"and ye shall have them" - Christianity in the East of the Euphrates

The Tokyo Station in the Rain 

Christianity in the East of the Euphrates

It is a big mystery why Christianity failed in its diffusion to Asia.

Why could not followers of Christ Jesus and their successors propagate their faith and religion in Arabia, Persia, India, Tibet, Indochina, Indonesia, China, Mongolia, Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria, Siberia, and Japan?

Today, Asia ranging from Arabia to Japan are going to gain the economic hegemony in the world.  But why no big movement of Christianity there?

Anyway, the significance of Japan lies there.  Japan proved that you do not have to be Christians to excel in modern technology and science.  Taiwan, South Korea, China, Thailand, India, so on are just following Japan in this context.

Christianity in the Far East

There is some mystery as to when Christianity first reached Japan, even before the era of Columbus and his successors but probably also before the era of Marco Polo.  

Pegu in Burma was a trading centre on Arab trade routes until the fifteenth century and according to Cosmas there were Christians there in the sixth century. Marco Polo in AD 1278 found Nestorian Christians in the Chinese province of Yun-an which borders on Burma. According to Marco Polo, Burma was temporarily conquered by Kublai Khan in AD 1277 and 1283. It is difficult to know whether any Christian missionaries came to Burma from China at this time and any Christian influence was felt. Marco Polo tells the story of Ludovico di Varthema, a Bolognese, who traveled in South East Asia in AD 1503 or 1504 and tells of meeting in Bengal (India) Nestorian merchants from Siam. The latter conducted him to Pegu in Burma where they saw some hundreds of Christians in the king’s service. (Henry Yule (tr.) and edited by H. Cordier, Cathy and the Way Thither, vol. x referred to by S. H. Moffett, op.cit, p. 146.) Accepting the truth of the story, John England adds, "We know from other sources that there were west Asians in Tenasserim from as early as the fourth century, in Champa and Tonking in the eleventh century and in Siam in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and the evidence points to Christians being among them." (John England., op.cit., l46.) S.H. Moffett thinks that the claim made by Varthema is questionable. "He may well have mistaken chanting Buddhists for Nestorians," he writes. "But if, as he says, he was travelling in the company of Nestorian merchants, surely they should have known the difference between Nestorians and Buddhists." (S.H. Moffett, op.cit., p. 461.)... 

There are several historians, the chief among them being P.Y. Saeki, who claim that Christianity first came to Japan and Korea from China during the T’ang period. According to Saeki the Nestorians had no small share in the creation of the golden age of China and through China these same western influences passed on to Japan. "Whether the Nestorians were heterodox or orthodox it is certain that their ethical and practical theology and their medical knowledge were the true sources of their success in China." He argues that the Japanese were consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, much influenced by the Nestorians and received Christian thought in Chinese garb during T’ang period. There was scarcely anything good in Hsi-an-fu, the great T’ang capital, that was not introduced into Japan or copied sooner or later by the Japanese at their capital at Nara. It was not until the invasion of Japan by Kublai Khan (AD 1268-1281) that Japan began to assert her spiritual and material independence. (P. Y. Saeki, The Nestorian Monument, S.R.C.K. 1916, pp. 112 tt.) John England seems to suggest that Christianity came to Japan by the end of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh century. "Regarding Japan," he writes, "the Seventeen Articles of injunction of the Regent Prince Shotoku (574-622) apparently include a grant to Nestorians of" full liberty and personal rights." Festivals which have persisted over the centuries are also cited for their Christian references, and incised crosses and tombs have been found in north west Japan from the Nara or early Heian periods (seventh to eleventh centuries). 

