Francis Schaeffer in How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture quotes Edward Gibbon’s (1737-1794) in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788) said that the following five attributes marked Rome at its end:
first, a mounting love of show and luxury (that is, affluence);
second, a widening gap between the very rich and the very poor (this could be among countries in the family of nations as well as in a single nation);
third, an obsession with sex;
fourth, freakishness in the arts, masquerading as originality, and enthusiasms pretending to be creativity;
fifth, an increasing desire to live off the state.
It all sounds so familiar …we are back in Rome.
From How Shall We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture, p.227, Fleming H. Revell Company, 1976.
In the light of this we who know the Christ of Christmas have great hope regardless of what the future might hold in store for us. What a wonderful time of the year to reflect concerning what we possess both now and in the future. All because God chose to send His Son in human flesh and blood.
