My Civilization

About the time of America's original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2000 years prior:


"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."


"The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:


1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage


Just ten to twenty years ago we would of probably never imagined our country and culture the way it is today. We became complacent and apathetic in many areas and possibly we just thought it was a phase, or not as bad, or that the pendulum would surely swing the other way. And even the church became comfortable and in many ways exited the culture. The minds turned to the idea of complacency in Government. That government would take care of every social need. And so through the apathy of the welfare mindset, motivation for innovation or personal responsibility was destroyed. Increasingly creating the dependency on Government to solve our problems.


Many sociologists would believe we are in stage 7. History will repeat itself if we fail to wake up. Once we reach back to bondage under a tyrannical government then at that point a nations only choice to have freedom is through war. Civil wars, revolutions, and the country's foreign wars will leave the country weak. And at stage 8 the nation would have a massive national debt and this could very well bankrupt the country. Leaving the country broken and weakened to foreign countries influence.


A nation either destroyed itself or was conquered.

We are getting past the point when history will repeat itself. We are now approaching the end of the age, and we will see that history will not repeat itself.

Do you know the day or hour or year? Probably not. We live as if Christ could return today but prepare as if it is 2000 more years.

Not very likely. We are to observe the signs of the times and act accordingly. So what do we see around us?

1. Christendom going deeper and deeper into apostasy.
2. America -- the bastion of freedom -- going deeper into bondage in many ways.
3. The New World Order -- Satan's conspiracy -- taking more and more control.
4. Islam becoming more and more of a menace.
5. The Middle East on the brink of all out warfare.
6. China making a bid to control the world.
7. Orthodox Jews making serious preparation to build the Third Temple in Jerusalem.

These are all events which will precede the revelation of the Antichrist and his total control (with the assistance of Satan) of the whole world for 3 1/2 years. This will be unprecedented. Therefore history will NOT repeat itself.

Point is we do not know the day or hour and we shouldn't give up until the very end.

From what I have read of Ancient Greece during their democratic city-state period, Athens did not go through a stage of spiritual faith at that time. They were into carnal idolatry, though they may have had one brief interaction with God when they built memorials to the unknown God.

Something that comes to mind is that Jesus said that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. The United States is very politically divided. It has been divided for decades, but it is getting worse. I understand why someone may not care for aspects of Trump's personality, character, and 'moral track record', and if he happens to be on the opposite side of one's political preferences, how that dislike could be multiplied many times. We are really seeing that, and it seems to be very divisive. I have missed the most recent bits of so-called 'news' on Trump, but the case that he actually committed a crime or anything worthy of all the buzz about impeachment seemed pretty thin the last I checked.


When I was a child, there was news on TV. The newscasters considered it their duty to be unbiased. There was a liberal bias because many that went into the field were liberal and could not help it. You might see a bead of sweat on Dan Rather's brow if a Republican was going to win the election. But the liberal bias was there, and conservative radio emerged, proving there was a huge market for a conservative take on the news. Fox news countered by positioning itself as a 'fair and balanced' conservative channel that gave a conservative interpretation of the news. They took the lead in ratings. Fox isn't that much news. It seems to be about 90% political opinion. MSNBC and eventually CNN immitated Fox, except taking Fox's approach with a smarmy liberal splin.

20 or 30 years ago, I could turn on cable TV and know what was going on in the world even if I did not watch at 6 or 7 PM. Now, I turn on the news channel and hear people spout their political opinions about a few paragraphs worth of carefully chosen and spun news content.

And the news commentators on CNN lament to the camera about the derogatory comments Trump makes about them spouting 'fake news' and being the enemy of the American people....as if we the viewers would actually share in their outrage of such an assessment. It is 'fake news' in that it is not good, professional news anymore. A lot of programs are 90%+ opinion...opinions I do not care to hear if I am actually turning on the TV to listen to news. And are they the enemy of the American people? The division these news channels stir up could indeed be increasing divisions that could eventually lead to the nation falling.

If the nation did split apart, I don't know how that would work. The west coast and the east coast would fit together politically, but it would be hard to have a nation split apart like that.

Giving up was not the option presented to Christians. But the Church has one primary mandate (Matthew 28) which it should stay focused on until the Rapture. That is a big enough job:

18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.Amen.