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Christianity Today, December (Web-only), 2008 |

Speaking Out

Recovering Church History: Exile from Babylon

The Iraqi Christian community, now nearly gone, was the church's center for a millennium.

Philip Jenkins | posted 12/31/2008 08:40AM

Across much of the Middle East, the ancient Christian story seems to be coming to a bloody end almost before our eyes. The most dramatic catastrophe in recent years has been that of Iraq's Christians, ...

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Albert

Posted: January 10, 2009 8:58 PM


I find it offensive how American Evangelicals think they can judge the validity of churches that have been witnessing to the faith for centuries. I wonder how many of them would survive in the face of real persecution. American Evangelicalsim today is based more on America than the Gospel and it is completely consumerist in its mentality.

EricG

Posted: January 10, 2009 2:50 AM

The Assyrian Church of the East is virtually identical to Catholicism in terms of doctrine, save that the former does not accept the papal primacy of jurisdiction. Most historians of Christian dogma seem to agree that the Nestorian (and, later, Monophysite) debate was merely one of semantics. Different groups were using the words "person" and "nature" to mean different things, and were coming up with different formulas which basically meant to the same thing. To claim without any qualification, that Nestorians and Monophysites were/are the heirs of some primitive Christianity is to beg the question. Arguably a new religion was formed once these churches broke communion from Rome and refused to submit themselves to the decree of lawfully convoked ecumenical councils. It's the content of one's faith, and proper ecclesiastical communion, that the early Christians used to determine the continuity of Apostolic Tradition, not the clothes one wore or how one pronounced the Savior's name.

Jim	Posted: January 06, 2009 8:23 AM


I visited northern Iraq in August and worked with the pastors of an evangelical congregation that has grown from 50 to more than 3,000 since its inception in 2003, with no signs that they'll stop growing any time soon. How could Mr. Jenkins ignore this?

from_afar

Posted: January 05, 2009 10:32 PM

I would like to call my American brothers in Christ to stop seeing Christianity or the Gospel as US-centric. Stop seeing the Gospel wrapped in the American flag. Stop seeing the foreign policies from a politician that claims to be a christian (but do not behave based on christian principles, behaving as an oil-warlord instead) as something that needs full support without questioning. What was made in Irak leads to great suffering of innocent people, and NOT to the advance of the Gospel or to bring peace, hope and democracy. It leads to more Islamic fanatics with greater hatred against the christian people, Christianity and America. PLEASE do not consider this as some hate-message (the opposite in deed, a message in true love for the american christian people). Just a call to re-think christian involvement in politics. There's no simple equations. I live in a country that suffered many years because of american support to a military coup d'etat. Throwing foreign governments is NOT good.

Cheryl Toliver

Posted: January 03, 2009 9:02 PM

Lost history - yes. I have some friends who are descendants of Assyrian Christians who fled Iraq in the 1950s. Meeting them helped me learn of my own ignorance. In the years since, I have come to realize that the church overall, throughout the centuries, hasn't done a very good job of teaching its own history, which has led to much misunderstanding and divisions. And, in reading some of the early church fathers, I think recovering our history could help us bring Christ to others as well as aid our understanding the biblical text.

Bill Bray

Posted: January 03, 2009 8:52 AM

Take heed America! Retelling the history of Iraq's fall should remind us of how important it is to re-evangelize and re-disciple each new generation. We have a duty to incarnate Christ to our children and grand children, and to the emerging leadership of the nations so that the Gospel will continue to be preached and cultures reformed and renewed under the influence of the Kingdom of God. It is not that we should worship our short history and culture, but realize that the Lord has done an amazing thing here over the last 400 years and we need to continue to move with the Holy Spirit.

narciso

Posted: January 02, 2009 10:43 PM

Recently I started reading the New Testament against the backdrop of persecution and I began to see how radically different the life and thinking of Christians of those times were from ours. Ordinary words such as love, unity, brother, government and even ministry and church don't mean the same thing when they are spoken by brothers and sisters whose existence is under threat. One outcome of that exercise was that as a pastor I began praying in church for the persecuted and suffering brothers and sisters in Christ regardless whether Catholic or Coptic or Orthodos; whether Evangelical or Adventist or Pentecostal. The persecutor doesn't see our distinctions. In the words of John Donne we are not little islands; we belong to the continent and the same bell that tolls for Chaldean Christians also tolls for us.

debdessaso

Posted: January 02, 2009 9:01 PM

First, a brief response to Nordman: Your logic escapes me. How can decisions made by church councils in a later era determine with absolute certainty whether or not the churches of the previous era were genuinely Christian? Orthodoxy, such as it is, has changed faces many times throughout the Christian era, and I suspect it will change again. Will that mean that churches today which claim to support orthodox beliefs will no longer be considered Christian? Secondly, while most conservative evangelicals were standing firmly behind Pres. Bush's decision to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iraq to remove its leader, it's too bad that none of them took the time to consider that although life was certainly no picnic under Hussein, the Iraqi Christians were able to live in relative peace with their Muslim neighbors. Was the price for Iraq's "freedom" worth the destruction of the Iraqi Christian church?

