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| | == China == | | == China == |
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| − | China, like India, is significant because it has so many people. But there the similarities end. There is no Hinduism in China. There is very little ethnic diversity in China, in contrast to India and many Western countries today. Christianity has struggled to convert the country despite courageous efforts in the face of much governmental persecution of religion. | + | China, like India, is significant because it has so many people. But there the similarities end. There is no Hinduism in China. There is very little ethnic diversity in China, in contrast to India and many Western countries today. Christianity has struggled to convert the country, and only about 1 out of 9 Chinese are Christian. That number is due to courageous efforts in the face of much governmental persecution of religion. |
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| | China has always been isolated by geographic protections. The highest mountains in the world separate it from India; vast amounts of semi-desert land separated it from Mesopotamia. In the south flowed the Yangtze river for 3000 miles, navigable from the sea for half of its course. In the north was the Yellow river, known for its disastrous tendency to flood. | | China has always been isolated by geographic protections. The highest mountains in the world separate it from India; vast amounts of semi-desert land separated it from Mesopotamia. In the south flowed the Yangtze river for 3000 miles, navigable from the sea for half of its course. In the north was the Yellow river, known for its disastrous tendency to flood. |
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| | Mark founded a church in Egypt under the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, first converting Alexandrian Jews such as Theophilus and also converting many native Egyptians who were neither Greek nor Jewish. It was for Theophilus and the Egyptian community that Luke wrote his Gospel and Acts of the Apostles, addressing Theophilus in the beginning of each. Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1. The local language in Egypt was Coptic, and translations of the Gospels into that language have been discovered which date from the first half of the second century. Coptic Christianity remains in Egypt to this day, although Islam has become the most popular religion there. Some cite the acceptance of Arabic as a liturgical language by the Pope of Alexandria as aiding the rise to dominance of Islam there. Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas each year on January 7th, which is a national holiday in Egypt. | | Mark founded a church in Egypt under the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, first converting Alexandrian Jews such as Theophilus and also converting many native Egyptians who were neither Greek nor Jewish. It was for Theophilus and the Egyptian community that Luke wrote his Gospel and Acts of the Apostles, addressing Theophilus in the beginning of each. Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1. The local language in Egypt was Coptic, and translations of the Gospels into that language have been discovered which date from the first half of the second century. Coptic Christianity remains in Egypt to this day, although Islam has become the most popular religion there. Some cite the acceptance of Arabic as a liturgical language by the Pope of Alexandria as aiding the rise to dominance of Islam there. Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas each year on January 7th, which is a national holiday in Egypt. |
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| − | The Apostle Thomas, known as the “Doubting Thomas” traveled as far as India and established a Christian community that remains there to this day, although the country is still majority Hindu. | + | The Apostle Thomas, known as the “Doubting Thomas” traveled as far as India and established a Christian community that remains there to this day, although the country is still majority Hindu. |
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| | + | Christianity differs from other major religions in its peaceful evangelism, spreading its truths through freedom of speech. Christianity is unlike religions that lack an evangelical component, such as Judaism and Hinduism, and Christianity also differs from Islam in the manner in which force is used. |
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| | [[Category:World History lectures]] | | [[Category:World History lectures]] |
| | {{DEFAULTSORT:World History Lecture 03}} | | {{DEFAULTSORT:World History Lecture 03}} |