Asian

Church History: Lecture 1 Transcript: WOLBI Jeju: Spring 2012

Steve Nicholes

In 1883 in Calcutta India, the great Brahma
Is not Asia the birth place of great
leader from Bengal Keshub Chandra Sen gave a speech
prophets and saints? Is it not
entitled, Asias Message to Europe. Let me read you one
preeminently a holy place of
pilgrimage to the rest of the world?
paragraph from that speech. Is not Asia the birth place of
Yes upon Asias soil have flourished
and prospered those at whose feet the
great prophets and saints? Is it not preeminently a holy
world should prostrate. The great
place of pilgrimage to the rest of the world? Yes upon
religions which have given life and
salvation to millions of men owe their
Asias soil have flourished and prospered those at whose
origin in Asia.
feet the world should prostrate. The great religions which
have given life and salvation to millions of men owe their
origin in Asia A But Asia is not only holy ground, in
this one place you could count all leading prophets and all
the great religious geniuses of the world. No great
prophet was born outside the boundaries of Asia (Keshub
Chandra Sen, Asias Message to Europe, Calcutta, 1919).
Have you ever heard of the Back to Jerusalem
movement? As Western Christians we often think of
Christianity as having started in Israel, and then mainly
traveled W thru Europe to the Americas and has now
moved W again to Asia and is going back to Jerusalem.

But as we will see in this class the Christian church
was born in Asia. Israel is a part of Western Asia.
S.M. Moffett writes, In earliest history, the first
Christian centers, Jerusalem, Antioch and Ephesus
were in Asia. (In the fifth century the only other centers
were in Rome and Alexandria) The first known church
building was in Asia, the first NT translation was in
Asia. The first Christian king; the first Christian poets;
the first Christian state were all in Asia. They called
themselves The Church of the East. Now when we say
Church of the East we are NOT talking about the
Eastern Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe. We are
talking about the church that is mainly east of the
land of Israel, in Asia.

Asia can be divided up into at least five
regions. East Asia in YELLOW (which includes Korea,
Japan, China and Taiwan). Central Asia in BLUE
(which are mainly the stan countries). Southeast Asia
in RED (including the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam,
Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia).
Then there is South Asia in GREEN (which are the
Indian countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Nepal, Sri Lanka, all the way to Afghanistan). And
finally there is West Asia in BROWN (which is what we
know of as the Middle-East including Iraq, Iran, Saudi
Arabia, Turkey, Cyprus, Armenia, Georgia, Syria,
Lebanon, Jordan and Israel). I am giving you a printout
of the regions and countries of Asia including their land
Message from Brahma leader from Bengal Keshub Chandra Sen

A History of Christianity in Asia by Samuel Hugh Moffett

CENTRAL ASIA

EAST ASIA

WEST ASIA

SOUTH ASIA

SE ASIA

size, populations and capital cities (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia).

In the book of Jonah we have the story of how the whole great city of Nineveh believed
in the God of Israel. When Jesus was born Matthew 2
says that wise men from the East came to worship Him.
Aramaic-speaking Assyrians have the tradition that in the
7th century BC Zoroaster made a prophecy that from their
land Magi would be led by a great light to one who would
rule the world, a Messiah like they heard about from the
Jews when they were captive in Babylon for 70 years.
The tradition from the Assyrians said there was 12
Magi, each listed by name with the name of their father.
They are believed to have come from the modern city of
Edessa (originally called the kingdom of Urhai). The Magi, after returning from Bethlehem, are
said to have told of the wonderful things they have seen and heard in such a way as to prepare
the Syrian mind for the preparation of the Gospel.

Are you familiar with Mark 16:15 and Acts 1:8?
It was on a hill in Asia, in far western Asia that Jesus spoke
these words to His disciples. Would someone read or
quote this verse for us? And He said to them, Go into all
Go into all the world and
the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
preach the gospel to every
creature.
Would someone else read Acts 1:8? But you shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and
you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Now we know
those verses. But one thing the NT does NOT tell us is
what that little group, mostly fishermen, may have
understood by the words all the world and ends of the earth. What did they imagine the
world to be?
In Acts 2 Luke talks about the crowds who came
at Pentecost and it says they were Jews out of every
nation under heaven. You will notice that they came from
parts of Asia to the E of Israel: Parthia (NE Iran), Media
(south of the Caspian Sea including modern Tehran) and
Elam (Khuzistan, E of the Persian Gulf), and Mesopotamia.
Jews were living in those areas and coming to Jerusalem
for festivals. And it is probable that when 3000 came to
believe in Jesus at Pentecost some of them came from this
area of the world. Many were probably scattered Jews
who came to visit Jerusalem.

Now the disciples probably did NOT know this at
the time but there was another guy named Strabo who
was living at the same time who gave his life to travel the
world and to make an outline, a map of the known world
of his day. And this is a map he drew about 20-25AD.
This was the most updated information that only a few
people in Jesus day had knowledge of. So the known
world to the disciples at that time was mainly western
Asia, northern Africa and southern Europe. They knew
about India. But they did not really know much about
China, and certainly nothing about the Americas on the other side of the world. In many ways
we know ancient Asia today better than it knew itself.

James Tissot Journey of the Magi (1894)

Mark 16:15

Mt of Olives

PARTHIA

MEDIA

ELAM

Strabos Map of the World (20-25 AD)

Jews in the East

When the Assyrians and Babylonians conquered
the land of the Bible in 722 and 606 BC they transplanted
Jews to Assyria and Babylon. At the time of Jesus the
number of Jews living in the Persian world, mostly in
or near Babylon, may have approached one million.
Sizable Jewish communities could be found in other cities,
such as Edessa in Mesopotamia and Nisibis in Persia.
Many common Jews lost the ability to speak Hebrew and
Aramaic was their common language, although the upper
classes also spoke Greek. The first Christians who came East with the gospel were often Jews
and would, like Paul, be in contact with Jews wherever they went.

Thomas in India

Now one of the oldest and strongest
traditions in church history is that Thomas the
apostle carried the gospel E, especially to India and
even China in 52AD (between Pauls second and third
missionary journey). There is a St Thomas Basilica in
Madras, India built over the tomb of the apostle Thomas.
They say he was killed by an arrow or spear and then
buried here in 72AD.
A book called the Acts of Thomas was written
around 200AD by a Christian in Edessa, which was NE of
Antioch. It is an apocryphal book and combines both
history and legends. But it is important in the history of
Christianity in Asia because except for Scripture it is the
oldest record we have of the church going to Asia.

I would like to read for you the first paragraph of
The Acts of Thomas. Let me remind you that this is not
Scripture. But there are other writers in the early church
who also say that Thomas went to India and there are
many Christians in India today who call themselves
Thomas Christians. So the idea and tradition that Thomas
1. At that season all we the
did this is very strong:
apostles were at Jerusalem
and we divided the
(http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?a
regions of the world, that
rticle=1004&context=facsch_papers)
every one of us should go

unto the region that fell to
him and unto the nation
The Acts of Thomas: The First Act, when he went into
whereunto the Lord sent
India with Abbanes the merchant.
him.
1. At that season all we the apostles were at
Jerusalem and we divided the regions of the world, that
every one of us should go unto the region that fell to him
and unto the nation whereunto the Lord sent him.
According to the lot,
According to tradition the apostle Mark and
therefore, India fell unto
possibly Apollos (Acts 18:24-25) were a part of the early
Judas Thomas, which is
also the twin: but he would
church in Alexandria and Egypt.
not go, saying that by
According to the lot, therefore, India fell unto
reason of the weakness of
the flesh he could not
Judas Thomas, which is also the twin: but he would not go,
travel, and 'I am an Hebrew
saying that by reason of the weakness of the flesh he could
man; how can I go amongst
the Indians and preach the
not travel, and 'I am an Hebrew man; how can I go amongst
truth?
the Indians and preach the truth?' And as he thus
St Thomas Bascilica, Madras, India

2 And while he thus spoke

and thought, it chanced
that there was there a
certain merchant come
from India whose name was
Abbanes, sent from the
King Gundaphorus.

2 There a certain
merchant come from India
whose name was Abbanes,
sent from the King
Gundaphorus, and having
commandment from him to
buy a carpenter and bring
him unto him.

Now the Lord seeing him

walking in the market-place
at noon said unto him:
Would you desire to buy a
carpenter? And he said to
him: Yea. And the Lord said
to him: I have a slave that is
a carpenter and I desire to
sell him .

3. And on the day

following the apostle arose
early, and having prayed
and besought the Lord he
said: I will go wherever You
desire, Lord Jesus: Your will
be done. And he departed
unto Abbanes the
merchant, taking with him
nothing at all except only
his price.

reasoned and spoke, the Savior appeared unto him by night

and said to him: Fear not, Thomas, go thou unto India and
preach the word there, for my grace is with thee. But he
would not obey, saying: Wherever you desire, send me, but
somewhere else, for unto the Indians I will not go.
2 And while he thus spoke and thought, it chanced
that there was there a certain merchant come from India
whose name was Abbanes, sent from the King Gundaphorus.
For over 1500 years people criticized this book,
The Acts of Thomas. One reason was that there was no
king by the name of Gundaphorus known in Indian
history. There was a long list of kings in ancient Indian
history that were known, men like Chandragupta, Ashoka,
Menander, But no Gundaphar.
Then in 1834 an explorer discovered a treasure
of ancient coins in the Kabul Valley of Afghanistan. On
many of those coins were the pictures and names of
forgotten kings. And among those coins were some with a
name stamped both in Greek and in an old Indian script.
The name was Gundaphar. Today the British Museum has
at least 33 coins of King Gundaphar; the Calcutta Museum
has 24 of them. Further research proved that these coins
came this time period in the first century AD. Gundaphar
was the dominant ruler at this time in NW India.
Well lets go back to the story: there a certain
merchant come from India whose name was Abbanes, sent
from the King Gundaphorus, and having commandment
from him to buy a carpenter and bring him unto him.
Now the Lord seeing him walking in the market-
place at noon said unto him: Would you desire to buy a
carpenter? And he said to him: Yea. And the Lord said to
him: I have a slave that is a carpenter and I desire to sell
him. Now in some Asian traditions they believe that
Thomas the Twin was actually the twin brother of Jesus
(also called Judas Thomas or Judas) and that their father
Joseph was a carpenter. So he grew up knowing how to be
a carpenter. And so saying he showed him Thomas afar
off, and agreed with him for three litrae of silver
unstamped, and wrote a deed of sale, saying: I, Jesus, the
son of Joseph the carpenter, acknowledge that I have sold
my slave, Judas by name, unto you Abbanes, a merchant of
Gundaphorus, king of the Indians. And when the deed was
finished, the Savior took Judas Thomas and led him away to
Abbanes the merchant, and when Abbanes saw him he said
unto him: Is this your master? And the apostle said: Yes, he
is my Lord. And he said: I have bought you from him. And
the apostle held his peace.
3. And on the day following the apostle arose
early, and having prayed and besought the Lord he said: I
will go wherever You desire, Lord Jesus: Your will be done.
And he departed unto Abbanes the merchant, taking with

And when they were on

the ship and were set down
Abbanes questioned the
apostle, saying: What
craftsmanship do you
know? And he said: In
wood I can make ploughs
and yokes and augers (oxgoads, Syr.), and boats and
oars for boats and masts
and pulleys; and in stone;

pillars & temples & courthouses for kings. And

Abbanes the merchant said
to him: Yes, that is the kind
of workman we need. They
began then to sail homeward; and they had a favorable wind, and sailed prosperously till they reached
Andrapolis (Gk. also called
Sandaruk), a royal city.

Transasia trade routes (First Century AD)

him nothing at all except only his price. For the Lord had
given it to him, saying: Let your price also be with your,
together with my grace, wherever you go.
And the apostle found Abbanes carrying his bags on
board the ship; so he also began to carry it aboard with
him. And when they were on the ship and were set down
Abbanes questioned the apostle, saying: What craftsman-
ship do you know? And he said: In wood I can make ploughs
and yokes and augers (ox-goads, Syr.), and boats and oars
for boats and masts and pulleys; and in stone, pillars and
temples and court-houses for kings. And Abbanes the
merchant said to him: Yes, that is the kind of workman that
we need. They began then to sail homeward; and they had a
favorable wind, and sailed prosperously till they reached
Andrapolis (Gk. also called Sandaruk), a royal city.
Well, this story cannot be proven but another
thing that we do know is that in the first century there
was a lot of traveling going on, especially by ship between
India and the Roman Empire. Strabo, the guy who drew
that 1 century map, said in his book Geographica that
when he visited Egypt about the time of Christ he found
as many as 120 ships a year sailing from the Egyptian
head of the Red Sea (2. 5.12). That would be about one
ship going to India every 3 days. The winds were
favorable from May to September. The whole trip,
including three weeks from Alexandria to the Red Sea,
could now be done in 94 days. The ships would carry
slaves, wine, coral, glass and British tin from the
Mediterranean to India. And then they would bring back
peacocks and ivory, pepper and spice, Kashmir wool and
precious jewels.
The books and traditions of Thomas Christians in
India also believe that Thomas came to India, then went to
China and returned to India. They believe he was speared
to death outside the city of Madras. Today the St
Thomas Basilica with a burial site to represent the place
where he was killed and buried. Except for one small bone
from his hand his body was later (232 AD) moved to the
city of Edessa. This was the same time that the books
Acts of Thomas was written.

The Church at Antioch
Christianity began in Jerusalem and then spread
throughout Judea and Samaria. When it started to go out
to the ends of the earth the center of Christianity moved
from Jerusalem to Antioch (Today the city of Antioch is
in the country of Turkey right next to Syria). In Acts
11:19-26 it says that when Stephen got stoned many
Christians left Jerusalem because of the persecution and
went to places like Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. At first
they were sharing the gospel just with the Jews in Antioch
but then guys like Barnabas (who was from Cyprus) came and started sharing the gospel with

Greeks in Antioch. And a great number of people believed and became followers of Jesus Christ.
Barnabas went to Tarsus and found Saul and brought him to Antioch and for 12 months Saul
served in this church. And the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. Galatians 2:11-
13 tells about a time Peter came up to Antioch.
In Acts 13 we see that the church at Antioch was very international with Africans,
Europeans and Asians. They started daughter churches around Antioch. And then they started
sending missionaries out from their church. Every time Paul went on one of his missionary
journeys he started his journey from Antioch and at the end he would come back and report
what happened to this church. And then he would be sent out again.
Now eventually in the Bible and in Western
church history we see that the focus of Western
Christianity went from Antioch to Ephesus and then to
Rome. But what we dont hear much about is that the
church also went South to Alexandria and it went East.
According to ancient Imperial historical records of
China the first political embassy from Syria to China was
in 91AD. The second political embassy from ancient Syria
to ChangAn (today Xian), the capital of China was 120AD.
And church people, missionaries from Syria went with the
embassy staff to China, 6000 miles away. They said about
themselves, We are men from the west of the sea; the west of the sea is the same as Tatsin.
The sea they are talking about is the Persian Gulf. And Tatsin had been called Likan in the past
and is spelled TaChin later. We will talk more about TaChin later when we talk more about
China.
The church at Antioch became the mother of the Syrian Orthodox Church. They believe
that Peter started this church in 37AD in a cave, that he stayed there 3 years and that he was
the first bishop of the Patriarchate of Antioch. This is the traditional location of the cave of
Peters church but the building you see here was actually built by the Crusaders in 1100AD.
When Peter left he chose Evodios to take his place. Evodios served as bishop for 27
years and then died as a martyr in 66AD. In his writings
one interesting thing that he said was that the virgin Mary
was 15 years old when she gave birth to Jesus.
Ignatius was the third bishop at Antioch. They
believe that he also was chosen by Peter for this position.
According to tradition he was the disciple of John
and they also say that when Jesus called a little child
in Matthew 18:2 to come and sit on his knee it was
Ignatius who was that little child. In 115 a great
earthquake hit Antioch and the Christians were blamed.
Ignatius was sent to Rome where Eusebius says he was
martyred in 108 AD. There are at least 7 letters that are believed to have been written by
Ignatius (to the Ephesians, the Magnesians, the Trallians, the Romans, the Philadelphians, the
Smyrnaeans, to Polycarp bishop of Smyrna).
There is a list of all the heads (170) of this church in Antioch from that time until today.
Their church moved to Damascus in 1342 (http://www.antiochian.org/667).

Asian Church History: Lecture 2 Transcript: WOLBI Jeju: Spring 2012

Steve Nicholes, Professor:
All the great religions of the world were born
in Asia. Buddha was born in Asia and most of the worlds
Buddhists live in Asia. Confucius was born in Asia and
most of the worlds Confucianists live in Asia. Hinduism
.
was born in Asia and most of the worlds Hindus live in
.
.
.
Asia. Muhammad was born in Asia and most of the
.
.
worlds Muslims live in Asia. Abraham was born in Asia
and the only Jewish nation in the world is in Asia. And
Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, Israel.
John Philip Jenkins in his book, The Lost History of
Christianity, writes, No reasonable historian of modern
Christianity would leave Europe out of the story; and omitting Asia from the medieval record is
just as unconscionable. We cant understand Christianity without Asia or, indeed, Asian
history without Christianity.
At the Council of Nicea (325) the Christian church recognized key leaders of bishops
in Jerusalem (Macarius), Antioch (Eustathius), Rome
(Sylvester sent two reps) and Alexandria (Alexander). The
Council of Nicea was mainly a conference of the Church of
the East. But it was located in Izmik, Turkey. 318
Christian leaders were in attendance but only 8 were
from the west. John, a bishop from India was one who
attended this council. The main thing they proclaimed
here was that Jesus is equal with God. The Church in
Antioch was over all the Christians from Antioch and East
of Antioch.

Addai in Edessa
According to the historian Eusebius
(Ecclesiastical History) and the traditions of the Syrian
and Assyrian church there is a story, that some consider a
legend. Abgar V, king of Edessa (modern-day Urfa in
Turkey, 250 kilometers, 160 miles East of Antioch) had
leprosy. He heard about the power of miracles of Jesus. So
he wrote Jesus a letter saying that he believed Jesus was
either God or the Son of God and asking Jesus to come to
Edessa to heal him. Jesus wrote back (according to
Eusebius he saw both of these letters, which were kept in
the archives of the city of Edessa) and said that He could
not come but that He would send one of His disciples.
The book The Doctrine of Addai says that the
king was anxious to at least have an image of Jesus so he
sent an artist, Hannan, to Jerusalem to paint a picture
of him and bring back to the king. The artist painted
Jesus portrait and brought back the cloth with Jesus
image imprinted on it to King Abgar in Edessa where it
was kept in the royal palace. The king put the painting in
one of the rooms of his palace.
In 600AD Evagrius Scholasticus said that in 544AD when the city of Edessa was
defending itself from an attack by the Persians they believed the picture of Christ miraculously
saved them from defeat. The image was moved to Constantinople in 944AD but it
Ur,
IRAQ

Bethlehem,
ISRAEL

Mecca
SAUDI
ARABIA

BUDDHISM

CONFUCIANISM
HINDUSIM
ISLAM

JUDAISM

CHRISTIANITY

Lumbini
NEPAL

Ayodhya
INDIA

Qufu
CHINA

disappeared after the sack of Constantinople in the Fourth

Crusade in 1204. These are copies of the image. Do you
know where Constantinople is? Do you know what other
names this city was called? (Byzantium and Istanbul).
Anyway, the apostle Thomas asked one of his
disciples, a man named Thaddaeus (Addai in Syriac), one
of the 70 mentioned in Luke 10:1 to go to Edessa (72-
120AD). Addai is called a Jew who was born in Edessa, at
the time a Syrian city (now in Turkey). He came to
Jerusalem for a festival and heard John the Baptist
preaching. After being baptized by John in the Jordan
River Addai stayed and became a follower of Jesus. He
was chosen as one of the 70.
According to The Doctrine of Addai, written
between 390-430 when Addai came to Edessa (29 AD) he
first went to the Jewish community and stayed with
Tobias. King Abgar V heard he arrived, sent for him and
was miraculously healed. The next day he ordered all his
people to come and listen to Addai tell them the good
news about Jesus. The Doctrine of Addai says that some of
the pagan religious leaders tore down the altars of their
old religion, and a great number of the people freely
believed in Jesus, for the king did not compel any man by
force to believe in Christ. Jews of the silk trade were
among his first converts and church leaders. Addai
instructed the King in the Christian faith and baptized
him. He ordained priests and founded the church there.
He also started the first church in Beirut too.
One more interesting thing about Edessa is that the
coins of Edessa from 180-192 show a cross on the kings
headgear.

