Maurice Smith's analysis below is very similar in some respects to my. I speak particularly with reference to the similarity of the sack of Rome in 410 to the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. For hundreds of years, Rome was safe and secure, and suddenly, that changed overnight.

The event signaled the beginning of the end of "civilization" (i.e., the highly developed culture of the Greeks and Romans). While civilization ended gradually through many events, it did so inexorably. Rome was not built in a day, nor did its civilization end in a day. It took many, many decades. The beginning of the process was the sack of Rome in 410 by the Goths under Alaric. The pagans blamed that event on Christianity and the forsaking of Roman Gods, just as the militant Islamics today blame our tragedy on our non-allegiance to Mohammedism and our acceptance of trinitarian Christianity, which they consider to be the worship of three Gods, and therefore blasphemous. In answer to the charge of the ancient pagans, Augustine wrote CITY OF GOD.

Everyone in the ancient world remembered where they were and what they were doing when they received word of the sack of Rome. Jerome, for example, was sitting in his cave in Bethlehem writing his COMMENTARY ON THE PROPHECIES OF EZEKIEL.

While the sack of Rome was the beginning of the end of ancient civilization in the West, it was not the end of Christianity; just the opposite. Rome gradually fell, but the Church carried on, and ended up having the govern the collapsing civilization.

The fall of Rome was a gradual process. Rome was able to survive after 410, but it became very vulnerable when it was realized for the first time that it was not invincible. For a time, it was the Christians who were able to prevent further attacks upon Rome. In 452, Leo I persuaded Attila the Hun to spare the city of Rome and in 455 he induced Geneseric the Vandal to spare Rome. The empire as a political entity was gradually falling to the barbarians, but the Church remained. Even after the total collapse of the Western Roman Empire in A.D. 476, western Christianity was able to thrive and bring order out of the chaos.

It would seem to me that the United States, formerly thought of as invincible, could now become a tempting target to its enemies if it is perceived that even the Pentagon itself cannot defend itself from attacks from enemies. Rome was the bastion of power throughout the world. The same could be said with respect to the Pentagon.

Richard

When the news of Alaric's sack of Rome reached North Africa, Carthage to be precise, followed by thousands of despairing refugees, St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo was moved to respond. Augustine labored for 13 years to produce an explanation, which he titled Civitas Dei, The City of God. Rome had been punished, argued Augustine, not for abandoning her traditional gods in favor of her new religion (Christianity) but for her continued sins. Augustine went on to argue that, rather than looking for and pursuing an earthly city (civitas terrena, for you Latin buffs), Christians should be pursuing the city of God, "Mankind is divided into two sorts: such as live according to man, and such as live according to God. These we mystically call the 'two cities' or societies, the one predestined to reign eternally with God, the other condemned to perpetual torment with the Devil."

Augustine was not a "doom-and-gloomer," but a Christian theologian and philosopher (and a pastor) who understood that nations and economies rise and fall, but Christians are seeking a city unshakeable, whose founder and builder is God. Augustine understood what happens when worldviews collide.

On Tuesday, September 11, America experienced more than terrorists colliding airliners into skyscrapers. We experienced a collision of worldviews. On that day our post-Christian worldview of personal peace and personal prosperity (see my article "How Should We Then Live: The Church In A Post-Christian Age") was shattered by something completely unanticipated: the reality of a religious worldview that calls for the destruction of everything Christian, even a nominal post-Christian civilization like our own that long ago traded its biblical, Judeo-Christian heritage for a mess of secular, politically-correct and materialistic pottage.

B.B. Warfield in his lectures at Princeton Seminary once declared that the last great battle of this age would be fought between the opposing forces of Calvinism and atheism, with all competing philosophies being crushed like rotten ice between these two great colliding icebergs. Warfield understood that ultimate battles are not between armies, but between worldviews, and world views are ultimately religious in nature.

In the ancient world, both inside and outside of the Bible, warfare was religious in nature. In ancient Rome, when Rome went to war the doors of the temple of Mars (the Roman god of war) were opened and the sacrificial fires burned continually as long as Roman armies were engaged in the field. When victory was won and peace achieved, the sacrificial fires were extinguished and the doors of the temple were closed. And at all times, the image of the winged goddess of victory stood in the Roman Senate (until banned and removed by Emperor Theodosius I in A.D. 381). In the Old Testament, war was a religious affair. The ten plagues upon Egypt represented Jehovah's attack upon the gods of Egypt, and the delivery of Israel from Egypt represented the victory of Jehovah over those gods. Israel's God was greater than the gods of Egypt.

