‘Decline of Empire: Parallels Between the U.S. and Rome’
Old Worldwide Church of God booklet
Are the USA and its British-descended allies a modern version of Rome that is declining?
Doug Casey posted the following:
Decline of Empire: Parallels Between the U.S. and Rome
There are some similarities between the U.S. and Rome. …
Rome reached its peak of military power around the year 107, when Trajan completed the conquest of Dacia (the territory of modern Romania). With Dacia, the empire peaked in size, but I’d argue it was already past its peak by almost every other measure.
The U.S. reached its peak relative to the world, and in some ways its absolute peak, as early as the 1950s. In 1950 this country produced 50% of the world’s GNP and 80% of its vehicles. Now it’s about 21% of world GNP and 5% of its vehicles. It owned two-thirds of the world’s gold reserves; now it holds one-fourth. It was, by a huge margin, the world’s biggest creditor, whereas now it’s the biggest debtor by a huge margin. …
Like America, Rome was founded by refugees—from Troy, at least in myth. Like America, it was ruled by kings in its early history. Later, Romans became self-governing, with several Assemblies and a Senate. Later still, power devolved to the executive, which was likely not an accident.
U.S. founders modeled the country on Rome, all the way down to the architecture of government buildings, the use of the eagle as the national bird, the use of Latin mottos, and the unfortunate use of the fasces—the axe surrounded by rods—as a symbol of state power. Publius, the pseudonymous author of The Federalist Papers, took his name from one of Rome’s first consuls. As it was in Rome, military prowess is at the center of the national identity of the U.S. When you adopt a model in earnest, you grow to resemble it. …
So why did Rome fall? In 1985, a German named Demandt assembled 210 reasons. I find some of them silly—like racial degeneration, homosexuality, and excessive freedom. Most are redundant. Some are just common sense—like bankruptcy, loss of moral fiber, and corruption. …
Republican Rome fell in 31 BCE with the accession of Augustus and the start of what’s called the Principate. It almost disintegrated in the 50 years of the mid-3rd century, a time of constant civil war, the start of serious barbarian incursions, and the destruction of Rome’s silver currency, the denarius. … beginning with the Principate period, Rome underwent an accelerating trend toward absolutism, centralization, totalitarianism, and bureaucracy. I think we can argue America entered its Principate with the accession of Roosevelt in 1933; since then, the president has reigned supreme over the Congress, as Augustus did over the Senate. Pretenses fell off increasingly over time in Rome, just as they have in the U.S. …
One additional political parallel with the U.S.: up to Trajan in 100 AD, all the emperors were culturally Roman from old, noble families. After that, few were. The U.S. now has had its first Kenyan president … https://internationalman.com/articles/decline-of-empire-parallels-between-the-us-and-rome-part-i/ accessed 01/05/23
There will be many denials, but the USA will fall like ancient civilizations.
Other have seen similarities to ancient Rome:
Are we ‘Rome’? The question has weighed heavily on the minds of American conservatives, libertarians and Catholics at their various conferences. Is America headed the way of the Roman empire? Bureaucratic decay, massive public debt, an overstretched military, a political system seemingly incapable of responding to challenges – “the late Roman empire suffered these maladies, and so, some fear, does contemporary America”, notes The American Conservative, a journal which has been pursuing this ‘line’ diligently, and with a growing constituency, over a number of years. (Note that this is not the constituency of Vice-President Pence who represents an Evangelical, fundamentalist, literal insistence on imminent Redemption, with its ‘Rapture’ politics).
The American Conservative rather warns:
“If libertarians on the Right worry about structural collapse – cultural and religious conservatives add a moral and spiritual dimension to the debate. Rising hedonism, waning religious observance, ongoing break-up of the family, and a general loss of cultural coherence — to traditionalists, these are signs of a possible Dark Age ahead”.
… “For MacIntyre”, Rod Dreher, the author of The Benedict Option writes: “we too are living through a Fall of Rome-like catastrophe, one that is concealed by our liberty and prosperit”. Dreher continues, “In his influential 1981 book, After Virtue, MacIntyre argued that the Enlightenment project cut Western man off from his roots in tradition, but failed to produce a binding morality based on Reason alone. Plus, the Enlightenment extolled the autonomous individual. Consequently, we live in a culture of moral chaos and fragmentation in which many questions are simply impossible to settle. MacIntyre says that our contemporary world is a dark wood, and that finding our way back to the straight path will require establishing new forms of community”.