Addai in Armenia
The story of Abgar was also put on the money of
Armenia. This is the Armenian 100,000 dram banknote.
Armenia is the country just north of Syria and east of
Turkey. They claim that Abgar was a prince of Armenia.
The common tradition claims the Addai after he came to
Edessa was sent to Armenia in 301AD to evangelize the
Armenian King Sanatrooks daughter, Sandookdht. The
king ended up killing both his daughter and Addai
because she claimed to become a Christian.
In tradition Addai has been given the honored title of the Father of the Church of the
East (Moffett, p. 50). The church of Armenia also became accepted by most of the people in the
country because of the teachings of a guy named Gregory. Armenia is the first country to
officially be called a Christian nation. The church in Edessa also received a letter from
Thomas, from India, which they treasured. By the middle of the second century Edessa had
the four gospels in Aramaic and it is possible that the missionary preachers who were sent out
from Edessa had at least one gospel and possibly a harmony of the gospels by Tatian as well as
the Diatessaron (a copy of the OT in Syriac). In the early 200s AD the church building in Edessa
was greatly damaged when the Daisan River flooded. But the early Christians in Edessa and

Eastern Syria were NOT persecuted much. And the relationship between Jews and Christians
were very cooperative and friendly.
There was even a school of the prophets in Edessa
that trained and sent out traveling missionaries that
traveled to the farthest provinces of the Roman Empire,
Arabia and other neighboring countries.

Nino in Georgia

According to tradition a woman who grew up in
Cappadocia (eastern Turkey today) decided to go as a
missionary to Iberia (also called Georgia). The Queen of
Iberia, Nana, heard that Nino had come and asked to meet
her. Some in the queens court became Christians first and
then the queen herself. The King, Miran, threatened to
divorce his wife if she did not leave the faith. But the story
says that he got lost in the forest on a hunting trip and
shouted out a prayer, If the God my wife has trusted in
real deliver me from being lost in the dark and I will leave
my gods and follow you too. After this he believed he was
miraculously delivered from being lost in the dark woods
so when he came back he declared he wanted to be a
follower of Christianity too. He and his whole house
became Christians.
And in 326AD he declared that Christianity
was the official religion of his kingdom. That made
Iberia (or Georgia) the second Christian nation after
Armenia. Tradition says that she carried a grapevine
cross with her, which has become a symbol of Christianity
in Georgia. This is a picture (or icon) of Nino that hangs in
the Living Pillar Cathedral in the historical town of
Mtskheta, Georgia. The church itself is a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. It was originally built in the fourth centur
(300s). But the current building was built in the 11th
century.


Arbela
Possibly before 100AD the center of Christianity
went from Edessa, the capital of Oserhoene to Arbela, the
capital of Adiabene, some 650 kilometers (400 miles)
east. Arbela was located on the Tigris River near the
ancient city of Nineveh. Josephus says that King Ezad of
Arbela had converted to Judaism when he was a prince
(36 AD). Traditionally Paqida was the first bishop here in
104AD. And he was led to Christ and ordained by Addai.
The second bishop of this city, a guy named Samson, was
killed about 120AD.
At this same time back in Edessa at least three
guys (Sharbil, Babai and Barsamya) were killed. Sharbil
was a converted chief priest of the idols of Edessa.

According to The Acts of Sharbil he was bent back and

beaten on his belly, hung up by one hand, branded with
flames between the eyes, burned slowly with candles,

blinded with iron nails, fastened into an iron chest, suspended upside down, burned with red-
hot brass balls under his armpits, hung on a tree, sawed in two and finally beheaded during
this time he preached the gospel to his persecutors.
The ancient city of Arbela is the modern-day Erbil, in Iraq. Here is a picture that
shows the ancient city wall, which is still at the center of Erbil today. Today this city is the
fourth largest city in Iraq (after Baghdad, Basra and Mosul) with 1.3 million people. And many
of the people who live in this area have Bible names.
Now Antioch was in kind of central Turkey, right above Lebanon, which is above
Israel (where the A is). Edessa is a little bit more east but still in Turkey and right above Syria
(where the B is). Arbela is farther east in Iraq.

Dura Europos
Well south of Edessa (B) they have found the
ancient ruins of the oldest Christian building (actually a
house church) ever found, that dates to 232 AD in a
place called Dura Europos. This is right on the
Euphrates River in western Syria near Turkey. The name
Europe comes from this city. But what is important to us
is that the oldest known stones or ruins of a Christian
house church were found in this city by the British in
1920. The house church was built in around 240 AD.
Inside it had a baptismal tub. Protected in the sand were
brilliantly fresh wall-paintings, showing scenes from both
the Old and New Testaments: Adam and Eve, David and
Goliath. It has the oldest picture of Jesus that we have
today walking on water, the Good Shepherd, the healing
of the paralyzed man, a painting of the three Marys who
came to the empty tomb and others. The city was
conquered and abandoned in 257AD (16 years after it
was built). Nothing was built over it. So we have a little
window into what Christianity was like at this time. In the
early 1930s Yale University dismantled this church
building and reconstructed it. Here is a picture of it. You
can usually see these at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Persian Empire
Now at this time (247BC 224AD) the Parthian
Empire was ruling this part of the world. This included
the land of Persia, which is today southern Iran. It
included Assyria, which includes the country of Syria
today. We have already heard how Addai probably went
to Armenia and that Armenia became the first Christian
nation. Aggai was his disciple and also is recorded to have
gone to Armenia and throughout western Asia, probably
went with him.
They went to Media. Media is right below the Caspian Sea. What country is that
today? It is northern Iran. In facts, its where the capital of
Iran is, Tehran. That is where these first missionaries
from Edessa and Arbela took the gospel. In fact The
Chronicle of Arbela says that by the year 225 when the
Parthian dynasty fell Persia already had more than 20
bishops leading the churches all over Persia. It says

churches multiplied and monasteries increased. Every bishop wanted to start a church that
had a school connected with it. According to Tertullian (c. 160-230 AD) some of these bishops
were assigned south into Arabia and some east into Central Asia.
Next it says they went to Babylonia. Where is that?
That is today Iraq.
It says they went right up to the borders of India.
That would probably include Pakistan today. Now
remember we said Addai had two main disciples. One was
Aggai that we have been talking about. The other was a
guy named Mari. In a book called The Acts of St. Mari it
says that like the apostle Thomas Mari was a reluctant
missionary who doubted himself. It says, He was sent
from Edessa to the regions of the East and he became
discouraged and begged the church at home to release
him from his mission and allow him to return. But the church ordered him to persist. So
obediently but grudgingly he set himself to the evangelization of Persia and set off on an
difficult series of missionary journeys that brought him almost to India. There, when as he
said, he smelled the smell of the Apostle Thomas, he felt
at last that he had done his duty and had gone far
enough. So anyway between Thomas and Addai and
Aggai and Mari they took the gospel to Pakistan and India.
Now in 196AD Bardaisan, a Christian philosopher
from Edessa wrote a book entitled, the Book of Laws of
Countries. And in that book he mentions Christians living
as far as Bactria, which is now known as northern
Afghanistan.

Seleucia-Ctesiphon
In the early years, the Asian Church was not very
organized. Many church leaders also worked part-time
jobs as businessmen, carpenters and weavers. The first
man known to try to bring structure and organization
to the Asian Church was a guy named Papa.
In 280AD Papa bar Aggai was consecrated as
bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon by two visiting bishops,
Akha d-abuh of Arbela and Hai-Beel of Susa. By 315, he
called for a conference of all the local pastors and
churches. He tried to organize them into a group with
himself as the head. But the other pastors didnt like this and even deposed him, saying he
didnt even deserve to be a bishop. Well, it just so happened that some bishops from Antioch,
Edessa and Nisibis came at this time and reinstated him as the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon.
In 410 AD there was a very historic conference
or Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon where a bishop from
Antioch came and recognized/declared to the 40 bishops
present that the bishop of Seleucia was the head, the
archbishop, the catholicos of the Persian Church. The
guy who was the bishop of the Seleucia church at that
time was Bishop Mar Isaac. He was also given the title,
Great Metropolitan and Chief of all Bishops. In other
records he was called the Patriarch of the East, the Great
Metropolitan of all the East and Major Metropolitan of
Seleucia-Ctesiphon.

14 years later at the Council at Markabta with 31 bishops attending in 424AD he was
called the Patriarch and his church became independent from the church at Antioch or from
any Western church. The main reason for this was to keep
Persia from blaming and persecuting them for being
connected to Rome. This lasted until at least 780 AD. In
the 500s AD Ctesiphon was the largest city in the
world. Today the cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon are in
Iraq, 35 kilometers south of Baghdad.

Nisibis
According to church history a guy named Mani
came to Nisibis and preached the gospel here in the 200s
AD. The church in Nisibis began in 300 AD by a guy
named Babu who was the first bishop of this church. The
next bishop, Jacob, became famous when the city was
surrounded by the Persian army. The city believed they
were protected by his prayers. Nisibis became a large
church, called a metropolitan (or big city) church, which
meant that it was usually over at least 6 other churches.
By 410AD it was in charge of at least 6 other churches in
the area. It was the second most powerful church is
Asia at this time (next to Seleucia-Ctesiphon). Today it is
called Nezib and is a town of 3000 people. This city is
especially famous for a Bible training school for Christian
leaders and for a guy named Ephrem the Syrian, that we
will talk about in a little bit.

The School of Nisibis/Edessa
Actually by 350 AD there were Bible training
schools in Edessa, Nisibis, Seleucia and Arbela. The
schools in Edessa and Nisibis were the larger and most
respected ones. This is actually one school that moved
between these two locations. Sometimes the school is
called the worlds first university. The school had
three main departments the school of theology, the
school of philosophy and the school of medicine.
From the 200s BC thru the 600s AD Europe
(controlled by Rome) and Asia (controlled by Persia)
were fighting in Asia.
Because Rome (under Constantine) claimed
to be Christian this made the Persians who were
fighting Rome brought persecution to the Christians
who were living in Persia. When Nisbis was transferred
to Pesian control in 363 and many Christians in the East
were persecuted by the Persians, many Christians from
Nisbis moved west to Roman territory where they had
religious freedom. In 488AD when the Eastern Roman
Empire closed the school at Edessa the staff and students
moved back to Nisibis. Many Syrian Christians moved
back east to Persia. From 596-604 (when Sabr-Ishu was
the head of the Church of the East) this school had over
800 students.

NISIBIS

Shapur I triumphs over Roman Emperor Valerian, Naqsh-e Rostam, Iran.

Constantine statute in York, England

Asian Church History: Lecture 3 Transcript: WOLBI Jeju: Spring 2012

Steve Nicholes, Professor:

Ephrem the Syrian

Ephrem is the most famous guy in the Syrian
church. The tradition is that he was born into a Christian
family in 306AD in or near Nisibis. In 363AD when Nisibis
was handed over to the Persians by Jovian, many teachers
including Ephrem left Nisibis and moved to Edessa
because of the persecution of Christians in Persia under
Shapor II. It was in the city of Edessa and in the great
church of St Thomas the Apostle that Ephrem spent the
last 10 years of his life, mostly in a cell. Here he continued
the writing he had started back in Nisibis biblical commentaries, sermons and hymns, which
were very popular. He wrote against false teachers and heretics of his day Mani, Marcion and
Bardaisan. In the school in Edessa and Nisbis his writings became the main textbooks.

Theodore of Mopsuestia

Later the writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia
(392-428 AD) came to be used. For the Persian church he
became the top theologian. This school followed the
writings of church fathers from Antioch. John of Antioch
writes, Theodore explained Scripture in all the churches
of the East.

Nestorianism

One of the church fathers that had come from
Antioch was a guy named Nestorius who was a famous
preacher. And Nestorius became the Archbishop of
Constantinople from 428-431 AD. What city is
Constantinople today? (Istanbul, Turkey) It was in the
West (not in the Eastern Church of Asia). He did not like
to call Mary, the mother of God. Others, especially the
church fathers from Alexandria what country is that?
(Egypt) guys like Cyril of Alexandria argued against him
Why dont you call Mary, the mother of God Dont you
believe Jesus is God? Isnt Mary his mother? Nestorius
argued that God could not have been born so the title
Mary the mother of God was not a good one.

Another big argument at this time in the church
was over how Jesus was both human and divine.
Nestorius argued that Jesus had two natures inside of
him, one human and one divine but he said those two
natures could not mix. Cyril accused Nestorius make
making Jesus two people inside one body and denying the
incarnation of Christ.
There was a big church council at Ephesus in
431 and they declared that Nestorius was a heretic. But the bishops from Antioch arrived late
(they traveled a long way from Antioch and some of the bishops died and had to be buried
along the way) and when they heard that Nestorius had been declared a heretic and the council
was finished before they arrived. So they set up their own church council and declared Cyril a
heretic and Nestorius innocent. At first the Roman government exiled both Nestorius and Cyril.

But in the end the teaching that Jesus had two natures in one body was condemned by the
church (again at the Council of Chalcedon), including the Syrians. However aside from this the
Eastern church in Asia loved Nestorius and his teachings.
We know that by 363 AD the theological school at Nisibis moved to Edessa and became
a center for theological training for all the Christians of the Church of the East, following the
theology of the church fathers from Antioch.

Christian Monasticism
When you study early Christianity one thing you will see is that many of the church
leaders of the early centuries started monasteries and practiced spiritual disciplines or habits.
But one general difference between the church in
Egypt or Africa and the church in Asia was that the
believers in Africa seemed to withdraw more from the
world and spend a long time on top of a mountain or
in a cave or monastery and the early Christ-followers
in Asia who lived along trade routes and traveled for
business between cities emphasized going and
preaching and serving and spreading the gospel. The
Gospel of Thomas, which they held with honor back in
Edessa, said that going and serving was a higher calling
than fasting, praying and giving. It repeats Jesus words,
the harvest is great but the laborers are few and then it
says this one many are round the opening but nobody
in the well. Do you understand that?
Christian monasticism (where the followers
completely separate from the world like a monk) did not
begin in Asia. It actually began in Africa, in Egypt.
According to one historian, monasticism became so
popular in Egypt that by 372 AD there were almost as
many monks living in the desert as there were people
living in the towns.

Mar Awgin
Sometime before 362 AD a guy from Egypt, Mar
Awgin came from Egypt to a mountain, Mt Izla in
Mesopotamia (Near Nisibis, between the Tigris and
Euphrates River) with 70 Christian monks. The word
Mar is the Syriac word for master or Lord and was
used like we used the word saint (for St. Peter). They
would also call their leaders a rabban, similar to
rabbi. They lived in a cave there for 30 years. And during
that time their numbers grew to 350. Today we can still
see a copy of the rules they had at the Izla monastery. And
it quotes Scripture for almost every statement. It talks
about quietness and fasting and prayer and reading
Scripture. So the idea of a quiet time is not new. You can
trace it thru the western church and the eastern church as
well.
When this got started the king of Persia,
Shapur II (309-379) sent for Mar Awgin, the founder of
the Izla monastery and gave him an official government

document asking him to build churches and monasteries all over the Persian empire. A
few days later Mar Awgin laid his hands on 70 disciples (copying Jesus 70 disciples) and
sent them out as missionaries to start monasteries. These were Bible training schools that
were training a younger generation of Christian leaders. They would do enough work at the
school so that their education was free. They would study the Bible, especially Psalms and the
New Testament.
One writer says that the graduates of these
Eastern Church schools were men and women of faith,
The graduates of these Eastern Church
mighty in the Scriptures, fervent in prayer, gentle and
schools were men & women of faith,
humble in manner, and full of love for God and
mighty in the Scriptures, fervent in
prayer, gentle and humble in manner, and
mankind. They supported themselves by the labor of
full of love for God and mankind. They
supported themselves by the labor of
their hands or subsisting on roots and fruits or on the
their hands or subsisting on roots and
grass of the field, it seems that they counted no
fruits or on the grass of the field, it
seems that they counted no trouble too
trouble too great, no hardship too severe, so long as
great, no hardship too severe, so long as
they might share in spreading abroad the
they might share in spreading abroad the message of
message of full salvation for all mankind.
full salvation for all mankind. So in the fifth century
(the 400s) the monastic system spread rapidly all over
Persia and central and eastern Asia. These students went
and started these discipleship training schools for the
next generation of Christian leaders. Here is a map that
shows where the Church of the East was located about
500AD.

Moving East
The early traditional histories say that Addai and
his disciples Aggai and Mari were the first missionaries to
take gospel farther east. Here is the story of Aggai, written
Nestorian Missionary Enterprise by Bar Hebraeus. Aggai used to weave Chinese cloth for
Abgar and after the death of his master Addai he fled into
The Story of a Church on Fire
the East. And he began to preach throughout Persia,
John Stewart
Assyria, Armenia, Media, Babylonia and in the region of
a magnificent center
Khuzistan and among the Geles, right up to the borders of
for the missionary church
that was entering on its great task
India. Then he returned to Edessa, as he was afraid that
of carrying the gospel to the Far East.
the faith there might decline, because of the native
superstition of Abgars son, who succeeded him as king.
When he reached Edessa, Abgars son ordered him to
weave Chinese cloth for him as he used to do for his
father. Aggai replied to him, When my master was feeding the flock of Christ, I used to work
for your father. But now the work of feeding has come down to me, and I cannot follow another
trade. The ruler was angry at his words and killed him by breaking his leg bones.
So the headquarters, the center of the Asian Church was moving east. In the words of
John Stewart, it was "a magnificent center for the
missionary church that was entering on its great task
of carrying the gospel to the Far East."
So do you see what is happening? Less than 200
years after Jesus gave the Great Commission to go into all
the world and preach the gospel has now gone from
Antioch to Edessa to Arbela and in all three of those
places they set up training and mission sending stations
and began sending missionaries to Armenia, to Syria, to
northern and southern Iran, to Iraq (and actually into

Saudi Arabia), to Afghanistan, to Pakistan, and Thomas went to India all in the first 200
years. Have you ever heard that before? Did you ever realize that? Honestly I did not know this
either until I began studying and preparing for this course. And I think that is amazing.
And for the next several hundred years while the Western Church of the Roman Empire
was busy arguing theology during the church councils the Eastern Church in Asia was busy
taking the gospel to the Persians, the Arabs, the Indians, the Turks and the Chinese. The whole
life of the Christian community in Asia was filled with a missionary spirit. This included not
only pastors and elders but businessmen and refugees wherever they went they tried to be
ambassadors for Christ. One historian calls this the most
missionary church the world has ever seen. By the
500-600sAD Moffett writes Christianity had become,
next to Zoroastrianism, the second most powerful
religious force in the [Persian] Empire.
A training school for pastors was established in
Seleucia by Mar Bawai (457-484). Convents for women as
well as monasteries for men started to multiply
throughout the Persian Empire. Seleucia became the
center for training of missionaries and Christian leaders
who were taking the gospel farther east into central and
south Asia. By 410, many churches and monasteries in
Eastern Mesopotamia had hospital clinics and doctors
serving in the emperors court who were mostly Christian.