Our rationalistic, secular and post-Christian culture tends to dismiss such "quaint superstitions." They don't see a spiritual conflict, and they ridicule anyone who suggests that there might be a spiritual significance (i.e., judgment, wake-up-call, etc.) as "un-American." Let us be clear. This was a terrible personal tragedy the pain of which will not go away any time soon, and the ripple effects of which will be felt for years to come. But after our grieving, our responses, both personal and national, must be motivated by more than a desire to return to our post-Christian values of undisturbed personal peace and personal prosperity. Even if the threat of Islamic Fundamentalist terrorism is eventually defeated (as everyone assumes it will be), the contest may simply exhaust what little "Christian capital" is left in our increasingly post-Christian culture. But naked materialism is an insufficient and spiritually bankrupt worldview upon which to build a culture, even when wrapped in patriotism and sung to the tune of "God Bless America."

Ours is not the first generation in the history of the Church to be confronted with understanding and responding to the collapse of existing moral, economic and geo-political structures. But we do seem to be the first generation of believers to think that God somehow owes us an awakening and a cultural transformation that will heal all of society's ills and deliver us from the consequences of our nominalistic faith and from the resurgent post-Christian paganism that seems poised to overwhelm us like Alaric's hordes poised at the gates of Rome.

We have already written previously about ours being a post-Christian culture and some of the ramifications of this, but what does this mean for the future. What is God going to do in our day, to the church and to our society? Will we have revival and cultural transformation, as in England under John Wesley that will reverse our post-Christian decline? Or is God going to send judgment upon us, as He did upon Rome, for the multitude of our accumulated sins. By our collective and individual behavior we've certainly earned God's judgment, or He owes Sodom & Gomorrah an apology for acting rashly and unfairly.

There is much talk in the evangelical Church today about the possibility of cultural transformation, talk that is spurred on by such presentations as the two "Transformations" videos produced by George Otis, Jr. Such stories of local and regional "awakenings" from different parts of the world are encouraging as the Christian community in America and around the world fasts and prays for genuine spiritual renewal and awakening in our generation.

But a cautionary word is in order. History is not kind to the naive. Contemporary Christians often tend to be naive regarding revival and its effects upon both the Church and the world. Many churches and organizations are looking and praying for revival in the hope that its coming will revive failed programs and resurrect dying structures and institutions. But historically, revival tends to renew people, not buildings, structures or programs. Methodism began as a "society" within the Anglican Church, but the fires of the Wesleyan renewal eventually forced a split which resulted in the birth of the Methodist Church. In the Second Great Awakening of 1799-1811 similar struggles occurred. The Presbyterian Church attempted to try two of its revival leaders, James McGready and Barton Stone, for heresy stemming from their involvement in the revival. McGready reconciled with the Church, but Stone withdrew to form the Cumberland Presbytery, which continues today as the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The "new wine" of revival tends to wreak havoc on the old wine skins of the Church, and it is naive to expect otherwise.

We also tend to be naive regarding the effects of revival upon the surrounding culture, what today is referred to as "transformation." The Wesleyan revival had a profound effect upon the social structure of 18th century England, with ripple effects which lasted for 100 years, leading eventually to the non-violent banishment of slavery from England in the early 1800s. In the Welsh Revival of 1904 the immediate effects were equally profound. Taverns went bankrupt, stocks of bibles sold out and crime nearly vanished in south Wales. County judges were issued white gloves signifying no cases to try, and in one county precinct the policemen, having no crimes to investigate, turned their energies to forming four men's singing quartets to perform in area churches.

But there were other aftereffects. The Wesleyan renewal served to prepare England for the upheaval of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars which would follow. In America, the Great Awakening of the 1740s prepared the colonies for the coming trial of the War for Independence and the spiritual decline that it entailed. The 2nd Great Awakening of 1799-1811 was followed and effectively ended by the War of 1812-14. The Manhattan Prayer Revival of 1857-58 was followed three years later by the terrible upheaval of the Civil War. The great Welsh Revival of 1904 swept around the world, giving birth to the modern Pentecostal movement before blazing forth in Korea in 1907. But this worldwide outpouring was followed within seven years by the "guns of August, 1914" and the great bloodletting of the First World War.

Perhaps the lesson here was best summarized by Ford C. Ottman in his biography of Presbyterian evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman. Writing in the 1920s, and reflecting back over the history of modern revivals Ottman made the following observation:

"As we look back over these extra-ordinary religious awakenings which . . . so quickened the churches and so effectively pressed the claims of God upon the consciences of multitudes, we cannot escape the conviction that God in gracious providence was reaping a spiritual harvest before he permitted the outburst of revolutionary forces that have overwhelmed the world, impoverished almost every nation, produced economic and social chaos, and stained with dishonor the pride of Christian civilization. In the history of revivals, it has often been noted that such restoral periods are a warning of, and synchronize with, impending judgment. The harvest is gathered before the field is doomed to death." Predicting and prophesying a coming revival (and the hoped for transformation) has become somewhat of a "cottage industry" in the Church today (probably second only to predicting the end-times). I, too, genuinely believe that we are on the verge of another great "high tide" of God's movement in our generation. I have felt this and prayed for this intensely for the past 5 years (and counting). But I cannot help but ask the question that history and the experience of the Church inevitably presents: What will be left behind this time when the tide of revival recedes? What will be the aftereffects, and the aftermath? I genuinely believe that we cannot adequately or properly prepare for the coming revival without asking these questions.