Shirley

Posted: January 02, 2009 8:13 PM


Funny I hear from underground sources that there is a move of the Holy Spirit and Muslims and the other religious peoples are being saved. Supernatually.

Steve

Posted: January 02, 2009 6:21 PM


I love how people use such a calamity as an opportunity to slam a foreign policy decision with which they disagree. Newsflash folks: the Christian communities in Iraq were shrinking even before the Iraq war. You'll have to find other evidence to maintain your hate.

SLAVE OF CHRIST

Posted: January 02, 2009 3:59 PM

THE CHURCH HAS ALWAYS BEEN PERSECUTED IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER IN AMERICA WE JUST DON'T SEE IT BECAUSE I THINK WE HAVE BECOME SO LAX OR EVEN LUKEWARM WITH THE UNCOMPROMISEING OF THE GOSPEL,WE DON'T PROCLAIM THE MESSAGE INDIIDUALLY,OR FROM THE CHURCHES AS WE USE TO,THE CHURCH IS IN SPIRITUAL DENIAL AND, WE TRY NOW TO FIT INTO THE WORLD WITH THE WORD TOLLERANCE OR ECUMENUABLE,WAKE UP JESUS CALLED US ALL TO GO YE THEREFORE AND MAKE DESCIPLES,AND IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE WORLD HAS US GIVING OUT COTTON CANDY AND TRYING TO BE LIKE,THE GOSPELEL IS GOING TO BE OFFENSIVE TO THOSE WHO ARE PERISHING.IF THEY WERE GOING TO TO CONVICT US FOR BEING A CHRISTIAN WOULD THEY FIND ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO FIND US GUILTY?GOD HELP US

Daryl

Posted: January 02, 2009 12:48 PM

The article is well written and informative, with two exceptions: (1) the U.S. did not disband the Iraqi Police force, that was the Iraqi Army that was disbanded. The police remained in place, received new training, and those involved in corruption or not loyal to the new government were weeded out. (2) Saddam was building mosques in historic Christian communities in the north and displacing the Christians in the last years. But while their numbers are diminished, I am not sure that I would write off the Iraqi Christians just yet. There are two in the current cabinet: the Minister of Human Rights and the Minister of Industry. I worked the Minister of Human Rights on a regular basis a couple of years ago and she is a formidable person. The Chaldean community in the west is wealthy and will very likely help their families here and some may return. There is still at least one catholic monastery operating in Baghdad and other active church communities.

Kaarlo Suomela

Posted: January 02, 2009 12:16 PM


So a Christian President, supported and elected by a Christian Right, gave the death blow to the Christian Church in Iraq. Is politics really the right way to spread the Gospel or Christian principals? Could we perhaps try "loving your neighbor as yourself"?

Marianne Miller

Posted: January 02, 2009 11:46 AM

Thank you, Mr. Jenkins for the history lesson. I was completely unaware of the strong Christian presence in the Iraqi of times past. The emergence of an influential Christian community in any given culture has its zenith, then decline, only to be followed by another emergence in another nation or culture. These things do come and go, but the kingdom of God continues to grow despite the obvious presence or perceived decline of the Christian church. Be it in fashion or decidedly dangerous to be a Christ follower, the kingdom of God will continue to grow. So, while we grieve the passing of a government or culture that was largely empathetic to the Christian message, we know that it is just a temporary situation. His kingdom will never end.

Philip

Posted: January 02, 2009 11:09 AM


Thank you Bush, Blair and Howard for helping the Muslims to finishing off Christianity in Iraq.

James

Posted: January 02, 2009 9:55 AM

US evangelicals have an enormous amount to answer for in their support for the catastrophic US-led or supported wars in the Middle East, including that in Gaza before our very eyes. The Lord is a righteous God. He weighs with fair balances, not the wickedly distorted balances of so-called Christian (anti-Christian) Zionism and its terrible murderously violent racism. Because the Lord is righteous, those that brought all of this terrible suffering on millions of others and their families will in turn also be fated to undergo great tribulation, whatever the raptural 'Left Behind' crowd would have us believe. Babylon on the Tigris has fallen to Babylon on the Hudson, which is falling to..