Synod of Beth Lapat

Barsauma, was a teacher at Edessa. He became the
head bishop of Nisibis, one of the 5 main head churches in
the Church of the East at that time in the fifth century
(400s).
In 484AD Barsuama hosted the Synod of Beth
Lapat. At that council he encouraged monks and nuns to marry. This has been called the birth
of the Persian Church because it began a separation of the Persian Church from the Church of
the East.

Babai the Great
The separation actually happened 120 years later in 604AD with Babai the Great. Babai
had studied at the Christian school of Nisibis. He became a teacher and began his own school.
When he became a leader he kicked out all the monks who had married and emphasized a life
of prayer and solitude. Many monks left the church at this time. Babai built or restored 60
schools, sent out missionaries and traveling evangelists. It was said that people living at this
time had more than 2000 Christian books or booklets available to read, which had been
written by the top Christian leaders up to this time.


The Silk Road

The backbone of Christian growth was the Silk
Road. Marco Polo tells us that in his day this road from
Baghdad to Beijing was lined with Christian chapels.
The great city of Antioch was a terminal in West Asia for
ancient trade connecting the Mediterranean world to
Asia. In the ancient world and the Middle Ages the silk
road ran from Syria into northern Persia and into what
are the nations of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Travelers passed through such cities as Nishapur, Merv,

Bukhara and Samarkand. This route finally took them all the way to Changan on the east side of
China as well as down into India.

By the year 424 missionaries traveled north and
east and planted churches and schools in places like Merv,
Nishapur and Herat. One thing the Christian missionaries
were famous for was teaching the people about physical
health. They taught the importance of eating fresh fruits
and vegetables. They brought natural medicines and
served as physicians to government leaders. The
Nestorian missionaries for very famous for their medical
skill, especially during the Mongolian Empire..
Merv was a major oasis-city in central Asia on
the historical Silk Road. Today it is located near the city of
Mary in Turkmenistan. It is said that Merv was briefly
the largest city in the world in the 12th century
(1100s). Its walls were 35 feet high and 10 feet thick.
After Edessa and Nisibis it became the third center of
Christian scholarship in Asia. From here they translated
the Bible from Greek and Syriac into the languages spoken
in Samarkand and Bokhara.The site of ancient Merv has
been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The city
of Merv received a bishop in 424AD. Starting in 553AD for
about 500 years a head bishop over all the churches in the area was located in Merv.
Missionaries were sent out from this area to evangelize the Huns and the Turks. In 644AD the
head bishop of Merv reported that he saw a Turkish King converted to Christianity and all of
his army. He said there were lots of Christians living beyond the Oxus River (modern-day Amu
Darya).

Nishapur (modern Neyshabur) is in NE Iran and was a major city on the old silk road to
Chanan, China. It got its name from the Persian King Shapur 1. In the year 1000AD it was
among the 10 largest cities on earth. Today over 200,000 people live here.
Herat City in Herat Province (is the third largest city in modern-day Afghanistan with
400,000 people) also received a bishop in 424AD. And they received a head bishop of the
churches in their area in 585AD.
The historian Malech writes, During the
patriarchate
of Mar Ishu Jahb II, 636, Syrian
During the
patriarchate of Mar
missionaries went to China, and for 150 years this
Ishu Iahb II, 636,
mission was active.... 109 Syrian missionaries have
Syrian missionaries
went to China, and for
worked in China during 150 years of the Chinese
150 years this mission
was active 109
mission.... They went out from Beth Nahrin, the
Syrian missionaries
birthplace of Abraham, the father of all believers. The
have worked in China
during 150 years of
missionaries traveled on foot; they had sandals on
the Chinese mission.
their feet, and a staff in their hands, and carried a
basket on their backs, and in the basket was the
Holy Writ and the cross. They took the road around
the Persian Gulf; went over deep rivers and high
mountains, thousands of miles. On their way they met
many heathen nations and preached to them the
gospel of Christ.
In 781 AD Timothy, the patriarch of Seleucia had
just moved to Baghdad. From there he was over the
Church of the East from the Mediterranean Sea in the
west all the way to the Pacific Ocean in the East. He wrote

The king of the Turks with nearly all (the inhabitants of) his country, has left his ancient
idolatry, and has become a Christian, and has requested us in his letters to create a
Metropolitan (head bishop) for his country; and this we have done.
At the same time Timothy was planning to ordain a metropolitan or head of all the
pastors in Tibet. In another letter he wrote that many missionaries had crossed the sea and
went to the Indians and the Chinese with only a rod and script. He mentions that the
metropolitan or head of all the pastors in China had died, showing that the Christian
community in China was significant.
Thomas of Marga (837-850) tells how Timothy selected more than 80 men who he sent
east to preach the gospel. There were enough Christians in modern Afghanistan to have at least
5 bishops. Iran had at least 2 bishops. The king of Burma had at least 1000 Christians in his
service. There were strong Christian communities all over the north, south and central parts of
Asia, even on the island of Sri Lanka, off the tip of India.
The traveler and merchant from Alexandria,
Cosmas, said that he found Christians in 525 AD not only
in Socotra (those are islands that belong to Yemen out in
the Indian ocean on the horn of Africa) and Sri Lanka, but
in the Ganges Valley (China), Pegu (Burma), Cochin
(India), Siam (Thailand) and Tonkin (North Vietnam). He
... no limit to the number of churches,
said that among the Indians and throughout the
bishops and large Christian communities
whole land of Persia there was no limit to the
number of churches, bishops and large Christian
communities.

Didascalia Apostolorum (The Teaching of the
Apostles)
This was a Syriac document written about 230 AD
and gives a detailed description of the Christians in the
East Syrian Church. It was written by a bishop in northern
Syria and was widely used in Persia. Its purpose was to
give instructions to church officers and members on
Christian conduct and worship.

By the end of the second century, missionary
expansion had carried the church as far east as Bactria,
which is now northern Afghanistan, and mass conversions
of Huns and Turks in Central Asia were reported from the
fifth century onward. By the end of the seventh century,
Persian missionaries had reached the end of the world,
the capital of the Tang dynasty in China.

Asian Church History: Lecture 4 Transcript: WOLBI Jeju: Spring 2011

Steve Nicholes, Professor:

Persian Persecution

When Constantine became the emperor of Rome
the Roman Empire was declared as officially Christian.
During this time the Persian Empire and the Roman
Empire were often at war. Constantine wrote a letter to
the king of Persia, Shapur II and asked him to protect all
the Christians in Persia. But Shapur was suspicious that
they might be spies who were paid by the Romans.
Shapur made a decree that all Christians had to pay
double tax to help pay for the cost of the war. And he
ordered the archbishops to collect it. But the archbishops
said that the people were too poor to pay and that he was
a spiritual leader, not a tax collector.
Well, this made Shapur very angry. He ordered
the archbishop of Persia, Sadoc, arrested and all the
Christian churches destroyed. After 5 months of torture
the king offered the archbishop and his people freedom if
he would only worship the sun once. He refused and in
339 AD he, five bishops and 100 other pastors were killed.
Within the next 6 years two more archbishops were killed
as well.

When the war between Rome and Persia over
western Asia ended (This did not completely happen until
the Battle of Nineveh in 627 when the Romans, Byzantine
Empire, defeated the Persians. But in 363 Rome handed 5
provinces that had large Christian populations over to
Shapur II). He immediately kicked all the Christians out of
their home provinces and moved them to other provinces
on the other side of Persia and ordered the leaders there
to be harsh to them if they did not abandon (leave)
Christianity. For example, he gave one group of 300
Christians the option of apostasy or death. 275 would not apostasize and were killed.

When the persecution began, modern Kurdistan, Khazakhstan and Louristan must have
been almost entirely Christian. They had a lot of bishops and almost every important village
had elders.

Shapur II died in 379AD and his brother Ardasher
II took his place. He ruled for four years and kept
persecuting the Christians some. After he died the
Christians lived in peace without persecution for about 37
years.
Why have we been talking so much about Persia
during this time period? Because it was the superpower
that ruled over the church of the East at this time. It
was called the Parthian Empire from 247BC-224AD.
And it was called the Sassanid Empire from 224AD-
651AD).
In 420AD Bahram 5 came to power and started a terrible persecution against the
Christians all over the Persian Empire. He invented cruel new ways to torture them. They
would strip the skin off of their face from the forehead down to the chin. They would dig big

deep pits and then put Christians down in them, with

their hands and feet tied behind their back. Then they
would get rats and mice that had been intentionally
starved for a long time and throw them down into these
pits. The Christians were eaten alive by these animals.
Bahram ordered the Christian churches to be taken and
the wood and metal from these buildings were used to
build bridges. Here is a sculpture of Bahram 5 in the
capital of Azerbaijan (right next to Georgia and Armenia).
He is killing a wild animal. During these persecutions
many Christians left Persia went to neighboring lands.
One historian says that when they left they became enthusiastic missionaries of the gospel.
Their zeal and devotion encouraged the churches and made the great missionary training
centers. As time passed by the Persians Kings realized that the Christians in Persia were not
really connected to Rome or to the west. So they stopped persecuting them. One difference
between the Persian Christians and the Roman catholic Christians is that the Persian
Christians did not have any holy pictures or icons in
their houses or churches. They only used simple
crosses. They believed that making icons or images would
break the second commandment to not make any graven
image and was close to worshipping idols. Another
differences were (2) That the church language for
Roman Catholics was Latin for the Church of the East
it was Syriac. And (3) the Roman Catholic priests did
not marry but in the Church of the East they did
marry.

The Church in Arabia

Tradition tells us that the first guy to preach
the gospel in south Arabia was St. Bartholomew. Qatar,
in SW Arabia had a bishop (who??) in 225 AD. That means
there were Christians in Arabia within 200 years after
Jesus left this earth. When Constantine was Emperor the
southern part of Arabia began to believe in Jesus.

Theophilus persuaded the King of Yemen to
believe in Jesus. As a result churches were built at Zafar
(now called Dhafar), in Aden and in Sana the capital as
well as Hormuz.

Christianity was first introduced in Northern
Yemen and Southern Saudi Arabia around 400 AD. It was
an oasis in the desert. It had a large Christian population
and their own bishop. However in 523 AD a violent
persecution against the Christians broke out again by the
king of Yemen, Masruq (a Himyarite Jew). And when the
persecution of the Yemen Christians began they sent a
note to Kaleb, the king of the Ethiopians (then known as
Abyssinians). Kaleb sent an army and defeated Masruq
and drove him into the mountains. The Ethiopians went
back to their country except they left 580 men in the town of Zafar. Masruq tricked 300 of the
men to come out of the city and killed them at night. When Masruf returned to the town the
remaining 280 were in the church. He set the church on fire and burned the 280 Ethiopians to
death. After this Masruq was determined to get rid of all the Christians in Yemen. He sent a

command that all Christians must either deny Christ and become Jews or be put to death.
Anyone who hid a Christian would have his house burned and property destroyed.

Then Masruq focused on Najrun the capital of
Ethiopia. This city had a Christian governor, Harith, and
most of the people in this city were Christians. He tried to
trick the men of the city to come out. But they had heard
what had happened in Zafar. But Masrug was very
powerful and had 427 pastors killed inside the church of
Najran. Most of the persecutions in this city happened
between November 20-28, 523 AD. While these persecu-
tions were going on the Christians wrote to the Bishop of
Ethiopia and to Kaleb, the Christ-loving king of Ethiopia.
They told him what Masruq had done. King Kaleb came
with an army, chased Masrug to the Red Sea where he drowned. After this Christianity came
back in Yemen larger than ever.

In the year 567 AD Abraha, the King of Yemen built a new cathedral at Sana planning to
make it a rival to Mecca (where the Arabs make pilgrimage). On the night of the dedication
Arabs from the north came and defiled it. So Abraha went to war against Mecca and was
defeated. This story is told in the Koran, chapter 55. However Christians stayed in power in
Yemen. At a later date (??) someone from the house of Masruq convinced Persia to send an
army and drive the Ethiopians out of Yemen. From that time on Christianity lost their hold on
power, which led to anarchy in the country until Muhammad came. At first he had the people in
Najran to pay him tribute every year. He said that if they would pay him tribute he would
allow them to have freedom of religion. But eventually that changed and he ordered all of the
people to become Moslem or be deported to Iraq. By the end of the seventh century (600s AD)
Christianity in Arabia did not have much power. There
was, however, one church council of the Church of the
East that was held in SE Arabia as late as 676 AD.

Expansion in Central and Eastern Asia

The golden age of missions in the Asian Church
lasted about 500 years, from the end of the fourth century
until the end of the ninth century. John M. Neale, in his
book, History of the Holy Eastern Church wrote,
Eastward from the great school of Edessa (Urfa) the
envoys of Christianity went forth. They pitched their
tents in the camps of the wandering Tartar, the Lama
of Tibet trembled at their words, they stood in the
rice fields of the Punjab, and they taught the
fisherman by the Sea of Aral They served as
secretaries and doctors to Turks, Mongols and others.
They invented alphabets for people they worked with.
They result of their activity began to change the world. In
196 AD one man wrote, We are called Christians by
the one name of the Messiah. As regards our customs,
our brethren abstain from everything that is contrary
to their profession. Parthian Christians do not take
two wives. Jewish Christians are not circumcised. Our
Bactrian sisters do not practice promiscuity.
Persians do not take their daughters to wife. Medes
do not desert their dying relations or bury them alive.
Christians in Edessa (Urfa) do not kill their wives or

sisters who commit fornication, but commit them to the judgment of God. Christians in
Hatra do not stone thieves. The power of the gospel changed Asia at this time in history.
By the year 800AD there were still more followers of Jesus Christ east of Damascus
than there was west of Damascus.

Christian Turks

When you hear the word Turk what comes to
your mind? What kind of people are Turks? What
countries are named for the Turkic people? Turkey,
Turkmenistan and one province in western China that has
tried to become independent and is sometimes called
Turkestan. The Turkic people are a racial mix of white
European and Asian. There are about 185,000,000 Turkic
people in the world. They are in southern Russia, in
northern China, in all the stan countries all the way over
to the country of Turkey, which is 75% Turkic. Although a
number of the Turkish people groups converted to
Christianity, today the majority of Turks are Christian.
Historically they came from where Mongolia,
Kazakhstan, China and Russia meet in the mountains of
Altay. And they created the Ottoman Empire (1299-1923),
which lasted over 600 years..
We are not sure of the exact date when Christianity
came to the Turco-Tatar tribes in modern western China
but we are sure that it was not later than the seventh century (600s) AD and may have been
much earlier. According to tradition from a letter sent by a bishop who lived in the sixth
century he said that in the fourth century (300s) the head church of the Church of the East
moved from Syria to Ctesiphon because of the wars between the Roman and Persian empires.
And the Persians started accusing Christians in their empire of being spies and many bishops
were getting killed. Because of that the church moved the power of the Church of the East to
Ctesiphon.

The next time some Christian Turks came thru wanting to have some more bishops
ordained they were confused that this time the leadership had moved to Ctesiphon and was
not under Antioch any more. At first they did not accept the new leadership and went back to
their own country. Later they returned and asked why they were no longer under Antioch. The
new leaders told them it was because of the persecution in Antioch during the wars. This time
these Christian Turks accepted the leadership in Ctesiphon and got their bishops trained and
ordained there. We know this letter was written before 762AD because that year the
headquarters for the Church of the East moved from
Ctesiphon to Baghdad. It was also the year that the capital
of the Persian Empire moved from Ctesiphon to Baghdad.
At that time there were 25 metropolitan (big-city)
bishops with 150 bishops. The faraway regions were only
required to come to Baghdad and report once every 6
years. One reason the government moved their
capital city was because it will put us in touch with
lands as far as China. In 814AD Baghdad was
probably the worlds largest city.

The letter also tells how the Christian Turks lived. It says, They translated the Syriac
scriptures into the Turkish language that all their congregation may understand what is read.
These Christian Turks are true believers and God-fearing folk. They dwell in tents and have no

towns, villages or houses. They are very wealthy and are divided into large and small clans who
journey from place to place.
And then comes the most important part of the narrative in which we are told that they
had four great and powerful kings who lived during the same time period but a long distance
from each other. Their names are given as Gawirk, Girk, Tasahz and Langu. They were all called
Tartars and the name of their country was Sericon, the name by which Ptolemy called China.
They called themselves Tartars after a river called Tartar, which flowed thru their country
(Tartarstan). Each of these kings are said to rule over 400,000 families. If you calculate 5
people to each family that would be a total community of 2 million people under each king, all,
or almost all who followed a king and a rule that was based on the gospel of Christ.
The exact location of the Christian Turks was
said to be 5 days away from Karakoram, which was called
a border town. These 4 kings may have been the heads of
the four powerful Turco-Tartar people groups known as
the Keraits, Uigurs, Naimans and Merkites. Have you
heard of any of these groups before? They are from
western China today. Some missionaries had gone into
this area as early as 499AD and before 781 the Patriarch
Timothy had sent 80 missionaries into this area. Let me
talk about these groups.

Keraits

The strongest among the five groups were the Keraits. They lived in modern Mongolia,
centered in todays capital city Ulan Bataar.
About 1007AD a king of the Keraits was out hunting in the high mountains when he lost
his way in the snow and thought he was going to die when suddenly a man appeared to him
and promised to lead him to safety. And he did. He said his name was Mar Sergius and he
earnestly pleaded with the king to become a Christian. When the king returned to camp he
immediately asked to meet with some Christian businessmen and asked them to instruct him
in the Christian faith. He received the gospel and began worshipping with them. He then asked
the head bishop in the area to come with his preachers and baptize he and his people. The
story says that 200,000 of the Kerait people were baptized at this time. Even Rashid-ud-din, the
Muhammadan historian of the Mongols said that the Keraits had their own rulers and
professed the Christian faith.

Here is Wang Khan (who was like the godfather
of Jenghis Khan) wearing the gown of a cardinal with
people in his court holding crosses. He is receiving two
representatives from Jenghis Khan.

Naimans

Another group of Turkic people who were a part of
the Mongolian Empire were the Naimans. They lived in
the mountains of Tarbagatai, where Mongolia, China and
Kazakhstan meet. Today 400,000 of their descendants
live in Eastern Kazakhstan. By tradition the Naimans and
the Keraits believed themselves to be descendants of the
wise men who went to see baby Jesus.
The commander of the Mongol army who invaded
Syria in 1259, Kitbuqa, was a Naiman; he is recorded to
have greatly loved and honored the Christians, because
he was of the lineage of the kings who came to Bethlehem

to adore the nativity of our Lord (Monk Hayton, The history of the Stories of the land of the
Orient).
The Niamans had a Christian ruler who ruled their tribe and they called themselves
Christians. One author records that the gospel was brought to these people by Christian
merchants.

