Opening Blog - Trier

Just visited Trier yesterday. Trier was one of the centers for the Roman Empire and a favorite vacation spot for Empire and Church leaders. Trier is the oldest city in Germany (a title shared with Worms), and there are more Roman ruins here than anywhere else north of the Alps!

History says that . . .

* 56 BC - Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) conquered the city while fighting the Belgae, a Gallic people who lived in what is today northern France and Belgium. The original inhabitants were the Treveri, a Celtic tribe from eastern Gaul.

* 30 BC - The Romans placed military camps on Petrisberg.

* 18 BC - The Romans placed the 1st wooden bridge across the Moselle at the Celts' ford.

* 16 BC - Augustus I founded the city. (This man was originally known as Octavius, Caesar's adopted son. When he became emperor in 27 BC he gave up the name Octavius and began to be called Augustus Caesar, which is like saying, "His Majesty, Caesar.")

* AD 180 - When Marcus Aurelius battled a Germanic tribe near Frankfurt, Trier built up its city wall 4 miles as a precautionary measure. This is when the well-known Porta Nigra (still standing strong!) was built.

* 2nd C AD - Christians were known to be at Trier. Also, this is considered the first place a bishop took up ministry (an "episcopal see") in Germany.

* Diocletian (AD 245-313) made Treveria the capital city of the Western Roman Empire. Diocletian persecuted Christians fiercely (beginning in AD 303).

* 4th C AD - St. Maximus sheltered the excommunicated St. Athanasius at Trier. (Athanasius, remember, opposed Arian in northern Africa.)

* Emperor Constantine the Great (AD 306-337) surrounded Trier with a defensive wall and erected magnificent buildings inside its protection.

* Helena, Constantine's mother, provided for church buildings to be erected in Trier, Rome, Bethlehem (yes, the Church of the Nativity), and Jerusalem (Mount of Ascension).

* St. Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-430) was converted through the personal ministry of St. Ambrose (AD 339-97), the Bishop of Milan -- and Ambrose likely was born in Trier.

* AD 802 - Charlemagne spent Christmas in Trier and made it an archbishopric.

My point -- with all of this heavy church history in Germany, where are the expositors of God's Word? Where are the bold proclaimers of truth? Why such beautiful, elaborate buildings -- but such bored-looking, spiritually empty young people? Who will preach the Gospel, indeed, the whole counsel of God's Word to western Europe?