There are voices in the church today which argue that God needs America (her wealth, her international power, etc.) in order to advance the Kingdom of God, so God will not judge America in any significant way, because to do so would jeopardize His cause (the Christians of the 5th century probably felt the same way about Rome). The problem is that God always judges & punishes unrepentant sin. But He reserves the right to withhold and to delay judgment to some future date, even until eternity and The Day of Judgment itself. Judgment delayed in this world is not the same thing as judgment denied, in either this world or in the next. God also reserves the right to be selective, to renew one and not another, to judge one now while postponing the judgement of another, to send renewal to His Church while at the same time sending judgment upon a rebellious and unbelieving world. He even reserves the right, as in Jonah's day, to proclaim judgment, to send revival, to subsequently postpone the promised judgment based upon the response of people to the revival, and then to chastize an obedient-but-sulking prophet who was disappointed that God had lived up to His reputation of being merciful toward people so lost in their sins that they "do not know the difference between their right and left hand" (Jonah 4:11). God has an unfortunate habit of being immensely more patient with and merciful towards sinners than we are. As Jonah discovered, mercy and compassion towards those (other than ourselves) who don't deserve it can be one of His more irritating attributes.

In short, He is not a tame lion, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis. He will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy (Romans 9:18). And so it is with the issues of spiritual renewal and cultural transformation. Whether we will or will not have spiritual awakening and cultural transformation "does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy" (Romans 9:16). His mercy encourages us to fast and to pray for it, proclaiming with the prophet, "Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him" (Joel 2:14). His holiness and His judgment of sin warn us that neither revival nor transformation are ever guaranteed outcomes, and there are times both personally and nationally when we are called upon to reap the bitter harvest of what we have sown. And Augustine would remind us that even on its best day, the earthly city which is this world system is fundamentally opposed to God's kingdom purposes and is ultimately doomed to judgment.

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride."

My favorite Psalm is Psalm 46, and following the events of September 11 the Lord nudged me to read it again. The first three verses (quoted above) describe trusting God when all the world around us and all those things in which we have trusted suddenly move and our lives are thrown into upheaval. This is an appropriate description of what has happened to many people lately. Like those Romans who felt their world shattered by the collapse of Rome, many people today have had their personal worlds shaken and shattered by recent events. And there is probably more to come. The world and its inhabitants are in turmoil; the mountains are slipping, the seas are roaring, and people's hearts are filled with fear and foreboding. But in the midst of this turmoil, verses 4 - 7 speak of a river which continues to flow in spite of the surrounding turmoil. It is a river "whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the Most High." I believe this is the River of The Spirit of God, the River of the Water of Life.

Let me come straight to the point, a point I see reflected here in this passage. The world and our surrounding culture is in great turmoil and consternation, just as the Psalmist describes. It will probably get worse before it gets better. But through all of this turmoil God is preparing and building a new channel for the flow of His River. This channel will consist of "the holy dwelling places of the Most High." I believe this channel will be made up of thousands of house churches where families & friends gather together to worship, to seek God, to minister to one another in good times and bad, to be the Church that meets in your house, and to reach out in love and compassion to non-Christian individuals and families around them. The importance and centrality of home and family was touchingly illustrated in recent events as doomed passengers called home on their cell phones in what they knew to be the closing moments of life in order to tell family and loved ones of their love and prayers. How did we ever miss this? And how did we ever think we could build strong, vibrant, culturally-transforming Churches upon any human foundation other than spiritually strong and vibrant families?

If we genuinely want to witness and experience the transformation of our culture, then we must be willing to seek and pray for the revival and transformation of ourselves, our families, our homes and the Church that meets in our homes. I believe that God is preparing and raising up His new underground Church for these times, composed of countless house churches where families meet to be the Church. I believe it will occur within the context, as the Psalmist describes, of tremendous upheaval and uncertainty in the world around us. But in the midst of this upheaval and uncertainty God will pour out the River of The Water of Life in renewal and revival, which will "make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the Most High."

May the River of His Spirit flow through your family, your home and the Church that meets in your house, renewing and giving fresh life to all It touches.

Maurice Smith www.parousianetwork.com <http://www.parousianetwork.com>