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Historians still debate the cause of ancient Rome’s collapse after existing for 500 years. One researcher gives many reasons: The barbarians kept gnawing at their borders. Rome was unable to control inflation, taxation, and spending; the huge gaps between the rich and poor created unrest. The empire lost control when it created two fronts—east and west. They had too much territory to manage with declining resources. Corruption eroded Christian values. All of these issues may have been at work in Rome’s fall. Yet we know from the way God dealt with ancient Israel, that when any nation forgets God, deterioration and destruction follow. Here is what God said to Israel by the prophet Amos (chapter 3): “My people have forgotten how to do right,” says the Lord. “Their fortresses are filled with wealth taken by theft and violence. Therefore,” says the Sovereign Lord, “an enemy is coming! He will surround them and shatter their defenses. Then he will plunder all their fortresses.” We, of course, would not try to predict how or when God chooses to judge people and nations for forgetting Him. At the same time, we must never think that God overlooks injustice and unrighteousness. In His own time and way, God still judges.
I have always had a problem with the historical consensus that the Roman Empire somehow “fell”. With this sort of reasoning one gets the idea that Rome disappeared off the face of the earth. This however, is not the case. Is it coincidence that the one of the Roman standards was the eagle the same standard that is the symbol of the United States. The US like Rome built its empire on slavery and like Rome the political machinery is corrupt, injust, and relies on keeping a poor class to exploit. Empires don’t fall they transition. When a power greater than the one that rules emerges whatever and whoever is of use is assimilated into the new empire. All others, those that suffer from mental or physical abnormalities, those not needed to work, etc. are disposed of. Europe took over where Rome left off. The United States is but the last link in the Empire chain. Like Rome slavery was the economic foundation of the United States. Because slavery was central to free market economics slavery never ended. It simple has transitioned to meet present market forces. This is why mass incarceration with its attendant Prison Industrial Complex is so popular.
I happen to believe that your thesis about the continuation of the Roman Empire continuing into the present time is supported by a couple of references in the book of Daniel. In one, Daniel 2:44, Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar;’s dream to mean that the final Kingdom that the God of Heaven sets up occurs during the days of this fourth earthly kingdom and is the Roman Empire. Daniel says it will “stand forever.” Christ inaugurated His kingdom when he came and intends to rule when he returns, it seems feasible that the Roman Empire is continuing until then. Of course, no one knows when Christ will return and whether other “empires” will rise and fall before He comes.
Daniel 7:27 also asserts the same climax of the “fourth beast” (The Roman Empire)
My reference to the “fall” of Rome then should not be taken to mean that it ceases to exist, but understood to mean that it falls from that original political structure and morphs into other political forms.
Thanks for your insightful comment.