Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, writes to Polycarp in the first century urging him to remain unruffled by the times.

A star shone forth in heaven brighter than all the stars; its light was indescribable and its strangeness caused amazement.

What matters now is not a mere professing of faith. Now the crucial thing is whether a man is found in the power of faith to the end. He who truly possesses the word of Jesus can even hear his silence speak.