Uigurs

Next to the Keraits and the Naimans one of the
most important Christian Turco-Tartar tribes was the
Uigurs. This whole people group seems to have converted
to Christianity at an early date and were Christians for a
long time, over many generations. Then about 300 years
later when the Muslims came Christianity mostly
disappeared. In 1930 the small percentage of Christian
Uigurs were forced to become Muslim or die.
Christian missionaries who worked among the
Uigurs created a written alphabet for them using the
letters of the Syriac alphabet adding a few letters for new
sounds they had. Later, the Mongols adopted the Uigur
script and used that for themselves.
The Christians, at their linguistic headquarters
in Merv, tried to have the languages of all the tribes put
into writing so that they could translate the Bible into a
language they could read and thru this share the gospel.
How effective were they? Well, there is an inscription,
found at Kara-Balsaghun in this Uigur writing, which tells
about an astonishing transformation brought about
through the conversion of the Uigurs. It states, "This land of barbarous customs, smoking with
blood, was transformed into a vegetarian state, and this land of slaughter became a land
devoted to good works." Throughout the reign of the Khans, the Uigurs were used as their
secretaries.

ANTOCH

SAMARKAND

EDESSA

NISIBIS

ARBELA

NISHAPUR

MERV

XIAN

HERAT

CTESIPHON

Merkits

These were a Turkish people who were a mixed with Mongol blood and were probably
Christians as well. The word Merkit literally means the skillful ones.

Uriyan-Gakit

This group was largely if not completely Christian. In 1298AD they had a Christian
queen. Queen Arungal was the sister of Georges, king of the Christian Turks.

Samarkand

As early as the fifth century (400s) the city of Samarkand was a great mission training
and sending center for this region and especially going further east. By the eighth century
(700s) they had their own metropolitan (big city) bishop. And this continued until the 15th
century (1400AD). In 1265 Marco Polo visited here and estimated that 10% of the population
was Christian.

Asian Church History: Lecture 5 Transcript: WOLBI Jeju: Spring 2011

Steve Nicholes, Professor:


Of all the evidence of activity of Christian
missionaries in China before 1000AD, none has been
more dramatic than the discovery of the Christian stone
monument. In the province of Shaanxi, east-central China,
is the city of Changwu (formerally called Hsian-fu; today
called Xian). That is where the famous terracotta warriors
were found. Has anybody heard about them?
For about 1000 years this was the capital of
northern China. The golden age of Changwu was during
the Tang dynasty (618-906AD), one of the most
brilliant periods in Chinese history. Also during this time
the Tang dynasty had a close relationship with Japan. The
things that were being done in Changwu were also
copied and taken to the Japanese capital of Nara. It
was not until the invasion of Japan by Kublai Khan in
1268-1281AD that Japan became spiritually and
materially independent.
One of the stories that the Chinese tell is that in 64
AD, the Chinese emperor, Ming-ti, had a dream that
caused him to send messengers along one of the roads
which leads to the west. They were sent to find out who the great prophet was who had arisen
to the west of China. On the way, the messengers met two missionaries who were on their way
to the emperors court. They all returned to the court together and the missionaries stayed
there until they died six years later.

In February of 1924 The Chinese Recorder (what is that a newspaper??) shared a story
from the work Shen Hsien Kang Chien. First it tells how western tribes invaded China during
the reign of Emperor Kuang-Wu-Ti (25-28AD). It says, During the winter time the western
tribes rushed in but Ma-Yuen, one of the great generals of Kuang-Wu-Ti, dispersed them
and drove them away. People from those western countries give the following account
and after that section it gives the narrative of the life of Christ. It tells about His crucifixion,
His resurrection on the third day and His ascension 40 days later. It seems to be saying that in
the first century these western tribes invaded China and after that they brought the story of
Christ to China. In the book Adversus Gentes, written about 303AD, the author speaks of
Chinese people having faith in Christ.

Ancient Monument in China

In 1625 a Christian monument was found about
50 kilometers (30 miles) from ChangAn next to the site of
a church and Christian school. The school is mentioned by
eleventh century Chinese poets as the TaChin Su (temple).
The people of the area still called it by that name in 1933.
It stands over 3 meters (9 feet) tall, 1 meter (3 feet) wide
and 30 centimeters (1 foot) thick. It has a cross at the top
and 9 large Chinese letters under it that read, A
Monument Commemorating the Propogation of the
TaChin Luminous Religion of the Middle Kingdom. The
middle kingdom is what China is called, even today. It is the idea that China is the center of the
world.

It tells how a guy named Alopen (Abraham) was

welcomed by the emperor of China in 635AD. The
emperor listened carefully to the reading of the Scriptures
and after hearing its message gave permission for public
preaching of this message. He also instructed them to
translate their sacred writings into Chinese. On the 2000
word monument 67 names are listed, including one
bishop and 28 elders. It says, In the days of Father of
Fathers, Mar Ananjesu, the catholicos and patriarch,
when Adam, priest, was vicar, bishop and pope, ie.
Metropolitan of China in the year 1092 of the era of
the Greeks (781 AD), Mar Jazedbuzid, priest and
chorepiscopus of Kumdan the royal city erected this
marble tablet on which are inscribed the redemption
of our Savior and the preaching of our fathers to the
kings of China. Adam, deacon, son of Jazedbuzid the
chorepiscopus;
Mar
Sergius,
priest
and
chorepiscopus; Sabarjesu, priest; Gabriel, priest and
archdeacon, church rulers of the cities of Kumdan and
Sarag.
On this monument the names of several emperors of the Tang dynasty are mentioned.
And they are praised for supporting the mission. Some sent their pictures to be hung inside the
monastery and some provided a generous amount of money for their work. In return the
missionaries prayed for them daily. In 744AD 17 new missionaries came from Persia to help. It
is also mentioned in the Syrian church records that they sent 17 missionaries to China about
this same time.

So we can see that the gospel came and spread throughout China certainly by 635 AD
and by the year 780 AD a large group of Christians lived in China. As we said, this monument
was found in 1625. When it was found the Emperor of China could no longer say that
Christianity was a new foreign religion. It proved that the gospel had come to China 1000 years
before. The discovery of this monument helped these Catholic Jesuit priests so much, that 12
years after this discovery, in 1637, there were 40,000
Christians in seven provinces of China.
In 1907 Danish scholar Frits Holm came to Xian
with plans to take this monument to Europe. Here is a
picture of it in its original location, sitting on a turtle
pedestal. But the local authorities would not let him do
that. And they moved the monument into the Beilin
Museum. They also have put another copy of this
monument in Xian next to a pagoda that some scholars
say is the remains of a church and school that were built
on that site in 640AD. There is also a copy of this
monument in the Vatican museum in Rome, another
copy on the campus of Georgetown University in
Washington DC and one more copy in Japan at the
Shingon Buddhist Temple on Koyasan.
Three years after the monument was built, the
emperor T-ai-tsung (627-649AD) gave an Edict of
Toleration for the Christians. He asked the missionaries
who came to stay and teach and to establish a Bible school
just outside the city. In general the emperors after him
favored the Christians, many who rose to high positions in

society. Churches and monasteries were built. This continued for about 200 years.

Evidence of Christian Activity in China (635-845AD)

Also in 745AD the emperor Hiuen Tsang made a
declaration that the religion of the sacred books
known as Persian had originally come from Tatsin
(the Roman Empire) and that, propagated by
The religion of the sacred books known
as Persian had originally come from
preaching and tradition, it made its way into the
Tatsin (the Roman Empire) and that,
middle kingdom and had been for a long time
propagated by preaching and tradition, it
made its way into the Middle Kingdom
practiced therein. That is the same Tatsin that we
and had been for a long time practiced
therein.
talked about before, also called Tatchin and Likan. And
the early Christians in China a called the TaChin Chiao, the
TaChin religion on this monument.
One early Chinese record says this: The
country
of Ta-ts'in is called Li-chien (Li-kin) and, as
The country of Ta-ts'in is
called Li-chien (Li-kin)
being situated on the eastern port of the sea, its
and, as being situated on
the eastern port of the
territory amounts to several thousand li.. . . Their
sea, its territory amounts
kings always desired to send embassies to China, but
to several thousand li.. . .
Their kings always
the An-Shi (Parthians) wished to carry on trade with
desired to send embassies to China, but
them in Chinese silks, and it is for this reason that
the An-Shi (Parthians) wished to carry
on trade with them in Chinese silks, and
they were cut off from communication. This lasted till
it is for this reason that they were cut
off from communication.
... (166 A.D.) when the king of Ta-ts'in, An-tun (Marcus
Aurelius), sent an embassy who, from the frontier of
Jih-nan (Annam) offered ivory, rhinoceros horns, and tortoise. From that time dates the
direct intercourse with this country. So you can see there was Persia from at least the
second century, if not earlier.

In 638 there is an ancient Chinese document with the title, "The Jesus Messiah
Discourse." It says, "Just about that time, the One (Jesus Messiah) was born in the city of
Jerusalem in the country of Fu-lin (Ephraim)."

In 732AD in the ancient Chinese Imperial records it says, In the 9th month of the 20th
year Kaiyuan (October 732) the King of Persia sent the chief Pan-na-mi (Barnubi) with the
monk of great virtue, Chilieh (Cyriacus) as ambassadors with tribute. There are many many
statements like this in the Chinese records to show that the evidence that here were Christian
missionaries in China is not disputed.
In 845AD an edict from Chinese Emperor Wu-tsung came against all religions except
Confucianism. It said, As to the monks and nuns who are aliens and who teach the
religion of foreign countries, we command that these over 3000 from Ta-Chin (Syria,
Christian) and Mutrufu (Mohammed) return to secular life and cease to confuse our
national customs and manners. A letter back to the teachers shows that over 2000 religious
teachers went back to secular life and it appears that most of these were Christians. With that
many teachers you can imagine that the number of Christians who lived in China at that time
was quite large. Monasteries were closed or destroyed. All Christian leaders were forced to get
other jobs. The Tang dynasty collapsed about 60 years later in 907AD. Some travelers said
they did find Christians, churches and even monasteries when they visited China after this. But
it wasnt until the time of the Mongols that Christianity grew again in China.

In 852-858 Patriarch Theodore still refers to the metropolitan bishops of Samarkand,
India and China.

Before the Mongols took over China the famous Ma Ching-Hsiang and governor of
HengZhou. In their genealogy records it says that the ancestors of the Ma family were the
descendants of the Niessutoo-li (Nestorian) noble family of the western lands. So we see that
the Nestorian Christians even had people who were high up in government.

Ancient Graves in East Asia

Two ancient Christian graveyards were
discovered in the province of Semiryechensk in
southern Siberia in 1885. The smaller grave was
discovered south of the village of Great Tokmak. All of the
headstones in this grave has crosses on it and some
include writing. The second graveyard is near the city
of Bishkek (in modern day Kyrgyzstan) and has 611
headstones.
Both of these graveyards are close to Lake
Issykkul, which is also called the Dead Sea of Central Asia.
It is 120 miles long and 40 miles across. But instead of
being in a valley below sea level like the Dead Sea Lake
Issykkul is up in the mountains, 5300 feet above sea level.
It is known by the people of west Turkestan as Tuzkul,
which means the salt lake, as we Issykkul, which means,
the hot lake. As a result of the hot springs the
temperature is as high as 85-95 degrees Fahrenheit. It is
hot enough that even though this is in a very cold area the
water never freezes.

The Kirghiz people in live in this area say that
there are other large stones with crosses on them near
the ruins of ancient villages in the valley of Chu, north of
Pishpek. The dates on these graves were between 1249
and 1345AD and include Christians from the neighboring
village of Almalig. Most of the writings show that these
were Turkish Nestorian Christians.

Graves with crosses on them have been found in
different areas of China and gravestones in the form of a
cross have also been discovered in Manchuria (since 1910
this is NE China). A ancient tomb found in Manchuria in
1927 contained crosses and coins from the early eleventh
century. Historical records show that those buried there
were Uigurs.
It is believed there were several million Turkish
Christians but only a few Christian graves with real grave
descriptions. One such grave description reads, This is
the grave of Pasak the aim of life is Jesus our redeemer.
Another one says, This is the tomb of Shelicha, the
famous Exegete and Preacher who enlightened all the
cloisters with Light, being the son of Exegete Peter. He
was famous for his wisdom and when preaching his voice
sounded like a trumpet. Among 300 gravestones there were 9 archdeacons, 8 doctors of
Biblical interpretation and church leaders, 3
commentators, 46 scholars, 2 preachers and a number of
priests. Often the word believer is added at the end of
their name of the gravestone.

Mogao Caves near Tun-Huang
The Mogao caves of western China, was sealed in
1036. It was not opened again until about 1900. When
opened they found over 2,000 manuscripts, including

some Christian ones. Also it had a painting on its walls of a Christian bishop on horseback,
carrying a bishop's rod with a cross on the end.
Also there was in the cave this silk screen
painting of a robed man wearing a crown with a gold
cross, with two other crosses around his neck, holding a
bishop's rod. This painting is now in the British Museum
in London. It seems to be beyond doubt a painting of an
Oriental Christian bishop of the pre-1000 A.D. era. One
thing we notice in the painting is that the right hand is
held up with the thumb touching the tip of the second
finger. Some people say this was an ancient sign of the
Trinity with a circle representing one God without
beginning or end and the remaining three fingers pointing
upwards. Buddha images and paintings of earlier centuries usually show him with hands
clasped in his lap or an upraised hand with open palm. In later centuries, however, it is not
unusual to see Buddha figures with the right hand raised in the posture of this painting of a
Christian bishop.

Marco Polo speaks of many Christian communities scattered across the Chinese empire.
At Fuzhou, a Muslim told Marco Polo about a religious community whose religion nobody
understood. Marco Polo traced them and found that they were Christians. They had books and
they had preserved their faith for 700 years. They had a temple, which was dedicated to three
persons, painted on its walls. The three apostles celebrated were Addai, Aggai and Mari.
Polo also reports of Christians churches in at least eleven other Chinese cities. The largest
concentration of Christians was in the NW along the old silk road. Another area with many
Christians was on the SE coast of China. There was a strong Christian community at Chinkiang
between Nanking and Shanghai. At one time there were seven schools there, all of them
founded about the year AD 1279 by Mar Sargis, a devout governor of that city. But after Kublai
Khan died, between AD 1309 and 1333, Buddhist put pressure on the imperial court and made
the Christians to surrender these schools one after the other to the Buddhists.

Evidence of Christian Activity in Japan and Korea

In Japan and Korea also, there is evidence of a
past early Christian presence. The Shoku-Nihongi is an
ancient history of Japan and was published by the
Japanese government in 797AD. In that book it talks
about the return from China in 736 of an official
representative who brought with him a Persian by the
name of Limitsi and another dignitary of the church of the
Luminous Religion called Kohfu. In other historical
writings this guy is called Rimitsu, the physician and that
he served in the court of the Japanese Emperor Shomu.
The empress Komyo was very much influenced by his
teaching and appears to have become a Christian herself.
She later built a hospital, an orphanage and a leprosy
hospital, which were common works that the traveling
missionaries were doing at this time all over Asia. There is
no record of Buddhist leaders or followers doing this kind
of work at that time.
One of the most sacred objects of the Shingon
sect of Buddhism at the Nishi-Honganji Temple in Kyoto,
established by Kobo Daishi after he returned in 806 from
China's capital and had contact with the Christian school there, is a copy of the early
Painting of missionary bishop discovered in western China cave (1908)

missionary manuscript, "The Lord of the Universe's Discourse on Almsgiving," a commentary

on the Sermon on the Mount and other Matthew passages.
The oldest structure in ancient Kyoto is the
Lecture Hall of the Koryuji Buddhist Temple (also
called Uzumasa-dera), rebuilt in 1165. According to
Teshima, the original building was not Buddhist but
Christian, erected in 603. It burned down and was
rebuilt about 818 as the Koryuji Buddhist Temple. There
are two beams from this temple, dating to the late seventh
century, with crosses on them and with writing that is
very similar to Syriac. These are in the Tokyo National
Museum today. There are two beams from this temple,
dating to the late seventh century, with crosses on them
and with writing that is very similar to Syriac. These are
in the Tokyo National Museum today.
Also every year on Mount Koya, apan the August
Festival of Obon is similar to a festival that the Church of
the East celebrated called the Christian All Souls Festival.
Today Japanese priests still make the sign of a cross in
their ceremony. Another very interesting thing is do
you remember the Christian Monument that was made in
781 and set up in Xian China? Well, guess what? There is a
copy of that same monument here on Koya-san (Koya
mountain) in Japan. There are reports that many temples
in Japan have hidden treasures that have been kept
secret which include items from their ancient history. It is
reported that some of those items have crosses engraved
on them from this time period.

Why Did Christianity Decline so Much in Asia?

But then after 1345 there are no more Christian
gravestones in Central or East Asia. In Turkestan and
China it seems that Christianity just disappeared. What
happened? There are several reasons why Christianity
declined so much, especially between 1000-1500AD.
1. Persecution: One reason was because of the
persecution by the followers of Islam. When Islam first
came to Persia in Central Asia it did not come with sword
or threat of death. First with Muhammad and then with
Caliph Omar they promised safety to all the Christians
living in the areas they controlled. In fact in the beginning
the Christians had more peace and freedom under
Mohammed then they recently had under the Persians.
The Christians signed an agreement that they would pay
tribute. In time of war they agreed to protect followers of
Islam who were in danger. They did NOT have to fight for
Islam but they agreed to NOT help the enemy. They would
be loyal and obedient citizens.
Mohammed promised to protect the Christians
and also guaranteed them complete religious freedom and
to protect them from attack by their enemies. But the
Christians were not allowed to evangelize the followers of

Islam. In those early days the Christians were leading citizens and businessmen and had a close
relationship with government officials. One of the reasons that Mohammed was so kind to the
Christians is that at one point one of his teachers had been
a Christian.
In 628 AD, a group from St. Catherines
Monastery came to Muhammed and requested his pro-
tection. He wrote a document. St. Catherines Monastery is
located at the foot of Mt. Sinai. It is the worlds oldest
monastery. It has a huge collection of Christian
manuscripts, second only to the Vatican, and is a world
heritage site. It also has the oldest collection of Christian
icons. Its a treasure house of Christian history that has
remained safe for 1400 years under Muslim protection.
Here is what he wrote: "This is a message from
Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who
This is a message from Muhammad
adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those
who adopt Christianity, near and far,
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers
we are with them.
defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and
by God! I hold out against anything that displeases
my followers defend them, because
Christians are my citizens; and by God!
them. No compulsion is to be on them.
I hold out against anything that
Neither are their judges to be removed from
displeases them.No compulsion is to
be on them.
their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No
one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it,
or carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's
covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my
No one is to force them to travel or to
allies & have my secure charter against all they hate.
oblige them to fight. The Muslims are
to fight for them. If a female Christian
No one is to force them to travel or oblige
is married to a Muslim, it is not to take
them
to
fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a
place without her approval. She is not
to be prevented from visiting her
female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to
church to pray. Their churches are to
be respected. They are neither to be
take place without her approval. She is not to be
prevented from repairing them nor the
prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their
sacredness of their covenants. No one
of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey
churches are to be respected. They are not to be pre-
the covenant till the Last Day (end of
the world).
vented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their
covenants. No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey
the covenant till the Last Day." The first and last
sentences tell us this promise wasnt just for St
Catherines Monastery. Its for all Christians for all time.
But as centuries went by the Islamic leaders
became harsh. They believed more strongly that they
would get a great reward from God if they converted
Christians to Islam. They didnt let Christians hold
government jobs. They didnt let any new churches be
built or crosses to be displayed in public. They began to
take away the properties of wealthy Christians and turn
their large homes into Islamic mosques. The rich were strongly opposed to Islam but the
poor were won over by gifts. Arabic became the main language they used instead of Syriac.
The Islamic leaders took over all top govern-ment jobs and made it easy for Islamic
businessmen to succeed while those who did not follow Islam had a more difficult time. For
example, they had to pay more taxes. Eventually there were mosques in almost every town
along the major trade routes even though the majority of the people were NOT Muslim. But
after 1000AD Islam began to be favored over Christianity.

