Here’s an interesting story from history. Granted, it has never been proved nor disproved. Still, according to Eusebius, an early church historian, as well as to Tertullian, an early Church Father, Tiberius Caesar, after receiving a letter from Pontius Pilate, informing him of the reports of Christ’s miraculous life, death, and resurrection, proposed to the Roman Senate that Christ be deified. Now, there is no evidence to substantiate nor any suggestion on my part that Tiberius Caesar was a Christian, far from it, all of the evidence suggest otherwise. Still, according to Eusebius and Tertullian, Tiberius did propose to the Roman Senate, which alone had the power to add a god to the Roman Pantheon, that Christ be added. The Senate, however, rejected the idea and rebuffed the emperor’s request. This, according to John Foxe, in his famous Book of Martyrs, was used by God to “stir up” Tiberius, as well as succeeding Roman emperors, against the Roman Senate. The result, again according to Foxe, was that ‘the senators themselves were almost destroyed, and the whole city [of Rome] most horribly afflicted.”

As George Santayana famously said, “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Are we seeing history repeat itself in today’s America, our world’s end-time Rome, because of the failure of today’s Americans to learn from history? For instance, our Congress, which includes our Senate, plus our House of Representatives, not only refuses to confess Jesus Christ as Lord, but maintains that it is unlawful for our government to do so. Furthermore, it is disturbingly dismissive of Christ altogether, as New York Representative Gerald Nadler made abundantly clear when he, responding to another congressman’s quoting of the Bible, recently declared from the House floor, “What any religious tradition describes as God's will is no concern of this Congress.” In other words, according to Nadler, our Congress couldn’t care less about the Word or will of God.

No present-day American can deny that there is an ever-growing antagonism between one end of Pennsylvania Avenue—the White House—and the other end—the United States Capital. Our presidents and our Congress are becoming increasingly contentious toward one another, not only to Congress’ detriment, but to the detriment of our whole country as well. Beginning with Barack Obama, our presidents have been attempting to govern us by bypassing Congress and issuing executive fiats. These presidential executive orders have exacerbated the polarization of our politics, imperiled our representative republican, and undermined our constitutional government. Students of history cannot help but wonder, therefore, if God is stirring up hostility between America’s Christ-rejecting Congress and American presidents, which will lead to America’s judgment and destruction, just as He once stirred up hostility between Rome’s Christ-rejecting Senate and the Roman emperors, which lead to Rome’s judgment and destruction.