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Christian Responsibility

In his “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” written in 1788, Edward Gibbon specified five basic reasons why that civilization withered and died. One wonders whether historians centuries from now will find a deadly parallel between the societies of the United States and Imperial Rome. The five basic reasons for the Roman Empire’s demise that Gibbon detected was:

1) An undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis for human society.

2) Higher and higher taxes, and spending public money for “free” bread and circuses for the populace.

3) A mad craze for pleasure, with pastimes becoming every year more exciting, brutal, and immoral.

4) Building great armaments, although the real enemy was within — the decay of individual responsibility.

5) Decay of religion — faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and losing power to guide the people.

Can any right thinking person fail to see in these flaws a frightening likeness to the society in which we are now living? Whether we are “beyond the point of no return,” I do not know. I do know that God through His Word tells that, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

Conclusion

Brethren, it is our responsibility as God’s people to continue to, “…. be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights of the world” (Philippians 2:15; cf. Ephesians 5:8).