On the Fall of America

“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. . . Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:7, 12-13

In 390 A.D., after nearly 400 years of uninterrupted Roman stability, the Gauls sacked the city of Rome. Though the Romans regained control of their capital, the beginning of the end for the Roman Empire was in sight. Rome would be sacked twice more, leading to the eventual collapse of the Empire in 476 A.D.

Kingdoms come and kingdoms go. Some slide gradually into obscurity; others are decimated in a moment through the cataclysm of war. I love our country and hope the best for us, but it occurs to me that we live in tenuous times. At the risk of being morbid, imagine for a moment the following scenario: Terrorists detonate a nuclear device in Washington D.C., following with threats of subsequent detonations in other major U.S. cities. While the governors scramble to form a provisional government, mass exodus from major metropolitan areas ensues. Looting is rampant and martial law is enacted. Inflation, unemployment and bankruptcy cripple our economy. Healthcare services and public utilities are knocked offline. The world’s markets, all tied to the American dollar, plunge, setting off worldwide recession. Syria and Iran—supported by Russia—attack Israel, resulting in a full scale war in the Middle East. North Korea, invades South Korea, China invades Taiwan, and other smaller countries seize upon our moment of weakness to take a far more aggressive, even military stance, against American interests. In a moment, the American dream is undone.

Whether such things will happen to our country, God only knows. I pray not. But we do know this: Jesus warns us that the world is destined for dire times; when the end comes, it will be marked by natural disasters and global war. An important issue facing American Christians, therefore, is the extent to which we are prepared for such calamity. Has our faith become too wed to American national stability? What if we woke up tomorrow faced with the realization that our way of life had forever come to an end. No early retirement, no extended vacations; no new homes or cars, no college education for our children; no guarantees of public health services, or even basic necessities such as food, shelter and clothing. While we face the prospect of personal loss everyday, there is something more ultimate about the threat of national ruin. One can rebuild the American dream from the ashes of a personal tragedy, but one cannot do so in the face of a cultural collapse. Do we have a form of Christianity able to withstand such upheaval?

Perhaps drastic questions such as these seem too far removed to be taken seriously. Yet it must be observed that many Christian face just such a scenario. There are portions of Africa where entire national infrastructures have collapsed. Violence, displacement, hunger, death, and disease have become a way of life. Such hardship serves as a reminder to us that, whether through personal disaster or corporate ruin, it’s a small step between comfort and calamity.

I think about such things in relation to my children. What will America—what will the world—look like in thirty years? We must teach our children to invest themselves in the one Kingdom destined to endure beyond the unmaking of the world, and to thrive independent of the realization of the American dream. But first, we must learn to do so ourselves.

“Only one life will soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”