Kafiristan: They called out for Christ and the Church said no

The beautiful mountains of Nuristan, Afghanistan.

Once upon a time, the people of a region surrounded by Islamic nations  on all sides cried out to the Church to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and sadly, the Church failed to respond.

In the early 19th Century, the British oversaw Pakistan and India as territories of their Empire and Afghanistan was maintained a buffer zone between their Empire and the Russian Empire to the North. However, both Empires often sent people through the country to make sure the other wasn't up to anything sneaky. Through contact with the British, the people of Kafiristan, came into contact with the Gospel but the Bible didn't (and still doesn't exist) in their language.


The tribal leaders of Kafiristan asked the people traveling through to send someone to talk to them about Jesus Christ whom they had heard about from both the Europeans passing through their lands and the Muslims who surrounded them.

Sadly, no one ever went to the people of Kafiristan and instead, some 60 years later, the leader of Afghanistan at the time  Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, sent his soldiers to convert the people of Kafiristan to Islam as an attempt to unify the nation of Afghanistan under Islamic law. Those who could fled across the border to their kin, the Kalash, in what is now Pakistan.

Today, Kafiristan is known as Nuristan and is a province of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The word Kafir comes from Arabic. The Islamic Dictionary defines a Kafir as the following:

Generally the word kafir means 'unbeliever' and it is not meant as a derogatory label (unless it is used against Muslims by another Muslim).

However, from the attitude of the Emir of Afghanistan and what his Soldiers did to the people there, it's quite clear that the people of Kafiristan were not respected nor equal to their Muslim neighbours. They were subjugated and their culture, language and customers were forever removed from the diverse ethnic and religious tapestry of the Afghanistan of the past.

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands" - Revelation 7:9

Nuristan today is a hot bed of the Taliban and one of the most fervently Islamic places in Afghanistan. Unlike the Kalash people, with home they share common ancestry, men and women are divided and women must be completely covered in public.

Imagine how different Afghanistan, Central Asia and indeed the world could be if the Church had sent Missionaries to the people of Kafiristan, a people crying out for Christ, and brought them the light and love of the world.


Please join with me in praying for the people of Nuristan, their Kalash brothers and sisters in Pakistan who maintain their Pagan religion and all the people of the region.


[You can find out more about the customs and native religion of the Nuristani and Kalash people by clicking here and here (respectively, of course).]

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WTF? - What, the filioque?!

Holy Spirit, from whence doth thou proceed?

The 'filioque' clause is an issue which has divided Christendom since before the Great Schism in the 11th Century and perhaps even as early as the third century, before the council at Nicaea. Most Christians aren't even be aware of the issue nor would they know that many of them make reference to it every Sunday when they affirm their faith by reading out the Nicene Creed.

'Filioque' means "and (from) the Son" and the great debate is over does the Holy Ghost proceed from the Father and the Son or from the Father through the Son or, just from the Father alone.

In Eastern Churches the line from the Nicene Creed that in the Western Church states "And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and giver of life, who from the Father and the Son proceeds" omits "...and from the Son".

One thing that is important to mention is that the Western Church added the 'filioque' clause outside the authority of an ecumenical council which is where traditionally, doctrinal differences were discussed and ironed out.

Now I doubt that this blog post, amazing as it shall be, will solve over 1000 years of Christian division but let's look at the 'filioque' in the Anglican communion and as understood by the Protestant Reformers.

Obviously as Anglicans, we can't deny our catholic heritage and the Nicene creed is an important remnant of that but is the filioque as much of an important and divisive issue in the Anglican Communion as it is in the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Church?

In 1978 the Lambeth conference issued the following statement:

[The Conference] requests that all member Churches of the Anglican Communion should consider omitting the Filioque from the Nicene Creed... [Resolution 35, point 2]

Later in in 1993, Anglican Primates and the Anglican Consultative Council reaffirmed a requested action of the 1988 Lambeth conference that said:

"in future liturgical revisions the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed be printed without the Filioque clause', and to inform the Office of the Anglican Communion of their action." [Resolution 19]

As of yet, the omission of the 'filioque' clause hasn't been carried out in any part of the Anglican Communion however, I'm hopeful that it will.

The Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin affirmed the Western Churches beliefe that that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Luther continued the use of the 'filioque' in the Nicene creed as published in the 1589 'Book of Concorde.

Calvin believed that each person of the Triune God head was "autotheotic" that is that each person was divine of it's self which is in direct contrast to the Eastern Church which declares that the Father is the sole source of divinity.

Now, we can go on through the countless quotes by men about how they understand the relationship between the persons of the God-head but, what does Scripture say about the source of the Holy Ghost?

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever"

"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me" - John 15:26

"And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" - Galatians 4:6

[You can also check out other verses that discuss the relationship of the Holy Ghost - Romans 8:9, Philippians 1:19, John 16:7, John 20:22]

I'm sure that none of those verse can convince someone either way when it comes to this debate because although in some we can see that Christ sends the Holy Ghost or see the 'Spirit of Christ' referred to but I understand it to mean that Christ is asking the Father to send the Holy Ghost which "proceedeth from the Father" and not that he is sending it out from himself.

The early Church Father Tertullian put it this way in 216 AD:

"I believe that the Spirit proceeds not otherwise than from the Father through the Son"          
(Against Praxeas 4:1)

Personally, that's how I attempt to understand the complex relationship of the Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son. The Father is the source of all divinity and that through Christ who is begotten of the Father, God sent the Holy Ghost down to Earth on that glorious day of Pentecost.

Doctrines and topic such as these often confound people, including myself, and make us worry but it's important not to get to bogged down in things that in reality aren't doctrines essential to our salvation. As St. Athanasius said:

“Man can only perceive the hem of the garment of the triune God; the cherubim cover
the rest with their wings.”

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