Joe David: Ashurism began to fade in importance, when the Assyrians converted to the teachings of three apostles: Thomas, Bartholomew, and Thaddeus. These three apostles, after founding the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian church of the east in Edessa, Turkey (in the upper Mesopotamia area), were responsible for providing the direction for what would follow thereafter across Asia. With only a Bible, a cross, and some bread, the missionaries followed the silk route to the east: along the way, they established churches. By the 12th Century, the Assyrian church of the east became the largest church in the world with over 80,000,000 followers, making it larger than the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches combined. At its peak, their missionaries had reached China, Japan, and even the Philippines.
