THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN ASIA PART 2 · 1/11/2015 · years of Christianity in China Saeki:...

THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN ASIA

PART 2

“Christianity in China”

JOHN AND BETTY STAM

1934 John and Betty Stam (with their 3 month

old daughter Helen) to Jingde, Anhui province

with the China Inland Mission

JOHN AND BETTY STAM John wrote a letter to China Inland Mission, but it was never delivered:

Tsingteh, An.

Dec. 6, 1934

China Inland Mission, Shanghai

Dear Brethren,

My wife, baby and myself are today in the hands of the Communists in the city of

Tsingteh. Their demand is twenty thousand dollars for our release.

All our possessions and stores are in their hands, but we praise God for peace in

our hearts and a meal tonight. God grant you wisdom in what you do, and us

fortitude, courage and peace of heart. He is able-and a wonderful Friend in such

a time.

Things happened so quickly this a.m. They were in the city just a few hours after

the ever-persistent rumors really became alarming, so that we could not prepare

to leave in time. We were just too late.

The Lord bless and guide you, and as for us, may God be glorified whether by life

or by death.

In Him,

John C. Stam

JOHN AND BETTY STAM

The three were taken to prison

Helen was allowed to live

Marched 12 miles to Miaoshou

The group stopped for a night, and Betty was allowed to tend to Helen; but in fact, Betty instead hid her daughter in the room inside a sleeping bag

Along the way, a Chinese shopkeeper asked, “where are you going?” And John Stam replied, “we are going to heaven.”

JOHN AND BETTY STAM

The baby, Helen, was found two days later by a Chinese pastor who took her home

Reverend Lo Ke-chou and his wife then took the baby girl to her maternal grandparents, Reverend Charles Ernest Scott and his wife, Clara, who were also missionaries in China.

She was raised by her aunt and uncle, George and Helen Mahy in the U.S.

JOHN AND BETTY STAM

John Cornelius Stam, January 18, 1907, "That Christ may be glorified whether by life or by death." Philippians 1:20

Elisabeth Scott Stam, February 22, 1906, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21

December 8, 1934, Miaosheo, Anhui, "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life." Revelation 2:10

The grave of John and

Betty Stam

THE CHURCH’S MISSIONARY INITIATIVE

The exclusivity of God’s Worship: Isaiah 45:21-

22: “There is no other God besides Me, a

righteous God and a Savior; There is none

except Me. Turn to Me and be saved all the

ends of the earth; for I am God and there is no

other.”

THE CHURCH’S MISSIONARY INITIATIVE

The exclusivity of Christ’s Gospel:

Acts 4:12: “ And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

John 14:6: “Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 10:17: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

THE CHURCH’S MISSIONARY INITIATIVE The exclusivity of Biblical Revelation:

John 17:17: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is

truth.”

2 Timothy 3:16: “ All Scripture is inspired by God and

profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,

for training in righteousness.”

CHRISTIANITY OFFICIALLY ENTERS CHINA

Missionaries Arrive at the Tang Dynasty (635 A.D.)

635 A.D. – The first recorded mission into China was by a Nestorian Persian monk named Alopen during the reign of Tang Tai Tsung (627~649 A.D.), near the beginning of the Tang Dynasty

In 630 A.D., the Tang Dynasty conquered Turkestan and reopened trade routes to the West.

Emperor Tang Tai Tsung


635: Alopen arrived at the capital of the Tang

Dynasty, Chang An (now Xian)


R.G. Tiedemann: “This was a period of

remarkable cultural openness and religious

tolerance, allowing native Daoism as well as

foreign creeds such as Buddhism, and to a

lesser extent Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism,

Judaism, and Islam, to exist alongside

Confucianism, the orthodox tradition of

Chinese culture…Christianity, too, had received

imperial patronage”


Alopen “carried the true Scriptures” to China,

and the emperor decreed the works to be

translated and made known throughout the

realm

7th or 8th century cave

Drawing depicting

Nestorian Priests in

A procession on

Palm Sunday


638 A.D. – Emperor Tai

Tsung sponsored the

construction of the first

Christian church and

monastery for 21 monks in

Chang An as well as the first

Christian book publication –

The Sutra of Jesus the

Messiah.


