and nightclubs, no matter how many cool people shake their booties at Super Bowl events, no matter how many seemingly sincere people there are, the USA is I believe under judgment. What applied to Rome in terms of historical issues has some similarities and some differences, but the USA has betrayed God’s law and even in some ways its betrayal is greater than that of Rome since the USA was founded by Protestant Christians who understood the significance of God’s Word and the importance of the Word of God in daily life.
A few years ago, this writer had occasion to read No Cross, No Crown by William Penn and another volume by John Locke entitled The Reasonableness of Christianity. Many of the deeply committed Protestant theologians of their time questioned the purity and accuracy of their doctrines. Penn was a Quaker and Locke was considered a Socinian heretic by many practicing ministers although still remained a member of the Church of England. Many Puritan theologians thought they were weak regarding the Trinitarian doctrine of God. Penn emphasized Christ as the Light and often neglected the Spirit of the Living God. Locke ignored the miracles of Christ and put too great an emphasis on reason as being superior to faith. Yet, in today’s anti-Christian world where greed and self-indulgence is justified by so many as normal, where humble service to humanity motivated by love of Christ, and where holiness is consistently disparaged in daily life and in our laws (homosexual MARRIAGE!!??? ABORTION on demand!!???), those books in a relative sense must be considered among the most spiritual volumes ever written! Neither man would for one second countenance the immorality and tone of life that we are living in today.
Biblical Christianity was already being distorted and twisted by Rome even though it had been made the “official” religion by Constantine in 327. The purity of the Gospel was already being changed by the lust for power and the greed of Rome. Christ will only uphold a culture that lifts up His name forever and ever. The USA is only the richest most powerful country in the world (perhaps only rivaled for per capita income by Switzerland, another country founded by Bible believing Christians) because we were blessed by Almighty God because of the love for Him that was brought to these shores by so many of the original settlers. Although many became apostate in their commitment to Christ as decades past, many did not; there was a continuous thread of Christian values and revivals that remained our foundation, sometimes in mere lip service but sometimes in practice.
But greed, sensuality, and pagan values began to erode and usurp Christian values and beliefs.
Jesus says plainly in the above verses from Revelation that Rome (and now the USA) has waxed ecstatic with a sense of superiority because of its material successes. This over emphasis on material success at the expense of spiritual commitment will by God’s judgment result in “torment and sorrow.” This is a lesson for all time. When we are self-indulgent, we should question ourselves – yet we do not want to necessarily be penurious and especially so in charitable or church matters. When we spend money, others benefit from their participation in the marketplace. Thus, even in matters of simple everyday commerce, we must be in constant prayer and seek God’s leading in all transactions.
This passage projects burning, death, and famine, and Rome faced all these horrid conditions in 427 AD. The glory of Rome with its great architecture, literature, engineering, laws, and sophisticated rhetoric all were drowned in a sea of pain as they were overrun by the pagan Germanic tribes. This will happen to the USA which has fundamentally rejected the moral foundation of its Biblical Christian roots, although there are still many who practice and adhere to Scriptural values. It is a sad truth that the Lord will come to judge the living and the dead, but the word “living” must be understood as those living in, with, and through the Word.
Thus, the real parallel between Rome and the USA can only be understood when we look at the real-time prophecy that was given about Rome to John, and admit finally that this judgment awaits the fabulously successful USA that is now in decline, but can be expected to face much worse days.
Jeffrey Ludwig
Photo: Phys.org
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