Are we the Modern Romans? Part 1 (Transcript)

A philosopher once said,those who cannot remember their past are condemned to repeat it. And if you ask anyone today and see a similarity between ancient Rome and modern America, most people who know their history will say yes, there is one.

Hi, I am Bob Barney from the plain truth.

I remember a long time ago watching a football game back in 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 for the worldwide church of god during their heyday when it was run by Garner Ted Armstrong son of the founder, herbert. 

I have had broadcasts on this and written on this about what I believe coming today and being challenged by being what I believe then, what I was taught in school or raught in college, finding out much that I thought was news, I really 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 at that time.

They understood who America was, something that I can guarantee you most Americans today still dont 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 find out they started these predictions in the 1930s, but mainly in the 50s, 60s and 70s. In the forties right after WWii, they predicted the coming EU, a united states of Europe would form like the united states of america. A ten nation central european power getting its power by the Catholic Church.

This was before the common market and tegh EU, and they saw and predicted a unification of Germany. East Germany then under control and western under allied control would unite and would be the focal point of a modern europe. When they were making these predictions around 1976 ist seemed impossible that it would ever happen but it did. And we are seeing it happen even more today. They also talked about the demise of the Americangovernrment and peoples and societies along with that of Great Britain and therefore they came out with a book called, “Are we the modern romans?”.

I want to expound about this because a  famous historian, Edward Given, had a six volume work back in the 18th century. It was called history in decline and the fall of the roman empire. It identified five major causes that contributed to the fall of Rome. First was the breakdown of the family. Second, increased taxation, third was the incredible craving for personal pleasure above everything, fourth, a Build of  up of the military, armaments, the military industrial complex of then Rome, the fifth, the decay of their religion. It should be noted that Given hated Christianity and anyone who is a christian when reading that book, he blamed Christian society for destroying ROme. He is wrong. What he did rightly blame is the Catholic Church as after Constantine started to rule Rome, Rome fell quite quickly. There are various reasons as to why and we will discuss them in this broadcast. You will find them quite similar to what is going on in America today and probably the last seventy five years. It’s ironic that Given published his first volume in 1776 when America was first formed. Then he had volumes two and three at the end of the Revolution, four five and six, done when our Constitution went into effect. He noted that the Roman Empire thrived when its citizens valued marriage and family. It fell when they stopped cherishing their own individual family.

The next thing he mentions is the staggering increase in the funds for elections. Money coming from the rich elite. Our 2020 election cost about 7 billion dollars raised by private sources. This is why our leaders are beholden to special interest groups and not the people that elected them. Same thing happened in the late roman republic.

Everyone knows about ancient Rome as being under the Cesar’s, however many do not know that Rome started out as a republic with three branches of government just like our own. Our forefathers in a sense modeled ours after the roman republic government, Rome was not a democracy, it was a republic form of Gov that represented both the elite and the middle class and the poor. All having their say in government. The politics and the cost of politics and the road to personal wealth from politicians began to occur during the late roman period. Just like today, congressmen, senators and their staff go back and forth to make money, special interest money, the same thing was happening in ancient Rome before Julius Cesar.

The next thing we have in common with their society is they began a campaign on war upon war upon war. Their voluntary army like we had in 1792 through the civil war when Lincoln decided to have a draft which didn’t go over well by the way, all the way through the world wars. We were forcing people into the military all the way through the 50’s through the 80’s, then back to a voluntary army. Problem now is that when the vol army stopped and forced inscription into the army began and then it ended, like today, more and more mercenaries filled the ranks of the services of ROme. People who were not Roman could become members of the roman world and citizens if they joined the military. I dont know how many people are aware,but our military is made up of many aliens, some illegal. They got their citizenship by joining, so like Rome, in both the Republic form of their government and under the Cesar’s…they started having a military that was not beholden to the people of Rome. Maybe even from the countries they came from eventually after Rome became a dictatorship empire under the Cesar’s, we see that their own military mainly at the time made up of Germanic tribes, called the Huns, these soldiers turned on the roman people and in the 6th century attacked Rome and burned it down. The Roman gov was taken over at this time and slaughtered many Roman citizens. This is the problem when you depend on the military industrial complex based on big business making money off the military, the military people going back and forth between big business, it turns out that both being big are in cahoots against the American people.  The other thing, Rome found itself especially at the end of the republic and during the entire time of the Cesar’s, 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 but stopped by Reagan and like CHina is trying to do today. AAncient Rome was constantly in wars which led to a mercenary army because Rome didn’t want to fight. It was easier to pay someone to fight for them even though they didn’t care about Rome itself. We are probably finding that out today. But take america for the last one hundred years now, WWI, WWII, we had the cold war which lasted a long time, and the Koreon conflict, the Vietnam war which tore America apart, the Gulf War, Afghanistan war still going on to this day, the Iraq war, the list is far from complete. There have been wars and rumors of wars as Jesus has mentioned in AMerican history for over a hundred years. Foreign wars lead to growing influence from foreign powers and interest. When we give 150 billion dollars to Ukraine, do you think that some of that money returns back to the politicians that gave that money to them? Any payback? Or do you think that out of it maybe 15-30 billion goes back to a small group of people in Washington that got them the money in the first place.

Example here, one business man, just one alone, donated a hundred million dollars to Bill Clinton’s campaign. Bill then opened doors for that person and acted in a way that was contrary to stated American interest and policy. By the way, you would call that Treason.

