Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire


Edward Gibbon

T he Five Main Points



1. The Rapid Increase of Divorce and the Undermining of the Sanctity of the Home.

The “Lying Demon of Divorce” is having a field day. We are witnessing the complete breakdown of the family unit. The ancient family of father, mother and child/ren is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

The family concept is not the creation of Western society. Nor is it of Eastern origin. It is a concept structured by God and is evidenced in the Garden of Eden.

The three levels of society are falling under increasing attack: the home, the church and the nation.

A nation is destroyed by chipping away at its basic unit of construction - the home. A nation can only be as strong as its family unit members. Destroy the family and the nation is destroyed.

Recent divorce figures for the immediate past two years reveal the following: Western Society 34%

Christian Church 38%

The Christian Church, the intended example of the family, is falling apart at a greater rate than the overall rate of a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. he that loveth hus wife loveth himself.
29 For na man ver yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth it and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Ephesians 6:1-4 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;
3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

The function of the father has become the butt of many a joke throughout this generation. The sanctity of the home has been increasingly undermined with the major assault directed at its head, the father. He, the father, is portrayed as a bigot, an idiot, a buffoon and a fool. His authority is repeatedly questioned. He has been severely maligned in all forms of media. Little wonder then we are witnessing the demise of the traditional family unit.

And yet, this is not some new thing, peculiar to this generation It has occurred over and over throughout history.

It happened in Rome. Indeed it was one of the five major reasons for the decline and fall of that mighty empire.

2. The Spiraling Rise of Higher and Higher Taxes and the Spending of Public Monies for Entertainments, (free bread and circuses).

Rome beheld the spectacle of continual increases in taxation. So much so, the bureaucrats hiked the rate to 110%. This is the confiscation of all private property.

So one of the two major Marxist planks for taking over a nation is not a recent innovation. He advocated a graduated income tax system.

The only difference between a slave and a free man is the right to own private property and the exercising of that sovereign right in defending that property.

Governments scheme, connive and plan their raids of extortion on their people. Their endeavours seek to extract the wealth of their citizens in any conceivable manner, whether it be on a Federal, State or Local level.

The application of GST in Australia is just another example of the increased money grab.

The best form of government is the government that governs least.

So much for democracy.

The 1928 U.S. Army field manual explains democracy as %%%

Democracy always leads to autocracy, tyranny and slavery. In Greece the leader of a democracy is called a tyrant! Democracy began in Tyre. Tyranny is a synonymn for democracy. This is a graphic picture of the lynch-mob in operation. Whatever the majority wants, it can have, irrespective of whether it is moral or immoral.

Plato taught us 3,000 years ago. The executive committe of a democracy comes to power via election. People vote for a particular candidate because they get something they wouldn’t have got if they didn’t vote for them. The only way a government can provide for the wants of the majority is to acquire it from the minority. Democracy is the process whereby the government induces the majority to rob the minority. Only the biggest thieves can get elected.
 
Inspite of history we continue to persist in this stupidity.

World War II was fought to make the world safe for “democracy.”

Democracy is the supposed rule of the majority of a nation’s people. Its end result is mob rule. You see, murder is wrong, irrespective of how many people sanction it.

A ministerial colleague of mine was given a plaque which occupies pride of place in his office. It reads:

“A majority is simply all the fools on one side.”

There is only one method a government can employ to enact its grandiose schemes. Extortion. That is why you are obliged to vote (compulsory) for the biggest crooks possible. You have to put the people in power that can extract the most finance to underwrite their Social Welfare Programmes.

Socialism is the disease that erodes any society.

It matters not if we vote for Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee, [Teedle Dohn and Teddle Dim] We are voting for more of the same. These twins are simply two arms of the same socialist governments.

The only form of government that will merge to form a World Government is Socialism. This has been the concealed intention of the powers that be from the very beginning.

After all we don’t really think we (the people) run the country, do we? What is that noble American declaration? Government is of the people by the people for the people. Yes, that is how the Founding Fathers planned it. But we are long removed from this position today. Have you noticed the acronym of the former Communist Soviet Union? U.S.S.R. The second “S” does not stand for Communist: it stands for Socialist. Any Communist knows there can never be Communism without prior Socialism.

Governments don’t bestow rights. The term, Civil Rights, is a misnomer: it is a contadiction of terms. Civil means of the government. Governments bestow privileges - for these we are taxed - legally. A right cannot be taxed. A person is born with rights: he is granted them by his Creator.

Governments do not create money - they consume money and they do so at an ever increasing rate. They steal from the people to operate their socialistic programmes - they have no other source: they are parasites.

Illegal immigrants, (boat people), to Australia, processed after hours in Adelaide, SA, to avoid detection by irate taxpayers have been granted extended visas, medical health care and social welfare payments of $326 per fortnight.

Ah, the blight of socialism.

The sad thing in all this is the world has travelled this path before and the thing we have learned from all this previous history is that we don’t learn from history.

We are racing down the very same road, doomed to repeat the history of those who have gone before.

