WTW 2021
22 December
First Light to Albion
Britons of Albion
“I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations.”
Isaiah 66:19
(And what of NSI 2000 years hence?)
The vast majority of people never even consider many simple matters. Granted, this marvelous existence the Father has bestowed upon us has far more than we can plumb or even gloss in this short lifetime here. And we will be about even greater matters for eternity.
One simple matter here though, which even in all the studies of history had never even once before come to mind for this reader, is the question of when the Good News first came to the Britons. This question first came to mind just gister day, and that after having been reading through Bede for quite some time already.
This is how it is. There are so many things we do not know that when we begin to learn we often do not even realize what things we do not know enough to notice them even when for eerst we see them.
In brief though, to the main point here for now is the note of interest that most will never even consider when the Got Spell first came to the British Isles. And from what I have just experienced in searching this out, the few who do even consider it will likely never realize that this Good News likely first came to these now globally impacting islands far earlier than the most popular traditional account reveals. (And what of NSI 2000 years hence?) Yes, AD 597 was significant. However, 156¹ far precedes that; 47² far predates that, and Tiberius Caesar even more, having died in what we now (thanks to Dennis the Little’s 525 calendar) refer to as AD 37.
By AD 62, the Good News had been preached to the entire known world, and this would seem likely to include the British Isles of Albion which had begun to come under Roman rule beginning over a century earlier with Julius Caesar’s first landing there in 699 A.U.C., what we call 55 BC.
“You have already heard…the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.
Colossians 1:5-6
And then, Gildas wrote³ the following circa AD 536⁴:
§ 5.For when the rulers of Rome had obtained the empire of the world, subdued all the neighbouring nations and islands towards the east, and strengthened their renown by the first peace which they made with the Parthians, who border on India, there was a general cessation from war throughout the whole world; the fierce flame which they kindled could not be extinguished or checked by the Western Ocean, but passing beyond the sea, imposed submission upon our island without resistance, and entirely reduced to obedience its unwarlike but faithless people, not so much by fire and sword and warlike engines, like other nations, but threats alone, and menaces of judgments frowning on their countenance, whilst terror penetrated to their hearts.
§ 6.When afterwards they returned to Rome, for want of pay, as is said, and had no suspicion of an approaching rebellion, that deceitful lioness[6] put to death the rulers who had been left among them, to unfold more fully and to confirm the enterprises of the Romans. When the report of these things reached the senate, and they with a speedy army made haste to take vengeance on the crafty foxes,[7] as they called them, there was no bold navy on the sea to fight bravely for the country; by land there was no marshalled army, no right wing of battle, nor other preparation for resistance; but their backs were their shields against their vanquishers, and they presented their necks to their swords, whilst chill terror ran through every limb, and they stretched out their hands to be bound, like women; so that it has become a proverb far and wide, that the Britons are neither brave in war nor faithful in time of peace.
§ 7.The Romans, therefore, having slain many of the rebels, and reserved others for slaves, that the land might not be entirely reduced to desolation, left the island, destitute as it was of wine and oil, and returned to Italy, leaving behind them taskmasters, to scourge the shoulders of the natives, to reduce their necks to the yoke, and their soil to the vassalage of a Roman province; to chastise the crafty race, not with warlike weapons, but with rods, and if necessary to gird upon their sides the naked sword, so that it was no longer thought to be Britain, but a Roman island; and all their money, whether of copper, gold, or silver, was stamped with Caesar’s image.
§ 8.Meanwhile these islands, stiff with cold and frost, and in a distant region of the world, remote from the visible sun, received the beams of light, that is, the holy precepts of Christ, the true Sun, showing to the whole world his splendour, not only from the temporal firmament, but from the height of heaven, which surpasses every thing temporal, at the latter part, as we know, of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, [d. AD 37⁵] by whom his religion was propagated without impediment, and death threatened to those who interfered with its professors.
§ 9.These rays of light were received with lukewarm minds by the inhabitants, but they nevertheless took root among some of them in a greater or less degree, until the nine years’ persecution of the tyrant Diocletian, [b. AD 244⁶] when the churches throughout the whole world were overthrown, all the copies of the Holy Scriptures which could be found burned in the streets, and the chosen pastors of God’s flock butchered, together with their innocent sheep, in order that not a vestige, if possible, might remain in some provinces of Christ’s religion. What disgraceful flights then took place-what slaughter and death inflicted by way of punishment in divers shapes,—what dreadful apostacies from religion; and on the contrary, what glorious crowns of martyrdom then were won,—what raving fury was displayed by the persecutors, and patience on the part of the suffering saints, ecclesiastical history informs us; for the whole church were crowding in a body, to leave behind them the dark things of this world, and to make the best of their way to the happy mansions of heaven, as if to their proper home.
§ 10.God, therefore, who wishes all men to be saved, and who calls sinners no less than those who think themselves righteous, magnified his mercy towards us, and, as we know, during the above-named persecution, that Britain might not totally be enveloped in the dark shades of night, he, of his own free gift, kindled up among us bright luminaries of holy martyrs, whose places of burial and of martyrdom, had they not for our manifold crimes been interfered with and destroyed by the barbarians, would have still kindled in the minds of the beholders no small fire of divine charity. Such were St. Alban of Verulam, Aaron and Julius, citizens of Carlisle,[8] and the rest, of both sexes, who in different places stood their ground in the Christian contest.
https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Six_Old_English_Chronicles/The_Works_of_Gildas
Wisdom in the WORD 
