| “Rome fell because of inner weakness, either social or spiritual; or Rome fell because of outer pressure—the barbarian hordes. What we can say with confidence is that Rome fell gradually and that Romans for many decades scarcely noticed what was happening.” |
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– Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization |
In the Fourth Century, A.D., the populations of the Germanic tribes living north of Rome had grown exponentially. These “barbarians” had successfully transitioned from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer society to one based on farming. As tribal populations increased, they needed more land because they needed more food.
Hunger is a powerful motivator.
Here Come the Barbarians
For centuries, the Romans military’s Legions had stopped the fragmented advances of a rabble of various Germanic tribes across Imperial Rome’s frontier. In 406 A.D., due to an icy winter, the Rhine River froze over. The barbarians saw their opportunity as the winter geography had changed to favor the horde. The Rhine became a land bridge for a swarming mass of Germanic tribes.
Rome was too strong, too rich, just too superior to fall to such a mob. The Romans knew that these pagan tribes would never prevail in a single battle, much less conquer an empire. The Romans were wrong.
The Roman legions were well trained and disciplined, but they were too few and their leaders too weak to withstand the desperate tribes pouring across the borders. The surge would continue in the ensuing years as the Western Roman Empire’s military and economic power—for centuries solid and stable—was finally defeated.
The tribes surging across the Rhine poured into Gaul, severing Britain from Rome. The Dark Ages began. In 410 B.C., Alaric, the Visigoth chieftain, brought his army to the gates of Rome. Inside the walls, pro-Alaric partisans opened the gates, and the barbarian hordes sacked the city for the first time in 800 years. In 476 A.D., the Western Roman Empire finally collapsed.
Cohesion
Cohesion is the ability to bond into a whole, hold together, and resist rupture. Rome was held together by the raw power of the Legions. When the Germanic tribes penetrated the frontier and isolated their outposts, the Roman legions lost their cohesiveness. When the barbarians saw that they no longer had to fear Rome’s military power, the Empire’s fractures became fissures. Left unprotected, Rome’s commerce and industry lost cohesiveness as well. Fear fostered unrest; unrest lead to anarchy, and anarchy brought societal fragmentation, deepening the fear. Patterns of Roman life, established over centuries, eventually became only a dim recollection of how peaceful things used to be.
Disintegration
Consider the first stanza of the often-quoted poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939):
Turning and turning in the widening gyre |
Commenting on “The Second Coming” poem, the legal scholar Robert Bork (1927-2012) wrote:
“There is good reason why William Butler Yeats’s “The Second Coming” is probably the most quoted poem of our time. The image of a world disintegrating, then to be subject to a brutal force, speaks to our fears now. When Yeats wrote that in 1919, he may have foreseen that the twentieth Century would experience the “blood-dimmed tide,” as indeed it has. But he can hardly have had any conception of just how thoroughly things would fall apart as the center failed to hold in the last third of this Century [20th Century]. He could hardly have foreseen that passionate intensity, uncoupled from morality, would shred the fabric of Western culture. The rough beast of decadence, a long time in gestation, having reached its maturity in the last three decades, now slouches us toward our new home, not Bethlehem, but Gomorrah.” |
Nations Rise and Fall
The Apostle Paul teaches that we are to pray for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty (1 Timothy 2:2). Yet, effective as those prayers can be, throughout history, the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.’ (Psalms 2:2-3)
As rulers and an increasingly large percentage of a nation’s population pivot from acknowledging God in the way they orient to life, God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against them (Romans 1:18). Suppression of the truth is fundamental to the process of creating disorientation to God and the rejection of the gospel of grace. These societies’ rhetoric becomes more deceptively constructed; evil is labeled good, and good is labeled evil (Isaiah 5:20). The people are blinded to truth (2 Corinthians 4:4). These nations face the judgment of the Almighty:
He makes nations great, and destroys them; Job 12:23-25 |
Shine the Light
As our nation descends into a fog of deception, chaos, and violence, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will find greater and greater opportunities to cast doubt upon the self-confidence of those who walk in the vanity of their minds (Ephesians 4:17). As the darkness deepens, the brighter the light appears and the contrast between righteousness and unrighteousness—good and evil—becomes more pronounced. The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes (Romans 1:16), and the need for a firm and truthful foundation for faith is never more strongly felt than when men face the collapse of their way of life.
The threats you may feel from these conditions are real, but they are also avenues into realms where the Lord will command the light to shine out of darkness (2 Corinthians 4:6). When facing such calamitous events you should remember this verse: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
The answer is nobody (Romans 8:35).
It is getting colder. Freezing temperatures should be expected. We need to consistently and boldly hold forth the word of life, that we may rejoice in the day of Christ, knowing that we have not run our race in life or labored for nothing (Philippians 2:16).
Prepare—don’t despair.
Harper sends