CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE PLAIN TRUTH TODAY MIDDAY BROADCAST: Bob Barney-Ignoring History

 

A philosopher once said, those who cannot remember their past are condemned to repeat it. And if you ask anyone today if you see a similarity between ancient Rome and modern America, most people who know their history will say, yes, there is a similarity. Hi, I’m Bob Barney for the Plain Truth.

I remember a long time ago watching a football game back in, I believe, 1974 and seeing a commercial entitled Are We the Modern Romans? And it struck me. I didn’t know it then, but the booklet was from the Worldwide Church of God during their heyday when it was then run by Garner Ted Armstrong, the son of the founder, Herbert Armstrong. And I’ve written a broadcast about this.

I’ve written stories and had a broadcast about my coming to what I believe today by being challenged by what I believed then, what I was taught in school and being taught in college,finding out much of the stuff that I thought I knew I did not. Along with some mistakes, the Armstrongs that ran the church at the time had an understanding that I don’t think anyone in their time frame had like I said at that time. They understood who America was, something that I can guarantee you most Americans today still don’t know who we are and where we came from and what our future would be.

Some of the predictions that they gave that came true are astounding, especially when you realizethey started these predictions in the 1930s, but mainly in the 40s, 50s, 60s and early 70s. But back in the 40s, right after World War II, they predicted to come in EU. They said a United States of America would form, I’m sorry, United States of Europe would form like the United States of America.

It would be a 10 nation Central European power getting its power from the Catholic Church. And this was before the common market and before the EU and they saw and they predicted a reunification of Germany, the East Germany then under Russian control and West Germany under Allied control would unite and be the focal point of a modern Europe. When they were making these predictions, even as late as 1974, it seemed impossible that it could ever happen, but it did.

And we’re seeing it happening even more today. They also talked about the demise of the American government and peoples and society along with that of Great Britain and therefore they came out with a booklet called Are We the Modern Romans? I want to expound about thisbecause a famous historian, Edward Gibbon, had a six volume work back in the 1700s, 18th century. It was called The History and Decline of the Fall of the Roman Empire.

Gibbon identified five major causes that contributed to the fall of Rome. First was the breakdown of the family. Sound familiar? Second, the breakdown of I’m sorry.

Second was increased taxation. Third was the incredible craving for personal pleasure above everything. Fourth was a buildup of the military armaments, the military industrial complex of then Rome.

And fifth was the decay of their religion. It should be noted that Gibbon hated Christianity. And anyone who’s a Christian should know this when they’re reading that book that he blamed Christian society for destroying Rome.

He’s wrong. What he did rightly blame was the Catholic Church. When the Catholic Church, after Constantine, started to rule Rome, Rome fell quite quickly and it fell for various reasons that we’re going to talk about in this episode and I think you will find it quite similar to what is going on in America today and for probably the last 75 years.

It’s ironic that Gibbon published his first volume of the decline of the Roman Empire in 1776 when America was first formed. And then he had volumes two and three published in 1781 at the end of the revolution. And volumes four, five and six he published between 1788 and 1789 when our Constitution went into effect.

He noted that the Roman Empire thrived when its citizens valued marriage and family. And it fell when they stopped cherishing their own individual family. The next thing he mentioned was staggering increase in the cost of elections, dubious campaign funding, money coming from the rich elite.

Our 2020 election reportedly cost about seven billion dollars and most of it was raised from private sources, often creating the appearance or really the reality that our leaders are beholdento special interest groups and not to the people who elected them. The same thing happened in the late Roman Republic. And I want to go back here for a little history lesson.

Everybody knows about ancient Rome as being under the Caesars. However, many do not knowthat Rome started out as a republic with three branches of government just like our own. In fact, our forefathers kind of patterned our government after Roman Republic government.

Roman was, Rome was not a democracy. It was a republic form of government which represented both the elite, the middle class and the poor. And they all had their say in government.

