The Mongols and a Missed Mission

Kublai Khan

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."  Matthew 24:14

The next few months of this blog will look at the lives of missionaries through the ages. It is my hope that you will be encouraged and strengthened in your faith as you see God's hand working through the lives of ordinary people as they followed the will of an extraordinary God.

We will next look at Christian missions from 1000 to 1499 AD. Christianity continued to spread throughout Europe, in Asia and into Africa where it already had historical roots. This time also saw the Bible translated into more languages, including English, and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible. 

1000 - Christianity accepted by common consent in Iceland. Leif Eriksson introduces the Gospel to Greenland and possibly Vinland (Newfoundland)

1008 - Sigfrid (or Sigurd), English missionary, baptizes King Olof of Sweden

1015 - Russia is said to have been "comprehensively" converted to the Orthodox faith

Olaf II Haroldsson, first king of the whole of Norway, sees Norway convert to Christianity

1200 - The Bible is now available in 22 different languages

1219 - Francis of Assisi presents the Gospel to the Sultan of Egypt

1266 - Mongol leader Kublai Khan sends Marco Polo's father and uncle, Niccolo and Matteo Polo, back to Europe with a request to the Pope to send 100 Christian missionaries (only two responded and one died before reaching Mongol territory) to China

1321 - Jordanus, a Dominican monk, arrives in India as the first resident Roman Catholic missionary 

1323 - Franciscans make contacts on Sumatra, Java, and Borneo

1368 - Collapse of the Franciscan mission in China as Ming Dynasty abolishes Christianity

1382 - Bible translated into English from Latin by John Wycliff 

1389 - Large numbers of Christians march through the streets of Cairo, denouncing Islam and lamenting that they had abandoned the religion of their fathers from fear of pesecution. They were beheaded, both men and women, and a fresh persecution of Christians followed 

1408 - Spanish Dominican Vincent Ferrer begins a ministry in Italy in which it is said that thousands of Jews and Muslims were won to faith in Christ 

1410 - Bible is translated into Hungarian 

1450 - Franscian missionaries accompany Portuguese expedition to the Cape Verde Islands

1462 - Johannes Gutenberg begins printing the Bible with his movable-type printing process

1486 - Dominicans become active in West Africa, notably among the Wolof people in Senegambia.

1491 - The Congo sees its first group of missionaries arrive. Under the ministry of these Franciscan and Dominican priests, the king would soon be baptized and a church built at the royal capital.

1493 - Pope Alexander VI commands Spain to colonize the New World with Catholic missions; Christopher Columbus takes Christian priests with him on his second journey to the New World

1496 - First Christian baptisms in the New World take place when Guaticaba along with other members of his household are baptized on the island of Hispaniola 

1498 - First Christians are reported in Kenya

The missionaries/missions that will be highlighted during this era are:

Leif Eriksson

Marco Polo and Kublai Khan

John Wycliff

Marco Polo and Kublai Khan

Today's highlighted missionary/mission will be a bit different as it is the story of a missed mission opportunity. 

While studying the lives of Marco Polo and Kublai Khan with my children, and then reading about them once again in Scott W. Sundquist’s article entitled "Asian Christianity," I was deeply saddened by the HUGE loss of opportunity for mission outreach to Asia during the time of Kublai Khan. “ 

In the 13th century, when Genghis Khan ruled, his empire stretched from China to Central Europe — a kingdom larger even than those of Alexander and the Roman Caesars, covering all of Asia, Indochina, and even Eastern Europe. No nation has yet to rival the magnitude of the Mongolian Empire,” Mongol Empire

His grandson, Kublai Khan, had a mother who was a Christian. Kublai “ruled when the Mongol Empire had reached its limit. It could not expand any farther, so Kublai concentrated on maintaining peace in his borders. When Marco Polo (1254 - 1323?) journeyed to China, he found evidence of Christian communities and served in the court of Kublai, having become the Khan’s trusted friend. 

Kublai became interested in Christianity and even asked the Polo’s to bring back teachers and missionaries to his land.” He specifically requested from Pope Gregory X, that 100 missionaries be sent to the Mongol empire to teach himself and his people about the Christian faith. 

Sadly and regretfully, “the request was never fulfilled because the Popes in Europe were more concerned about defending themselves militarily than they were interested in extending the Gospel spiritually,” (Sunquist, 241). This may be one of the greatest lost missionary opportunities of all times!

What would have happened if Pope Gregory X would have immediately fulfilled that request. He was in charge of the vast Christian Church. Popes had been able to stir up huge support for the Crusades, in the past, and he could have found 100 or more monks who were willing to go to Asia to share the Gospel of Christ with the Mongols and thus the entire Mongol Empire. God was opening a door of opportunity for Christianity to spread to the largest empire the world had ever seen through a man whose mother was a Christian. If these monks had been sent, history may have seen the conversion of a vast empire to Christianity. 

Look at how God used one monk, St. Patrick, to convert Ireland or Columbu to convert Scotland. What could have have been done with 100 monks who were requested, specifically, by the Mongol leader himself. 

Instead, “it is in the time of the Great Khans that the Tibetan form of Buddhism gained influence in Mongolia...(and) Buddhism became the predominant religion in the Mongolian territories... Today, they do not persecute Christians (though there are only a few), but they still firmly believe that Buddhism is the only true religion and even more so as a reaction to Christian missionary efforts.,” Mongol Empire 

If Christianity, however, had been the religion that Kublai Khan and his followers embraced, Mongolia, and possibly other countries in Asia today may have become Christian. Christianity may have swept across Asia the way it did across Europe. The strongholds of Islam and Communism may never have gained a foothold if Christianity had been the predominant religion. 

This is a huge lesson for the Christian Church today. When God opens a door, we must walk through it! We must take every opportunity given to us to share the Gospel with those who are lost, no matter their religion or skin color. This lesson can be applied especially today where America, a Christian nation, has a powerful influence on two strongholds of Satan...Iraq and Afghanistan. Will we send the “100 missionaries” to share the love of Jesus with them or will we, like the Popes of old, be more concerned about defending ourselves militarily than we are interested in extending the Gospel spiritually?