George Bush, whom I call King George the 2nd, was a traitor as well. We were getting into wars not for our interest but for the interest of private enterprise which he had ties to. As the fortunes of Rome elite increasingly derive from these foreign lands, Rome policy was still shaped like bribes their leaders and generals would get from the kings and the other leaders of the world, countries that they conquered. They would get great tribute and favors, they were bribed. Again, because the people contributing the money to ancient Rome were not roman. Roman people found themselves being led by people who really were beholden to foreigners and not to the people of rome. Another example,Fox news which many people believe if conservative, but it is owned by Newscorp who does 30 billion in revenue worldwide. Do you really think FOx cares about you and me? Or their advertisers? Another thing that happened to ancient Rome and this is the history that can be summed up in one statement, there has always been since ancient Egypt, a struggle between the middle and the elite class. The elite like their futile system of the dark ages, serfs, peasants, commoners, workers, etc. They like to make themselves lords and kings. THey dont like butchers, bakers,etc, that beccome the middle class and make a self sufficient living and become independent. Anywhere the middle class became quite strong, you have the elite trying to destroy them. Throughout history. In Rome too. Now, today it’s happening. 

We see income inequality today in America, worse than ever. It’s worse than the big millionaires or billionaires from back in the Rockefeller and Carnegie times.

We have worse inequality than even in the 1890’s and early 1900s. LIke I said, Rome was a republic. A democratic republic for 400 years. What was their success? Well, believe it or not, the early Romans were very religious. They were not Christian yet pious people and believed in honoring their ancestors and elders, they cherished honesty and courage Much like we do George Washington today. Another similarity between early America and ancient Rome when it was still a republic was that they relied on neighborhood self governance. AMerica became famous around the world because people saw the local issues, they weren’t brought to Washington or higher ups, local townships would solve their own problems just l;ike in ancient republic rome. Locals  dealt with problems in their own neighborhoods until at the end of the Republic, Roman leaders, especially generals, solved the inner city conflicts. The other thing that happened in this time of course was crony capitalism. Roman society like ours today, because they were in constant wars, needed money. The politicians did and the money came from the big business, elitists of their day and the elitists of our day. You know they have their hands out and the average Joe and Mary out there do not give the money to their house of reps or senators or president that a big business does. They give the money. So you vote for them but they do not represent you. They represent the money that they get. 

Rome found themselves in the situation that we are finding ourselves in today. Leaders that were not beholden to the people that voted them in, that is what they found.

Military problems, Rome started saving a military problem that we have today. They went from a voluntary army to a draft, then back to voluntary 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 army. In turn they became citizens. Many people don’t know this but it is hard to become a citizen of France or actually most countries around the world. It is easy to become an American citizen and a Roman citizen. You could buy ROman citizenship with money.

The apostle Paul was a jew. BOrn in Tarsus which is in Asia minor. Him or his family bought ROman citizenship which is spoken of in Acts. He had special rights that no other Jewish person had because he is not subject but a citizen. LIke America today, it was very easy to become a citizen. 

That led to all kinds of problems between the military and the military leaders. Just like here. Again, as I mentioned earlier, many people don’t realize but our military is being filled with aliens. In order to find a pathway to citizenship they join. Is there really allegiance to the USA? Or is it from the lands they come from? This is why the open border between Mexico and America and even Canada is becoming a problem today. America is not supposed to become a military dictatorship, but back in the end of the roman republic times when Julisu Cesar was a general for Rome, it became so corrupt and so intertwined with the military industrial complex of their day, eventually Cesar took control with his army, conquered Rome and became their first dictator. 

Deviant dictator named Cesar, Cesar is not a family name, btw, if Cesar is a name meaning a king, today you hear of the Kaiser of Germany, well that is a Cesar, just the German version. The tzar of Russia is a Russian version of the translation of the word Cesar. Cesar was the title. Most were in fact not related yet they all have some things in common like our leaders today do..for example, they were sexxual devients, homosexuals, pedophiles, murderers, and they were censurists. They married their mothers, had sex with sisters and brothers and 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 America today is frightening.

I have to tell you right now, we are the modern Romans. Again, those who cannot remember their past, are convicted to repeat the mistakes of the past. Americans do not know their history, a lot of that is from bad education, lack of care as well, but if you do not know your history then you don’t know what happened before; you are going to make the same mistakes. We are seeing that happen 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 world. That result occurred because of their military industrial complex, so is the seed to their destruction

It took a long time for Rome to destroy itself, as it lasted for over 800 years and we are no wheres close to that.They fell, conquered by their own military that were not even romans. The military became mercenaries from other lands. Eventually they were seen as a soft country and taken over.

There are other similarities I would like to get into but let’s end this broadcast, digest this first and get ready for another part of the manner.

You will find that Rome and AMerica are so intertwined with our histories that you will think that it’s the same play book all over again. Friends, it is the same playbook all over again. The elites vs the middle class and the few trying to enslave the majorityThats whats going on in our country today and has been going on for over 75 years at least. It’s not new. 

I will pick up this theme again tomorrow but want to remind everyone that I invite you to come to The Plain Truth every day and see the headlines there and then from there you can click on the Message Board. That is a daily treat as well as it has topics you won’t find on the main page. People can put in their own stories and commenting is open. There are usually seven to ten new articles on the Message Board that do not make it to the  main page that people find very interesting.

I call it the water cooler section of our site. We let you post what you think is important. You’ll find all kinds of things like covid related, corrupt government topics as well, and we have Your Health Today online which you will find is very interesting the topics we cover, and also these podcasts You can go back and listen to them, not always from me. Like last week, we had a lot from other people. 

Remember God knows what is going on and He knows what is GOING to go on. Even if we cannot save our country in our lifetime, there is a personal relationship with God that can help your future on this earth as well as beyond this earth. 

This is Bob Barney, signing off for today, please come back tomorrow and catch part two.