How often do you think about the Roman Empire? Recently Forbes reported that, according to a bizarre new TikTok trend, men think about the Roman Empire more often than you would expect. As Conor Murray, a “trends reporter” for Forbes, explained this phenomenon: “TikTok users are asking their boyfriends, fathers or any other man how often they think about the Roman Empire—and surprisingly, some say they think about the fallen empire daily or even more often, sparking online confusion and launching a TikTok trend that’s garnered more than a billion views.”
Strangely enough, this peculiar focus on the Roman Empire was once also on the brilliant mind of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Many decades before TikTok, social media or even the internet, Lloyd-Jones was forcibly struck by the tragic similarities of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and the collapse of Christian influence in the West.
Sadly, things have only gotten worse for our Western society since Lloyd-Jones’ observation—and surely, if alive today, he would point to this current obsession with the Roman Empire to suggest that maybe the thoughtful men in our day are, consciously or not, harboring grave concerns about the similar trajectory of our failing society and wondering what they should do to stem the tide for the sake of their faith and family.
Here, then, is what the great Welsh evangelical minister would no doubt tell them, which is exactly as he addressed this issue during his many years of proclaiming and promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ prior to his death in 1981. Said Lloyd-Jones on various occasions:
“Why, in spite of all our efforts and endeavors and great advances, is the world still in trouble? Why is every advance followed by regression, every rise by a decline and fall? Why do our attempts to govern the world end in disaster? What is the matter? And there is only one answer. It is due to the fact that men and women have sinful and fallen natures; it is due to their estrangement from God; and, more, it is due to God’s wrath upon humanity in its sinfulness and arrogance. But the tragedy of the world is that it does not realize this.
“I was reading again, only the other day, and it struck me forcibly, the explanation given by that great historian Edward Gibbon, who was not a Christian, for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. And if his explanation is not also true of this country today, then I am completely ignorant!
“Here are the five reasons Gibbon gives:
One: The rapid increase of divorce and “the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.” Now that is not being said by me, a little evangelical preacher—that is the great Edward Gibbon, and, of course, he is right. The home is the fundamental unit in society and once the home goes, everything will go, sooner or later.
Two: “Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies on bread and circuses.”
Three: “The mad craze for pleasure and sport; sport becoming every year more and more exciting and brutal.”
Four: “The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy is within—in the decadence of the people themselves.”
And Fifth: “The decay of religious faith; faith fading into mere form which has lost all contact with reality.”
“The Roman Empire was a wonderful civilization. Those Romans were perhaps the greatest experts the world has ever known on local government and on legal systems. The Roman system—that was real civilization. Add to that the Greek civilization that had gone just before, and you had human endeavor almost at its highest point. But what happened to it? It was conquered by the Barbarians, the Goths, and the Vandals—the ignoramuses. How did they ever conquer this great civilization? Gibbon’s answer is that internal rot in the civilization itself weakened and destroyed the Roman Empire. And that, I repeat, is the story of human civilization.
“All human systems fail because the trouble is within the people themselves, and external rules and laws and regulations cannot change them. It is not that we need better laws, but that we need better natures; not better instruction, but better spirits and better desires. And so all this human history comes to nothing. And yet these earthly authorities prohibit the preaching of the Gospel, the only thing that can save the situation.” [*]
THE UNSHAKABLE KINGDOM OF GOD
Says Lloyd-Jones, “Man is very fond of building kingdoms. The history of mankind, if you like, is a history of men building kingdoms for themselves—refusing the kingdom of God and setting up their own kingdoms, which they think are going to be durable and everlasting.
“This is the great negative message of the Bible, that man will never succeed in building a durable and a lasting and a solid kingdom. These things can all be shaken as we are witnessing it and worse, it is going to happen. There is but one Kingdom that cannot be moved, that cannot be shaken. As Hebrews 12:28 tells us, ‘Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.’
“There is nothing stable in this world. People used to think the British Empire was stable. How much of it is left? There’s nothing stable. Those everlasting mountains. Stable? Of course they’re not. They are moving the whole time. An earthquake can wreck them; a bomb can smash them. Nothing is stable. The heavens are gonna be shaken. Everything will be shaken. The whole world will be convulsed in a final cataclysm. Nothing will remain.
“But here is a Kingdom which cannot be moved, cannot be shaken. The Kingdom of the Christ of God is an everlasting Kingdom. There will never be an end to it. Your Babylons have been great, but they’ve gone. The kingdoms of Greece were great, but they vanished. Rome was a mighty empire; she’s gone. Egypt was once great, but nothing is left of its glory. Britain, Spain—all these come and go. But there is one kingdom that will never go. It is this glorious Kingdom of God and the day is coming when the kingdoms of this world shall be all overcome by the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ.
“The Kingdom shall never be removed. Why not? Because the King is the son of God who came into this world and He has already demonstrated His superiority. He has vanquished every enemy in this world. He met every power that could ever be raised against God and He mastered and conquered them all. He cast out devils, yea, He beat the devil himself. He has conquered even the last enemy, which is death. The resurrection proclaims Him the Conqueror Renowned Who never shall be defeated!
“Hinduism will not get you into the Kingdom, Confucianism will not, Buddhism will not. These things are coming into this country; none of them will bring you into the Kingdom of God. There is only one way. Christ said, I am the Light of the world (John 8:12). I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me (John 14:6). There is none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). It is exclusive, it is God’s own Son. So the world religions are of no value. This Kingdom and this alone does what it promises to do. [**]
OUR MESSAGE TO A SHAKEN WORLD
Emphatically Lloyd-Jones pleads, “Christian people, we must proclaim to the world that we are not afraid of the morrow. We are not afraid of what the nations may do. We know that an evil world is under condemnation, and that the only course of safety and of wisdom is to come in penitence and contrition to the Son of God, our blessed Lord and Saviour, Who came out of eternity, Who died for our sins, and Who will come again to receive His own unto Himself. That, it seems to me, is the thing to which we are called.
“We must preach the Bible’s message without fear or favour and with the holy boldness of the apostles of old, not merely to say it, but to have the Holy Ghost upon us as we do so. Pray for power to proclaim it so that it shall become like “a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces” (Jer. 23:29). Or in the words of the apostle Paul, the message must be seen to be “mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:4-5). [***]
“We must rouse ourselves and realize afresh that though our Gospel is timeless and changeless, it nevertheless is always contemporary. We must meet the present situation and we must speak a word to the world that NONE ELSE CAN SPEAK.” [****]
Indeed the Kingdom of God stands alone as the kingdoms of the world, one by one, are turning to dust.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[*] From his book, “Victorious Christianity: Studies in the Book of Acts”
[**] From his sermon, “A Kingdom Which Cannot Be Removed”
[***] From his book, “Knowing the Times”
[****] From his book, “The Plight Of Man And The Power Of God”
