Penna Dexter

I recently returned from a trip to Greece. One cannot go far in that country without being confronted with evidence of the rise and fall of great civilizations.

We spent a day in and around Corinth, a wealthy ancient Greek city, destroyed by the Romans in 156 BC.

The Romans killed all the men in Corinth and enslaved the women — and the children. The victorious Roman army sacked the city, utterly destroying it.

In 146-144 BC, Julius Caesar settled Corinth as a Roman colony. The Romans rebuilt it.

The Corinth the apostle Paul visited was Roman — again a great city which, because of its location, was the crossroads of civilization. Paul started from Athens and went to Corinth to end his second missionary journey.

At that time, Corinth was the commercial center of the world. Our tour leader compared Athens to Boston. But Corinth, he told us, was like New York City. He likened the ceramic earthen vessel, the main receptacle for storage and transport in this prosperous society, to the ubiquitous cardboard box which characterizes commerce today.

Corinth was filled with carnality and corruption. Ancient Gods, both Greek and then Roman, were corrupt. Greece’s most beautiful women worshipped Aphrodite through their bodies in temples dedicated to her. People indulged their vices.

Paul was an urban evangelist. When Paul got to Corinth, he had to teach people what sin is.

Rod Dreher’s newsletter recently referred to William Ophuls’ book, Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail. There comes a time for them when, “The majority lives for bread and circuses; worships celebrities instead of divinities; takes its bearings from below rather than above; throws off social and moral restraints, especially on sexuality; shirks duties but insists on entitlements; and so forth.”

William Ophuls continues: “The society’s original vigor, virtue, and morale have been entirely effaced. Rotten to the core, the society awaits collapse, with only the date remaining to be determined.”

We must ask: How near are we to this?