Rise and Fall of Great Civilizations
Yesterday I outlined the path to moral decline as revealed by the apostle Paul in Romans chapter one. When we move away from God, sin is inevitable. The apostle could have mentioned any number of sins, but he specifically zeroed in on sexual sins as the primary indicator. As a committed Christian, I am deeply concerned about the moral decline in America and wonder where it will lead us. Drawing from the two authors I mentioned yesterday, here is what has happened in the past to great civilizations:
Egypt: Sorokin stated in the decline of ancient Egypt, “Sexual anarchy assumed extreme forms and spread through a large part of the population. Side by side with an increase of sexual perversions, a shameless sexual promiscuity also greatly increased.” He also cited a historian who said about this period of Egyptian decline: “Homosexual love entered the mores of the population. The contemporary authors seem to sadistically enjoy the enumeration of a variety of turpitudes and sexual perversions . . . They describe all the aberrations of morbid eroticism with the impudent serenity of the casuist: rape, unnatural sexual relations, and sodomy.’”
Athens: In ancient Athens in the fifth century, Unwin said, the old customs “had disappeared, the sexual opportunity of both sexes being extended. There was no compulsory continence; sexual desires could be satisfied in a direct manner. Divorce became easy and common; homosexual sex between men and boys appeared; the men possessed mistresses as well as wives; the women broke bounds, consoling themselves with both wine and clandestine love affairs. The energy of the Athenians declined. Three generations later, the once vigorous city, torn by dissension, was subject to a foreign master.”
Rome: During the decline of the republic Sorokin said, “The growth of sexual anarchy, divorces, desertions and orgies; of emancipation and ‘masculinization’ of women and effemination of men, together with radical changes in marriage and family laws, which largely dissolved their sacredness and inviolability, and an attendant decrease of birth rate, proceeded hand in hand with a growth of irreligiosity and of vulgar sensualist ethics and frame of mind.”
If there is anything that we have learned from history, it is that we don’t seem to learn from history, and therefore are doomed to repeat it. As Christians we don’t have to. The world may be going to hell, but we aren’t and where sin abounds, grace much more (Rom. 5:20).
Dr. Neil
For Spanish, see http://www.ficmm.org/blog