Asian Church History: Lecture 6 Transcript: WOLBI Jeju: Spring 2012

Steve Nicholes, Professor:

One significant comment of how Christianity
The metropolis of Maru Alsciahegian in Chorasania had the last
declined in Central Asia during this time is by a guy
metropolitan (bishop) at the end of this period
The last
metropolitan (bishop) of Dailam lived in the time of the patriarch
named Wiltsch in his book Geography and Statistics of the
Mares II (987-999AD) The last metropolitan (bishop) of
Church. He writes, The metropolis of Maru
the province of Bardaa lived in the time of the patriarch Ebedjesu
III. At the same time lived the last metropolitan (bishop) of Raia
Alsciahegian in Chorasania had the last metropolitan
and Tabrestania. In 1073AD there was no
(bishop) at the end of this period The last
longer either a metropolitan (bishop) or a bishop
I the two bishoprics of Achlat (on the western
metropolitan of Dailam lived in the time of the
shore of Lake Arsissa) and Marga.
patriarch Mares II (987-999AD) The last
metropolitan of the province of Bardaa lived in the
time of the patriarch Ebedjesu III. At the same time
lived the last metropolitan of Raia and Tabrestania.
In 1073AD there was no longer either a metropolitan
(bishop) or a bishop I the two bishoprics of Achlat (on
the western shore of Lake Arsissa) and Marga.
About this same time in 1001AD Islam invaded
India under Mahmood of Ghazni. The bloodshed was
huge. Hundreds of thousands lost their lives. By 1344AD
Christianity almost disappeared from all India north of
the Vindhya mountains. The persecution continued and
by 1784AD in central India 30,000-50,000 Christians
were forced to be circumcised and removed from the
country. Many Indian Christians had their ears and noses removed.
Buddhism started in India but mianly was driven out of India about 1000AD. 500 years
after Buddha died Buddhism divided into two main parts (just like there are Catholics and
Protestants in Christianity and just like there are Shiites and Sunni). In Buddhism there are the
Theravada Buddhists that are in Shi Lanka and SE Asia and there are the Reformed Buddhists
in Korea, Japan and China.
2. Deception: A second reason for the decline of
Christianity in Asia between 1000-1500AD is the way that
other religions in Asia, mainly Buddhism and Hinduism
changed their teachings and history to seem to be similar
to Christianity. Buddhists claim to have writings on
paintings and pillars and tablets in India dating back
before 300BC. But there is good reason to believe that
many of those that are of Buddhist origin cannot be
proven this far back. And some of what they call Buddhist
writings have phrases of Christian origin and may have
been written by Indian Christians.

The Krishna Legend
Along with this is the Krishna legend. When the
Brahmins saw that the Christians believed in a Christ who
was God becoming man and that God the Father sent
Christ down to the earth to show special favor to man and
to redeem man from sin, the Brahmins invented, not one
but several incarnations (or Christ-type) making it
appear that they (were greater than) the Christians and
all other nations proving that they received the greatest
favor from God. The idea of Krishna began and grew between 600-750AD (even though they

claim Krishna himself came into existence about 3000BC, but very hard to prove the historical
dates in Hinduism). During this time Christianity was growing rapidly in India.
And the story of Krishna and the story of Christ
are very similar. Even the name Krishna is similar to
Christ. Krishna is the second person in the Hindu trinity
(Brama, Vishnu and Shiva). They are both called the Son
of God. Both are called Savior. Both claimed to exist before
their birth on earth. Both had human fathers who were
carpenters. The father of both took their mothers when
they were pregnant to a place to pay taxes. Both were
placed in a manger basket after birth. Both were visited at
birth by wise men and shepherds. Both were warned by
an angel that a local leader had decreed for him to be killed. Both are called the seed of the
woman bruising the serpents head. Both are called the lion of the tribe of. For Jesus it is the
tribe of Judah. For Krishna it is the tribe of Saki. Both said, I am the Resurrection. Both
claimed to be without sin. Both were said to cure lepers, cast out demons and raise the dead.
Both had disciples spread their teachings. Both celebrated a last supper. Both claimed to
descend into hell, be resurrected and ascend into heaven.

In 845AD when Emperor Wu Tsung was on the throne in China he destroyed Buddhism,
demolishing 4600 monasteries and made 265,000 monks and nuns get another job in society.
It was during this time that he also expelled all the Ta-chin monks as well. By 987 there is a
record that 7 years before a Christian monk and 5 others had been sent to China to check on
how the church was doing. He wrote, Christianity has become quite extinct in China. The
Christians have perished in various ways. The church has been destroyed. This does NOT
prove that it was that way all over China. But in some parts of China this did happen.

3. The Mongols: To understand why Christianity
almost disappeared between 1000-1500AD in Asia,
especially in East Asia you have to know about the
Mongols. The Mongols came to power in the first half of
the 13th century (early 1200s) AD under the leadership of
Jenghiz Khan. They were not against Christians. In fact
there were many of the Mongols, even the leaders, who
said they were Christians. One writer said that the
Mongols had a standing army of 600,000 and that he saw
800 chapels on wheels in their camp. Westerners say that
the Mongols came from the Scythians or Huns. They
themselves were called Mongols, Turks or Tartars.

The people usually called Mongols were not all
members of the same tribe but a mixture of people from
the Tartars, the Uigurs and the Turks. There was many
Christians among the Mongols and more than one of their
emperors were known as followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
The most famous of the Mongols was Jenghis Khan. There
were four great Khans of the Mongol Empire: The
word Khan means emperor. After him his son, Ogotai
rules. And after Ogotai Guyuk. Gengis and Ogotai were
not Christians. But they allowed Christians to worship freely. But Guyuk was a true Christian
and in his day was very proud of how many Christians were in his kingdom. After Guyuk, his
Jenghis Khan
1206-1227

Ogotai Khan
1229-1241

Guyuk Khan
1246-1248

Mongu Khan
1251-1259

cousin Hulaku ruled. And after him his brother, Mangu.

Mangu was called, a follower and defender of the
religion of Jesus.
During the eleventh and twelfth centuries went
all thru Turkestan and Mongolia and had bishops in the
provinces of Kashgar, Nuakit, Turkestan, Gunda, Tangut
and Mongolia

Jenghiz Khan

He was born Timujin (which means finest steel)
in 1167. He was the son of a Mongol tribal chief. His father
was poisoned by a rival tribe when he was 9 years old.
After that in his own words, he would never be a child
again. By the time he was 20 years old he had defeated the
Merkite tribe. Starting in 1206 he was called Jenghiz Khan
(meansuniversal emperor). He conquered many lands and
united the nomadic tribes around NE Asia into the Mongol
Empire. This is a picture of his statute in Mongolia today.

For the next 6 years he went to war with China.
When the emperor of North China heard that Genghiz
Khan was coming he sent this message, Our empire is a
wide as the sea. Yours is only a handful of sand. How can
we fear you? Genghiz Khan took his troops around the
great wall of China.
He was famous for being cruel. When he took a city
he normally killed all the men and boys and kidnapped
the woman and girls. His answer on how to be happy:
"The greatest happiness man can have is to destroy
his enemies, steal his riches, ride his horses, to see
those dear to him bathed in tears, to clasp to your
bosom their wives and daughters."
After taking the villages in his way he set his
sites on Yanjing (modern Beijing), with a population of
350,000. It was surrounded by a wall 12 meters (36 feet)
high with over 900 guard towers. At first Kenghiz
surrounded the city and would not let any supplies in.
Thousands starved to death. Then he attacked and
destroyed Beijing leaving a mountain of bones.
After China Jenghiz Khan made the city of
Karakorum in central Mongolia into a great trading and
cultural center. He wanted his people to benefit from his
victories. He said, My people are as numerous as the
trees in the forest. I wanted them to feed on tender
meat, live in beautiful tents and pasture their horses
on rich soil. He brought medical knowledge into his
kingdom from the Christian Nestorian missionaries. He
advanced education (reading and writing) and had
scholars write a historical record. He set up a legal court
system. He set up trade routes, a postal system with
horses every 25 kilometers and hotels every 100
kilometers.
He sent ambassadors to Persia. In the summer of

1218 one messenger brought back a package that changed the future of the Mongols. It was the
head of Genghiz Khans ambassador. Jenghiz responded by sending an army of 200,000 to
invade Persia. Every Persian town that did not submit was burned to the ground. He killed over
1,000,000 men, women and children.
After China he conquered Tibet, Manchuria,
Turkestan, Kurdistan, Khuzistan, Iran, Iraq Azerbaijan and
Afghanistan. And they killed large amounts of people
1,600,000 died in Herat. 1,200,000 were killed in
Khwarizm. After Jenghis Khans son-in-law was killed in
Nishapur, his daughter ordered that everyone in that city
must die. 1,747,000 died in Nishapur. And the skulls of all
men, women and children were piled there in pyramids.
1,300,000 died in Merv. All of these cities had strong
Christian communities, with head bishops. He killed about
75% of the people of Iran, possibly 10-15 million people.
In a few short years the Mongols conquered about 25% of
the world from Japan to Germany. His empire was 4
times the size of Alexander the Great and twice the
size of the Roman Empire. And 1.5 times larger than
the USA.
One interesting statistic is that according to
DNA testing about 16 million or 1 of every 200 Asian
men come from Jenghis Khan. In Mongolia it is 1 in 10.
One reason he had so many descendants is he killed so
many of the males in the Asia region. Another reason is that he had so many wives and
concubines, 2000-3000. And his sons after him also had harems like this.

Ogotai Khan

When Jenghiz died (1227AD) his son Ogotai took
his place. In 1230AD his armies invaded Korea (1230-
1255), South China and all the way to Europe, including
southern Russia, Poland, Moravia, Bohemia, Austria and
Hungary. They wiped out the great Hungarian army,
which had 100,000 troops. He did all this in Europe in
about 2 months. Ogedai had doubled the size of the
empire and established Karakorum in NW Mongolia as
the official capital city. Ogotai was poisoned by a mistress and died in 1241AD. According to
their rules and culture they all had to return back to Mongolia to the capital of Karakorum for a
council to elect the new khan. Because of that Europe was saved.

Guyuk Khan

Ogotai was succeeded by his son Guyuk who immediately stopped the killing of masses
of people. Guyuks mom was a Christian. His camps were
full of bishops, priests and monks. He had a chapel with a
cross on it in front of his tent. Many people thought that
the whole Mongol Empire would become Christian.

Mangu Khan
Guyuk died in 1248AD and was replaced by his
cousin Mangu. Mangus brother, Hulaku Khan captured
the city of Baghdad (1258) and killed more than 200,000
people. But his wife, Doqus, was a Christian and so he was

not antichristian. Mangus wife would go to the Christian chapel with all her children for
Christian services and sometimes Mangu would attend with her.
Hulakus grandson, Ahmed, followed Islam. He became a violent persecutor against
Christians.

Kublai Khan

The first group were called the great Khans. The
next group were called the Heathen Khans. There was 8 of
them. Hulakus other brother, Kublai who was a leader for
the Mongols in China (1259-1294). He somehow became
the new supreme leader of all the Mongols in 1259AD,
even over Ahmed. Next to Jenghiz Kublai was the
next most famous of all the Mongols. He was also the
first ruler of a united China. Kublai Khan controlled
Korea by 1259AD.
Kublai Khan tried to conquer Japan twice. He
first sent emissaries to the Imperial Court in Kyoto asking
for Japan to pay tribute or taxes to them. But Japans
military refused. And to make their message clear they
beheaded 5 of the emissaries.
The first time (1274) he prepared to attack
Japan from Korea with 900 ships. But the winds we so
strong they decided to turn back.
Then the second time (1281) they sent two
armies one with 900 ships with 40,000 troops sent from
Masan, Korea. The second group came from southern
China with 3,500 ships (each about 73 meters (240 feet)
long. With a total of 100,000 troops. Then a typhoon
came and all of these boats were shipwrecked and
100,000 men died so he did not conquer Japan.
Here is a picture of a Mongolian generals helmet that
was found on the beach after they Mongol army retreated
in the battle of 1281. You can see on the helmet there is a
Christian cross. This is displayed in the Nichiren Museum
in Fukuoka, Japan.
The Mongols controlled Korea to about 1350. During this time the Korean royal family
married into the families of the Mongol Khans. The Mongols used Jeju Island to raise horses.
Kublai Khan did however have many countries under his control including Korea, China,
India and Tibet. He tried his best to conquer nations thru peaceful ways, not thru war. He loved
literature. He became a Buddhist. And it is said that he was the one who introduced
ancestor worship to China. He moved the Mongolian capital from Karakorum to Khanbalik
(modern Beijing).
Ahmed grabbed him and put him to death in
1294AD after ruling for 35 years. Baydu was the fifth son
of Hulaku and was a Mongol commander and khan in Iran.
He liked Christians, allowed churches to travel with their
camps and wore a Christian cross around his neck. He was
killed in 1295 mainly because he liked the Christians and
hated the Muslims.
Ghazan Khan took over after Baidu. He publicly
declared he was a Muslim. He began to destroy all
Christian churches and Buddhist temples. Within 10 years

Islam was the dominant religion in Persia. The Mongol

dynasty lasted until 1369AD. It was because the
grandsons of Jenghiz Khan started fighting each other
that brought about the end of the Mongol Empire.
The Monks of Kublai Khan
In the last 1270s, two Christian monks (Rabban
Sawma and Markos) of the Uigar tribe of Inner Mongolia
(northern China) set out from Beijing to make pilgrimage
to Jerusalem. Beijing was known to them as Khanbalik,
the capital of Kublai Khan (1260-1294). The direct route
to Jerusalem was blocked because of a war. And they
ended up going thru Azerbaijan to a monastery in
Baghdad. Markos became the head of the Church of the
East until he died in 1317AD and Rabban Sawma was sent
as an ambassador from Khan Argon of the Mongols in
China to Byzantium, Rome, France and England.

Marco Polo
The famous traveler Marco Polo reached the
Mongol capital of Khanbalik (modern-day Beijing) in
1275, encountering many Christians on his way from the
Middle East. He speaks of Christians amongst the Kurds
and Christians living further east in a number of Silk Road
cities. In Samarkand, he describes the building of a great
church dedicated to John the Baptist, which was erected
to celebrate the conversion of one of the khan leaders to
Christianity. Christians are also mentioned in Chinese
Turkestan. In China proper, Polo tells us of Christians in
many cities, as well as in Tenduc (modern-day Inner
Mongolia), in a Chinese province, near Burma, in modern-
day Hangzhou. He also describes Christians in India, as well as those living on the Maldive
Islands, all under the Christian head bishop in Baghdad.
When Marco Polo visited Kublai Khan the Mongol leader was so interested about
what Marco Polo said about Jesus that he said, You send
me 100 men skilled in your religion and I shall be
baptized and all my subjects will study Christianity
too. Then there will be more Christians in the East
than in the West. When Marco returned to Venice, Italy
You send me 100 men skilled in your
he brought this request from Kublai Khan to Pope
religion and I shall be baptized and all
my subjects will study Christianity too.
Gregory X for missionaries to instruct his people in
Then there will be more Christians in
the East than in the West.
Christianity.
Kublai Khan 1275
Marco returned with his brother, his son and two
Roman Catholic (Dominican) missionaries. Kublai Khan
warmly welcomed them. They stayed in China 17 years. Marco wrote that he was like the
governor of the city of Yangzhou. He said that he saw hundreds of Christian churches.

Asian Church History: Lecture 7 Transcript: WOLBI Jeju: Spring 2012

Steve Nicholes, Professor:

4. Tamerlane. The final cause of the disappearing of
Christianity from Central and northern Asia and Mongolia
is to be found when a guy named Tamerlane came to
power.
He was born in Subz, a city of Kesch, in the year
1336AD. His name was Timour (which means iron) and
he was the son of a chief of a Turkish tribe that were
serving under the Khans. When he was 30 years of age, he
worked his way up to become the leader of his area, of
Transoxania, where he made Samarkand his capital.
In one of his battles he was wounded and had a
bad leg for the rest of his life. So he was known as Timour
the lame, which became Tamerlane. He was a very large
man with a big head, his skin tone was red and white. He
had long white hair. That was the color his hair was from
.
birth. In his ears he wore two very expensive diamonds.
And he always had a very sad and serious look on his face
that no one forgot.

One of his characteristics was her perseverance.
He explained this himself by telling a story from a time
when he was young. He said, I once was forced to
I was once
forced to take
take shelter from my enemies in a ruined building
shelter from my
where I sat for many hours. Desiring to divert my
enemies in a
ruined building
mind from my hopeless condition I fixed my attention
where I sat for
many hours.
on an ant that was carrying a grain of corn, larger
Desiring to divert
my mind from my
than itself, up a high wall. 69 times the grain fell to
hopeless
the ground, but the insect persevered and the 70th
condition I fixed
my attention on
time it reached the top of the wall. This sight gave me
an ant
courage at the moment and I have never forgotten the
lesson it gave.

Tamerlane was a follower of Islam (Sunni) and
bitterly opposed everything Christian. In 1390 Timour
invaded Persia with a large army and overthrew the
descendants of Hulaku and destroyed their capital city.
When he conquered a city, like the Mongols he was very
brutal and killed lots of people. Then he was famous for
collecting all the heads, the skulls of the people he killed
and stacking them into a pyramid outside their city. In
1401 outside Baghdad, the capital city of the Church of the
East at this time, he made a pyramid from 90,000 heads.
He conquered NW India, the Stan countries, Persia &
Syria. He conquered areas of Russia, including Moscow.
When what he called obnoxious Christians sought
refuge in the caves of the mountains, it was immediately
decided to hunt them from their dens and to destroy
them. Every church built of stone was completely
leveled to the ground (over 700 of them).


Kesch


When he invaded Georgia, he compelled the Christian prince, Isocrates, to declare
himself a follower of Muhammad and most of his people to follow. The Christians who
refused were killed, their churches destroyed and all the sacred vessels and furniture were
burned. In Anatolia (present day Turkey) the Christians basically became slaves.
He was in the middle of conquering China with an army of 1,800,000 men when he
suddenly got very sick and died in 1405AD. He is buried in a large tomb in Samarkand,
Uzbekistan. But under he reign Christianity was almost completely destroyed from the
greater part of Asia and Islam was established in most of this area. Basically Christians either
converted to Islam or died. Between 1200-1500AD, according to one estimate, the number of
Asian Christians fell from 21 to 3.4 million.

The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
In 1369, after the Tartars the Ming dynasty
came to power. They were very anti-Christian.
Christianity was a foreign religion to them. One of the big
reasons they were against Christians was that the
Christians would not practice ancestor worship. One
year after the Mings came into power the Christians living
in China, whether Roman Catholic or Nestorian, either
had to flee the country, publicly deny Christianity or hide
in a secret society. The Mings ruled China for more than
250 years.

The Remnants

After 1500 years of Christianity there was only
two main pockets of Christians left to be seen. One
was in the mountains of Kurdistan and the other in
India. This is almost back to the way it was in 100AD
when the first missionaries went to Edessa and India. At
this time Christian mission work in the west was
exploding and in the east it was so small. Who would ever
have guessed that 500 years later Christianity in Asia
would come back as larger or larger then the churches in
the west.

