Saint Thomas Christian In India (Background):
As with early Christianity in the Roman Empire, it is assumed that the initial converts were largely Jewish proselytes among the Cochin Jews who are believed to have arrived in India around 562 BC, after the destruction of the First Temple. Many of these Jews presumably spoke Aramaic like St. Thomas, also a Jew by birth, who is credited by tradition with evangelising India.
As with early Christianity in the Roman Empire, it is assumed that the initial converts were largely Jewish proselytes among the Cochin Jews who are believed to have arrived in India around 562 BC, after the destruction of the First Temple. Many of these Jews presumably spoke Aramaic like St. Thomas, also a Jew by birth, who is credited by tradition with evangelising India.
A historically more likely claim by Eusebius of Caesarea is that Pantaenus, the head of the Christian exegetical school in Alexandria, Egypt went to India during the reign of the Emperor Commodus and found Christians already living in India using a version of the Gospel of Matthew with "Hebrew letters, a mixture of colture." This is a plausible reference to the earliest Indian churches which are known to have used the Syriac (a dialect of Aramaic) New Testament. Pantaenus' evidence thus indicates that Syriac-speaking Christians had already evangelised parts of India by the late 2nd century.
Thomas is believed to have left northwest India when invasion threatened and traveled by vessel to the Malabar coast, possibly visiting southeast Arabia and Socotra en route, and landing at the former flourishing port of Muziris (modern-day North Paravur and Kodungalloor)(c. 51–52 AD) in the company of a Jewish merchant Abbanes (Hebban).
According to tradition, the Apostle reached Muziris, India in AD 52 where there was a Jewish community at the time. He baptized several people (Even before church founders was born), founding what today are known as Saint Thomas Christians or Nasranis. After his death, the reputed relics of Saint Thomas the Apostle were enshrined as far as Mesopotamia in the 3rd century, and later moved to various places. In 1258, some of the relics were brought to Abruzzo in Ortona, Italy, where they have been held in the Church of Saint Thomas the Apostle. He is often regarded as the Patron Saint of India, and the name Thoma remains quite popular among Saint Thomas Christians of India.
He is believed by the St Thomas Christian tradition to have established Ezharappallikal or Seven and half churches in Kerala. These churches are at Kodungallur, Palayoor, Kottakkavu (Paravur), Kokkamangalam, Niranam, Nilackal (Chayal), Kollam and Thiruvithamcode (half church).Remains of some of his buildings, influenced by Greek architecture, indicate that he was a great builder. According to the legend, Thomas was a skilled carpenter and was bidden to build a palace for the king. However, the Apostle decided to teach the king a lesson by devoting the royal grant to acts of charity and thereby laying up treasure for the heavenly abode.
According to tradition, St. Thomas was killed at Mylapore, near Chennai, in 72 and his body was interred there. Ephrem the Syrian states that the Apostle was martyred in India, and that his relics were taken then to Edessa. This is the earliest known record of his martyrdom.
The accounts of Marco Polo from the 13th century state that the Apostle had an accidental death outside his hermitage in Chennai by a badly aimed arrow of a fowler who not seeing the saint shot at peacocks there. Since at least the 16th century, the St. Thomas Mount has been a common site revered by Hindus, Muslims and Christians of India (After that European/American Church Christian came with there own intolerant brand of Christianity).
The records of Barbosa from early 16th century inform that the tomb was then maintained by a Muslim who kept a lamp burning there. The San Thome Basilica presently located at the tomb was first built in the 16th century and rebuilt in the 19th.
Few relics are still kept at San Thome Basilica in Mylapore, India. Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller and author of Description of the World, popularly known as Il Milione, is reputed to have visited Southern India in 1292. The He also stopped at Quilon (Kollam) on the western Malabar coast of India, where he met Syrian Christians and recorded their tradition of St. Thomas and his tomb on the eastern Coromandel coast of the country. Il Milione, the book he dictated on his return to Europe, was on its publication condemned by the Church as a collection of impious and improbable traveller's tales. It became very popular reading in medieval Europe and inspired Spanish and Portuguese sailors to seek out the fabulous (and possibly Christian) India described in it.
Indian Hindu Kings allows Thomas to live and preach when early Christians in Europe suffered sporadic persecution as the result of local pagan populations putting pressure on the imperial authorities to take action against the Christians in their midst, who were thought to bring misfortune by their refusal to honour the gods. Persecution was on the rise in Asia Minor towards the end of the 1st century.Christianity was as such established in India even before some nations of Europe had been Christianised. Reference (Robert Eric Frykenberg (28 January 2010).Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present, Oxford University Press)
What we get in Return:
Reaction Of Chruch Christinity of Europe:
During the rule of Vasudeva I (A Hindu King), the Kushan emperor, the bones of St. Thomas were transferred from the Mylapore to Edessa. These are generally rejected by various Christian religions as either apocryphal or heretical. The two centuries that lapsed between the life of the apostle and the recording of this work cast doubt on their authenticity (Because It challenged their Intolerant Racist version of White Christianity which pissed on Jesus' teaching of Nonviolence during two world wars).
Roman Catholicism was first introduced to India by Portuguese, Italian and Irish Jesuits in the 16th century. Evangelical Protestantism was later spread to India by the efforts of British, American, German, Scottish missionaries to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ (Bible: propaganda material of church) among Indians.Most of these Conversions was done by cheating the poor people of these areas. They used abusive word for Hindu gods (with out understanding these concepts ) even today people like
In February 2001, T. John, the Karnataka civil aviation minister and a member of the Orthodox church, described the Gujarat earthquake, which resulted in death of over 20,000 people, as “the punishment of God to the people for ill-treating Christians and minorities in the state.”
John also saw a divine connection between attacks on Christians in Orissa and the cyclone that hit the region in December 1999, killing 10,000 people. This is nothing but vicarious pleasure at the expense of non-Christian Indians.
Many Kerala Christians who joined the Communist Party of India were denied burial services by the church upon their deaths. This can be traumatic for the surviving members because the rest of the community members tend to treat them as outcastes. (Imagine the state of children who are not able to bury their dead father.)
In September 2000 when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in the US on an official visit, Christian fundamentalist John Dayal appeared before the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in Washington DC.
The virulently anti-Hindu “Dayal should have thought of the possibility that the timing of that invitation extended to him by USCIRF was not an accident. It is quite likely it was part of the US State Department’s plan to place the visiting Prime Minister on his defensive and thereby weaken India’s efforts to convey to the American public the destructive consequences of cross-border terrorism aided and abetted by Pakistan”.
When Nepal was groaning in earthquake, Some Christian Missionaries were shamelessly selling Chruch
1400 souls dead in Nepal and climbing, I wonder how many of those heard the Gospel?
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MASSIVE 7.8 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES NEPAL. More signs of the soon return of Jesus Christ.
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Devastating Nepal earthquake could have been prayed down by acknowledging that Christ is the ruler of God's creation Matt 18:19-20, Rev 3:14
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Praying for the country of Nepal...may this tragedy be an open door for many to receive the gospel!
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Praying 4 the lost souls in Nepal. Praying not a single destroyed pagan temple will b rebuilt & the people will repent/receive Christ.
-Tony Miano (@TonyMiano) April 25, 2015
Suffering is a call to conversion: it reminds us of our frailty and vulnerability.
-— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) March 24, 2015
Church made Christianity an unpopular subject in India because they destroyed our culture mutual of respect and Harmony. Although I do believe there are many good follower of Christ who know about true nature of Humanity but Church is not certainly one of those.
Some Good view points from west:
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing such a great information..Its really nice and informative.
Packers and Movers St. Thomas Mount
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