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Southwest india, around 7 million christians here traced their faith directly to the apost apostle famous for his doubt. they believe their ancestors were baptized by one of jesus' 12 disciples, thomas. >> stop doubting and believe. >> my god, my god lord. >> thomas vabishes from the new testament after the resurrection. but his story is take b up by a third century epic narrative. the acts of thomas. >> now it seems that the acts of thomas resort some historically accurate information. >> but the acts of thomas is not the only account of his mission to india.

>> the day i receive my final freedom. >> he dies being pierce d with spears. >> thomas has understood something about discipleship that it's about following jesus, whatever the consequences. that will include persecution, suffering and death. >> according to local tradition, in 72 a.d. his body is laid to rest in now part of modern day chini. but it will not e remain there. >> tradition holds that his followers took his body back to the west and that they lay in the city there until the crusade results in the bones to europe. >> dr. george and professor tom

>> the text is significant because it's very closely related to a ra mic, and that's the language that jesus spoke with his disciples. so this is a fabulous piece to the puzzle in uncovering a a little more information than we had before about what thomas was up to. in this story goes, after jesus' death, the disciples are getting together and trying to decide who goes where. ask they actually draw lines. thomas chooses the short straw. >> the disciples believe it would allow god to decide where they should go to spread the word. thomas gets india.

But it was certainly possible that thomas could have gone to india and if jesus' message is to preach his good news, then india would have been on that list. >> a stranger coming for the first time must be quite a surreal experience. he would have incurred all kinds of people and languages and flavors and smells he had never seen before and gods he had never even heard of. >> you have a variety of different religious sects. you've got jaynes and buddhists. >> a first point of contact might have been jewish traders who spoke his language and shared his faith. >> because this was center of spice...

India and holds a shrine dedicated to st. thomas. >> in terms of christianity in india, i think that declaration of thomas as a patron saint in india gave history or long held history to thomas and christians. >> it is the story of the importance of faith, reason and doubt. doubt and faith are two sides of the same coin. >> my lord, my god. >> without jesus' commission to his disciples to become apostles, that is, to go out from ju dee a and gal lee and spread his message around the world, there would be no christianity. frankly, the followers of jesus would have gone down in history