When Rome's Gods Fell Silent

In 27 BC, Marcus Agrippa constructed the Pantheon in the heart of Rome — a soaring temple dedicated to every god in the empire. For six centuries, Romans passed beneath its massive bronze doors to honor Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and dozens of lesser deities. The great dome, still the largest unreinforced concrete dome on earth, was designed to mirror the heavens — a monument to the supposed power of Rome's gods.

But those gods could not save Rome. They could not stop the plagues, the invasions, the slow crumbling of the empire that worshipped them. One by one, their altars went cold. And in 609 AD, Pope Boniface IV consecrated that same building as a Christian church — the Church of Santa Maria ad Martyres. The temple built to celebrate every god now rang with praise to the One God who outlasted them all.

The psalmist declared it centuries before Rome ever laid its first stone: "You, LORD, are the Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods." Mountains of imperial power melted like wax. The heavens that Rome's dome tried to imitate proclaimed His righteousness. And the throne that endures — the only throne that has ever truly endured — rests not on marble columns but on righteousness and justice.