Interesting.

Actually it's Nestorian

Not familiar with that term.

There's a painting of the nativity on the walls inside

I've been to two Buddhist temples. They don't have nativity scenes.

Yeah. Wouldn’t make sense to have one.

Nestorians believed that there was a distinction between the human nature and divine nature of Jesus

Nestorius who came up with the idea was the Patriarch of Constantinople in the 5th century

So it was deemed heresy, and his followers moved eastward, as far as China, and built the church in the photo in 640 AD

Oh that’s cool.

The Tang Dynasty was cool with Christianity, but later dynasties persecuted it severely

Still do, don’t they?

Chinese that is.

Not since Mao died

It's a foregone conclusion to them that God exists, just like gravity

Always has been

Meaning they believe God exists?

Dunno if you could necessarily call them Christian, but the existence of God, Jesus, and Heaven are just as accepted as the rotation of the earth

Church however, isn't a big thing. The only legal churches are government agencies basically

Interesting. I thought I had read recent government persecution of Christian churches in China.

Three Self Patriotic Movement for Protestants, and Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church for us

The problem is that the government doesn't see any difference in church and nonchurch

It doesn't get a special respect or status

Ah

Officially to join the party you must be atheist. And party membership is required for any higher government position or "elected" office

Interesting that their society accepts God as real, but also accepts that their rulers renounce God.

To non-believers there, or even just people who don't practice Christianity, being Christian is something of a novelty to them. When I met my wife's family and she told them I'm Catholic, they automatically assumed I must be a good guy

Because in their view, every Christian follows Christian principles. Don't lie or steal etc

Oh

Interesting.

Their lack of church worship comes from antiquity. The early Chinese followed the exact same religion as pre-Mosaic Hebrews. This is accepted as simple historical fact to them

And of course Abraham didn't go to church

So the act of Sunday worship and going to church never became important to them, since they lacked a Bible and basically just learned about God by oral tradition

"God is in heaven and can see what you do, so be good, don't make him mad or your life is gonna suck" is pretty much their whole religion for centuries

Really? That’s neat.

They often call it "heaven worship" and for them there's a very blurry distinction between God and Heaven

So would they have gotten their “Hebrew” traditions from like the Tower of Babel split?

In fact their word for God is just "Lord of heaven"

Yeah basically

I suppose the first of them may have realized "this tower was a bad idea, I should probably go worship God now and not be an idiot"

Yeah lol