“The “Benedict Option” thus refers to [those] in contemporary America who cease to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of American Empire, and who therefore are keen to construct local forms of community as loci of Christian resistance against what the Empire represents. Put less grandly, the Benedict Option — or ‘Ben Op’ — is an umbrella term for Christians [and American conservatives], who accept MacIntyre’s critique of modernity”. …
What is so interesting to an outsider, is how the Ben Op’s author, Dreher, situates it within the US political context:
“Many of us on the Right who have been dismayed by the Trumpening (sic), and have been hard hit by the Kavanaugh debacle, have concluded that [nonetheless], we have no choice but to vote Republican this November – if only out of self-defense. (He refers to November 2018)
“But let me quote two passages from The Benedict Option:
“The cultural Left—which is to say, the American mainstream— has no intention of living in post-war peace. It is pressing forward with a harsh, relentless occupation, one that is aided by the cluelessness of Christians [i.e. those mirroring liberalism], who don’t understand what’s happening. Don’t be fooled: the upset presidential victory of Donald Trump has at best given us a bit more time to prepare for the inevitable (emphasis added).
[Those] who believe that politics alone will be sufficient – are not going to be prepared for what’s going to come when the Republicans lose the White House and/or Congress, which is inevitable. Our politics have become so sulfurous that there will be a vicious backlash, and that backlash will fall primarily on social and religious conservatives. When the Democrats regain power, conservative Christians are going to be in very bad shape”.
The Ben Op, in other words, is another important window into what Professor Mike Vlahos has described as the gathering, next chapter to America’s unresolved ‘civil war’: “America today fissuring into two visions of the nation’s future way of life: “Red” virtue imagines a continuity of family and community within a publicly affirmed national community. “Blue” virtue imagines personally chosen communities mediated through the individual’s relationship with the state. So, even though these two divided visions of America have been opposed for decades, and so far have controlled the urge to violence, there is in their bitter contest [of today] a sense of gathering movement toward an ultimate decision”.
“Today, two righteous paths are gridlocked in opposition … Red and Blue already represent an irreparable religious schism, deeper in doctrinal terms even than the 16th-century Catholic-Protestant schism. The war here, is over which faction successfully captures the (social media) flag, as true inheritor of American virtue. Both perceive themselves as champions of national renewal, of cleansing corrupted ideals, and of truly fulfilling America’s promise. Both fervently believe that they alone – own virtue.” https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/03/04/us-conservatives-pursue-ben-option-global-ramification.html
The US is a house divided and will fall, even worse than ancient Rome did. The UK has Brexit and other troubles. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are having issues as well.
Decades ago, the old Worldwide Church of God put out various publications about similarities between ancient Rome and the USA and UK:
The FIVE MAJOR CAUSES for the collapse of the Roman Empire are rife in modern America and Britain. Tragically, modern man has not learned from historical mistakes. Millions today believe America is too big, too powerful, and too wealthy to suffer a similar fate. But the cold facts present a bleak warning — a warning we simply must not ignore!
“Ho, ho!” they laughed at the warnings of Seneca. “Rome fall? Never!”
To Roman citizens living in the glitter of empire — enjoying an explosive frenzy of building, with huge cities, bejeweled with rising marble columns, with paved, pleasant tree-lined avenues and rushing fountains; seeing the victory parades through triumphal arches of yet additional conquests; hearing of the exploits of this or that great general — Rome was impregnable. She was the world — and the world was Rome.
To speculate for one brief moment that all this could soon collapse — that the ravages of wars, taxation, mounting crime, race riots, subversion from within, political assassinations, natural disasters and public apathy would one day bring Rome to utter collapse and ruin, was not only unimaginable to them — it was folly to the heights of idiocy.
And to millions of American and British people today — the thought that America and Britain could suffer a similar fate — though with more modern consequences — seems equally ludicrous.
But Rome fell. …
The Five Major Causes
The five major causes for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire deduced from the writings of Edward Gibbon and noted historians of the Roman world are these: (1) The BREAKDOWN OF THE FAMILY and the rapid increase of DIVORCE. (2) The spiraling rise of TAXES and EXTRAVAGANT SPENDING. (3) The MOUNTING CRAZE FOR PLEASURE and the brutalization of sports. (4) The mounting production of ARMAMENTS to fight ever-increasing threats of enemy attacks. (5) The DECAY OF RELIGION into myriad and confusing forms, leaving the people without a uniform guide. (Armstrong GT, Hogberg G. The MODERN ROMANS – PART I. Plain Truth, August 1969)
Writes historian William Stearns Davis in his book, The Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome, pages 163, 164, 167:
“As an almost unavoidable corollary of the huge Roman fortunes, went the accumulation of huge debts… Even men of grave and respectable habits caught the mania of their age, that of living beyond their incomes…
“The typical Roman of birth and fashion [the upper class — like average Americans today], may then be imagined as regularly in debt, and frequently on the brink of ruin.”
Mania of Our Age, Too
Total debt in the United States, both public and private, stands at an astronomical 1.6 trillion dollars!
This enormous sum is double what it was only ten years ago. Armstrong GT, Hogberg G. The MODERN ROMANS – PART II. Plain Truth, September 1969)
IF the dollar is devalued, INFLATION will almost surely result — and eventual economic COLLAPSE for the United States.