Then the politics and the cost of politics and the road to personal wealth from politicians began to occur during the late Roman period when they were still a republic. Just like today, congressmen and senators and their staffs go back and forth between government and private enterprises to make money and just get special interest money. The same thing was happening in ancient Rome’s republic form of government before Julius Caesar.

The next thing we have in common with the ancient Roman society was they began a campaign ofwar upon war upon war. So, their voluntary army, a volunteer army like we had in 1792 all the way up until the Civil War when Lincoln decided to have a draft which did not go over well. And then we went back to a voluntary army all the way up until World War I and then again in World War IIand then after that we were forcing people into the military all the way through the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s until we went back to a volunteer army again as we are today.

The problem is now as with Rome when the voluntary army stopped and forced conscription into the army began and then it ended like today more and more mercenaries filled the ranks of the services of Rome. And people who were not Romans could become members of the Roman worldand become actually Roman citizens if they joined the military. And I don’t know how many peopleknow this today but our military is made up of many aliens.

Some of those who are illegal aliens and they get their citizenship by joining the military. So like Rome in both the Republic form of their government and then later under the Caesars they started having a military that was not really beholden to the people of Rome but to their own personal interest and maybe even from the countries they came from. Eventually after Rome became a dictatorship empire under the Caesars we see that their own military mainly at the time made up of Germanic tribes called the Huns.

Hungary is named after the Huns. These soldiers turned on the Roman people and in the 6th century attacked Rome burned it down and took over the Roman government and slaughteredmany Roman citizens. This is the problem when you depend on a military industrial complexbased on big business making money off the military selling the military and the military peoplegoing back and forth between big business and soon it turns out that big business and big militaryare in cahoots against the American people.

The same thing happened to Rome. The other thing Rome found itself especially at the end of the Republic and during the entire time of the Caesars they found themselves in continuous wars.Many times a dictatorship has to have war in order to provide new income for their empire.

You just keep conquering places. The Soviet Union tried to do it when they were stopped by Ronald Reagan they collapsed. China is trying to do it today.

Well, ancient Rome was constantly in wars which led to a mercenary army because eventuallyRomans didn’t want to fight. It was easier for them to pay someone to fight for them even though they did not really care about Rome itself and we are probably finding that out today. But take America for the last 100 years 110 years now we had World War I we had World War II we had the Cold War which lasted a long time we had the Korean conflict we had Vietnam War which tore America apart we had the Gulf War we had Afghanistan in 2001 and it’s going on to this day then we had the Iraq War that lasted for some eight years for us.

The list is far from complete. There’s been wars and rumors of wars as Jesus mentioned in American history for over 100 years now. Foreign wars lead to growing influence from foreign powers and interests.

You know, when we give a hundred and fifty billion dollars to Ukraine do you think that some of that money returns back to the politicians who gave that money to Ukraine? Do you think there’s payback? Do you think that out of that 150 maybe 15, 20 maybe even 30 billion goes back to a small group of people in Washington that got them the money in the first place? I’ll give you an example. One businessman just one alone donated a hundred million dollars to Bill Clinton’s campaign. Clinton then opened doors for that person and sometimes acted in a way contrary to stated American interests and policy.

And by the way you would call that treason. George Bush or I call George King George the secondthe second Bush in 2000 was a traitor as well. We were getting into wars not for American interestbut for the interest of private enterprise which he had ties to.

And as the fortunes of Rome’s elite increasingly derived from these foreign lands Roman policy was also shaped by bribes that their leaders and generals would get from the kings and other leaders of the world’s countries which they conquered. They would give them great tribute and great money for favors and they were bribed. Again because the people contributing the money to ancient Rome were not Roman and had not Rome in their interest Roman people found themselves being led by people who really were beholden to foreigners and not to the people of Rome.

Give you an example in modern day Fox News which many people believe is a conservative station Fox News is owned by News Corp. It has 30 billion in revenues worldwide 30 billion dollars. Do you think Fox News really cares about you and I? Or do they care about their advertisers and the big business that support them especially big pharma in their case.

