Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. A pair of recent discoveries underscore just how quickly and how far-reaching Christianity spread in the first century. They also counter the long-standing assumption that Christianity is just a Western thing. Earlier this month, Egyptian archaeologists revealed the discovery of a 1600-year-old mural.
that depicts Jesus healing the sick.
Now of course the history of Christianity in Egypt goes way back to the time of Jesus. The Bible describes the time that Jesus spent there with his family and the church's presence dates there back to the time of the apostles.
Now less well known is just how early and how far Christianity also spread into Arabia. Last month, the United Arab Emirates announced the discovery of a 1600-year-old stucco plaque. That features a Christian cross. It was found on the island of Sierra Banias. near Abu Dhabi, among the remains of a monastery discovered back in 1962.
The plaque is a significant discovery for what is the first major archaeological dig on this site. And it points to an oft-forgotten bit of history: how the Nestorian Church of the East, centered in today's Iran and Iraq, Spread Christianity through the Arabian Peninsula during the fourth through sixth centuries. This monastery was eventually abandoned after the rise of Islam in the 8th century, and it was soon forgotten. And like the monastery, large swathes of Christian history have also been widely forgotten. Christianity is mostly seen today as a Western religion, and the spread of the Church remembered mostly as what happened within the Roman Empire.
However, until about the year one thousand, there were more Christians outside of the old Roman Empire than within it. Christian missionaries entered the Persian Empire, Rome's ancient enemy, in the second century, and quickly established a church there. In the fourth century after Constantine's conversion, Fear that Christians would ally with Rome brought severe persecution. but Christianity eventually obtained legal recognition in the 5th century. Persian missionaries traveling the Silk Road planted churches across Central Asia.
The earliest was to Bactria in AD 196. Missionaries were sent to the Huns in about the year 500. Entire Turkish and Mongol tribes then converted to Christianity during this period. And Central Asia had flourishing Christian communities that were also centers of education. By the year 650, there were at least 20 bishops in Central Asia and metropolitan bishops at Kashgar and Samarkand.
In the early 600s, a Persian missionary named Alapan arrived in China. He was welcomed there by the emperor and permitted to open a monastery in the capital. Christianity was then accepted as a legal religion. For the next two centuries, there.
Now, the entire region was, of course, conquered by Genghis Khan in the early 1200s. Though he grew up in a Christian clan, Han was shamanist. but he was also religiously tolerant and friendly to Christians. And over the next generation, several important Mongol leaders also became Christians.
Now all of this changed and the churches of Central Asia began to decline when some of the Khanites converted to Islam. Their final demise came in the wake of the Black Death, when Christian communities were scapegoated for the plague. And of course, the Apostle Thomas first brought the gospel to India and established churches along the Malabar coast. These churches maintained a distinctive identity alongside Jewish merchant communities and also the Hindu community. In AD 300, the Indian Church connected with the Church of the East, in part because of the Silk Road and other trade routes, and in part because of their shared liturgical language of Syriac.
Eventually, the Church submitted to ecclesiastical oversight from the bishops of the Church of the East. And today's Mar Thomas Church in India exists still in continuity with this long history. And the story goes on. Battius and Bartholomew brought the gospel to Armenia in the first century. Christian communities were established there by the second century.
Despite persecution from the Zoroastrian monarchy, the churches eventually grew with help from missionaries from Persia and Mesopotamia. Ultimately, Armenia became the first kingdom to convert to Christianity in AD 301, that was twelve years before Rome. and in the mid three hundreds a Syrian named Framentius was ordained by the Coptic patriarch in Alexandria and sent to evangelize the kingdom of Axum. That's in modern Ethiopia. He was a tutor to Axum's king Izana, who was who also converted.
The two worked to evangelize the kingdom, making Aksum the third Christian kingdom after Armenia and Rome. And of course, Ethiopia remains predominantly Christian to this day. Given all of this rich history, it isn't surprising that artifacts will be found when we dig in the dirt. But whenever they are, it's still a good reminder to all of us about how Christianity spread across the world. And it should also remind us that it's not so much that Christianity is a Western religion.
It's that Western culture is at root Christian. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast.
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