The Nestorians built and

staffed monasteries in

hundreds of China’s key cities

They phrased the Christian

message in the language of

the Confucian court in order

to make it intellectually

acceptable to the literati A Sculpture Depicting a

Western Missionary.

Tang Dynasty 7th

Century— Discovered in

northern China

THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT

Norman, The Blackwell

Companion to Eastern

Christianity: “The earliest

evidence for Eastern Christianity

in China is the famous stele dated

781, which records in Chinese

characters and Syriac script the

arrival and settlement of so-

called ‘Nestorian’ (Church of the

East) Christians in Xian in 635.”


Erected in 781 A.D. and rediscovered in 1625, the Nestorian Monument contains 1,780 Chinese characters and a few dozen lines of written Syriac

Adam (Jingjing) was the Christian bishop and Chinese language scholar who composed the inscription on the Nestorian Stele, recording Alopen’s arrival and the history of the first 150 years of Christianity in China

Saeki: “The Nestorian Tablet is just over 9 feet in height by 3 1/3 feet in width, and a little under a foot thick. The Nestorian monument, aka the Nestorian stele, is one of the most important records of the Nestorian church’s missionary activities in China.”


On top of the tablet, there is a cross

It calls God "Veritable Majesty.”

The text refers to Genesis: the creation of the

universe, the creation of Adam, the Fall in

Genesis 3 with Satan the serpent

It also pays tribute to missionaries and

benefactors of the church, who are known to

have arrived in China by 640.

The tablet describes the "Illustrious

Religion", emphasizing the Trinity and

the Incarnation.

the Syriac proper names for God, Christ and

Satan (Allaha, Mshiha (like

Messiah) and Satana) were rendered

phonetically into Chinese.

There is also a Persian word

denoting Sunday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Genesis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarnation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday


Emperor Tai Tsung’s Response to Truth: “When the

accomplished emperor Tai Tsung began his

magnificent career in glory and splendor…behold

there was a highly virtuous man named Alopen in the

Kingdom of Ta Chin (Syria)…carrying the true Sutras

with him…The Sutras were translated in the Imperial

Library. [His Majesty] investigated ‘the Way’ in his own

forbidden apartments, and being deeply convinced of

its correctness and truth, he gave special orders for

its propagation…”


The Tang Dynasty’s Evaluation of Christianity: “Bishop Aaloapen of the Kingdom of Ta Chin (Syria), bringing with him the Sutras and Images, has come from afar and presented them at our Capital. Having carefully examined the scope of his teaching, we find it to be mysteriously spiritual, and of silent operation. Having observed its principal and most essential points, we reached the conclusion that they cover all that is most important in life…This teaching is helpful to all creatures and beneficial to all men. So let it have free course throughout the Empire”


The Theology of the Incarnation – “Whereupon (one person of) our Trinity became incarnate: The Illustrious Honored One, Messiah, hid away his true majesty, and came into the world as a man. An angel proclaimed the joy. a virgin gave birth to the Holy One in Syria; a bright star announced the felicitous event, and Persians observing the splendor came to present tribute; the ancient dispensation, as declared by the twenty-four holy men, was then fulfilled, and…he established the new religion of the silent operation of the pure spirit of the Triune; he rendered virtue subservient to direct faith…thus completing the truth and freeing it from dross…introducing life and destroying death; he suspended the bright sun to invade the chambers of darkness, and the falsehoods of the devil were thereupon defeated; he set in motion the vessel of mercy by which to ascend to the bright mansions…having thus completed the manifestation of his power, in clear day he ascended to his true station. Twenty-seven sacred books have been left, which disseminate intelligence by unfolding the original transforming principles. …We hold our seal the cross…Worshipping towards the east, we hasten on the road to life and glory


THE THEOLOGY OF THE NESTORIAN CHURCH OF CHINA

In the 1890s, hundreds of ancient manuscripts and documents that had been preserved for nearly a thousand years were discovered behind a wall in a Buddhist cave-temple near the southern parts of the Silk Road

Nine Christian manuscripts were identified among the hundreds of Chinese manuscripts.

