One universal pattern that we see in life is that nothing lasts forever. Whether it is people who are born, mature, age, and eventually pass away, or nations, or institutions, or even stars everything eventually come to an end. This can be attributed to the second law of thermodynamics, which simply states that in a closed system entropy always increases. Entropy is a measure of the ability of energy to do useful work, lower entropy meaning more available capability; as useful work is done, entropy increases. (A comparable measure exists for information.) There is even something called the “heat death of the universe”, which is that future condition when matter and energy are uniformly distributed so that nothing ever changes, the ultimate outcome of the 2nd law of thermodynamics
Consider human lives. Our DNA defines our body structure from the inside, with the environment acting on the outside. As we age, our DNA degrades due to a variety of factors. As a result, our bodies also begin to decay beginning after early adulthood. Of course, environmental factors like smoking, alcohol consumption, environmental toxins, poor diet also contribute to bodily decay. The only thing that drives healthy development from conception to adulthood is the healthy DNA at birth, and healthy lifestyles thereafter.
The rise and fall of the Third Reich was documented by Shirer. The decline and fall of the Roman Empire was a series of books by Gibbon. The decline of the Spanish Empire is not nearly so often discussed, but it goes something like this. After defeating the Islamic invaders and ejecting them from the Iberian peninsula in 1492, Spain very quickly took on the task of exploring and conquering the New World that Columbus had just discovered. They discovered that the pagan religion of the natives in America practiced human sacrifice on a scale that apparently surpassed that of the ancient Canaanites. This is documented in Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness by Warren Carroll. The Spanish took on the task of conquering the Aztec empire and evangelizing the people. This was completed in a very short time on historical scales, and coincided with the establishment of an empire covering more than half of Central and South America, and a good part of North America. Sadly, Spain drifted from this evangelical fervor to focus on collecting as much gold and silver as could be collected and shipped back to Spain. Secular history records factors that were efficient causes of Spain’s decline, such as debt default, hyperinflation, the collapse of domestic industry, and over-reliance on the imports of precious metals from the new world. But the final cause was their turn from God to materialism.
We could do a similar analysis of the decline of the British empire, but that is left as an exercise for the reader. (The London Missionary Society and the banker mindset portrayed in the Mary Poppins movie are clues.)
There is a hint of what is not subject to the second law. The origin of the universe. The source of the DNA that infants have at conception. The power that enabled Spain to quickly conquer so much territory and so many people. The power of God lies outside this universe and is not subject to this seemingly universal principle. It is related to the child’s question, if God created everything, who created God? Or Aristotle’s immovable mover. Some things are outside our comprehension.
The real question is what the implications are for us. How we live. What we prioritize. The decisions we make. Our goals in life. Because it can end in decay and failure, or growth and success. Our choice to pursue God or man will ultimately determine the outcome. When our body inevitably decays, what will be our legacy? Have we left our children a heritage of faith and faithfulness? What have we left our society, that part of the world we have contact with? Material wealth, money, or human institutions that will crumble like crumbling ruins of the Roman Empire? What Jesus offers is eternal life. How can we share that?
Part of our society has a greatness mindset, but what made America great? Was/is it John D Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J P Morgan, Henry Ford, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg? George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, FDR? Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Paine, Susan B Anthony, William Lloyd Garrison, Booker T. Washington, Jonathan Edwards, Billy Graham, D. L. Moody, Billy Sunday? What meets the test of lasting greatness?
https://en.wikipedias.org/wiki/Ruins
https://www.amazon.com/AOFOTO-Background-Paradise-Photography-Wallpaper/dp/B0788G776X
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