Deborah Belonick

Posted: January 02, 2009 9:15 AM

In this sad and jolting article, I was surprised to read that Christianity had fled the major cities in Iraq: not true. One of our esteemed alumni, Archbishop Avak Asadourian, Ph.D., whose episcopal seat is in Baghdad, is Primate of the Armenian Church of Iraq, and general secretary of the Council of Christian Church-Leaders in Iraq, which was formed in June 2006 to maintain communication with different Christian bodies and to channel humanitarian supplies to people of all faiths in need. He spent the summer of 2008 in the U.S., conveying the plight of Christians and his countrymen to church leaders across the nation, and spoke at length to representatives of the National Council of Churches. His message to Americans and his fellow alumni at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary: "Please pray for us." Kind regards, Deborah Belonick, Advancement Information Officer, St. Vladimir's Seminary.

Isaac C

Posted: January 02, 2009 12:46 AM

I concur with the author's sense of loss and mourn the fate of Iraq's Christian communities. The fact that they trace their origins to the apostles shows we have something profoundly in common with them. It would have been instructive to know more about their teachings and to see how their understanding of Christ developed compared to the Western church. Also, what did they use for Scriptures if they didn't have the Bible? Did the tide of redemption flow exclusively in a western direction?

Brad Stockham

Posted: January 01, 2009 8:43 PM

The Koran recognizes Jesus Christ only as a Prophet although suprisingly enough it recognizes Jesus' virgin birth and His awaited return in the future. However, the Koran tells Muslims to avoid contact with Christians because we recognize Jesus as the Son of God, which they do not. Unfortunately the militant/radical Muslims see this as permission to kill and destroy Christians. Even though the Koran commands Muslims not to kill innocents the militants do so by acts of terrorism.

Les Nordman

Posted: January 01, 2009 8:03 PM

Yes, Philip Jenkins is a historian, so he chronicles what was. I wish he would get together with some theologians to talk about the Nestorians, Jacobites, etc., in Mesopotamia. In the light of later church councils, are (or were) these churches Christian? No, no, no: I realize I am in an enormous house of exceedingly fragile glass, so I am not throwing stones. I would just like to know if these are truly Christian, and if the schisms were truly theological, or merely political?

TW	Posted: January 01, 2009 11:00 AM


Hmmm, makes me wonder if the Lord is using this persecution to drive His people out of Iraq before an even greater persecution (under the antichrist) comes along? God certainly didn't cause the persecution, but He may use it for the good of His children. Of course, that's easy for me to say behind my computer in a pretty secure patch of Texas. Just a thought.

Paul	Posted: January 01, 2009 8:36 AM

I don't think Christianity will deseapear in Irak, perhaps the traditional churches will deseapear but the new evanghelical churches will have success. I recently read on Christian post that the american evanghelicals(especially the southern baptists) have missionaries in Irak and that the new Iraki baptist church has a few members. The big problem with the traditional iraki churches is not only persecution but also the fact that they stoped the evangelism and the biblical studies . they lost their ,,evanghelical '' character . I think this are the reasons why the Assyrian, Challdean and Armenian Churches are smaller and not necessarly the persecutions. During the christian history the persecution towards christians created many problems(e.g. the donatin problem in N. Africa for example) but it newer distroyed a church. Even today christianity is becoming more strong in Pakistan, China and other countries were persecution exists.

TomB	Posted: December 31, 2008 4:01 PM

Very interesting. Sad as well. As OutsideObserver observed, other religions/cultures have gone the same way as Christianity in the Middle East is going today. I'm not a history buff or anything, but I wonder why Christianity fared so well under the Roman Empire, when it was persecuted and hounded as well, but it ultimately triumphed. Why didn't this happen under Islam? Are Muslims just spiritually stornger than the pagan Romans were ?

OutsideObserver

Posted: December 31, 2008 1:33 PM

Yeah so ?? ... Judaic Yiddish civilization died in Eastern Europe, Muslim civilization died in the Iberian Pennisula, Aztec/Inca/Mayan culture gave way to Spanish Catholic civilization in the New World, English Catholicism was stamped out by Reform Prodestianism under Elizabeth and Cromwell, and the once glorious civlizations of Pagan Europe gave way to a Semitic religion from the Middle East, etc, etc, ... it happens, get over it, ... move along ... Happy Year ...

Kaisen

Posted: December 31, 2008 11:13 AM


Best article of the year saved for the last day of the year. Pray something like this will not be the fate of Christianity in the USA.

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