Four that dated back to the arrival of the Nestorian Christians in the 7th century: “The Bishop Alopen documents”

Four that dated back to the Nestorian Stele (8th century)


Was There Evidence of the “Nestorian Heresy”?

The title Christokos was frequently used in

reference to the Virgin Mary in the Christian

documents dating back to the Tang Dynasty

The documents affirmed that the Nestorian

Christians of China believed that Christ was

divine God who became man, rather than two

persons as Nestorius was accused of teaching.


Book of Praise, one of the manuscripts, the writer attributed praises

to the “Three Persons, uniting together into One,” a definition of the

Trinity

Hoke, The Church in Asia: “Strangely, the church which spread

throughout most of Asia bears the appellation ‘Nestorian’, after the

fifth-century patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, who was

condemned by Rome as a heretic in A.D. 430. The name is actually a

misnomer which became current in the West; the Roman See had

sought to discredit this church…Nestorian was not the name by

which the church knew itself, nor was it so commonly designated in

Asian lands. It was rather known as the church of the East to

distinguish it from the Greek and Latin churches of the West which

were divided by subtle theological controversies little appreciated by

the eastern Christians. It also came to be known…as the Luminous

Religion, especially in China.”


Was the Theology of the Church Orthodox?

The “Jesus-Messiah Sutra” was the earliest surviving manuscript . A summary of:

the gospel, including original sin, substitutionary atonement, the virgin birth, the cross, eternal punishment, and salvation by faith not works.

It began with the name of Jesus, contained the doctrines of God as Lord of all and the sin nature of man, and included a section on the Ten Commandments.


[Johnson, Jesus on the Silk Road, p.64]: “In The Messiah’s Discourse on

Charity which appeared in 642 some of the terms adopted are quite

creative. The Holy Spirit is the “Pure Wind;” the Resurrection is the “Holy

Transformation.” The first half of this latter document was devoted to a

paraphrase of the Sermon on the Mount. The second half resumed the

narrative of the life of Christ. It began with a description of the events,

which occurred at the time of the death and resurrection of Christ the

splitting of the rocks, the opening of the tombs of the saints and their

appearance for a period of 44 days (Matthew 27:52). In the section on

the Ascension, the document ended thus, “Take My words and preach to

all the peoples. Call them to come to be baptized in the name of the

Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I shall be with you in all your ways

until the end of the earth.” Again it is reminiscent of the last verse of St.

Matthew’s Gospel. Indeed, St. Matthew is the Gospel par excellence for

the Syriac Christians and Alopen used it as the basis of his narrative

both in the 7th Sutra of Jesus the Messiah and in its sequel.”


[Williams, A Silk Road Gospel]: “The fourth

Liturgical Sutra (8th century manuscript) is

entitled “The Christian Liturgy in Praise of the

Three Sacred Powers” and may be a

translation/interpretation of the famous hymn

known in Latin as “Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” It is

written to glorify the Trinity: the Compassionate

Father, Radiant Son, and Pure Wind King.”


Was the Church Distorted by Syncretized Theology?

The Church in China used Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian terms in the Christian texts

“For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen. Human beings, therefore, in extremity, will always do honour to the name of Buddha. There are, however, many people who are very ignorant and worship and serve gods as God but exchange the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and horses and animals.”

[Ji, Encounters Between Chinese Culture and Christianity: A Hermeneutical Perspective, p. 43]


“In the four theological sutras, references to familiar materials from the gospels continue to appear. “The Sutra of the Teachings of the World-Honoured One,” an honorific name for the Buddha, but here [used] for Jesus… “The Sutra of Jesus Christ” introduces the messiah as a teacher of the laws of God – of Yahweh. Within the text, there is a list of precepts that recall not only the ten Judeo-Christian commandments but the Confucian hierarchy of relationships and includes the Buddhist respect for all living things.

