By Van Yandell
Leviticus 5: 17: If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible.
Throughout history great empires have come and gone. Some lasted longer than others and factors for their demise varied. In many cases, when the people strayed from the worship of the one true God, their nation fell. While there appears to be no absolute common thread in the collapsed nations throughout history, a seemingly noticeable characteristic is the lack of a respect for a Creator God as in the God of the Bible.
Several of the world’s great empires have not been aware of the one true God, others have ignored Him but those under His wrath are the ones that have renounced Him and countered His commandments. Many of the great nations wrote their own rulebook concerning right from wrong. In other cases, some have rewritten God’s rules for humanity according to their own thoughts and desires.
We must also take note of the fact that Israel is the only nation in world history that has existed then returned as a viable entity in world politics and power. As scriptural prophesy indicates, Israel will continue in a state of hatred by the world even when they are the victims of attacks by those that hate them.
The Babylonians, the Greeks and the Romans were polytheistic (belief in multiple Gods). Being an affront to the one Creator God, this attitude divides His power. God does not want to be segmented and will tolerate such a notion for only so long.
The Soviets simply ignored the existence of any spiritual entity. They regarded one’s personal strength as coming from within one’s self. There is a thin line between pagan worship and atheism. Are false gods as bad as non-recognition of any god? While that question may be mostly unanswerable, we do know that ignoring our Creator is a dangerous action!
As with many questions, contributing factors concerning the death of the world’s empires are numerous. If the people are not aware of sin, are their human actions, thoughts and words sinful? In a secular point of view, any police officer will quickly tell us, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse,” (Leviticus 5: 17).
The Akkadian Empire was established around 2334 BCE. Lasting over 400 years, Babylon was then established around 1894 BCE by the Amorite dynasty.
Babylon is well known in Bible studies from the book of Daniel. Daniel 1: 1-2 “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem and besieged it.” Babylon survived until about 535 BCE when the Persians led by Darius the Mede conquered Babylon and established The Medo-Persian Empire. I find it rather interesting how the capture is partly documented in Daniel 5: 31-32 “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.”
Daniel chapter five tells us the story of “The Handwriting on the Wall.” Belshazzar was hosting the rulers of the provinces. While they drank and ate, the Persians dammed the Euphrates River and entered Babylon under its great wall through the riverbed. Belshazzar was killed that night, and the Medo-Persian Empire began. That empire lasted until 331 BCE.
After that reign, the Grecian Empire, led by Alexander the Great, dominated the known world. That empire ended as a world dominating power in 160 BCE. When we refer to the world in that period in history, we must realize it was “the world as they knew it” and that did not include the Western Hemisphere.
The Roman Empire existed as a (known) world power until into the first millennium AD. Opinions vary as to the exact year that it became impotent as a dominating nation. As the world entered into what is known as “The Dark Ages,” (5th to 10th centuries AD) information became rare and misinformation was absorbed as truth such as in our world today.
Ephesians 6: 12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” As governments grew, it certainly appears corruption accelerated in many cases. Power brokers, confusing their positions of service with self-glorification and accumulating riches became focused on imposing their political ideologies.
The well-being of the people became second place in attitudes during the lifetime of many of the former empires. Also, the progression into anti-God attitudes and acceptances of deviant lifestyles proliferated. There appears to be a sequence of attitudes into the blending of aberrant lifestyles into a society. Initially, when such a divergent existence is proclaimed, it is met with disgust and rejection. As time passes, a tolerant attitude is adopted by some, then acceptance and finally a society embraces it as normal. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis chapter nineteen is such a case.
In today’s world, we are witnessing an ongoing battle for prominence as the world power. As we observe the actions of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, the competition is aggressive and I’m curious to see which one wins out. My curiosity hopefully will go unsatisfied because a world war may be necessary to determine which nation prevails.
Zechariah 14:12 “And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” This statement appears to be prophetic but may very well be a warning.
Zechariah the prophet clearly defines the effect of a human body standing in the fireball radius of a nuclear blast. Does this mean a nuclear war is in our future? Many other Bible prophesies have already happened so why would anyone doubt the possibility?
Many have considered America to be the world superpower. Since World War II, that has seemingly been the case, even though the last two wars have been lost (Vietnam and Afghanistan). While the U.S. has been entangled with social matters, climate control and sexual preferences, the other powers have been building their military and political/economic prowess.
Once again, “the handwriting is on the wall.” With the ongoing destruction of the American dollar, we must realize world domination is economic with military might running a close second place.
I am at a quandary of perplexity as to why world leaders cannot see the certainty of an irreversible situation developing on the world stage. Once again, God has a plan, and students of the Bible are the only ones aware. Regardless of what happens in the immediate future, we know who will win in the end. Our Creator holds the rudder of this ship, and He is in control. Mankind has strayed far away from God’s commands and our epitaph is already written.
The Kingdom of God has prevailed over all those nations throughout history. When all is said and done only one thing really matters. What do you believe? We humans do not place a great deal of importance on what another believes, but God does (John 3: 16)!
We must always teach that eternal salvation is attained by a faith-based belief (Ephesians 2: 8) in Christ Jesus crucified (Matthew 27: 35) for the remission of sin (1 John 1: 9) and resurrected (Matthew 28: 6).Van Yandell is a retired Industrial Arts teacher, an ordained gospel evangelist and commissioned missionary.
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