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The Fall of Republics

When the thirteen colonies were still a part of England, Professor Alexander Tyler wrote about the fall of the Athenian republic over two thousand years previous to that time:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship.

"The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:

• From bondage to spiritual faith,
• from spiritual faith to great courage,
• from courage to liberty,
• from liberty to abundance,
• from abundance to selfishness,
• from selfishness to complacency,
• from complacency to apathy,
• from apathy to dependency,
• from dependency back to bondage."

Alexander Tyler (written in the 1700's)

If you read the book of Exodus, you may see the Israelites going through a similar process! If you read any of the 12-step literature, you may see individuals going through this process (the bondage being to their drug-of-choice.) To what sin are you under bondage? If you think none, you may be in bondage to conceit, pride or self-righteousness.