India, Part 2, The History of Christianity in India

It all began with “Go.”.

            Since Jesus left us that word, “go” is now our mission and goal; people aspire to “go”, and share the love of Christ. Christianity is based off of that word, because without it we may have died out. “Go” is the only reason that Christ is as widely believed as He is. And “go” is the reason that the gospel is changing lives in India.

            In India, the first missionary is unknown. Some say the Apostle Thomas was the first to bring the gospel. Others think it was Christian Jews fleeing persecution. The only thing we are pretty sure about, is that when Pantaenus, the head of a Christian school, arrived, there was already a small group of Christians. This indicates that India was evangelized as early as the second century AD. While we don't know the exact origins, we do know that India has had explosive growth since then.

            Nowadays, in some areas the church in India is persecuted by Hindutva extremists. This is tending to bring the church closer and help them establish priorities. Those priorities are sharing the gospel. Thus, while the Christian population is estimated at 5-9% of the population, Christianity is growing faster than any other religion in India – including Hinduism. But also, India itself has grown a lot because of Christianity. There has been work in education, health and challenging of social problems - mainly by Christians. This brings Christianity a good name and makes it more difficult to stir up anti-Christian feelings. Also, Christians are most often the only ones reaching out to the Dalits, or lowest class. According to Operation World (Jason Mandryk), about 80% of Indian Christians are lower classes or tribal.

            However, Christians still have a long way to go. Of the 159 people groups, of people numbering of over 1 million people, 133 groups are still unreached. That is just for the people groups with over a million people. 205 Ethnic groups with more than 10,000 people have no church and little to no Christian missions among them. Remember I said that most Indian Christians are lower castes? Well, of the over 50 million in the Brahmin caste, only 18,000 actively follow Christ. Let me put it this way: over three quarters of the World's unevangelized are in India.

            So now, we need to train people to “go”. Because I have shown you the incredible need, you can hopefully see that Christians need to rise up. Christ's name has been proclaimed in parts of India, and there is a fair amount of receptiveness. But there is SO much we still have to do! Christ said “go”, and we need to go. Be praying for the Christians in India, because they have their hands full. “Go” may be the only way people are reached in India, a place full of need. Sola Deo Gloria.
By Caitie