i. a mounting love of show/luxury (affluence)
ii. widening gap between the very rich and very poor
iii. obsession with sex
iv. freakishness in the arts; masquerading as originality and enthusiasm, pretending to be creativity
v. an increased desire to live off the state
Does this sound like any nation in particular?
I automatically thought of the USA as our speaker challenged us with this today. It was actually a quote by a British historian named Edward Gibbon in his 1776 book "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." He listed these as the main attributes of Rome before its fall. Ironically that was written the year that the USA was starting out, hey? Makes me shudder. The fall of Rome is commonly attributed to outside Barbarian invasion, but truthfully it did not fall because of external influence. Their fall was the result of internal decay as they turned from a firm foundation on absolute truth.
We're watching a video series by Dr. Francis Schaeffer this week called "How Should We Then Live?" As much as I enjoyed the first day, I'm expecting awesome things from the Lord all week! Something else I found interesting was that the Roman culture as it reached the fall was marked by apathy. I had a terrific conversation last night about ... apathy. God confirmed a lot of things in my heart that I'm feeling directed toward and it's neat to see Him tie things together.
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9
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