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THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

OF THOMAS

Principles of Missiology

Before he ascended into Heaven, Jesus called together all his disciples and gave them the Great Commission to go and preach the gospel to all the nations.  The gospel was presented to the disciples in the context of Jewish culture.  However, the content of the Gospel was not Jewish, but universal.  If God wants to speak to the people, he has to speak in the language understood by the people.  Since there were a million languages among the people, God had to choose one language, which happened to be Jewish.  After giving this Good News from Heaven, He told them to preach the gospel to all  nations – Jesus said, “Translate the gospel to others.”

This is exactly what the disciples did;   Early Christian Church was known as the Way.  It was easy to establish the Way within the Jewish context, because Jesus himself did most of the initial labor.  However, it was not that easy to translate into other cultures and languages.  It needed specialists.  The structure, the institution, the building, the language, the liturgy, the mode of worship, mode of congregation and fellowship were all-different in other cultural contexts.  

The Bible tells us the story of how this translation of Gospel from the Jewish culture into Greco-Roman culture took place and is a good exercise in the procedure and process.  Paul a distinguished scholar in both the Jewish and Greco-Roman culture was elected for that purpose.  This is recorded in detail for us in the Bible.  This is still our model for evangelism and Mission.

We know how the Judaizers opposed any attempt to translate the Gospel into other cultures and it  became necessary to call for the first Council of Churches in Jerusalem, which took place in AD 50.  The Jerusalem Council put down the basic principles of Missiology.  The Greco-Roman churches differed considerably from the Early Jewish Church.  Even the name “The Way” was changed to “The Church.”  The Cross was not even a symbol of Christianity in the early church, but it was for the Roman Churches.  Though the languages and the symbolism changed, the gospel content - which is the doctrine of incarnation, the doctrine of salvation through faith etc. -  remained unchanged.  The container changed, but the content remained.  Word took new flesh.  

Today when we think of the Church, we think of the Greco-Roman Churches with its institution and interpretations and styles.  We look for a church building with people gathering in pews and all such characteristics common to the Western Churches today.  We think of a pastor or bishop before a congregation.  However, these pertain to the context of the Early Roman and Greek situations.  What would it look like in a different culture?  The missions still struggle with it. 

Thomas left for India after the first Council of Churches of Jerusalem and we can be sure he understood what it meant.  So when he arrived in India, what type of church did he institute?  It certainly was not in the Greco-Roman style.  We should not be surprised if it contained more Hebrew structure than Greek . 

Thomas must have established culturally relevant forms of worship and liturgy and structures.  These were truly Indian, translated “Hindu.”  Similar to the Roman Catholic Church or the Antiochian Universal (Catholic) Church, Indian church would be Indian Universal (Catholic) Way, which in Indian language will be “Hindu Sanadhana Dharma. 

Could these be Christian forms?

In the study that follows, I am trying to present the modern scholarship on the sudden appearance of new forms of worship, structures, and concept of faith in India as the Indian Catholic Church.  This is the birth of Hindu Sanadhana Dharma.

New forms of worship appeared all of a sudden
soon after the Ministry of Thomas.

These are still found in

modern Hinduism.

The Early Hindu Sanadhana Dharma of India was indeed the Thomas Christian Church.  Later, like in all the other countries, it gave rise to denominations.  There were new emphasis, new revivals, and varying interpretations.  Saivism and Vaishnavism were probably two such denominations of Indian Christianity as Dr. Deva Nayagom and Dr. Deva Kala explain.  In the historical development, these denominations ridiculed each other, made up stories that were abusive, misinterpreting and caricaturing the other and persecuted each other. (These are reminiscent of the Catholic – Protestant persecutions)  Still later heretic developments under the influence of Gnosticism and Theosophy, reduced it to present day Hinduism, which is far removed from Christianity.  Then there was a concerted effect to remove it far from any Christian tint.  We will trace this development in this study.