The Fall of the Roman Empire and Christianity
The Roman Empire collapsed rather in a mysterious way, so that there are various theories about its cause of fall.
1. Invasions by Barbarian tribesIn addition, climate change and pandemic are pointed to as major causes:
2. Economic troubles and overreliance on slave labor
3. The rise of the Eastern Empire
4. Overexpansion and military overspending
5. Government corruption and political instability
6. The arrival of the Huns and the migration of the Barbarian tribes
7. Christianity and the loss of traditional values
8. Weakening of the Roman legions
https://www.history.com/news/8-reasons-why-rome-fell
The weather deteriorated in 150–400 AD — the ‘Roman Transitional Period’ — and hit temperature lows in the ‘Late Antique Little Ice Age’, from 450–700 AD, when the Empire fell apart.
The worst aspects of climate change, Harper maintains, hit the Empire just as it was blighted by its most serious bouts of disease. In 165 AD, the Antonine plague, probably caused by smallpox, struck. In 249 AD, an unknown type of pathogen followed. Then, in 541 AD, the first great pandemic of Yersinia pestis, which causes bubonic plague, arrived and lingered for more than two centuries.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/12/famine-fever-and-the-fall-of-rome/However, despite the fall of the Empire, Christian churches and the Vatican could survive without interruption. And, there were no decisive incidents, wars, natural disasters, etc. that were recorded and remembered in later generations and up to day. No kingdoms, empires, or tribes replaced Romans and occupied Rome, but only the Vatican remained.
If the core structure of the Empire had been sound and intact, the Empire could have overcome invasions by foreign forces, domestic problems, and natural diseases. And the core structure of the Empire was military. And the military needed the core ideology that made it superior to other tribes.
Christianity was clearly against the core ideology of the Roman military. But as Christianity was adopted as the state religion of the Roman Empire, the teaching of Christianity came to replace the core ideology of the Roman military. Accordingly, the military lost its discipline and control. Roman soldiers were not defeated, massacred, or died down, but became Christian citizens, discarding weapons. And, the Vatican survived with many churches in various regions once occupied by the Empire.
The key to the fall of the Roman Empire was Christianity. And, it is no wonder as it was Roman soldiers that had actually crucified and executed Christ Jesus 400 years before the collapse of the Empire.
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Mat 12:9 And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue:
Mat 12:10 And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.
Mat 12:11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?
Mat 12:12 How much then is a man better than a sheep?