{"id":19765,"date":"2018-10-25T18:42:54","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T01:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=19765"},"modified":"2018-10-25T18:42:54","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T01:42:54","slug":"the-silk-road-of-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-silk-road-of-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Silk Road of Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Silk Road, also called Silk Route, ancient trade route, linking China with the West, that carried goods and ideas between the two great civilizations of Rome and China. Silk when westward, and wools, gold and silver went east.[1]<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I believe as ministers, evangelists and missionary-minded individuals, we have often been captivated with not just the command to \u201cGo therefore and make disciples of all the nations<\/strong>\u2026,[2]<\/a>\u201d but also the question of, \u201chow do we accomplish that mission?\u201d I remember watching a movie many years ago titled, \u201cSilk.\u201d In it, it demonstrated the extreme difficulties that arose for a young man who was trying to trade silk with Japan. The movie intrigued me beyond words as my imagination tried to grasp just how troublesome and laborious is must have been to not only figure out trade routes in those days, but also to overcome the various communication roadblocks that early explorers faced. Last week we discussed in our bible class at church the implications of Philip teaching the Ethiopian in the book of Acts[3]<\/a>; such a feat was not just interesting to the lessons on baptism that we were discussing at the time, but also on the role that this one conversion may have made for helping the Gospel to spread even further into the continent of Africa in that day.<\/p>\n

For this reason, the very nature of this week\u2019s reading, \u201cThe Silk Roads: A New History of the World,\u201d was again, very intriguing for me. Though I still have some reading to do on this book, the very nature of showing the impacting nature of trade, religion, slavery, and even perspective has had on our world, is eye-opening and provocative to say the least. Though history has always been of interest to me, I am fascinated by the histories of cultures that have had a major effect on early Christianity; namely Rome. For this reason, to grasp some of Asia\u2019s influence in bringing about the downfall of the Roman Empire, the reader was not just treated to an interesting history lesson, but also a valuable Christian history understanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cA massive Roman army sent to restore order was heavily defeated on the flat plains of Thrace in 378, with the Emperor Valens among \u00a0 \u00a0the many casualties[4]<\/a>.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

For some, this may not mean much in the grand scheme of things, however for myself, I see the role that the Roman Empire played in early Christianity\u2026or perhaps, it is better to say, I see the role that the Roman Empire played working against early Christianity. From the Roman Empire we see Christianity adopted, which becomes the product known as the Roman Catholic church; and yet, shortly after its formation, the \u201cempire\u201d crumbles. I believe that history demonstrates that due to conflict, disputes, over-zealous reaches for power, and even weather conditions, the world was given a glimpse of how God can move His church throughout the globe, even in spite of world powers crumbling around it.<\/p>\n

The history moved beyond Rome though, and later came to rest on the Crusades and the knights fight for the Holy City of Jerusalem[5]<\/a>. What at one time represented a map of routes that were formed in the pursuit of trade routes and commerce, had now become representative of the methods for spreading the Gospel throughout the world, and also finding the best methods for funding and fighting for, what they believed at that time was a Holy war, the Holy City of God. Frankopan wrote, \u201cOver the next two centuries, enormous effort went into holding on to the territories conquered during the First Crusade[6]<\/a>\u2026this message was powerfully articulated and widely circulated, resulting in large numbers of men making their way to the east.\u201d The commerce had changed from gold, silk, or food to souls for Christ.<\/p>\n

We all just came back from Hong Kong, immersed in a culture that was new to most of us, and privileged to share in the growth that the Lord\u2019s work seems to be seeing there. Last week, I had a conversation Nana Lam via Messenger, in which we discussed the road that she has been on to take the Lord\u2019s Word to the youth of Hong Kong. With the reading of this book, Nana proves that the Silk Road is still open for business in regard to the potential it has for connecting not just the West to the East, but more importantly, connecting the Christians of this modern age to the lost. While some seek out commerce, we seek out opportunity and access. However, it can also serve to show us that the limitations that used to be present, are in many ways, going away; and for those of us that pay attention to that fact, it means opportunity. Even in the small group that is the Elite 8s, we see a number invested in opening up the Christian trade routes of opportunity in China, France, Canada, the USA, and where ever it is that Mike\u2019s closet is actually hidden.<\/p>\n

Though I am taking out of context from the reading, I believe there was a phrase that could be used for inspiration from our reading: \u201cIn Persia, the British were intent on installing a reliable strongman who would serve their interest well[7]<\/a>.\u201d The beauty of learning this kind of history is so that we are prepared to place reliable strong men and women in position when we see opportunities arise; this is not just a history lesson, but rather a course on being prepared for opportunity. Robin Williams said in the movie \u201cDead Poets Society,\u201d \u201cCarpe Diem<\/strong>,\u201d or rather \u201cSeize the Day!\u201d Twenty years ago you heard about the need to smuggle bibles into China, and today, we seem to be seeing a sign that reads, \u201cOpen for business.\u201d Will the church take advantage of this Silk Road and use it to spread the Gospel as Christ commanded us to do? I pray the answer is yes!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/h1>\n

Britannica.<\/em>May 27, 1999. https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Silk-Road-trade-route (accessed October 25, 2018).<\/p>\n

Frankopan, Peter. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World.<\/em>New York: Vintage Books, 2015.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>Britannica.<\/em>May 27, 1999. https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Silk-Road-trade-route (accessed October 25, 2018).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>Matthew 28:19.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>Acts 8:26-40.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>Frankopan, Peter. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World.<\/em>New York: Vintage Books, 2015.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>Ibid, pg 136.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a>Ibid, pg 137.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a>Ibid, pg 341.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Silk Road, also called Silk Route, ancient trade route, linking China with the West, that carried goods and ideas between the two great civilizations of Rome and China. Silk when westward, and wools, gold and silver went east.[1]\u201d I believe as ministers, evangelists and missionary-minded individuals, we have often been captivated with not just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[1037,1029,1381],"class_list":["post-19765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drama","tag-dminlgp8","tag-peter-frankopan","tag-the-silk-road","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19768,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19765\/revisions\/19768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}