There are others who reject the Christian presence in Japan before the coming of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Richard H. Drummond begins his History of Christianity in Japan with the arrival of Francis Xavier. S.H. Moffett dismisses the arguements of Soeki and others as pure speculation. He writes 

In recent years. some have revived apocryphal stories of even less credible and mysterious traces of Nestorianism in Japan. One such story declares that after his resurrection Jesus was seen in Japan. ... Another tells of the coming of the Nestorian physician and some missionaries to Japan during the reign of Emperor Shomu (724-728) and of apparently Syriac inscription found on the beams of the ancient Horyuji temple, the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan, near seventh-century Nara. The whole city of Nara was built after the model of the T’ang dynasty capital, Chang’an. Since there were Nestorian missionaries in Chang’an in that period, a possible connection has been conjectured. But all this is pure speculation. (S. H. Moffett. op.cit., p. 460.)
Though the evidence suggested by Soeki and others for the Christian presence in Japan before the coming of the western missionaries are fragmentary and in several cases not convincing, the possibility of the Christian influence in Japan through China needs to be seriously considered. The same could also be true of Korea. 

With regard to Korea also, there are differences of opinion among the historians as to the time when Christianity came to Korea. Yoon Tae, John England and others find evidences in Korean Chronicles for the presence of Nestorian Christianity during the Silla and Koryo dynasties. "This is not unexpected in the light of the known presence of Koreans in the T’ang capital -- Chang’- an in the seventh to the ninth centuries." (John England, op.cit., p. 148.) Here again Moffett is more cautious. 

As for Korea, the evidence of at least one possible ancient Nestorian community at its northern border is more convincing, but as in the case of Indonesia, it depends on a question of location. In 1927 a Japanese team excavated an old tomb near Anshan in what is now southern Manchuria about a hundred miles from the present Korean border, on the railroad line up the Liaotung Peninsula to Shenyang (Mukden). They found the remains of seven bodies and at the head of each a clay cross, only one of which was in perfect condition. They were able to date the grave at between 998 and 1006 by Chinese coins of the Sung dynasty left with the bodies. As Soeki points out this is striking evidence of the existence of a strong Nestorian family in the Liaoyang area. 

The question remains, was Anshan in Korea or Manchuria at the beginning of the tenth century? In the seventh century the Liaotung Peninsula was Korean But by about 1000, the apparent date of the burial, the Korean border had been pushed south to the Yalu, and a Manchurian tribe, the Liao (or Chitan Liao), had taken that part of the north east from the Chinese Sung emperor. All we can say with certainty, therefore, is that as early as 1000 there were Nestorian Christians in what had not long before been Korean territory. (S. N. Moffett,op. cit., pp. 161-162.)

In the Korean territory at Kyungju, the ancient capital of unified Korea, the historian Kim Yang -Sun discovered what appears to be a stone cross being used by Buddhist monks at Pusoksa, Korea’s most famous temple, as a charm to aid in child birth. It is now kept in the Christian museum of Soomgsil university in Seoul. Moffett says that there is no way to date it or even to determine whether it is indeed an ancient Christian cross. (Ibid.)It is possible that Christianity existed in Korea at least from the tenth century. 

The evidence for South East and East Asia are very scanty and fragmentary and some have drawn questionable conclusions from it. But there are sufficient evidences to show that Christianity was present in a number of countries in South East and East Asia. There is no doubt about Christian presence in Ceylon, Burma, Tibet, Indonesia and Korea before the arrival of the western missionaries. We do not know the number of Christians in these various countries, it was probably very small. Assemani says that in the 13th century, there were twenty-five Nestorian metropolitan provinces with an average of eight to ten episcopal sees for each province, thus totally about 200 to 250 bishoprics. (Assemani, Bibl. Orient. III, 2, p.630.) Some of these bishoprics were in South East and East Asia.                  http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=1553&C=1365

If any influence existed of Christianity on East Asia, the Far East, and Japan before the era of Columbus and his successors, it seems to have been confined in sporadic and limited local areas or at a vague or deeper level of local communities, societies, or kingdoms.  It is so since there are no Asia Christian churches that could boast of history or origin dating back to centuries before the era of Columbus and his successors.

But, there seems to be some arguments about history of Christianity in Japan.

Note that the above portion of " It was not until the invasion of Japan by Kublai Khan (AD 1268-1281) that Japan began to assert her spiritual and material independence" is not correct.  It was in 894 that the Imperial Court of Japan stopped sending an official envoy to China (the Tang dyasty at the time) once and for all.  Since then, no imperial diplomatic mission was sent to China till the era of the Empire of Japan between 1868 to 1945.


