Why Civilizations Fail 5

There is a HUGE book called "A Study of History" in twelve volumes and written by Sir Arnold Toynbee in 1987. In the fifth volume subtitled "The Disintegrations of Civilizations" he gives us six different reasons why civilizations throughout history have collapsed. Edmund Burke said "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." And so let us take a look at the six reasons civilization fails.

Reason Number 1: Cultural Suicide

Reason Number 2: Truancy or Escapism

Reason Number 3: A Sense of Promiscuity

Reason Number 4: A Sense of Drift

Reason Number 5: Abandon

Abandon can also be called "lawlessness" but I like the word abandon better. How else can you describe the sudden abandon of law and any kind of moral code?

We see this in the hopelessness of terrorism (after all, that is what terrorism is: you live a life of hopeless abandon where law and rules must be upended in order to make some kind of statement or belief in some kind of magical change in society). Bombing civilians and even using children as "suicide" bombers against their wishes and ANY KIND of moral law.

But abandon rears its ugly head in milder ways in our everyday lives and our people hoodwink their way through life: petty thefts from hotel rooms, small intentional inaccuracies on taxes, lying, cheating and stealing. Every civilization Toynbee studied had some such abandon before they self-destructed. Every civilization realizes too late that it is the little holes in the dike that precipitate the eventual collapse of the entire structure.

Ancient Israel, as recorded in the Bible, shows this free fall. Daniel wrote: "We have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. WE have not obeyed ... we have turned away, refusing to obey you. Therefore disaster has come upon us!" (Daniel 9:5-13) Over and over again, when Israel disregarded the law or abuse it they fell, again and again, until they no longer were rescued by God.

I must confess that I feel a sense of abandon and hopelessness within my house. I have been fighting with a bank for FOUR YEARS about an issue of lost payments and bank inaccuracies after they went bankrupt and tried to foreclose on me. Why pay them? Why work on my house when they could take it from me at any time? Why not just live in it until they kick me out? If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would not be making house payments because I didn't trust the bank I would have laughed at you. Yet I abandon.

Where are you? Do you feel that sense of abandon? I know the only answer is to understand that the world is NOT in our control but it is in God's and we must trust his interests are in OUR BEST interests no matter how dark it seems now.