I compiled this 10 years ago. Heres an extract from the link at the end. NESTORIAN CHRISTIANITYS ADVANCE - ONE OF History’s GREATEST MISSIONARY MOVEMENTS The Nestorian Church holds its origin to have been in Edessa (Urfa, Turkey). Nestorian missionaries used Turkic lifestyle, had worship tents and started countless churches along the Silk Road. Nestorius was a preacher in Antioch (Turkey). In 431 he became bishop of Constantinople (Istanbul). Inter-partriachal rivalry meant that theology was used as a weapon in personal battles between patriarchs. Nestorius opposed the western usage of the term Mary, Mother of God” which was popular at the time. His arch rival, Cyril of Alexandria, publicly denounced Nestorius and in AD 432 called the council at Ephesus (Turkey) to decide the matter. The unscrupulous Cyril loaded the council with his supporters and had Nestorius excommunicated. In 1889 a major work of Nestorius, the Book of Heracliedes was rediscovered. Martin Luther declared that he could find nothing heretical in Nestorius works. Nestorius never denied the Deity of Christ even though on this point he was called a heretic. It seems that he had opponents from political and personal jealousy rather than an objective analysis of his writings. Nestorius followers started a powerful church in Baghdad (Iraq). They carried the gospel eastwards in what at first was a lightening expansion of Christianity along the Silk Road from 6th to 10th centuries. The Nestorians were the greatest missionaries Christianity has ever known. In the early fifth century, Nestorian bishoprics were located in Nishapur (Iran), Merv (Turkmenistan), Herat (Afghanistan), Samarkand (Uzbekistan). Merv was a centre of Christian scholarship where many translations were made from Greek and Syriac into languages spoken in Samarkand and Bokhara. The Nestorians were firm believers in Christian education. Every bishop endeavoured to maintain a school in connection with his church, realising the necessity of such education in a land where all government education was pagan. They were the first Christians to reach China and perhaps Korea. It had outstanding evangelists like Olopen and Kiho 713-755 who took the gospel into China. In the year 635 Olopen and his party from the West, reached the capital city of China, Chang-An, later called Sian-Fu (Xian). Bishoprics were located in China at Kashgar and Beijing. There were men of great faith, mighty in scripture, large portions of which they knew by heart. Some of them memorised the whole New Testament. Bible schools were started to train the young for full time evangelistic work. A certain Abraham of Kashgar in the sixth century, went north and after converting the inhabitants to Christianity, build many churches and was martyred at Kashgar. The majority of the peoples of Turkestan, with their rulers accepted Christianity. Hundreds of thousands of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes turned to Christianity. The Turco-Mongolian tribes of Central Asia were particularly affected. In AD 664 the Metropolitan of Merve is said to have overseen the conversion of thousands of Turkic tribesmen on both sides of the Oxus (Amu Dara) river. In AD 781 the king of the Turks with nearly all his country … left his ancient idolatry and accepted Christianity. At its height it is estimated that there were as many as eight million Christians in Iran and Central Asia. By the year 800 there were more Christians east of Damascus (Syria) than there were west of that city. https://docs.google/file/d/0B-41noHpD-ZxZ0lhOFZXWi1SLWc/edit?usp=docslist_api
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 08:39:51 +0000
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