Christianity in Japan

From the late 19th century to the early 21st century, Japan was the only world power that once persecuted Christianity (since the establishment of the Vatican) and that practiced religion(s) other than Christianity mostly.

In other world, Japan is the first nation that proved to the world that Christianity is not an absolute condition for a nation to be modernized and industrialized.  China and India are mere followers of Japan in this context.  But, how was Christianity received or rejected in Japan?

Nestorianism 

Ken Joseph argues that Christianity, in the form of Nestorianism, existed in Japan before the arrival of Xavier.

Missions to Japan 

The first known appearance of organized Christianity in Japan was the arrival of the Portuguese Catholics in 1549. Francis Xavier arrived in Japan with three Japanese Catholic converts intending to start a church in the Nagasaki area. The local Japanese people initially assumed that the foreigners were from India and that Christianity was a new "Indian faith". These mistaken impressions were due to already existing ties between the Portuguese and India; the Indian city of Goa was a central base for the Portuguese East India Company at the time, and a significant portion of the crew on board their ships were Indian Christians.[25] Later on, the Roman Catholic missionary activities were exclusively performed by Portuguese-sponsored Jesuits and Spanish-sponsored mendicant orders, such as the Franciscans and Dominicans. Francisco Xavier (a Catholic Saint),[26] Cosme de Torres (a Jesuit priest), and John Fernandez were the first who arrived in Kagoshima with hopes to bring Christianity and Catholicism to Japan. Xavier and the Jesuit order was held in good esteem and his efforts seemed to have been rewarded with a thriving community of converts.[27] At baptism, these converts were given Portuguese "Christian names" and encouraged to adopt Western culture. This practice contributed to suspicions that the converts were in reality foreign agents working to subvert social order.[note 1][27] Under Oda Nobunaga, the Jesuits enjoyed the favor of the shogunate, but the situation began to change once Toyotomi Hideyoshi's suspicions were aroused against Christianity. 

Persecution under the Shogunate 

Under Hideyoshi and then under the succeeding Tokugawa shogunate, Catholic Christianity was repressed and adherents were persecuted. During these times, many Christians were killed in Japan, some by crucifixion; most famously, the twenty-six martyrs of Japan were tortured and crucified on crosses outside Nagasaki to discourage Christianity in 1597. Following a brief respite that occurred as Tokugawa Ieyasu rose to power and pursued trade with the Portuguese powers, there were further persecutions and martyrdoms in 1613, 1630, and 1632. By this point, after the Shimabara Rebellion, the remaining Christians had been forced to publicly renounce their faith. Many continued practicing Christianity in secret, in modern times becoming known as the "hidden Christians." 

The opening of Japan 

...After the Meiji Restoration, freedom of religion was introduced in 1871, giving all Christian communities the right to legal existence and preaching. Since World War II the number of Japanese Christians has been slowly increasing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Japan

Today there are 1.1 million Christians in Japan with population of 128 million.  The number of Japanese Catholics is about 450,000; the number of Protestants is 650,000.  They just account for 1% of the whole population of Japan.  Japan is not a Christian country, but like in India every Japanese knows who and what Christ Jesus is.


(to be continued....)

*** *** *** ***

In a sense, it is very strange that only once the Son of God emerged among people.

However, there must be a significant and grave reason if he does.  So, a significant and grave situation must have been in the world 2000 years ago.  To understand it is a duty of mankind.

The next most critical matter is that Christianity failed in its diffusion to Asia.  As Christians have so failed in these 2000 years, something horrible should happen for the Vatican.  Then, even WWI and WWII could be an overture to a possible drastic incident of the Vatican.  It is so, since it must be the Pope that should take responsibility before God and His Son.

267 - 111 Glory of the olive.  

Benedict XVI (2005–present), Joseph Ratzinger 

268 - 112 Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The end. 

Unknown, Unknown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes

Mar 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Mar 11:25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.