Answers for America? 

Part 1 of 7 [Ask Augustine]

     Our founders found wisdom in the Bible, and their inspiration for republican institutions and architecture in Rome. 

     Can the Roman Empire hold clues to our own future? Daniel, one of the Jews taken to Babylon, interpreted the king's dream. There were four kingdoms represented by a statue of a man, each kingdom inferior to its predecessor. 

     History later provided the names: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. The statues' feet and toes (Rome) were part clay and part iron. This fourth "kingdom" was and still is divided. When the Messiah comes to Jerusalem, He the "rock" will break and command the entire earth. 

     Today's America has out-of-touch elites in government, as did Rome. People lose faith. There was and is economic uncertainty. Rome had its own immigration crisis, failing to assimilate Germanic Goths (who were impoverished). The Goths sacked Rome on August 24, 140 A.D. 

     During this time, Augustine, a bishop in the Roman province of Africa, wrote one of Christianity's greatest literatures, The City of God. In the article we summarize for you, the author wrote, "Augustine argued that the City of God and the City of Man are not the same thing."   

     For many in our election cycle, "politics has become a religion...filled with fear and trembling - and lies - because the whims of a voting public, each half distrusting the other, shape our destiny." Trump and Biden both called for "unity" in the wake of the attempted assassination. 

     While Augustine served in modern-day Algeria, Rome's refugees flooded into North Africa. He wrote his book "to make sense of the calamity and offer better insights for (fifth century) Christians as they await the Second Coming." 

Tomorrow: Christian Empire?