There is a record that two Christians from India
traveled all the way to the mountain village of Gagarta
(modern city of Cizre), NW of Mosel. They wanted to meet
the head of the Church of the East, Shimon V. They came
to ask for bishops who could help restore the relationship
of the church between India and Persia. These two were
ordained as bishops and brought two monks (John &
Thomas) from the monastery back to India with them.

There was a group who escaped Tamerlanes
killings and hid in the mountains of Kurdistan for several
hundred years. An estimated 100,000 of them are still
alive in that part of the world today.
The Church of the East in Kurdistan traces their
church fathers back for 600 years. Most of them take the
name Shimun and come from the same family line. Here is
a chart showing all the church fathers from Kurdistan for
600 years. Here are pictures of the last couple of
leaders Shimun the 22nd. And Shimun the 23rd when

he went on a trip to India.

Even in that late 15th century (1400s) Mar Shimun sent four bishops as missionaries
back into China. In 1551AD they split into two groups, each with a patriarch or head leader.
One group was recognized by Rome and called the Chaldean Christians. The other group was
called the Nestorian Christians.
They live in NE Syria, SE Turkey, and NW Iran but are NOT a missionary-type group at
all these days. In 1842 about 10,000 of these Christians were brutally killed by the Turks.

In Malabar, India in 1798AD The Islamic ruler Mysore went into Travancore as far as
Alwaye and destroyed 27 of the most ancient churches destroying Christians and Hindus alike.
It is said that 10% of all Christians in that region died in this persecution.


We have seen that Christianity was almost eliminated from north and central Asia as
a result of persecution and invasion by Islam, the Mongols and Tamerlane. The elimination
was so complete that except for a few tombstones and ruins of cities there is almost
nothing else left to see.
Cosmas in his Christian Topography tells us that the early missionaries had made it to
Burma and Thailand even before the 6th century (500sAD) so that he was able to report
Christian churches in those countries at an early date.

The Christian Century in Japan (1549-1650): Xavier

A Japanese guy by the name of Anjiro was accused
of killing someone, probably by accident, and went and
hid in a Buddhist temple. Then he got on a ship going for
Malaysia. On the ship he told his story to the ship captain
who was a Christian. The ship captain told him he
needed to tell his story to Francis Xavier. When he arrived
in Indonesia Anjiro got on another ship going back to
Japan but that ship was in a storm. Because of that he
ended up going to the East Indies and meeting Francis
Xavier. And because of that meeting Francis Xavier, a
Jesuit priest, ended up going to Japan.

Before going Xavier questioned Anjiro about the
possibilities for Christian mission in Japan. And it is
interesting to read him tell what happened: I asked him
whether if I went back with him to his country, the
I asked him whether if I went back with
Japanese would become Christians, and he said they
him to his country, the Japanese would
become Christians, and he said they
would not do so until they had asked me many questions
would not do so until they had asked me
and had seen by the way I answered how much I knew.
many questions and had seen by the
way I answered how much I knew.
Most of all, they would want to see if I practiced what I
preached and believed then, after watching me for 6
months, the king, the nobility, and all other people of
discretion would become Christians, for the Japanese, he
said, are totally guided by the law of reason.

Xavier spent only 2 years and 3 months in Japan
(1549-1552), but in that short time he laid the foundation
for the next 200 years of Catholic missions in Asia and
especially the Jesuit missionary methods.

In 1552AD when Xavier left Japan the number of
Christians was somewhere between 800-3000. In 1563 a
governor of Kyushu, Omura Sumitada became a
Christian. During the next 10 years 20,000 in his area
professed faith in Christ and were baptized. And then the
Statues of Christians leaders in Kagoshima, Japan

governor gave the Jesuits the whole fishing village of Nagasaki as a gift. It became the
center of the Jesuit Catholics. By 1579 over 50,000 Christians were from that area. By 1582
there were over 150,000 Christians in all of Japan.

Hideyoshi

Then in 1582 Toyotami Hideyoshi, called the
greatest military commander in Japanese history, unified
all the clans of Japan into one nation for the first time. In
the beginning his court and army were filled with openly
Christian advisors and generals. His personal doctor, his
treasurer and his administrative secretary were all
Christians too. He once told one of the Jesuit leaders that
he might even give an order that the western half of all
Japan, including Kyushu become Christian. Two of the
most famous Japanese generals (Takayama Ukon and Kuroda Yoshitaka) were
Christians and they would lead their troops with crosses on their helmets and on their
banners. It was popular in that time and place for people to say they were Christian. In central
Japan two sons and a grandson of the governor of Kyoto became Christians. A son of the
emperor surprised everyone and was said to have become a Christian.

Then suddenly in the summer of 1587 Hideyoshi gave an edict a decree. He declared
that the Christian priests were as deceitful and treasonous as the Buddhist monks. He said that
all missionaries had to leave the country. Only the foreigners who were businessmen could
stay. He said that any Jesuits who did not leave within 20 days would be executed. Mission
property, especially in the Christian centers of Takayama Ukon and Kuroda Yoshitaka would be
taken by the government. All Japanese Christians were commanded to deny the Christian faith.
The popular Christian generals were sent away into exile. But then Hideyoshi never did any of
these things. There were 120 foreign Catholic priests in the country. 117 of them stayed and
nothing happened to them.

In 1590 a leader of the Jesuits brought gifts from Europe including an Arabian stallion
and a printing press. But even though they published Christian materials one thing the
Catholics did not do during these 100 years was to print a Japanese Bible.

In 1597 a ship called the San Felipe traveling from
Manila, Philippines to Acapulco accidently got blown off
course and stuck on the island of Shikoku, Japan. That
ship was loaded with guns, ammunition and 7 Catholic
missionaries. And word came to the king that the pilot
had said, if the Japanese tried to take the ship it would
start a war. Hideyoshi was angry and demanded that the
missionaries plus 19 others, including some local
Japanese Christians be arrested. In Nagasaki these 26
were tied to crosses and were pierced with spears so
they would die quickly. Included were 3 young boys, ages
12, 13 and 15 years old. Their bodies were left hanging
on these crosses for all to see for 9 months.

Within one year Hideyoshi died and Tokugawa
Ieyasu took his place. In the beginning Christians had
freedom again. In the next 2 years another 70,000
Japanese were baptized as Christians. And in some areas
where there was a Christian governor the Christians were
multiplying so fast that there was a fear that this would
threaten the national unity of Japan. Ieyasu said that no
more governors could become Christian.
Nagasaki, Japan


The Beginning of the End

The year 1614 is often called the beginning of the end of early Japanese
Christianity. In January Ieyasu ordered all Christian churches had to close, all foreign Christian
missionaries had to leave Japan, all practice of Christianity both public and private had to stop
immediately. The reason, he said, was that Christianity opposes all of Japans great religions:
Buddhism, Shinto and Confucianism. He also said that Christianity was threatening Japans
possession of its own land and its aim was to overthrow the Japanese government. By this time
there were 300,000 Christians in Japan. That year churches were burned, demolished or
closed. Most of the foreign missionaries left Japan. During
the next 30 years the Japanese Christians were
systematically burned, strangled, starved, tortured or
driven underground.
One historian writes that under Ieyasu the
foreign missionaries were expelled but no one was
killed. Ieyasu died in 1616 and under his son,
Hidetada about 100 Christians were killed every year
(about 1 every 3 days) but usually not tortured. Only
one time in 1622 back in the Christian city of Nagasaki 23
Christians, mostly Japanese, but some Koreans were slow
roasted to death on stakes. The wives and children of
these men were beheaded nearby.
The next year Hidetada died and his son,
Iemitsu, became the worst. He enjoyed watching to
see if torture would make a Christian deny his faith or
not. By 1651 there were at least 4045 publicly
documented martrydoms and the governor of Nagasaki
made sure that there was no visible sign of Christianity
left in his city the same city that had been an openly
Christian city before. Some Christians were forced to wear
a straw raincoat with their hands tied behind their back
and then the raincoat was set on fire. Some were hung
upside down in a pit of dung for hours or even days until
they died.
In 1637 a group of 37,000 farmers in the
Christian province of Arima, whose wives and daughters
had been tortured, revolted against the government.
100,000 Samurai troops came against them. They carried
banners with small red crosses and shouted, Jesus.
When they ran out of ammunition and food the samurai
army massacred them men, women and children. But
this victory became humiliating to the Japanese military.
In 1639 an edict was given that Japan was closed to
Portugal, where the Catholic missionaries had come from
and this was the end of the Christian century in Japan.
Japan didnt open to the west for over 200
years. Then in 1853 Commodore Perry came with four
ships into Tokyo and asked Japan to open a port and allow
them to set up a trade office and to trade with the US. It
shocked the people but finally Emperor Meiji agreed.
Within 5-10 years missionaries came again. This time it included many Protestant

missionaries. In 1858 The Japanese government allowed foreigners to have freedom of religion
but they were NOT allowed to preach this faith to Japanese.

Christianity Reappears in Japan
In 1863 Roman Catholic priests returned to Nagasaki, where 250 years before had been
a Christian center of Jesuit missions in Japan. In 1865
they built a church but no Japanese attended the
dedication ceremony for public worship was not allowed
by the police.
Four weeks later, in March 1865 Father Bernard
Petitjean saw a group of 12-15 people standing in front of
the closed door of the church in a very silent and
respectful way. He went and opened the church door and
the Japanese followed him in. He knelt to pray, and a
woman whispered to him, All of us have the same heart
as you. Where do you come from? asked the astonished
priest. From Urakami, they said. Nearly everyone there
has the same heart. When they found that the priest
celebrated the same feast days, had the same statutes and
was unmarried (the three things they believed was
required of a true priest) they trusted him. Very quietly at
first, for fear of persecution, the missionary made contact
with hundreds of secret Christians, then with thousands
as the word spread that the Fathers had returned.
In 1866 a year after the hidden Christians were
known, Father Petitjean was made vicar or head of the
church in Japan. Of the 30,000 or so hidden Christians
(kakure krishitan) only 10,000-14,000 rejoined the
Roman Catholic Church. But the reappearance of so many
Christians alarmed the Japanese authorities. And the
persecutions began again. During the last 200 years the
Japanese Christians had accepted Buddhist religious
rites that included how to bury and treat their dead
ancestors. Now the catholic missionaries told them that
was wrong. The Christians in Urakami told their mayor
they would not let Buddhist priests to bury their dead.
The Buddhist leaders brought armed groups to their chapels and carried away 60 Christian
prisoners and destroyed the chapels. The government ignored this event.
In 1868 the Emperor took control of the country
and became its ruler. But this made it even more difficult
for Christians. The government repeated the edict of
1614 against the detestable sect of Christians and
proclaimed Shintoism as the national religion. Over 4000
Christians were taken from their homes and put in prison.
But the USA would not have friendly trade relations with
Japan while they were persecuting Christians. Some years
later they removed this edict and allowed the Christians
to return home. In 1873 there were 15,000 Catholics with
3 churches and 2 seminaries with 70 students and 29
missionaries. At that time there were only about 1000 Protestants. 10 years later in 1883 there
were 93 Protestant churches. And by 1889 there were 40,000 Protestant Christians, 249
churches, 451 missionaries and 14 seminaries with 287 seminaries.
Original sign declaring Christianity was being outlawed

The top 3 reasons for the growth were (1) the

Protestants emphasis on education; (2) the quality
and the zeal (desire) of the Japanese leaders; (3) the
Protestants quickly translated a Japanese Bible and
put it into the hands of the people. For 30 years, between
1859 (when the first seven Protestant missionaries
arrived) and 1889 the church in Japan was growing so
fast that many missionaries predicted that Japan would
soon become a Christian nation.

The Sino-Chinese War of 1894-95

When Japan quickly and easily defeated the
Chinese Empire in the Sino-Chinese War in 1895 Japanese
nationalism was exploding and Japans attitude cooled
toward Western countries. They felt Japan had been
treated unfairly, not as an equal partner in the world. At
the same time Buddhism and Shintoism became more
popular. In 1900 about 80% of the country said they were
Buddhists, 15% said their were Shinto and 1% 400,000
said they were Christian. In the year 2000 3.6% of the
country (about 4.6 million) say they are Christian.


Fathers and seminarians in southern Japan 1881

Asian Church History: Lecture 8 Transcript: WOLBI Jeju: Spring 2012

Steve Nicholes, Professor:

1

Until 1900 China did not have a united or
2
0
national religion. In the 1500s traders from Portugal
0
s
were establishing trading centers around the world. And
they set up one in southern China, in Macao. And catholic
600s
Jesuits soon came too. In 1565 there were over 5000
people in this city who were Roman Catholics. In 1583
1
5
they began to go outside Macao and into the province of
0
Guangzhou. This is the third time Christian
0
s
missionaries had come into China. First they came
from Persia (west) in the 600s. Then they came from
Central Asia (north) in the 1200s. Now they come
from Macao (south) in the 1500s. The first two groups
were from the Church of the East. This third group was
Roman Catholic.

Matteo Ricci

During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in 1582
one of the most famous Catholic missionaries in China,
Matteo Ricci, came to Macao. He was a brilliant scholar
Within 2 years he had mastered reading and writing in
Chinese and understood Chinese culture. He memorized
long sections of Chinese classical literature. He made the
first Portuguese-Chinese dictionary. And he became the
leader of the group who entered China from Macao. Ricci
understood that the Chinese loved learning. He wanted to
see China become a Christian nation. He believed they
should focus on reaching the intelligent, the wealthy
and the leaders of China first. Then they would
influence the rest of China. The Jesuits dressed like
Confucian scholarswho were respected scholars. They
did not criticize Confucius, who the scholars all respected.
They taught new concepts of math, science,
astronomy and technology. They made accurate maps
of the world and taught the Chinese how China fit with the
rest of the world. They made and repaired clocks and gave
these to the Emperor. They wrote books and articles
explaining Christianity in a way that Confucian scholars
could understand it, even wearing a white robe like the
Confucian scholars. He built churches using Chinese
architecture. They held religious services in Chinese, and
they allowed converts to continue to keep their
shrines to their ancestors. Ricci also moved the base of
the Jesuits further north to Nanjing, Chinas southern
capital city.
By 1605, Ricci claimed there were more than 1000
Chinese who had become Christians inside of China. It
grew to 5000 in 10 years. One of them was a famous
scientist, Xu Guangqi, who later was appointed grand
secretary to the emperor. The Cathedral of St. Ignatius or
Kunyu Wanguo Quantu Map of the Myriad Countries of the World) 1584

Statute at the Guangqi park in Shanghai , China

Xujiahui Church in Shanghai, which stands in the center of the city today, was built with Xu
Guangqis help.
Ricci himself never did meet the Emperor, Wanli,
but his fellow Jesuits, who carried on his work following
his death in 1610, came close to converting the Chinese
Emperor, Kangxi. Riccis famous book, True Meaning of
the Lord of Heaven was the first Christian book to go to
Korea.
When he died it was estimated that there were
2500 Chinese Catholic Christians in China. After Ricci and
the Catholics had been in China 150 years later there
were about 200,000 Chinese (out of a population of 225
million) said they were Christian. The Jesuit mission ended after the pope became alarmed by
the comparisons between Confucianism and Christianity and ordered the priests to ban
ancestral worship and conduct services according to accepted European practice. The Chinese
emperor responded by ordering a ban on Christian evangelism. Although the priests did not
stop, the mission was weakened, since neither the pope nor the king supported them. Although
the Jesuits failed in their primary goal of creating a Christian China, they did open the country
to European influence, primarily through their writing and technology.
This was the time that the Christian monument was discovered (1625) near Xian in
China. And the Jesuits were excited to say, We are NOT bringing a strange, new, foreign
religion into China. This same teaching was here 990 years ago. Also about this same time
(1624) Jesuit missionaries entered Tibet and started a church there.

The Manchu (Qing) Dynasty (1644-1912)

In 1644 the Ming Dynasty watched helplessly
while barbarians from the Jurchen tribes NE in Manchuria
(north of Korea) broke thru the wall like their western
relatives, the Mongols, had done 400 years before. They
took over the capital, Beijing, and the last Ming rulers
went south to Guangzhou where the Christian Jesuits
were. The whole royal Ming family began to turn
Christian including about 50 high-ranking women in the
royal court. But within 20 years the last royal princes
were killed. These new rulers were not the Han Chinese,
who are the majority group in China. Qing and Manchu
means golden. They also are said to have forced the
men they conquered to shave the front of their forehead
and braid their long hair in the back.

The Rites Controversy

As Dominican and Franciscan Catholic
missionaries came into China they were shocked with
how the Jesuits adapted so much to Chinese ways, even
allowing them to go and perform a ceremony, that at
least looked like worship, at their ancestors graves.
They said the Jesuits were spending too much time
adapting and not enough time evangelizing. In 1643 they
wrote a document back to Rome with 17 questions asked
why this was happening. Rome was not happy and tried
to get them to stop. This made the Chinese rulers upset.

Finally in 1773 Rome called all the Jesuits home and dissolved (did away with) the
Jesuits.

By this time Beijing had four famous Catholic
cathedrals. In 1811 two of these were destroyed. In 1827
the great North Church was destroyed. And by 1837 the
doors of the South Church were also closed and locked.
From 1700 to 1838 the Catholic community had declined
from 300,000 to 200,000.

In 1858 Harvey Newcomb wrote A Cyclopedia of
Missions. He said Asia was 48% Buddhist, 20% Hindu,
17% Muslim and 7% Christian with only 28,000
Protestants and including Roman Catholics and Orthodox
Christians had about 50 million out of the 753 million
I confidently believe that on this island
who lived in China then. The Roman Catholics had come
of Formosa there may be estbalished
to Asia in the 16th century (1500s) and the Protestants
that which will become the leading
Christian community there does not
came in the 17th century (1600s).
exist a more willing nation to accept
the gospel.

Formosa (Taiwan): Gateway to China (1642-1661)
In 1642 the Dutch took over Taiwan for 35
years. And with the traders they did not desire or plan to
do this BUT they made it possible for missionaries to go to
these new lands, to learn the language and begin to
translate the Bible. In Taiwan they completed the gospels
of Matthew and John. Most of the people who accepted
Christ were the non-Chinese tribal islanders. One
missionary chaplain back then wrote, I confidently
believe that on this island of Formosa there may be
established that which will become the leading
Christian community there does not exist a more
willing nation to accept the gospel.
But a Chinese pirate by the name of Cheng
Cheng-Kung brought 25,000 men and took over the
island. When the Dutch didnt surrender they were killed.
Several of the missionaries were publicly beheaded. It was 200 years later (in the 1800s)
before Protestant English missionaries were able to return to Taiwan.

