Mighty Rome Fell—America Is on Its Deathbed
BY GERALD FLURRY
Why do great nations or empires fall? Why do superpowers fall? It is a fact of history that all world-ruling empires have collapsed. But why?
Many people are deeply concerned about the state of the American superpower today. But it is easy to assume America could never fall. It is such a mighty country, with vast resources, superb technology and a peerless military. Many Americans seem to believe the country can indefinitely survive endless abuse, rampant corruption and radical transformation of foundational institutions.
This is false. History teaches us much about America’s fate.
There is a cause for every effect. The great historian Edward Gibbon wrote about the fall of the Roman Empire, the greatest of all the world-ruling empires. If you study Gibbon’s work, it is obvious that America is headed in the same direction! You could say that Britain—at one time an empire even greater than America—has already traveled even further down that road.
In his masterpiece, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbon identified five major causes that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire: first, the breakdown of the family; second, increased taxation; third, an insatiable craving for pleasure; fourth, an unsustainable buildup of armaments; fifth, the decay of religion. This Trumpet issue examines all five of these causes.
One of the greatest historians of all time explained how and why ancient Rome fell. Don’t the conditions surrounding Rome’s fall sound eerily similar to conditions prevalent in the United States and British Commonwealth today?
The story of Rome—its dramatic rise and mastery of the world, and then its long decline and eventual collapse—is one of the most gripping in world history! But it isn’t merely a historical curiosity. When you study the problems the Romans grappled with and succumbed to, you recognize so many of the exact crises facing America and Britain today.
How Great Was Rome?
There are many arguments about all the factors that caused Rome’s fall and how relevant the lessons from that history are. Here is a factor that adds significant weight to this study:
The truth is that God prophesied the rise and fall of Rome—and God prophesied the rise and fall of America and Britain.
Yes, God foretold the Roman Empire’s epic ascent centuries in advance. In the closing years of the seventh century b.c., God gave King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonian Empire a prophetic vision that foretold millenniums of events that would follow. Interpreted by the Prophet Daniel and recorded in the second chapter of his biblical book, the vision was of a statue representing four successive world-ruling Gentile empires: beginning with the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar, followed by Medo-Persia, then Greco-Macedonia, and finally Rome.
The Roman Empire was symbolized by the statue’s iron legs. This empire, Daniel explained, “shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise” (Daniel 2:40). At the time, Rome was a monarchy of little influence, governed by Tarquin the Elder. There was little indication that it would grow to become the military juggernaut spoken of by Daniel, a power that would “break in pieces and subdue all things.”
This chilling prophecy was amplified by another that Daniel later spoke, recorded in Daniel 7. Here the same Roman Empire is depicted as “a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it …” (verse 7). Rome was still in its infancy, waiting in the wings. The Persian and Greek empires would dominate the world before Rome would burst into its full, frightful military vigor.
By the time the Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation at the end of the first century a.d., the Roman Empire was fulfilling Daniel’s descriptions with stunning accuracy, bestriding the world with imposing force and brutality. John described it in these symbolic terms: “a beast … having seven heads and ten horns …. And the beast … was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion …” (Revelation 13:1-2). With skilled leadership, brilliant tactics, impressive innovation, well-trained and well-armed soldiers and ruthless efficacy, Rome’s military was able to overwhelm its foes and extend the empire’s borders wider than any power that preceded it. It has been said that not until some 15 centuries later under Napoleon Bonaparte did the world produce an army rivaling that of Imperial Rome.
Besides its military and territorial achievements, Rome attained staggering wealth, unmatched architecture and technology, and profound and broad cultural influence. And its domination went on for century after century.
Understandably, the Romans thought themselves invincible. “Proud Romans became lulled by the belief in the seeming ‘eternity’ and superiority of their system, in their long chain of rarely broken military and economic successes, as if fate had determined they should always come out on top despite repeated challenges to their existence,” reads The Modern Romans, a booklet produced by Ambassador College Press in 1971 under Herbert W. Armstrong’s watchful eye.
But as you will read in the articles that follow, there were warning signs. Those with eyes to see could recognize weakness and rot—economically, militarily, culturally, morally. Yet the great majority of Romans were unconcerned, complacent, self-absorbed, distracted, glutted on luxury, blind to what was truly happening.
“When Seneca, the Roman statesman, warned that Rome would fall, the people snickered. ‘Rome fall?’ It could lose a few battles, but not the empire. ‘Rome,’ mused the average citizen basking in the height of world power, ‘is impregnable.’ Rome was the world—and the world was Rome” (ibid).
But then, the unthinkable did happen!
Read more:
https://www.thetrumpet.com/26645-mighty-rome-fell-america-is-on-its-deathbed.
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