The Fall of an Empire

“The historian and politician Edward Gibbon gives five reasons for the decline of the Roman Empire in his book, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. As the first step towards decline, he lists the undermining of the dignity and the sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society. The second step includes higher and higher taxes, and the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace. The third was the mad craze for pleasure and sports becoming, every year, more exciting, more brutal, and more immoral. The fourth step was the building of great armaments when the real enemy was within: the decay of individual responsibility. The fifth was the decay of religion, fading into mere form, losing touch with life, and losing power to guide the people. You see, a nation’s decline begins with spiritual apostasy, which is followed by moral awfulness, and results in political anarchy.”

Excerpt From

Genesis through Revelation

J. Vernon McGee