Another thing that happened to ancient Rome and this is the history history can be summed up in one thing. There has always been since ancient Egypt a struggle between the middle class and the elite. See the elite like the feudal system of the Middle Ages of the Dark Ages.

They like serfs peasants commoners workers and they like themselves the lords and kings. They don’t like butchers, bakers, carpenters who become part of the middle class who make a self-sufficient living and they become powerful in their own right. And so in every society where a middle class grew to be quite strong you had the elite trying to destroy the middle class.

And this has happened throughout history and it happened in Rome and it’s happening today. We see income inequality today in America worse than it’s ever been ever been in our history. It’s worse than the big big millionaires but they would be billionaires today back in the Rockefeller time in the Carnegie times.

We are worse we have worse incoming inequality today than we did even in the 1890s early 1900s. Like I said, Rome was a republic a democratic republic for 400 years. How did they succeed for 400 years? What was their success? Well, believe it or not the early Romans were very religious.

They weren’t Christian but they were very religious. They were pious people. They believed in honor in their ancestors and their elders.

They believed in their traditions. They cherished courage and honesty much like we do of George Washington today. You know, George Washington imbibes today in us what the Romans thoughtduring the republic was the virtues of themselves.

Another similarity between the early America and ancient Rome when it was still a republic was they relied on neighborhood self-governance. America became famous throughout the worldbecause local people solved the local issues. They didn’t bring it to Washington.

They didn’t bring it to higher ups. Local townships would solve their own problems just like in ancient republic Rome local citizens dealt with problems in their own neighborhoods until at the end of the republic Roman leaders especially Roman generals solved inner city, inner neighborhood conflicts. The other thing that happened at this time of course was crony capitalism, patronage.

Roman society like our society today because they were in constant wars needed money. The politicians needed money and the money came from the big business the elitist of their day and the elitist of our day. You know, they have their hands out and the average Joe and Mary out theredo not give the money to your house of representative or your senator or your president that a big business does big pharma big military.

They give the money so you vote for them but they do not represent you. They represent the money that they get and therefore Rome found themselves in the situation that we’re finding ourselves today that they had leaders that were not beholden to the people that voted them. The military problem.

Rome started having a military problem that we have today. They went from a voluntary army to a draft and then back to a voluntary army but they had people not willing to join. So what did they have to do? They had to make deals with the foreign lands they captured and let those people join the Roman ranks in the armies in the navy and in turn became Roman citizens.

Many people do not know this but it’s hard to become a citizen of France or it’s hard to become a citizen of most countries around the world Russia or China or Japan but it’s easy to become an American citizen and it was easy to become a Roman citizen. You could buy Roman citizenshipwith money. The apostle Paul was a Jew.

He was a Jew born in Tarsus which is an Asia minor and him or his family or he bought Roman citizenship and you can read that in Acts where he had special rights that no other Jew around him had because he was not a subject of Rome.

 He was a citizen of Rome even though he had no Roman blood in him and like America today it was very easy to become an American citizen like it was or a Roman citizen like it was an American citizen and that led to all kinds of problems between the military and the military leaders and the actual people of Rome.

Again, as I mentioned earlier in this broadcast many people do not realize but our military is being filled with aliens they come here many illegally and in order to find a pathway to citizenship they join the military but is their allegiance really to the United States of America or is it from the lands they come from and this is why the open border between Mexico and America and even Canada and America is becoming a problem today. Now I admit America is not close to becoming a military dictatorship but what happened in well and maybe it is under Joe Biden to be honest but back in the end of the Roman Republic times.

 when Julius Caesar was a general for Rome it became so corrupt and so intertwined with the military industrial complex of their day that eventually Caesar took control with his army conquered Rome and became Rome’s first dictator and thereafter became a whole list of evil corrupt deviant dictators named Caesar and they’re not Caesar is not a family name if Caesar is a name meaning a king today you hear of the Kaiser of Germany well that is a Caesar it’s German for Caesar Tsar of Russia is a Russian version translation of the word Caesar Caesar was a title the Caesars were not all related most were not related but they all had a little things in common that many of our leaders today have in common.

