How Empires End

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson

Histories are generally written by academics. They, quite naturally, tend to focus on the main events: the wars and the struggles between leaders and their opponents (both external and internal). Whilst these are interesting stories to read, academics, by their very nature, often overlook the underlying causes for an empire’s decline.

Today, as in any era, most people are primarily interested in the “news”—the daily information regarding the world’s political leaders and their struggles with one another to obtain, retain, and expand their power. When the history is written about the era we are passing through, it will reflect, in large measure, a rehash of the news. As the media of the day tend to overlook the fact that present events are merely symptoms of an overall decline, so historians tend to focus on major events, rather than the “slow operations” that have been the underlying causes.

When, as a boy, I was “educated” about the decline and fall of the Persian Empire, I learned of the final takeover by Alexander the Great but was never told that, in its decline, Persian taxes became heavier and more oppressive, leading to economic depression and revolts, which, in turn led to even heavier taxes and increased repression. Increasingly, kings hoarded gold and silver, keeping it out of circulation from the community. This hamstrung the market, as monetary circulation was insufficient to conduct business. By the time Alexander came along, Persia, weakened by warfare and internal economic strife, was a shell of an empire and was relatively easy to defeat.

America is now a Dead Country Crawling. We are no longer walking or running. We are crawling to the death of a nation. America is like Rome. Dying of decay from within, for perversion, from corruption, sexual decadency, drugs, alcohol abuse, theft, murder, low life’s taking from the government treasury. America is a self inflicted wound. Festering in the afternoon sun. America as founded, as it grew to its greatest height, is gone. America is in the grave. Waiting for the Anti-christ to throw the dirt on top. America is no where in Bible prophesy. Thus America will not be in the end times. Only those nations mentioned in the Bible will be around, in leadership positions, to make the moves described in the Bible for the last days, right down to Armageddon. It is coming. Your only hope for getting out of this mess is through the offer of Grace from the LORD Jesus Christ. Would be wise to make that move today. You never know when the end will come. And, whether you believe it or not, whether you believe the Bible or not, whether you say it is just stories in a book or whatever, dudden matter. The Bible says it is going to happen and it will. The Bible has been right on target with everything that it predicted in prophesy. It will be spot on with these end time events. Bet on it.

Here is my answer.........

The real God, with a capital "G", allows us to get the leaders we ask for. God uses even pagans to discipline His children. It is our disconnect from God that causes our own downfall. If you look back at the impossible blessings America has experienced since it's birth, look at us now, barely even acknowledging his protection on our country.

One could say that 9-11-2001 could never happen to a blessed country with God's hedge protecting it. We blindly stumble through each day actually believing we can murder 55 million babies and allow sodomites to marry with no consequence. Exactly 7 years later, Sept 2008, we have the largest economic collapses in world history, yet we can't possibly make a connection. exactly 7 years later, Sept 2015, will we be irreversibly punished if we haven't repented as a country? I like to think of myself as a reasonable person, but how does any fair thinking person believe Obama was the "Best man for the job",......TWICE! If you can't force yourself to believe that we are under judgement, how can you explain Obama? In a 20 person field, he somehow gets a landslide twice. People,... that's God!

If we don't repent, as a nation, and turn to Him for protection, we will have destroyed ourselves. A "normal" person can't explain how we ever pay back $17 trillion or cover the bonds we just bought with counterfeit money. A country under God can, by His hand. A country can't explain how to defeat 1.5 billion Muslims that want your children's head on a stick. A country under God can, by His hand. Is it harder to stop murdering babies than to save your land? How tough is it to admit sodomy is an abomination rather than be utterly crushed by our enemies? Leviticus 18:22 tells us that God will not stand for a country of His to allow sodomy in the land. This is more than a personal decision to be homosexual, but the land allows it and the people will be vomited out of the defiled land.

This is just the tip of the destruction iceberg. How about forbidding God in your schools? Why would you send your child anywhere God was not welcome? Ergo, the schools have failed. Now we have a whole generation that is ignorant of the reality of God. How many in America today even knows what John 3:16 says? How many marriages can work if we teach our children that fornication is just part of growing up? We are taught today that your money is my money and we have the right to steal it. There are 50 more, but I'm sure you get the pattern by now.

God has a solution for all this. He has given us 6000 years to learn to govern ourselves. He then will come here to show us how it's done.

If we were able to govern ourselves, God would be our King and we would seek His wisdom. Since our hearts are continually evil, destruction always comes. What does it mean when Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah"? God is patient, but time is out. Repent or perish, that is the choice. How stiff is our collective necks?

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I left out the 4 blood moons coming so you either believe or you don't. God Bless

Nothing ended, it just changed. As it is now, it was then

It's different today. The US has armed those who want to destroy us, sometimes intentionally, sometimes from the sheer excess of weapons in dangerous places, and financed and trained our enemies. We've given our enemies a military as advanced as our own, and destabilized areas where they can grow.

It used to be when governments fell people lived daily lives, many after the horrors of war, but with more localized govs. Soldiers with their skills and weapons often stayed behind and were absorbed into the population. But the fallen areas rarely quickly became as much of a threat as the empire that fell.

Paul Kennedy called this Imperial Overstretch in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, a thesis marred a little by timing - he published it in 1987 with dire predictions about U.S. overstretch, two years before the Soviet Union collapsed. That didn't really obviate the argument but it sure diluted it a bit.

The Assyrian empire followed the same pattern right before the Persians came along. The point is that whether an empire is supported by pure plunder, as the Assyrian, or taxation, as the Persian, there comes a time when you can neither fund it nor man the ramparts with the native population. Shrink, withdraw, or die. It can be managed - the Swedes did so after Gustavus Adolphus. That, however, appears to be an historical exception.

The United States is in a rather anomalous position, having inherited empire rather than formed it: the Spanish empire dropped the Philippines into our laps, the French, Vietnam, and the British? Well, the first British empire made us.

Climbing down from this without setting the world on fire is going to be the principal geopolitical and strategic challenge in our country's history. We see in Iraq what can happen if it isn't managed carefully. The question is, can the native strength of the country support a soft landing before it is squandered? The author of the piece is pessimistic. I'm leaning that direction myself.

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