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Michelle Welsh

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In How Should We Then Live? Francis A. Schaeffer (1976) recognizes the vastness of the Roman Empire and its continuing influence on modern civilization. Even though much of mankind still benefits from such Roman innovations as aqueducts and a written code of law as presented by Evan Andrews (2012), the Roman Empire provided no real solutions to the problems that have plagued mankind throughout time. Schaeffer (1976) refers to Rome as having “no sufficient inward base” (p. 29); that is, Rome had no basis higher than themselves for anything they believed or did.

The Romans had many gods; while these gods had some supernatural powers, they also frequently displayed tragic character flaws. They were no different than humans and certainly no better. Because of this, they provided no moral excellence for which humans could strive. Furthermore, the emperors who led the Roman government began to wish to be viewed as gods themselves. Unfortunately, as mere humans, they displayed faults of their own as well.

Schaeffer (1976) states that Rome villainized the rising religion of Christianity because its devotees would not recognize any god (Greek, Roman, or emperor) except the one true God and they had an absolute standard by which to judge themselves and thus the state. This was a great threat to Roman authority as well as to Rome’s “live and let live” lifestyle. They simply could not abide by Christians claim to know the one and only God that would make their own false.

This same attitude toward Christianity is easily seen in our Western culture today. Society enjoys allowing every person to do as his pleases, until one group—the Christian religion--claims to know and live by an absolute standard. While modern-day Christians in the West are not thrown to the lions, they are pressured to be accepting of all ways of life, even those in direct contrast to their Biblically-based beliefs.

Christianity has withstood the test of time because it does have an inward base. It is the belief in the one true God and His Word, giving followers the purposeful base needed for all of life.

(Word count: 352)

References 

Andrews, E. (2012, November 20). 10 Innovations that built ancient Rome. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-innovations-that-built-ancient-rome

Schaeffer, F. A. (1976). How should we then live? Old Tappan, NJ. Fleming H. Revell Company

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Armand Paladino

Fall of Rome

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I believe that Francis is right about his belief that Rome fell due to its insufficient base. Rome was very pompous, had no organization, did not keep anything constant and had the wrong idea about religion. Rome’s people were known to have big heads and thing that they were the best at everything. This mindset let them believe that there was no room for improvement and they never experimented or tried new things, which lead them to their demise. If they were a more humble people, they would have realized the areas in their lives that needed much improvement and they would have grown as a nation. Rome was disorganized in the sense that they never really tried to improve and innovate themselves. Either they took things that were great from the past and made their own changes to it or they stole ideas from other nations and made it their own. This lack of innovation made Rome less advanced than other nations. Rome never kept anything constant. They were constantly making changes to the way they lived and this lead to many problems because the nation as a whole became very disorganized and the people of Rome were never on the same page. Rome was a little wild as a nation. They believed in many different gods and idols, and they did what they wanted with their lives. Rome with all these issues did not last as long as it could have. Due to all problems, Rome was not able to establish a strong structure and they fell when other nations advanced and they stayed stagnant. (267 Words)

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