 and I’ll give you one just one example they were sexual deviants they were pedophiles they were homosexuals they were murderers and they weren’t sensuous they married their mother they had sex with their sisters and brothers they were totally decadent in their lifestyle and they had no compassion for the common people that may be coming to America so the idea that Rome so closely identifies with the America today is frightening.

 and I have to tell you right now we are the modern Romans again like I said those who cannot remember their past are convicted to repeat the mistakes of the past and Americans do not know their history a lot of that is from bad education a lot of that is from lack of care but if you don’t know your history you don’t know what happened before you’re going to make the same mistakes as what happened before and we’re seeing that happening today in our society Rome was the most powerful country in the known world of their day, especially after they became a dictatorship.

 they conquered the known worldand that result that occurred because of their military industrial complex sowed the seeds to its destruction now it took a long time for ancient Rome to destroy itself you know both the Republic of Rome and ancient Caesar Rome lasted for over 800 years.

We’re nowhere close to that they did decline they fell they were conquered by their own military that were not even Roman the military became mercenaries from other lands like I said earlier mainly from Germany German tribes that eventually said well we’re going to just take over this soft country there are other similarities I want to get into but I’m at about the end of this broadcast.  I guess I will to continue on the other similarities between ancient Rome and today and you will find them just astounding you will find that Rome and America are so intertwined with our histories that you will think that it’s the same playbook all over again.

Friends it is the same playbook all over again it’s the elites versus the middle class and it’s the few trying to enslave the majority and that is what’s going on in our country today and it has been going on for over 75 years at least it’s not new it’s been going on for a while so I will pick up this theme again tomorrowbut I just want to remind everybody that to go to the Plain Truth every day theplaintruth.com

See the headlines there and then from there you can click on the message board which I think you should go to every day as well because the message board has topics you will not find on the main page people can put in their own stories they can they can comment comment on the stories that are there or that other people placed and there are usually anywhere from 7 to 10 newarticles on the message board that do not make it to the main page that people find very interesting I actually say it’s the water cooler kind of talk .  I mean we on the message board we don’t really control the content as much as other people listing what they think is important fromyou know the behavior of Britney Spears to the health questions and COVID and just crooked politicians and all kinds of things you’ll find on the message board.

 then we have of course your health today which we have very good articles on you need to take control of your own health because if you depend on the government for help you’re in trouble 

and of course we have these broadcasts, we call podcast, and you can go back and listen to them they’re not always from me like last week we had a lot from other people we do try to give other points of view or points of view that actually agree with us as well and are on the cutting edge when you watch mainstream media and that includes Newsmax that includes Fox that includes anything you’re going to see on TV you’re going to be limited to what they want you to know not what you need to know and the important thing of the plain truth is we’re trying to reveal to the public maybe to wake you up that you need to know— things you need to know your history you need to know where we are in biblical history and biblical prophecy you need to know who God is you need to know there is a God.

 you need to know that the news we are not a church

 I say this over and over again but the news includes God.     God is ultimately the greatest newscaster there is.     God knows the news before we know the news.   I said earlier in another program the Bible often time is tomorrow’s news published three thousand years ago or tomorrow’s headlines published three thousand years ago.

 so what we’re trying to do is to show people that they need to realize that they can control their own destiny.    if they learn their history and they find themselves not relying on a few sources controlled by the big media or the big business or big pharma or big military industrial complex,  but find the information that they need to know what’s going on and understand that there is a God.

 God knows what’s going on and God also knows what is going to go on and I’ve also said in the pastthat even if we can’t save this country in our lifetime and I hope we still can there is a personal relationship with God that can help your future on this earth as well as beyond this earth so until tomorrow this is Bob Barney saying thank you for listening please tell your friends about thesebroadcasts and especially about the plain truth and we’ll see you tomorrow