When I was a teenager my mom painted a mural on our living room wall which stayed there for several years It showed an ancient Greek scene of a ruined temple with white columns lying on their sides a crumbling fountain and a broken statue As I looked at the Hellenistic architecture that had once held great beauty I tried to imagine what had destroyed it I was curious especially when I began studying about the tragedy of once great and thriving civilizations that had decayed and crumbled from within The sinful depravity and wanton destruction we see around us
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