Cheri Fields
[Originally published on Paul Humber’s website: CR-Ministries.org]
A recent article in Popular Mechanics, written by Tim Newcomb and dated Dec 17, 2024, says, “Archaeologists discovered a silver amulet containing an 18-line text showing the oldest known devotion to Christianity north of the Alps.” This grave was discovered in Frankfurt, Germany and is dated to the middle of the third century. The man was buried with a silver foil amulet engraved in Latin and rolled into a scroll, called a phylactery.
Using CT scanning technology, researchers were able to decipher the words without damaging the artefact. Here is part of what it contained:
(In the name?) of Saint Titus.
Holy, holy, holy!
In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God!
The Lord of the World
…
surrenders to the will
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son,
since before Jesus Christ
all knees bow: the heavenly ones,
the earthly and
the underground, and every tongue
confess (to Jesus Christ).
Rome persecuted Christians throughout the early centuries after Christ, including intense episodes under the rule of Emperor Decius in 250 A.D. and seven years later under Emperor Valerian.
The article referred to at the beginning spoke of “the rise of Christianity to the north… During the third century A.D., association with Christianity was still dangerous, and identifying as Christian came with great personal risk… That was no matter for this man in Frankfurt who took his allegiance to Jesus Christ to his grave…”
I hope to meet this man in heaven some day, but will I meet you, reader? Have you bent your knee to Jesus?
