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In the past 2,000 years, the vast majority of Christians have been white/European. While Christianity had its beginnings in the Middle East, it spread rapidly to Europe and parts of Asia where Cauc...
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From an Indian point of view, many Indians have this common misconception that Christianity is a white man's religion. If we trace back to the history, Christianity was firmly estabilished in India 2000 years ago before it went to Europe, England and America. There are a lot of people into research about St.Thomas's ministry in India in India, especially, south India. It is evident from eminent historians, archaeology and history that St.Thomas did an spectacular contextualized evangelism in India. http://www.christianindiaministries.in/concept_6.html Even Swami Vivekananda in his article named "Gnaanatheepam", says that there were 30,00,000 Christians in India in the first century itself. That should be roughly around 50% of India's total population of the 1st century. It is evident from the Bible those who followed Jesus were called as "Christians" (Acts 11:26). But in those days, Christians in India were named as "Santror" which means "those who are witnesses". The concept of "Santror" is reflected in most of the Indian ancient literatures. There is one of the oldest Churches in the world which is a small Church named "Thiruvithangode Arapally", Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, India which was built during St.Thomas' ministry in India, but is not so famous. It is still good and being taken care by the Syrian Christians. Simply saying, the black man knew Christ before the white man knew Him. Christ and His free gift of salvation are beyond ethnicity, creed, language etc., i.e., The Government of Heaven has no political boundaries!
We are spirits, not flesh and blood. Skin and color is just the earth suit God gave us to help us function on the earth. God is a SPIRIT and so are we. When the earth suit gives way one day, the spirit will vacate and go to Heaven with God or hell. It all depends on the choice we make now on this side of the grave. Will you choose Jesus today so you can live with Him forever when you cross to the other side?
Beloved as others have already stipulated it, I would like to add few comments. As followers of Christ and adherents of the Bible, Christians are called to be a people of the truth. Thus, it is crucial that we seek to understand our tradition as accurately as possible. Note that: 1. Jesus Christ Himself was nor white neither black although born in Semitic Ethnicity; 2. Please read the prophecy about Egypt and Ethiopia in Psalms 68:32+; 3. The Queen of Candace’s minister in Acts 8: 26-39 who had gone to worship in Jerusalem on his way back to Ethiopia(Africa) was black. He was baptised and became (Christian) or follower of “The Way”, long before Saul of Tarsis (still Pharisee) had become Christian himself (Paul); after he had met the Lord on the way to Damascus on his way to persecute the followers of Christ. And this is very long before Paul had traveled with the gospel to Europe. 4. In Jeremiah 13: 23 God declares that an Ethiopian cannot change his skin.(which must be dark in this term for Ethiopian are of dark skin). Christianity neither began in Western Europe, nor has it ever been entirely confined to Western Europe. The period in which it appeared to be indissolubly linked to Western European identity was a relatively short one, lasting from the early 16th to the mid-20th centuries. The church in China, India, Ethiopia, and Iraq is older than the church in much of Northern Europe. Christianity was essentially an anti-slavery humanitarian creed, associated especially with David Livingstone(missionary to deep Africa though he did not invent it). For those reasons it often led to advocacy of imperial solutions. Fighting slavery actually led imperial expansion as humanitarians called for deeper commitment from Britain to root out the slave trade at its sources in the African interior. There are many myths about Christianity but what you need personally is to believe and follow Jesus Christ as The Saviour and Lord for the human race. Jesus Christ came to get back the authority and dominion Adam, the first man had lost in the garden of Eden. He gives this victory to whoever believes in Him and serves Him till His return whereby this actual earth and heaven will be destroyed and His righteous Kingdom established forever and ever. Stay blessed.
I'm not sure how to answer this because I guess I think differently than the world does about what defines Christianity. "Christian" derives from the Koine Greek word Christ,The Greek word Christianos meaning "follower of Christ" comes from Christos meaning "anointed one. I dont really even pay attention to any history of a race or ethnic orgin. It all points back to Jesus he is the one who made Christianity what is is supposed to no other man did that. It has nothing to do with race. Jesus had so many followers when he was alive and blacks were among them. Really they were called "followers of the way" before the word Christian was even used. Christianity is not to be a religion. When people ask me what religion i am i say none i just follow the Word of God and Jesus His son.
Jesus was a Jew, born and raised in Israel. He was most likely brown. God called Abraham to start the nation of Israel as God's own people. Abraham was living in Ur of the Chaldeans. He was most likely brown. When Jesus give his great commission to his disciples he said: Go and make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19) Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Paul said "Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scynthian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all". Every human being is welcome in the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Today the Christian faith is experiencing rapid growth in the following regions: China, Africa and Middle East None of these are white skinned races. Thank you Jesus, that you died to save all people.
Christianity is not a "white man's religion." First of all, the first believers in Christianity were hardly white. The Jewish race just like members of Christian church today come in every race, creed, tongue and from every nation. In some nations they are a minority probably suffering persecution for their faith and in many nations a majority being rejected but not necessarily persecuted in the open. Although many profess to be Christian, that does not make them Christian. To be a true Christian requires one's personal confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord and a personal understanding that he was a manifestation of God clothed in mortal flesh. A sinless sacrifice for mankind's sin and that he was raised from the dead. A personal relationship with our God is the only manifestation of being spiritually born again. And only each individual person knows inwardly and will confess outwardly of being born again. They will not deny this fact or Christ Jesus being Lord when it happens to them and they will be dramatically changed into a more moral upright person but not perfect but radically changed from their previous condition. They will be someone being change instantly yet gradually from day to day and year to year as their knowledge of God's will for their lives evolves by the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God being revealed and manifested in them. Selah! Jaybird
The early church spread quickly around the Mediterranean including Egypt, Present day Libya, North Africa, as well as into the East: India, Syria, Pakistan, Persia etc. Muslims killed off just about all Christians in these areas leaving Christianity to survive in the mostly white surviving parts of the Roman empire.
The problem is that white men used or misused Christianity to invade, enslave, disenfranchise, abuse, and denigrate other races/people groups to the extent that, unfortunately, the religion has been rebranded as the ‘white man’s religion.
Absolutely NO! Jesus himself was not white. From looking at God’s creation, He loves color and variety. This is so beautiful and awe inspiring. No one is the same except for one thing: we were created by God. So if God so loved His colorful creation, who are we to think we shouldn’t? There are so many persecuted Christians around the world that an accurate count of other races most probably wouldn’t be accurate.
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