The geography history and religion of the missions field in Asia

Introduction

Asia has half the world’s population and by far the largest number of unreached people. In proportion to these numbers, few missionaries serve in Asia and even fewer Bible-schools, churches and missions candidates are sufficiently aware of this disproportion to want to correct it. The informational void of mysterious Asia may be a large contributory factor to this lack of interest in Asian missions.

Asia is too complex, too mysterious and too far away for many in the West. In fact, Asia is too complex even for Asians. The reason for this is that Asia is simply too large and complex to “lump together” as Asia.

How can over 3 billion people, stretching from the Urals mountain range in Russia to the islands of Indonesia be lumped into four convenient little alphabets “a..s..i..a”?

Geography And History Of Asia

Unlike most other continents like Europe, North America or Australia which have fairly similar climates, the unreached areas of frigid Siberian Asia, harsh Central Asia (eg.Kazahkstan), deserts of Middle-east, hot humid India, crowded China, tropical Indonesia, etc. are climatically very different. The distances are so vast, and the conditions so different that most Asians do not see other parts of Asia as a part of their continent. To us they are just another place altogether.

East Asia

Unlike most other continents like Europe, North and South America and Australia which have fairly similar historical and religious (Christian, Romanist) roots, the unreached areas of Asia are very different historically and religiously. To many Westerners, all Orientals are orientals, ie, they can be treated as belonging to one group. It surprises them that there are long-standing, still unresolved historical enmity between the Chinese and the Japanese, and the Korean and the Japanese. It surprises them that there are similarly intense feelings between Indians and Pakistanis, and between Iraqis and Iranians. Ignore these historical realities at your own peril. Politicians who ignore these historical facts and other historical realities pay a huge price for their ignorance (eg. present conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq).

While these geographical and historical realities are important in understanding the situation in Asia, the most important area of difference is that of religion. All the major world religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam – had their birth in Asia. Religion is the most important of all the factors because religion shapes the world-view of its followers.

Religions In Middle-east And Central Asia

Most of the northern part of the Asian continental mass (ie, Russia) is nominally Orthodox Christian over deep animist beliefs. Most of the Middle-east and Central Asia is Muslim – but bear in mind that Islam is deeply divided between Sunni and Shiite sects. Sunnis make up about 85% of Muslims and Shiites about 15%. Sometimes the hatred between these two sects are worse than between Muslims and “infidels.” India is deeply divided between the majority Hindus and the minority Muslims. Sri Lanka just off India’s south-east coast is divided into Hindu north and Buddhist south – that resulted in a 30 year civil war.

China is officially atheistic but has the most spiritually active and numerically large Christian church in the world. Korea is historically Buddhist but has a thriving, missions-minded Christian community that make up 40% of its population. Japan is historically Buddhist but is far more atheistic than China.

Religions In South-East Asia

Even the smaller countries in South-east Asia are very diverse religiously. The Philippines is 85% Romanist. Its immediate neighbour, Indonesia, is 85% Muslim, though Indonesia’s constitution recognizes all six official religions – Islam, Christianity, Romanism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism – as equal. Its constitution is the most “godly” in the world because it states that all Indonesians must believe in God (by professing one of the six official religions).

Malaysia is officially an Islamic nation, though less than 60% of its citizens are Muslims. Thailand is officially a Buddhist nation, though its form of Buddhism is really more animist and Hindu than Buddhist. Burma is under a superstitious military dictatorship, though its people profess Buddhism. Cambodia is largely Buddhist. Vietnam and Laos are officially socialist countries but many of their citizens profess Buddhism or Romanism. Singapore, is a multicultural secular nation whose citizens profess different religions (about 15% profess Christianity). Tiny Brunei is an Islamic sultanate. Tiny Timor Leste is mostly Romanist.

Conclusion

The religious map of Asia looks bewildering on the surface. However, the reality is that the true religion for much of Asia is animism – the worship of spirits that inhabit objects of nature and the worship of the dead. Most of the religions mentioned above are mere veneers over animist beliefs that are deep-seated in the Asian psyche. Animistic practices have infiltrated and been largely accepted in Asian Islam, Buddhism, Christianity and Romanism.

Missionaries need to be aware that there is too little focus on Asia. Missionaries need to believe that there are no “closed” countries – only closed minds. Often the root-causes are ignorance and myths, which lead to fears and then closed minds. May the truth set us free.

Let’s pray that minds and hearts will be open to the cry of Asia’s unreached millions!