[Tatum, Jesus: A Brief History, p. 233]


Were they syncretized or were they

contextualizing?

Examples: “the Way” of Christianity—derived

from terms related to Taoism

“Christmas” refers to literally “sacred birth” and

now means the birthday of Jesus Christ, but

originally meant the birthday of Confucius


C.E. Couling, The Luminous Religion : “Their

simplicity of faith and worship, their reverence

for Scripture, their abhorrence of image and

picture worship, of the confessional [booth] and

of the doctrine of purgatory, and their not

adoring the Host in the Communion Supper

constitute them the Protestants of Asia”

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE NESTORIAN CHURCH FROM CHINA

The number of Christians rapidly declined in the next two centuries after a series of persecution and trials

Empress Wu Ze Tian – A concubine of emperor Tai Tsung, retired to a Buddhist nunnery married Kao Tsung, the son of Tai Tsung and eventually ruled as China’s only empress in history after the death of Kao Tsuing in 690

According to the monument, Empress Wu Ze Tian persecuted Christians. She built Buddhist temples and gigantic images of Buddha based on her love of Buddhism

Tang Empress Wu Ze Tian


Nestorian Christianity made a slight recovery

during the reign of Tang Hsuan Tsung

(712~756 A.D.)

Spread even as far as Mongolia to the North.


Declined again under Tang Wen Tsung and

Tang Wu Tsung (c. 845 A.D.)-- condemned

foreign religions and issued an edict in the mid

ninth century expelling missionaries and

closing monasteries


907 A.D. – The Fall of the Tang Dynasty – The Tang Dynasty finally

collapsed when the emperor was poisoned by a military governor.

Many believed this led to the collapse of the Nestorian Church.

As a result of the Nestorian church’s over reliance upon the imperial

government, Christianity vanished along with the Dynasty’s

overthrowing:

“If any conclusion at all can be drawn from these various attempts to

explain the cause of the collapse of the Chinese church in T’ang

dynasty China, it should probably be that the decisive factor was

neither religious persecution, nor theological compromise, nor even

its foreignness, but rather the fall of an imperial house on which the

church had too long relied for its patronage and protection” (Moffett,

313).


Browne, The Eclipse of Christianity in Asia: “The continued existence of

the Nestorian Church in China depended on the personal favor of the

Chinese Emperor… One passage on the monument highly extols the

favor shown by the Emperor, and presents us with a picture of

Christianity and the Emperor as two powers working hand in hand: His

gracious favor was like the Southern Mountain’s towering peak; his

overflowing kindness was as deep as the Eastern Sea. The Way [i.e.

Christianity] is almighty, what it effects it is right to name; the Sage is

never idle, what he does it is right to record. No doubt if the royal favor

had not been so pronounced the Christians would have attempted to

secure the foundation of the Church in Chinese soil, and would not have

been content that Christianity should appear as a foreign religion; but,

lulled into a sense of false security by the Emperor’s favor, they learnt to

rely on that instead of on the might of the Spirit, and so they were found

helpless when the Imperial favor was withdrawn in A.D. 845, and even

more so after A.D. 907 when the T’ang Dynasty fell.”


986 A.D. – A monk reported to the Nestorian

Patriarch: “Christianity is extinct in China; the

native Christians have perished in one way or

another; the church has been destroyed and

there is only one Christian left in the land” (The

Church in Asia, 136).

CHINA Number of People Groups

548

People Groups Unreached

455

Total Population

1,371,453,000

Unreached Population

184,640,000

% Christian Adherent

7.8%

% Evangelical

6.3 %

Largest Religion

Non-Religious(44.8%)

Official Language

Chinese, Mandarin

10/40 Window

Yes

http://joshuaproject.net/religions/7



http://joshuaproject.net/countries/CH

http://joshuaproject.net/languages/cmn

http://joshuaproject.net/resources/articles/10_40_window

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THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN ASIA PART 2 · 1/11/2015 · years of Christianity in China Saeki:...

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