2000 Years of the Gospel in Asia Hudson Taylor may have entered China’s provinces in 1865, but the gospel got there 1500 years earlier. "Why is it only now that the gospel has come to us?" The missionary finds it hard to meet the eyes of the new convert. He’s been asked the question he dreaded. But if the missionary works in East Asia, he doesn`t need to feel ashamed on behalf of Christians in previous eras. He can reply with confidence, "The gospel has repeatedly come to East Asia, but it hasn’t always been received." China Although a Syriac Breviary mentions a visit of St. Thomas to China, the first reliable witness to the Christian message having reached the "land of the silk people" is the Roman Christian historian Arnobius, writing in 303 AD. A monastery dating from the seventh century has recently been identified near Xi’an. By the eighth century the Christian church was playing a role in the life of the Tang empire. The great Nestorian monument in Xi’an still bears witness to the faith of these early Syrian missionaries, chronicling the names of bishops across the empire. Legend also tells of a Christian physician from Syria reaching Japan during this period. Tibetan invasion and a Buddhist revival under the Ming emperors seem to have marked the end of these churches, but by the time that the Mongols controlled China in the 13th to 15th centuries, Christians were again prominent. Minor kings, mothers and wives of emperors were Christians but, unlike in the West, no emperor ever became a believer.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 03:10:37 +0000
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