Asia’s first Christians deserve our support

Christianity began in western Asia, in what we now call the Middle East. The Church was born at Jerusalem on Pentecost, and it spread both east and west. 

It predates what we now think of as “Europe” by centuries. To the best of our knowledge, there were no ancient Britons, Germans, Frenchmen or Spaniards among the Apostles’ first audience. The Acts of the Apostles lists “Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs” (Acts 2: 9-11.) 

The Parthians, Medes and Elamites came from what we now call Iran. Mesopotamia now includes Syria, parts of Turkey and Iraq. Judea is the West Bank. Cappadocia, Pontus, Phrygia and Pamphylia were in what is now Turkey. With the possible exception of the Cretans and the visitors from Rome, the first people to hear the Good News from the Apostles were Asians, West Asians from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt and Palestine.