William Carey (India)
In 1785 William Carey was a 24-year-old pastor
of a small Baptist Church in England. He had been reading
the missionary biography of David Brainerd and the
journals of captain John Cook.
When he was 31 he wrote a groundbreaking
missionary book entitled, An Enquiry into the Obligation of
Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens.
This book had five parts. 1. Jesus command in Matthew
28:18-20 to make disciples of all the nations is still for us
today. 2. He gives a history of missions starting in the
early church and ending in his day. 3. He gives 26 pages of statistics of population and religion
for every country in the world. 4. He answers objections about getting involved in missions
(like the difficulty of learning another language or the danger to your life or family). 5. He calls
to set up a mission society to help support missions financially. You can find a copy of this 87-
page booklet as a .pdf for free at: http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/enquiry/anenquiry.pdf.
Northern Church
1703 (1985)

Eastern Church
1655 (1904)

Western Church
1723 (1912)

Southern Church
1505 (1904)

Statue of Cheng Cheng-Kung on Gulanyu, Island near Xiamen, China

INTERACTIVE PROJECT: At this point in the

class I give the students the Asia Spreadsheet which
collects up-to-date data about all the countries in Asia.
This includes statistics on population, average income, #
of Christians and evangelicals, etc. This is a similar project
to what William Carey did 225 years ago. Explain how this
data has been/is powerful to recruit prayer, finance and
personal support. Go thru the web sites listed at the
bottom of the page and walk thru an example
(Afghanistan) of how to do this. Divide the list amont the
students so that at least two people are looking for the same data to make sure it is correct.
The next year, 1793, William Carey sailed with his wife and daughter to India. At
Serampore, near Calcutta, Carey set up his mission station, translated the Bible into at least 35
languages, composed grammars and dictionaries, set up a
printing company, published the first Bengali newspaper
and opened the first accredited college in India, actually
the first in Asia, to train evangelists and church planters.
In 1993 they made a postage stamp commemorating him.
One interesting story from William Careys life tells
how he tried to share the gospel cross culturally. Hindu
ballad singers were commonly seen on the streets and in
the marketplaces of that day. When William Carey saw
this, he and a couple other of his coworkers went to a
busy 4-way intersection and began to sing a Christian ballad. Many people looked out of their
houses, stopped their business activities and gathered around to watch and listen to them. The
song they sang was a story about an Indian man who renounced various Hindu gods and put
his faith in Christ. They then passed out printed copies of this story with the gospel message
included.
Carey stayed in England over 40 years. He influenced lots of others to go into missions
as well. He was one of the first Protestant missionaries to make a big difference in a country on
the other side of the world. He is called the Father of Modern Missions.

Adoniram and Ann Judson (Burma)
One of the guys who read about what William
Carey was doing in India was Adonirum Judson. And he
became one of the first American missionaries to travel
overseas.
Judson was a pastors son but when he went to
college he became a good friend with another guy Jacob
Earnes who believed there was a God who created the
world but pretty much doubted everything else the Bible
teaches. Through this friendship Judson also left
Christianity. But one night he stopped at an inn to stay but the innkeepers said he was sorry
that the only room he had was next to a man who was very sick. But Judson was so tired he
took it anyway. He got into bed and tried to go to sleep but he could not because on the other
side of the wall was a man who was groaning and crying out in pain. This went on for hours
until Judson finally went to sleep. The next morning when Judson went to pay his bill and leave
he asked the innkeeper how the sick man was doing. The innkeeper told Judson that the man
had died during the night. Judson asked who the man was. The innkeeper replied, A young
man from college. His name is uh Jacob Earnes. Judson was shocked. It was obvious by the
way his friend died that he died, lost without hope. Judson believed this did not happen by
THE ASIA SPREADSHEET

Country
Area sq. mi.
ASIA
18855509
*NC ASIA
9036599
Afghanistan
251772
Armenia
11506
Azerbaijan
33436
Kazakhstan
1049151
Kyrgyzstan
76641
Mongolia
604826
Russian Federation 6592819
Tajikistan
55251
Turkmenistan
188456
Uzbekistan
172741
*NE ASIA
3941224
China
3696100
Hong Kong, China
413
Japan
145869
Korea, North
46541
Korea, South
38324
Macao, China
8
Taiwan
13969
*SC ASIA
1732734
Bangledesh
55598
Bhutan
18147
India
1269340
Maldives
116
Nepal
56826
Pakistan
307375
Sri Lanka
25332
*SE ASIA
1735449
Brunei
2228
Cambodia
69900
East Timor
5741
Indonesia
735355
Laos
91429
Malaysia
127317
Myanmar
261228
Philippines
115830
Singapore
239
Thailand
198116
Vietnam
128066
*WEST ASIA
2409503
Bahrain
266
Cyprus
3571
Georgia
26911
Iran
630575
Iraq
169236
Israel
8131
Jordan
34444
Kuwait
6880
Lebanon
4015
Oman
82031
Palestine**
2417
Qatar
4247
Saudi Arabia
829996
Syria
71498
Turkey
299158
United Arab Emirates 32278
Yemen
203849

Pop sq. mi.

Area sq. km+ Pop sq km+ Inc./Per^
Pop 2011*
Pop 2050*
%Cities+ 1mil
1.5782152
652276
0 $956.00
29758051
63795000
3.29305406
652234 45.6247 $956.00
29758009
63795000
118
652225
46
$956
29758000
63795000
24.8
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
1.7761E-06
7
1
$0.00
7
0
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
4.0399E-06
7
1
$0.00
7
0
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
6.3384E-06
11
1
$0.00
11
0
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
7.06E-06
17
1
$0.00
17
0
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1
0
1
1
$0
1

THE ASIA SPREADSHEET

10mil

1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

Pop 0-9*
% 0-9* Pop 10-19*
% 10-19* Pop 20-29*
% 20-29* Xian pop+
Xian%+ Evan. Pop+ Evan. %+
8809976 29.61
7719202 25.94
4921125 16.537
14559 0.049
8442 0.02837
8809976 29.61
7719202 25.94
4921125 16.537
14559 0.049
8442
0.028
8809976 29.605
7719202 25.9399
4921125 16.5371
14559 0.049
8442
0.028

* = US Census Bureau International Data Base http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/informationGateway.php

** = Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (2007) http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/portals/_pcbs/pressrelease/census2007_e.pdf
^ = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
(+) = Operation World
!-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Asia
^^http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_per_liv_in_urb_are-people-percentage-living-urban-areas

accident. He gave his life to Jesus Christ, went to seminary and prepared to become a
missionary.
He served in the country of Burma for 38 years.
Starting in 1812 he worked there and ended up leading
almost 12,000 Karen Christians to Christ. He also
translated the Bible into the Burmese language. He would
translate 25 verses a day from Hebrew into Burmese. By
the time he died there were 63 churches planted and 123
missionaries and pastors trained. 100 years after he died
there were 200,000 Christians in Burma. It is interesting
that when he went into the Karen tribe he found that they
were prepared for his preaching. They had what they
called their Tradition of the Elders that had been passed down by word of mouth for many
generations. They believed in an unchangeable, eternal, all-powerful God, creator of heaven
and earth, of man, and of woman formed from a rib taken from the man. They believed in
humanity's temptation by a devil, and its fall, and that some day a messiah would come to its
rescue. They lived in expectation of a prophecy that white foreigners would bring them a
sacred scroll. Here is a picture of people from the Karen tribe who moved to Canada and are
celebrating a Karen New Years Festival.

Robert Morrison (China)
In 1807 Robert Morrison sailed from England to
China as a missionary with the London Missionary
Society. He was 25 years old and the first Protestant
Missionary to enter China. . It was illegal to evangelize so
Robert tried to dress and look like the Chinese as much as
possible. He even wore a fake pigtail. He learned Chinese
well enough to become a translator. Then in 1812 a new
rule came out that if any Chinese were caught teaching a
foreigner the Chinese language the penalty was death.
Morrisons main ministry was to translate the

Old Protestant Cemetery, Macau, China

Bible into the Chinese language. Morrisons Chinese Bible

was the first published translation of the complete Bible
into Chinese (1819). He also wrote a Chinese grammar
book (1815) and a Chinese-English dictionary (1821-22).
Because it was too hard/risky to evangelize inside
China Morrison suggested setting up a string of bases just
outside of Chinas borders where missionaries could learn
the language, translate and write Christian materials, and
set up Bible training schools for Chinese Christian leaders.
One of the most important bases he set up was in Malacca.
One of the guys who helped Morrison with
translation was William Milne. When he was in language
school he wrote, To acquire the Chinese [language] is a
work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of
oak eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of
angels and lives of Methuselah.
Morrison opened a Christian school in Malacca
where English and Chinese students could study together
both Asian and Western culture, worship together and be
trained for missions and evangelism. Morrison died in

1834. He was buried at this cemetery in Macao.

The Treaty of Nanjing (1842)

England was addicted to Chinese tea but was having difficulty paying for it. The
Chinese were not interested in products from England. They only wanted gold and silver. So
England started smuggling opium into China and get enough money from that to pay for the
tea. But many Chinese got addicted to the opium and the Chinese government didnt like that.
They banned opium. So England declared war on China. And because of their better military
they won.
The infamous Opium Wars brought about the Treaty of Nanjing where China opened
five major ports to the world. The five ports were
Guangzhou (Canton), Xiamen (Amoy), Fuzhou
(Foochow), Ningbo (Ningpo) and Shanghai. They also
allowed Britain to control Hong Kong at this time.
Foreigners were allowed to study Chinese, build houses,
schools and churches in these ports. By 1860 foreigners
were allowed to travel outside these ports into China.
Freedom of worship and protection of Christians, both
foreign and Chinese were guaranteed anywhere in China.
But by 1860 there were still only 351 Protestant church
members recorded.

Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission (1866)
In 1866 Hudson Taylor came to China by boat with 17 others as members of CIM, the
China Inland Mission (Now that is called OMF Overseas Missionary Fellowship? Do you
remember being any where with OMF?).
There were 9 unreached provinces in China and
Hudson Taylors plan was to send two missionaries to
each province. This was the largest known team of
missionaries to go into China at one time. There were only
two married couples on this team. All the rest were single.
Within the first year his daughter Grace (sitting in front)
died. That same year another single guy on their team,
John Sell (standing back right), died. Mary Bell (sitting to
the right of Mrs Taylor) married William Rudland (first
guy sitting on left). Four years after they arrived in wife,
Maria Jane, and son Samuel (sitting on right) died. Three years later both Mary Bell and George
Duncan (tallest guy standing) died. And one year later Emily Blatchley (sitting to the left of
George Duncan) died. It took them four months by boat to travel from London to Shanghai.
One of the ways the missionaries with CIM
shared the gospel was using the wordless book in just
four colors (black, red, white and gold). This was created
by Charles Haddon Spurgeon and was also used by D.L.
Moody.
In 1881 Taylor prayed for 70 new workers to come
during the next three years and his prayer was answered.
In 1885 a group of seven students from
Cambridge University came. They influenced the Student
Volunteer Movement in America.
Taylor recruited a lot of these missionaries with
a book that he wrote called, Chinas Spiritual Need and Claims. It is 100 pages long and I will
send it to you as a pdf document (http://archive.org/download/cu3192402
SHANGHAI
NINGBO

FUZHOU

XIAMEN

GUANGZHOU

3067972/cu31924023067972.pdf). It is a great book to

read because it shows you the way God used Hudson
Taylor to convince people to join his team.
In 1886 he prayed for 100 new missionaries
and they came the next year. In 1889 he prayed for 1000
new missionaries. And by 1912 CIM had over 1000
missionaries. Here is a map of where they were located
in 1902.


Timothy Richard
One of the most famous missionaries of his day
in China was Timothy Richard. He was a dynamic speaker
and wrote articles in a monthly magazine called Review of
the Times. One article he wrote was called The Prime
Benefits of Christianity. He developed very effective
church planting methods with four emphases: (1)
Adapt to Chinese ways; (2) Train Chinese leadership;
(3) Seek the most worthy who make the best
evangelists; (4) Love the Chinese.

Lottie Moon

In 1873 Lottie Moon went to China. She started a
school to train women church workers. She once wrote a
letter home suggesting that Southern Baptist women take
up a Christmas offering to send more women to China. By
the time she left China, her disciples in Pingtu were
baptizing 500 converts a year. And one of her students, a
leading Chinese evangelist is said to have baptized 10,000
people. And the Southern Baptists still take up a Lottie
Moon Christmas Offering every year. In 1992 they
collected over $80 million to go to missions. There is a
monument for Lottie Moon in Pingtu that simply has her
Chinese name as a missionary and How She Loved Us.

It was about this time in 1886 that the Student
Volunteer Movement began to send missionaries from
American colleges. Remember the Mt Hermon 100 that
we talked about in our mission conference. By 1945 over
20,000 American students had gone to a foreign land as a
missionary. Some of them joined Hudson Taylor and the
CIM.

The Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901)

In 1895 eleven missionaries were killed near
Fuzhou by a group of rebels called Boxers. Their slogan
was Exalt the Dynasty. Destroy the Foreigners. In 1899
over 200 missionary family members were killed
including 58 adults and 21 children with the China Inland
Mission. Over 3000 Chinese Christians were killed as
well. It has been said that the Boxer massacres produced
more Protestant martyrs than all of the previous
Protestant martyrs in China combined.

But it also produced more Christians. The World Christian Encyclopedia gives the
following statistics.





1900


2000
Christian folk religions

376,300,000 (79.7%)
360,000,000 (28.5%)
Buddhist



60,000,000 (12.7%)
106,000,000 (8.4%)
Muslims



24,000,000 (5.1%)
19,000,000 (1.5%)
Christians (professing)

1,670,000 (0.4%)
89,000,000 (7.1%)

Roman Catholic

1,200,000 (0.2%)
7,000,000 (0.6%)

Protestant

436,000 (0.1%)
71,000,000 (6.0%)

Orthodox


34,000

Asian Church History: Lecture 9 Transcript: WOLBI Jeju: Spring 2012

Steve Nicholes, Professor:
Hendrick Hamel

Hendrick Hamel was from Holland. In 1653 he was
on the ship, DeSperwer (the Sparrow Hawk), with 63
other men from his country headed from Taiwan for
Japan when they were shipwrecked here on Jeju Island.
28 of the men died. The 36 survivors were treated well by
the residents on Jeju for several weeks and then were
taken to Seoul. The Korean people had not known
foreigners before and so were interested to learn about

The most southern Quelport is a

charming spot. It is well cultivated,
and so conveniently situated, that if a
factory was established here we might
trade with the greatest of ease to
Japan, Korea, manchuria and China.
But if this is not done, could not such
an island become a missionary
station?

them from these guys. And they did not want these guys
to leave and then bring others back to attack this place, so
they just kept them as prisoners. Finally they were sent
to Chollanamdo. Over time 20 of them died from sickness
and disease. 13 years later Hamel and 7 others were able
to escape Korea in a small boat they made and went to
Japan and then back to Holland in 1666 where he wrote
the book, The Journal of the Unfortunate Voyage of the
Sperwer. You can visit the Hendrick Hamel Memorial Hall
at Sanbangsan here on Jeju Island. Hendrick Hamel was
the first westerner to write about Korea with
firsthand knowledge.

First Protestant Missionaries to Korea

Bringing the gospel into Korea in the beginning
was not easy as Korea was not open to outsiders. That is
why they were called the hermit kingdom.
First Charles Gutzlaff, a German missionary
tried to enter Korea in 1832 to distribute Chinese Bibles
and tracts by Robert Morrison. Even though he passed
out some Scriptures, and traveled along the west coast in
a boat for 2 months he was not allowed to stay and had
to leave right away.
He writes about his trip in a book entitled, Journal
of Three Voyages, which is available free online
(http://www.lib.nus.edu.sg/digital/3voyage.html). You
can read the part about his trips to Korea in chapter 6 of
his second voyage, which is on pages 263-288. It is
interesting that on the last page of this section, on August
17 he visits Jeju Island and says, The most southern
Quelport (Jeju) is a charming spot. It is well cultivated,
and so conveniently situated, that if a factory was
established there, we might trade with the greatest of
ease to Japan, Korea, Manchuria and China. But if this is
not done, could not such an island become a missionary
station? That is what the first protestant missionary to
visit Korea said.

The next Protestant guy we know to try to bring
the gospel to Korea was Robert Thomas. He was a Welsh

missionary. At first he dressed in Korean clothing and in 1865 went along the coast of Korea
where for four months he passed out several hundred Bibles.
Then he went back to China and the next year he persuaded a US trading ship, the
General Sherman, to go to Pyongyang and try to open up trade there even though those two
countries did not have a relationship and told their people not to do that. But they agreed with
Robert Thomas and in August of 1866 they brought their boatload of cotton goods, tin and
glass. As they came close to the shore Thomas threw
out gospel tracts on the land. The Korean officials on the
shore told them to leave immediately. They kidnapped the
official and a couple of his guys. This caused fights to
break out and the crew of the boat started shooting their
guns and 7 Koreans were killed and 5 wounded. The
Koreans set a wooden boat on fire and put it right next to
the General Sherman and in this way set their ship on fire.
14 of the crew were shot and killed, 4 were burnt to death
and 2, including Robert Thomas were beaten to death by
people on the shore.
A Thomas Memorial Church was built near this
spot in 1932. But it was destroyed during the communist
takeover.
Today there is a monument in Pyongyang, North
Korea to mark this spot. Some people said that Thomas
was passing out Bibles as the people beat him to death.
Later the man who killed Thomas said that he used the
pages from the Bible to wallpaper his house. In 1893 this
house was later turned into an inn and bought by three
western missionaries who turned it into a church, which
became the Thomas Memorial Church. He is remembered today as the first Protestant
foreign missionary martyr to Korea. If you would like a copy of his story I have a pdf copy of
the book Chosen for Choson the story of Robert Thomas.

John Ross (Korea)

John Ross was a Scottish missionary who went
to NE China (Manchuria) in 1872. He met a missionary
there, Alexander Williamson, who had been to the little
village of Wiju on the northern border of Korea, what he
called the Corean Gate, where he sold Christian books to
the border merchants. He helped to translate and publish
the gospel of Luke into Korean in 1882 with the help of
five Korean assistants and had 1000 copies print and sold
in North Korea. In 1884 he and his wife actually crossed
over and entered Korea and helped distribute copies of the gospels of Luke and John. So Mrs.
Ross was the first foreign woman recorded to have entered Korea. Also that year Ross baptized
a couple of the guys who were delivering Bibles and had become believers in Jesus. By 1887
they had translated the first complete copy of the Korean New Testament as well. These
copies were later revised by others. A lot of Chinese people lived in Manchuria and they
received these Bibles too. Hundreds of Koreans up in this area are reported to have believed in
Jesus and were being baptized. By 1883 a Korean evangelist had already come to Seoul and
started a church there. He invited John Ross to come and baptize 79 new believers. The Korea
Bible Society in Seoul has a John Ross Memorial Hall.

Horace Allen (Korea)

Horace Allen was a Presbyterian missionary
doctor who arrived with his wife and young child in Korea
in 1884. Soon after he arrived there was attempt to
overthrow the king (Gojong) and Prince Min was stabbed
and seriously injured. There were no other modern
doctors in Korea at that time and Dr. Allen was called and
saved the princes life.
After this the royal family asked Dr. Allen to be
their doctor and to establish a medical center in Seoul.
This was a God thing. As a result of what Dr. Allen did the
leaders of Korea trusted western Protestant missionaries
and allowed them to come into Korea and they were
allowed to evangelize Koreans and build schools,
hospitals and churches in what used to be called the
hermit kingdom. Later after Louis Severance gave a lot of
money this became the Severance Hospital in Seoul.

Henry Appenzeller & Horace Underwood

On Resurrection Sunday morning, April 5, 1885
Henry Appenzeller (a Methodlst) and Horace Underwood
(a Presbyterian) became the first ordained Protestant
missionaries to arrive in Korea. The story is that they held
each others hand and jumped off the boat together at
Incheon so that no one could say which denomination
arrived first. In those early days they divided up the
whole country into sections. That is why there are
Methodists in some parts of Korea and Presbyterians in
other parts.

Henry Appenzeller opened a school for boys
(Baekjae) within one year after he arrived. The purpose of
the school was to train the boys in evangelism. He served
in Korea for 17 years and saw 47 churches established. He
also helped with translating the Bible into Korean. He
traveled to a meeting in 1902 but the boat crashed with a
Japanese steamship and Henry died saving another mans
life. He was 44 years old.

