BY Gary Varvel
“Will America’s 250th birthday be a celebration or a funeral?”
This sobering question was posed by syndicated columnist Cal Thomas in his book, America’s Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires and Superpowers . . . and the Future of the United States.
Thomas wrote the book as a stark, prophetic warning for America to change its current trajectory. He observed that American history is tracking with terrifying precision alongside The Fate of Empires, a landmark 1978 essay by Sir John Glubb.
Glubb analyzed the lifecycles of eleven historical empires across centuries and discovered an undeniable pattern:
they all shared seven distinct stages of development, and they consistently collapsed after an average lifespan of roughly 250 years.
As America reaches its own monumental 250-year milestone, we are forced to confront Glubb’s timeline.
Glubb’s 7 Ages of Empire—and Where America Stands Today
Looking back across our history, it is easy to see how seamlessly the American story maps onto Glubb’s historical lifecycle:
The Age of Pioneers: The rugged exploration of a continent, from Christopher Columbus to Lewis and Clark.
The Age of Conquests: When our Founding Fathers boldly fought for independence from Great Britain to establish a nation of free men.
The Age of Commerce: When our ancestors built great, industrious cities and mastered global trade.
. The Age of Affluence: From the late 1800s onward, which established the robust American middle class and created unprecedented material wealth.
The Age of Intellect: The 20th century, where American technological triumph took mankind from the horse-and-buggy to the moon in less than 70 years.
The Age of Decadence: The mid-20th-century turning point, where the sexual revolution went mainstream, eroding traditional moral boundaries and family structures.
The Age of Decline and Collapse: The final stage, marked by internal defensiveness, deep cultural pessimism, intense materialism, frivolity, a massive influx of an assimilation-resistant culture, the rise of the welfare state, and a severe weakening of religion.
According to a poll by the Trafalgar Group, nearly 80 percent of voters believe that “American society and culture is in decline.” Nearly everyone, regardless of political affiliation, intuitively feels that something is terribly, fundamentally wrong with the country.
But what can be done to stop a historical countdown?
A Spiritual Problem Needs a Spiritual Solution
Politicians consistently act as though the solution to every civilizational crisis is to pass another piece of legislation or spend billions more in taxpayer money.
But Thomas notes a reality that Washington refuses to acknowledge: more government laws cannot stem the tide of corruption and violence on our streets when we have systematically rejected God’s moral law.
America has a deeply rooted spiritual problem, and it cannot be fixed with material solutions. The Bible provides clear, unyielding warnings about what happens to any nation that chooses to forget God (Deuteronomy 8). If we are to survive past the historical expiration date, the call cannot just be for political reform—it must be a call for the remnant to remember, repent, and return to the God who blessed this nation in the first place.
Reclaiming the Watchtower
To stop the bleeding, Thomas offers a radical but entirely necessary step for families:
“Remove your children and grandchildren from the public schools and liberal universities that have become progressive socialist re-education camps.”
We would never dream of sending our military recruits to be trained in the camps of our geopolitical adversaries. Yet, for decades, we have willingly entrusted our children to a educational system that spends eight hours a day dismantling the very faith, values, and history we teach them at home. It is time for parents to aggressively take advantage of school choice. As Thomas brilliantly points out, the secular left is fiercely “pro-choice” when it comes to abortion, but strictly anti-choice when it comes to educating the children who survive.
The clock is ticking on our 250th year. It is time to wake up, step into the gap, and turn America right-side up.
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