Achievements

The photos here are part of the “wonders of the world” that attract thousands of visitors who marvel at the incredible artistry or engineering efficiency of the people of these bygone civilisations; I personally had the privilege of visiting the museum of Chinese art in Taiwan where priceless treasures like those from the Ming Dynasty are displayed; the workmanship is incredible. When we look at the Pyramids of Cheops we find it hard to imagine how such an engineering feat could have been accomplished, but when we examine the treasures found in the tombs like the features of Nefertiti, the ability of that civilisation staggers the imagination. Then there was the Roman Empire with the Colosseum, military equipment and finely woven clothing. We could mention the Ancient Greek Civilisation with its achievements and even the Incas of Peru with their well-built houses, the walls of which still survive to-day.

From an examination of all this, one question arises: “Why did those advanced civilisations collapse?” The answer can be found in 1 Kings Chapter 9 in the Old Testament: King Solomon had just finished building the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem and had been praying a prayer of dedication to God when God replied and said that whilst Solomon and his people worshipped God and obeyed His commandments they would be under His care and therefore prosper, but if they decided to go it alone and worship other “gods” they would no longer have His support and He would allow them to be conquered.

The people in those ancient civilisations were people just like us; even atheistic scientists and anthropologists agree that all people have a common ancestry. They don’t know who that original parent was but think she lived somewhere in Africa, whereas the bible tells us her name was Eve and she lived with her husband Adam just above Africa in a place called Eden near the Tigris and Euphrates river valley. The exact location is of little importance, but the fact that we all have a common ancestry is very important as it confirms that God is the Heavenly Father of all of us and expects all His children to recognise and worship Him, and Him alone, so that He can bless us all in the way He wanted to bless King Solomon and his people. Therefore, we need to see our relationship with God in the correct perspective: we are His children and He owns the world and everything in it and being a good parent He wants us to operate this “business” that He has setup for us. We should make a good team too as we all have different talents and abilities and should enjoy working together. To make sure that this arrangement could work out successfully He even gave us a set of rules to follow; Jesus condensed these rules into just 2 commandments: “Love God and love your neighbour as yourself”. Whilst we live in accordance with those rules we will succeed. On the other hand, if those rules are ignored we will fail because greed and selfishness start to prevail and the worship of “other gods” takes over. That is why these ancient civilisations collapsed and of course, when a father sees his children ignoring his instructions, he withdraws his backing as he doesn’t want to support what he knows is wrong and will disadvantage his children in the long term.

History repeats itself: Australia is an advanced civilisation and has a constitution based on Christian ethics as outlined in the New Testament and until about 60 years ago the majority of people were endeavouring to follow those ethics so the country was prospering. Since then I have noticed an ever increasing decline with atheism influencing our education system and Government with business treating employees as expendable whilst Law and Order is deteriorating. The inevitable outcome is what God told Solomon. Therefore, we are fast becoming nothing more than a retail outlet for China and a few other countries. This is very sad because we were once independent, having industries like the B.H.P. steel works, and we made Chamberlain tractors, Holstrom, Silent Knight and Electrolux refrigerators, Electrolux vacuum cleaners, A.W.A. radios, car and truck tyres, Onkaparinga blankets, Actil sheets, Bonds clothing, Mc Murtrie’s shoes, we canned all our own fruit and vegetables, owned our own cattle feed lots, cotton and dairy farms, Ports and electricity, and had Australian based oil refineries; these businesses, and hundreds more, created jobs and apprenticeships and helped our balance of payments. Now all these including car manufacturing have either gone, are going, or are taken over by outsiders and we have accumulated a debt of 2.7 Trillion dollars. Wisdom comes from God so if we don’t soon turn back to Him and follow His instructions future generations will wonder why our civilisation collapsed leaving only a rusty old Harbour bridge as an emblem of our achievements. If this concerns you, then be part of the answer by asking God’s forgiveness now and seek to follow His instructions. Change has to start somewhere so why not with you and me?  Best wishes, Tom.