Horace Underwood established Koreas first
Protestant church, published the first Korean hymnal,
helped found the Korean YMCA and in 1915 established
the Chosen Christian College, which became Yonsei
University. Horaces wife, Lillian wrote a very interesting
book about their first years living in Korea that you can
get for free online pdf called Fifteen Years Among the Top-
knots: Life in Korea.
(http://archive.org/details/fifteenyearsamon00undeiala.

The Korean Bible was translated in 1887 and by
1910 American missionaries had established over 800
mission schools all over Korea, including Ewha University
for girls in 1886. This made a big impact is seeing
Christianity spread quickly. Another reason the church
continued to grow well was the principles of John Nevius who not only emphasized

evangelism and Bible study but also self-propagation

(every believer was to teach others), self-government
(each group would chose their own qualified leaders) and
self-supporting (each church would take care of their
own pastor and expenses). John came and taught this to
the Korean church leaders for two weeks in 1860. You can
read his teaching in his 92 page book free online called,
The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches
(http://ia700306.us.archive.org/6/items/planting
developm00nevi/plantingdevelopm00nevi.pdf)

The 1907 Pyongyang Revival

In chapter 9 of the book Korean Pentecost it tells
how the missionaries met in Pyongyang in August of 1906
for Bible study and prayer. They were studying 1 John.
They were also using this time to prepare their hearts for
a yearly Bible Conference for all church leaders they had
planned for the first two weeks in January.
1500 men came. Most walked 10-100 miles to
attend. In the morning they had devotions, 30 minutes of
singing and 3 hours of Bible teaching. At night there
would be a mens meeting. It started on Saturday night. On Monday night a Mr Lee was in
charge of the meeting. After a short message he asked the people to pray. Later Mr Lee wrote,
Man after man, would rise, confess his sins, break down and weep, and then throw himself to
the floor and beat the floor with his fists in perfect agony of conviction. My own cook tried to
make a confession, broke down in the midst of it, and cried to me across the room: Pastor, tell
me, is there any hope for me, can I be forgiven? and then he threw himself to the floor and
wept and wept, and almost screamed in agony. Sometimes after a confession, the whole
audience would break out in audible prayer, and the effect of that audience of hundreds of men
praying together in audible prayer was something indescribable. Again, after another
confession, they would break out in uncontrollable weeping, and we would all weep, we could
not help it. And so the meeting went on until 2:00a.m. with confession and weeping and
praying.
Only a few of the foreign missionaries were there on that Monday night. But they heard
about it. On Tuesday night William Blair says, We were aware that bad feeling existed
between a Mr. Kang (from the North Pyongyang Church) and Mr. Kim (an elder from the
Central Church). Mr. Kang confessed his hatred for Mr. Kim on Monday night, but Mr. Kim was
silent. Now on Tuesday night as the meeting went on, I could see Mr. Kim sitting with the
elders behind the pulpit with his head down. Bowing where I sat, I asked God to help him, and
looking up saw him coming forward. Holding to the pulpit, he made his confession. I have
been guilty of fighting against God. I have been guilty of hating not only Kang You-moon, but
Pang Mok-sa. Pang Mok-sa was Mr Blairs Korean name. He says, I never had a greater
surprise in my life. To think that this man, my associate had been hating me without my
knowing it! It seems that I had said something to him one day in a hurry, which gave offence,
and he had not been able to forgive me. Turning to me, he said, Can you forgive me, can you
pray for me? I stood up and began to pray, Apa-ge, Apa-ge (Father, Father,) and I got no
further. I fell at Kims side and wept and prayed as I had never prayed before. My last
glimpse of the audience is forever photographed on my brain. Some threw themselves full
length upon the floor, hundreds stood with arms outstretched toward heaven. Every man
forgot every other. Each was face to face with God. I can hear yet that fearful sound of hundreds
of men pleading with God for life, for mercy.

As soon as we were able, we missionaries gathered at the platform and asked, What
shall we do? If we let them go on like this some will go crazy. Yet we dared not interfere. We
had prayed to God for an outpouring of his Spirit upon the people and it had come. We went
down and tried to comfort the most distressed, pulling the agonized man to the floor and
saying, Never mind, brother, if you have sinned God will forgive you.
Finally, Mr. Lee started a hymn and quiet was restored during the singing. Then began a
meeting the like of which I had never seen before, nor wish to see again unless in God's sight it
is absolutely necessary. Every sin a human being can commit was publicly confessed that
night. Even the man who had killed Robert Thomas confessed this at the meeting. Pale and
trembling with emotion, in agony of mind and body, guilty souls, standing in the white light of
that judgment, saw themselves as God saw them. Their sins rose up in all their vileness, till
shame and grief took complete possession; pride was driven out, the face of men forgotten.
Looking up to heaven, to Jesus whom they had betrayed, they smote themselves and cried out
with bitter wailing: Lord, Lord, cast us not away forever! Everything else was forgotten,
nothing else mattered.









Then he chapter 11 he tells the results of what
happened after the Pyongyang Revival the Christians
returned to their homes and churches in the country
taking this revival fire with them. In schools they stopped
holding classes while children confessed their sins and
got things made right. People returned articles and money
they had stolen. Some people even returned large sums of
money they had cheated someone out of. Thats what
happened in the Pyongyang Revival sincere prayer, a
desire to be close to God, confession of sin with a
humble mind, not being self-centered but by being
others centered. And God used that revival to be the spark that saw thousands, tens of
thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of Koreans turn to Christ. God blessed that.

From 1895 to 1910 the Korean church had grown from 500 to over 200,000.




Foreign Missions from Korea

The Korean revival happened in January of 1907.
On September 17 of that same year Korea sent Mr & Mrs
Ki-Poong Lee with three helpers as Koreas first
missionary to take the gospel to Jeju Island. In 1909
they sent Choi Kwan Heul as a foreign Korean missionary
to work among the Koreans in Vladivostok, Siberia in
Russia. The next year her reported there were 648
Christians there. In 1912 they sent three pastors and their
families to Shantung, China. In 1921 they sent Pastor Ee-
Kon Kim to Japan and began work in Kobe, Kyoto, Osaka and other cities. So after the gospel
came to Korea, less than 30 years later Korea was sending out their own missionaries to
neighboring countries. In 1973 Korea had sent out 93
missionaries. In 1991 this had grown more than 10 times
to 1200. In 2006 it grew more than 10 times again to over
13,000. Since 2008 that number is now around 20,000.
The Korea World Mission Association plans to see
100,000 (1 out of ever 300 Korean Christians) be sent out
as foreign missionaries.

2007 Korean Hostage Crisis (Afghanistan)

In July of 2007 these 23 Koreans went on a
First Graduating Class, Pyongyang Seminary (1907)

short-term medical team to Afghanistan when they were traveling by public bus from
Kandahar to Kabul when they were taken hostage by the Taliban. Two of the Korean leaders on
the trip were killed. The first on July 25 was Bae Hyeong-Gyu (top right) who was shot 10
times and killed on his 42nd birthday. Five days later the second was 29-year-old Shim Seong-
Min (bottom left). Now, the first guy, Bae Hyeong-Gyu was from Jeju. He was from the Young-
Nak Church. Do you know the lady who plays the piano, ?? She is the sister of Bae Hyeong-Gyu.
If you look at the picture you can see she looks like her brother. He once wrote an article for a
church newsletter where he said a disciple should be ready for three things at any moment of
his life 1. Be ready to leave (everything behind). 2. Be ready to move (to a different place). 3.
Be ready to die. Two weeks before going to Afghanistan he spoke at his church and said this,
Dying for Christ is a glorious thing. Dont cry for me if I die in service to my Lord. Put on my
tombstone, He died training young people to make a difference in the world.

Five Possible Generalizations about Asian Church
History in the 1800s
1. It was a Time of Church Growth. During the
1800s the world population grew from 900 million to 1.6
billion. But the number of Christians grew from 208
million to 558 million. So in 1800 23% of the world said
they were Christian. And in 1900 34% of the world said
they were Christian. And in 1900 there were twice as
many Catholics as there were Protestants.
2. It was a Time of Protestant Missions. There
were twice as many Catholics but by 1900 the Protestants were growing three times faster
than Protestants. They were the ones building schools, hospitals and churches and putting
translated copies of the Bible into the hands of as many people groups as possible.
3. It was a Time of Evangelism. In America most of the schools were started with the
purpose of training evangelists, pastors and missionaries. Yale University President Timothy
Dwight told his students in 1813 that if they had the will and the faith, it would be reasonable
to believe that with Gods help the whole world could be brought to the Savior, perhaps not far
from the year 2000. Charles Hodge at Princeton in 1856 said, There are now 800 or 900
million human beings living on the earth if they do not believe they cannot be saved. In
1900 the president of Columbia University, Seth Low: What can Christians do better, in such a
time as this, then to bear their unshaken testimony to their belief that there is no other Name
under heaven, whereby men must be saved, but the Name of Jesus Christ?
4. It was a Time of Women in Mission. Before 1860 it was unusual, rare for single
women to go out as missionaries. But in 1860 the China Inland Mission and others began
accepting single women just like they would accept men. And by 1900 there were more
Protestant women missionaries (6772) worldwide then there were men (6259).
5. It was a Time of Volunteers. In 1886 the Student Volunteer Movement began in
America. It was during this time that independent and nondenominational mission societies
began. And people began to voluntarily give their time and money to get involved in world
missions.

Summary of Asian Church History (1-1900AD)
1. The First Advance (50-225AD): The Syrian
Tradition
Thomas to India (50AD); Addai to Edessa (100AD)
2. The Second Advance (225-1000AD): The Old
Silk Road
Nestorians move across Asia from Persia (225AD)
3. The Third Advance (1000-1350AD): To the East
1835 Japanese map based on old French document

Nestorians in Central Asia (1000AD); Renter China (1200AD)

Catholics from the West arrive (1245-1346AD)
4. The Fourth Advance (1500-1750): The Catholic Wave
Portugal and Spain (1500s)
5. The Fifth Advance (1750-1900): The Protestant Wave
The Protestant Wave

Asian Church History: Lecture 10 Transcript: WOLBI Jeju: Spring 2012

Steve Nicholes, Professor:

Church Planting Movements

CHINA: A few years back I was in Taiwan and
met a missionary with the IMB who was working with
church planting movements in China. When I sat and
listened to him for 2 hours share all that was happening
in China I was amazed. What they did was to go into a
very large city to a very busy intersection (where lots of
people passed by) and rent a large store space there. In
that store they would divide it into several sections. One
section was for free 15-minute English lessons. One
section was a coffee shop with Christian music. One
section was teaching people how to play games. One
section was doing drama. Most of it was free. There was lots of staff doing all these activities.
And people were standing on the street inviting people to come in. And lots of Chinese people,
especially young people came in from the street.

Now why did they do all of this? The purpose of all these little sections was after 15-30
minutes they would stop and would invite them to a special class. And they had prepared
classes all over the city at different times during the week on 1. How to find your lifes purpose
or 2. How to make wise decisions or 3. How to prepare for marriage. And you could choose one
of those topics and it would be a 3 lesson class. And they had prepared these classes to be done
at different times and different locations. Those classes had Biblical principles but were not
heavy Bible teaching a lot of practical wisdom a lot of Proverbs.

And the purpose of these classes was so that after the last class they would invite him to
a 5 session study. And in that study they would show that the Bible is a manual for human life.
And they would tell the story of God and the creation of man and why man was created. And
they would finish by sharing the gospel and giving them a chance to respond. And at the end of
session 5 they would invite them to begin a church plant. And that church would start other
house churches that would start other house churches.

And then he looked me in the eye and said, You may not believe this when I tell you but
in one province in southern China we are starting 10,000 house churches every month. And he
said, I am preparing lessons to give the house church head pastors and they teach it to their
group of pastors who pass it on to their pastors and like a chain it keeps going. He said,
Recently, I went to a house church meeting that was 10 generations away from the one I
started. And what they are teaching is exactly the same as what I taught my first group.

Now what would you call what I have just described to you? It is a church planting
movement. I believe I already shared with you about the Back-to Jerusalem Movement that
began in the 1920s. They believe that the gospel went west from Israel to Europe, then to the
Americas and now to Asia. And they believe that now it is their job to take the gospel back to
Jerusalem back along the Old Silk Road (which technically there is not one silk road but many
roads called the silk road leading mainly East-West, going
through West Asia, going thru the heartland of Buddhism,
Hinduism and Islam along the way. Most Christians in
China believe call has called them to take the gospel back
to Jerusalem and they plan to send 100,000 missionaries
to do this work.

INDIA: Another church planting movement
began in North India in 1994. Before this there were only
about 27 churches among the Bhojpuri tribes in North
India. The IMB sent Indian evangelists from south India to

come and preach the gospel in the north. Within 18 months 6 of them were killed. Through this
experience God gave them a new idea. It came from Luke 10 where Jesus sent out the 70
disciples two by two. There it says in verse 5, But whatever house you enter, first say, Peace
to this house. 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace
will rest on it; if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in
the same house Do not go from house to
house.8 Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat
But whatever house you enter, first say,
such things as are set before you. 9 And heal the sick there,
Peace to this house. And if a son of peace
is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it
and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to
will return to you. And remain in the same
house Do not go from house to house.
you. Over the next couple of years the evangelists
Whatever city you enter, and they receive
you, eat such things as are set before you.
returned but this time they were looking for a person of
And heal the sick there, and say to them,
The kingdom of God has come near to you.
peace and they bonded with him and disciple him and
Luke 10:5-9
trained him to be the leader of the church. In 1993 the
Bhojpuri churches grew from 28 to 36. In 1994 it grew
from 36 to 74 and in 1995 to 220 churches in 1997
700 new churches started and 800 new churches the next
year. In the year 2000 a team went in to investigate if this
was really true. They found over 4300 churches with over
.
.
300,000 believers 66,000 were new believers during
.
..
the last year. Now in 2012 there are over 6 million
.
Christian believers and they have a vision of seeing 30
million people come to Christ by 2018.
Now I want you to see something. Do you
remember when I showed you where the religions of the
world had come from? how they were all born in Asia
I want you to look at those two in the middle in
Nepal and in India what religions were born there?
Buddhism and Hinduism. Do you se where they are in
India?
Look again They are in North India. Guess
where the Bhojpuri tribe is from? Guess where this
massive church planting movement has been happening.
Guess where the 6 million new believers in the last 18
years has taken place. In the very birthplace of Buddhism
and Hinduism. Isnt that amazing.


Reaching Leaders for Christ

Another strategy that has been used to see many
people come to Christ and into the church in Asia in the
last 100 years has been a focus on reaching leaders. We
saw in Korea and China that when the leaders accepted
Christianity that they gave freedom for the missionaries
to share this throughout the country.

A big way this has happened has been through
university campus ministry. In the 1950s groups such as
Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC now called Cru), Inter-
Varsity (IVF) and the Navigators as well as others have
focused on reaching the future leaders who are studying at the leading universities. Today CCC
is on 2000 campuses around the world with the motto, Reach the Campus Today Reach the
World Tomorrow.
6

Ur,
IRAQ

Bethlehem,
ISRAEL

Mecca
SAUDI
ARABIA

Lumbini
NEPAL

Qufu
CHINA

Ayodhya
INDIA

BUDDHISM

CONFUCIANISM
HINDUSIM
ISLAM

JUDAISM

CHRISTIANITY

Reach the campus today reach the world tomorrow


At WOLs last World Leadership Conference one of
the staff in Central America was explaining the difficulty
they were having in getting churches to accept Bible Clubs
in their churches. The director of the ministry in Nigeria
gave a great answer. He said that in Nigeria they went to
the denominational church leaders and met with them,
built relationships with them, explaining with them how
WOL wanted to help their denominations. And there came
a time that those leaders asked for WOL to help them.
After that WOL began working in thousands of churches
with Bible clubs all over the country. Once the leaders were behind it then ministry was huge.
That is the way to see many come to Christ.

WOL not only focuses on training leaders we also
focus on youth. Most people who trust in Jesus make that
decision when they are young people. Our theme is
Reaching Youth with the Gospel of Christ. When our last
executive director, Joe Jordan, went to Argentina he
began discipling young people. At the first campfire
service the young people who threw their sticks in the
fire and dedicated their lives to Jesus Christ became the
future directors for WOL in Central and South America
and even in Europe and have seen hundreds of thousands
of people come to faith in Jesus Christ. If you reach the youth today you reach the world
tomorrow.


New Methods to Reach Target Groups: Japan Tokyo Youth Black Gospel

Probably the best way to end our class is the same way Dr. Samuel ended the second
volume of his book Christianity in Asia. He did not end with a statistic or a quote but with a
story from an Asian Christian. There was a Baptist deacon living in Burma (Myanmar). He
belonged to the Karen tribe in NE Burma 50 years after Adonirum and Ann Judson had been
there. Missionaries came and found that rats had destroyed their rice crop and they had
nothing to eat but the rats. After visiting the missionaries did not know what to do except pray
for them. They were about to leave when the deacon brought them a gift of 10 rupees (about 5
USD). He said, This is from our church for our Ka-Khyen
mission that was an unevangelized tribe that lived
father north from them. The foreign missionaries said, O
no, you must use this for yourself. You are starving. The
deacon shook his head, Yes, but we can live on rats. The
Ka-Khyen cannot live without the gospel.
Jesus Christ was born in Asia. The gospel has
spread across Asia in its history and its spreading across
Asia again in this generation. I encourage you to find out
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000
what God is doing and join Him be a part of it.


THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION (1517)

COUNCIL OF SELEUCIA/
CTESIPHON (410)

PROTESTANT

THE GREAT SCHISM (1054)

ROMAN CATHOLIC

COUNCIL OF NICEA (325)

EASTERN ORTHODOX

COUNCIL OF EPHESUS (431)

CHURCH OF THE EAST

SYRIAN TRADITION
225
50

OLD SILK ROAD

TO THE EAST

1000

JESUS RESURRECTION (33)

CATHOLIC WAVE PROTESTANT WAVE

1350/
1750
1900
1500

NESTORIAN MONUMENT (635)

XAVIER IN JAPAN (1549)

TIMOTHY I (780-823)

THOMAS TO INDIA (52)

ADDAI TO EDESSA (120)

CHRISTIAN GEORGIA (326)

MARCO POLO TO CHINA (1275)

MUHAMMED (570-632) TAMERLANE (1336-1405)

651

ISLAMIC RULE

NAIMANS
UIGHARS
EDESSA (120)

DUTCH IN TAIWAN (1642-77)

JENGHIZ KHAN (1167-1227)

SCHOOL OF EDESSA/NISIBIS (350)

SASSANID EMPIRE

JAPANS ANTI-CHRISTIAN
EDICT (1614, 1868)

CHINAS ANTI-CHRISTIAN EDICT (845)

CHRISTIAN ARMENIA (301)

PARTHIAN EMPIRE
224

RICCI IN CHINA (1582)

NESTORIAN DOCTOR IN JAPAN (736)

CHURCH AT ANTIOCH (37)

1206

MONGOL EMPIRE

CAREY IN INDIA (1793)

JUDSONS IN BURMA (1812)

TAYLOR IN BURMA (1866)

PYONGYANG REVIVAL (1907)

MING DYNASTY MANCHU DYNASTY

1370
1644
1912

KERAITS (1007)
KARAKORUM (1246)

SAMARKAND (400s)
NISHAPUR
ARBELA

ANTIOCH (37)

MERV (553)

XIAN (635)

HERAT (585)

CTESIPHON+ (410)

MACAO

BAGHDAD+ (781)

INDIA (52)

History of Eastern Christianity by Aziz Atiya

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1607243431/ref=dp_bookdescription?ie=UTF8&n=28
3155
nestorian.org

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