Those of you who truly BELIEVE the prophecies of your Bible KNOW such economic collapse is prophesied to happen! (Armstrong HW. Co-worker Letter, March 26, 1968)
Rome collapsed under the crushing twin burdens of confiscatory taxation and creeping inflation. The steady deterioration of Rome’s currency was symptomatic of the increasingly serious financial situation of the empire.
But note this: What “average” pleasure-oriented Roman, living for the day, ever dreamed his proud nation would someday collapse into ignominy and be remembered only in the past tense in the pages of history?
There were those who warned the Romans of the inevitable end of their ways. Rome had its prophets, its seers, its political satirists. But their combined “jeremiad” fell on deaf ears. Romans, as a whole, would not listen.
And Rome fell.
Americans, Britons, Canadians, Australians, South Africans — as a whole — are not listening to the veritable torrent of shouts and warnings trumpeted by leaders in all aspects of national life.
Will our nations also fall?
The total official debt of the US government is over USD$31 trillion now. This massive debt cannot continue indefinitely–and as we are seeing interest rates rise, this will further stress the USA’s finances until it is too late (cf. Habakkuk 2:6-8).
Debt is a consequence of sin and is a curse:
43 The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. 45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed…47 “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. 51 And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you. 52 They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you (Deuteronomy 28:42-45,47-52).
Increased acceptance and participation of sin and greed is the real structural cause of what will lead to the end of the USA. Abortion, pornography, sexual immorality, a disdain for scripture, etc. are major problems that are leading to bad political and other decisions.
This will not end well for the USA or its Anglo-Saxon descended allies (Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 8:24-25; 11:39).
That said, the civilization that defeats the USA and its British-descended allies will be defeated and collapse as well.
But the GOOD NEWS is that it will be replaced by the millennial Kingdom of God once Jesus returns.
Some items of possibly related interest may include:
When Will the Great Tribulation Begin? 2023, 2024, or 2025? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great Tribulation in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? Is this the time of the Gentiles? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord? Who are the 144,000? Here is a version of the article in the Spanish language: ¿Puede la Gran Tribulación comenzar en el 2020 o 2021? ¿Es el Tiempo de los Gentiles? A related video is: Great Tribulation: 2026 or 2027? A shorter video is: Can the Great Tribulation start in 2022 or 2023? Notice also: Can Jesus return in 2023 or 2024? Here is a video in the Spanish language: Es El 2021 el año de La Gran Tribulación o el Grande Reseteo Financiero.
Is God Calling You? This booklet discusses topics including calling, election, and selection. If God is calling you, how will you respond? Here is are links to related sermons: Christian Election: Is God Calling YOU? and Predestination and Your Selection. A short animation is also available: Is God Calling You?
Christian Repentance Do you know what repentance is? Is it really necessary for salvation? Two related sermons about this are also available: Real Repentance and Real Christian Repentance.
Just What Do You Mean — Repentance? Do you know what repentance is? Have you truly repented? Repented of what? Herbert W. Armstrong wrote this as a booklet on this important subject.
When You Sin: Do You Really Repent? This is an article by Charles F. Hunting. A related sermon is Confess to God and truly repent.
Zephaniah’s ‘Gather Together’ Prophecy Is it safe to be ‘independent’ or in a non-Philadelphin Church of God? What did God inspire Zephaniah to write?
There is a Place of Safety for the Philadelphians. Why it May Be Petra This article discusses a biblical ‘place of safety’ and includes quotes from the Bible and Herbert W. Armstrong on this subject–thus, there is a biblically supported alternative to the rapture theory. There is also a video on the subject: Might Petra be the Place of Safety? Here is something related in the Spanish language: Hay un lugar de seguridad para los Filadelfinos. ¿Puede ser Petra?
Is There A Secret Rapture for the Church? When and Where is the Church Protected? What does the Bible really teach? Does the Church flee or is it taken up just prior to the great tribulation? Who really is left behind? There is also a YouTube video with information Did Jesus Teach a Pre-tribulation Rapture?
World War III: Steps in Progress Are there surprising actions going on now that are leading to WWIII? Might a nuclear attack be expected? Does the Bible promise protection to all or only some Christians? How can you be part of those that will be protected? A related video would be Is World War III About to Begin? Can You Escape?
Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America? Where did those people come from? Can you totally rely on DNA? What about other peoples? Do you really know what will happen to Europe and the English-speaking peoples? What about Africa, Asia, South America, and the Islands? This free online book provides scriptural, scientific, historical references, and commentary to address those matters. Here are links to related sermons: Lost tribes, the Bible, and DNA; Lost tribes, prophecies, and identifications; 11 Tribes, 144,000, and Multitudes; Israel, Jeremiah, Tea Tephi, and British Royalty; Gentile European Beast; Royal Succession, Samaria, and Prophecies; Asia, Islands, Latin America, Africa, and Armageddon; and When Will the End of the Age Come?
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. Here are links to four related sermons: The Fantastic Gospel of the Kingdom of God!, The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution.
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