3. The Mad Craze for Pleasure and the Brutalizing of Sports in Every Imaginable Manner.

It used to be that sports operated on a competitive basis only. Sadly, this is no longer the case. Following in the footsteps of those who have gone before, rugby league is promoted as war, athletes do all in their power to win, infusing themselves with performance enhancing drugs to give them the edge over their competitors. “Winning is everything.” Corners are cut, risks are taken, every means possible is employed to elevate the sportsman to “god-like”” status. Sporting heroes are worshipped.

Yes, it is true: the God of the Bible has been fosaken; the new god, sports, has emerged: major events are conducted on Sundays

The sun, the surf, the sand and the sea provide stiff competition for the Christian Church.

Even sports supporters have become so intense in their new religion, they travel the globe in pusuit of the favourite team’s conquest. A recent soccer encounter in Turkey claimed two British supporters lives via stabbing. Indeed, British soccer supporters hooliganism is well-known.

WAR WAR WAR

atomic bomb.

Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

This is reinforced by the Apostle Peter.

2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

And what of China, the sleeping giant? Today she is awakening. Currently the wealth of the world is being transferred to China, precisely in the same manner as it did with Japan after World War 2, and susequently Korea.

She is the emerging superpower. She will surpass both the United Nations of Europe and The United States of America in prowess and military might.

She has stolen the military secrets of the U.S. and is currently developing and will deploy a mighty nuclear arsenal. She has the delivery vehicles.

If there is a military power to be feared, China it it.   The size of her army - the kings of the east - is predicted in the Bible.   200,000,000 Two hundred million men under arms!


Revelation 9:13 - 16 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

Cicero told us two thousand years ago, “Do not worry about an army, no matter how large, at your gates. It is not nearly as terrible as the small force in your allies, who are committing treason. A fifth colum in your nation is far greater to be feared than any external force.”

Yet we have not learned the tragic lesson from the most effective killing machine in history - the Roman legions: the armies so expertly trained in war that is was said of them, “Their drills were like battles and their battles were like drills.”

Military morals in the Western World are currently sliding into the abyss. But still we refuse to learn the lessons of history - that we don’t learn from history.

5. The Decay of Religions and the Fading of Faith Into Mere Ceremonies and Customs, Thus Becoming Impotent to Serve as a Guide to the People.

A ministerial colleague of mine informs me that a Uniting Church minister told him, “Blood (referring to the Blood of Jesus Christ), offends me. What you are presenting is a slaughter-house religion.”

Another affirms, “As far as talking of the Blood of the Lamb is concerned and for all the good that will do you, you might as well speak of the wool of the Lamb.”

No wonder religion has degenerated into shells and crusts of what once had been.

The Bible teaches that the life is in the blood. Deny the blood, particularly the Blood of the Son of God and you deny life. There can be no life without blood! And there is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood.

So much of Christianity in the Western Hemisphere has become dull, boring, uninteresting, formal, traditional - but then, all this has preceded us.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 [Literal] But know this, that in [the] last days grievous times will be at hand. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, braggarts, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural feeling, unyielding, slanderers, without self-control, savage, haters of good, betrayers, reckless, puffed up, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it; even turn away from these.

Turn away from these. Why? Lest you become infected with the same lethargic, indifferent, lukewarm spirit: lest you become exposed to that rotten apple that will gnaw at your spirit like a cancer.

In many ways the Church has become impotent. It has no voice. It provides no leadership. Governments have taken the place of the Church. In many avenues the Church has nothing to offer.

Surely, the one thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history!!!

Western Society!

The Church is in a far worse condition than those who do not know Jesus Christ as both Lord and Saviour.

Have You Never Read?

From the Beginning it Was Not So

What Therefore God Hath Joined Together, Let Not Man Put Asunder

Commits Adultery

Matthew 19:3 - The Pharisees also
whereby the government induces the majority to rob the minority. Only the

The one thing we learn from history is that we DON’T learn from history.

It has been wisely said, ‘Those who don’t learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.’

History repeats itself.

In the scheme of things, nothing changes.

Ecclesiastes 1:9, 10 The thing that hath been, that is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

Ecclesiastes 3:15 That which hath been is now: and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

The past is the future. The past is the present. The future is the past.

For example, the modern cults associated with Christianity are new to us. They are not new to the Fathers of the Early Church. Though known by different names, the spirit involved in them is precisely the same. These heresies were purged from the Church in its beginning. Today we witness a resurgence of these ancient spirits together with the spirits of heathen gods.

he one thing we learn from history is that we DON’T learn from history.

It has been wisely said, ‘Those who don’t learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.’

History repeats itself.

In the scheme of things, nothing changes.

Ecclesiastes 1:9, 10 The thing that hath been, that is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

Ecclesiastes 3:15 That which hath been is now: and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

The past is the future. The past is the present. The future is the past.

For example, the modern cults associated with Christianity are new to us. They are not new to the Fathers of the Early Church. Though known by different names, the spirit involved in them is precisely the same. These heresies were purged from the Church in its beginning. Today we witness a resurgence of these ancient spirits together with the spirits of heathen gods.