A Chinese Christian leader believes that the church in modern China has experienced a total of four revivals.
First of all, rural rejuvenation happened during the Cultural Revolution period. The Cultural Revolution laid a great foundation for the revival of the church in China.
An elder man surnamed An is 94 years old this year and living in Guizhou/ Before the pandemic, he traveled around the world to spread the gospel by himself. He used to be a prince of the Yi ethnic group, and his family once lent land to British missionary Samuel Pollard to preach the gospel in Shimenkan, Guizhou Province. When he was studying at Peking University, one of the elders in the church liked him very much - that is, Wang Mingdao. An had a good relationship with Wang and refused to falsely accuse him of the government’s requirement. For this reason, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for God. When the pastor sympathized with his sufferings in prison, he said, "It's not a suffering at all, but that God has locked me in a safe for 25 years. During the Cultural Revolution, the safest place to be was in prison. I could probably get killed sooner or later if I had been not in prison. God has locked me in this prison safe. There is no safer place than this."
He added, “Right after the Cultural Revolution, the whole of China went into a vacuum of faith.” Since 1957, almost all the idols in the country had been destroyed through various campaigns such as casting away the Four Olds. Later, Chairman Mao died, too. Since then, the Chinese people have entered a vacuum of faith. There are no monks, no nuns, or no Taoist priests. Almost overnight, there were more preachers, pastors, and elders, all of whom had been released from prison to lead the first great revival of the Chinese church in modern times.
After the revival in the countryside, the fire spread overseas. It started back in 1981 or 1982 when many people chose to do business and got rich so that they could send their kids overseas to study. About 15% of them became Christians. Although the revival took place abroad, it was actually the revival of Chinese Christians.
Then the group of people who studied abroad came back to China and established many churches in various cities. This was the case in every major city. There was a revival of Christianity in the workplace, and many churches were being set up inside companies.
Now comes the fourth revival, which is called a "synagogue-style" revival. When the Jews were rejected, they learned three things: they stopped idolatry, learned to do business, and founded synagogues. Where there are more than ten Jews, there must be a synagogue. What we now call a small group is actually similar to the synagogue of the Jews.
In such a hostile environment where house churches are forced to become more scattered and underground, the pastor warned that we must first guard against narrow nationalism. In the face of narrow nationalism, there is no good or evil. Jonah is a narrow nationalist in the Bible.
The second thing to watch out for is "Stockholm syndrome". It is typical in the Bible that the people of Israel in the wilderness did not hate Egypt, but loved it.
Thirdly, we should be beware of the herding effect or "blind obedience". "Be wary of blindly following the crowd without independent thinking. It is easy to be incited and brainwashed. The Israeli people in the wilderness like to watch the excitement is actually a reflection of blind obedience," he said.
陈弟兄认为，中国近代教会前后一共经历了四次复兴。
1，农村乡村大复兴。时间范围：文革。文革奠定了中国教会复兴的很大的根基。
贵州有一位老长辈，安老，今年应该是94岁了。疫情之前的时候，安老是全世界很多地方跑，一个人传福音。他是彝族的王子，伯格理在贵州石门坎传福音的时候所使用的土地就是安老家的。当年他在北大读书的时候，教会里面有一个长辈非常喜欢他，就是王明道。他跟王的关系很好，zf要求他诬告王明道，但是他不肯。因着这样的原因，为主坐牢坐了25年的时间。当陈弟兄对他说，为主坐牢受苦了，但是安老说，“并不是我为主坐牢受苦，而是上帝把我锁在保险箱里面锁了25年。文革的那个时代最安全的地方就是监狱，但是如果是在外面，那很可能迟早被斗死。上帝把我锁在监狱这个保险箱里面，没有比这更加安全的地方了。”
安老说，文革一结束，全中国就马上进入了信仰真空状态。从1957年以来，通过破四旧等很多的运动，把全国范围内几乎所有的偶像都给破坏掉了。后来，maozhuxi也死了。中国老百姓从此进入了信仰真空，没有和尚没有尼姑没有道士。几乎是一夜之间，传道人、牧师、长老多了起来，他们全是被监狱里面被释放出来的，带领了中国教会近代的第一次大复兴。
2，海外大复兴。早在81年82年就开始了，当时很多人下海，然后有钱了以后把孩子送到海外读书，其中15%左右的人成为了基督徒。虽然是发生在国外的，但是其实是中国基督徒的复兴。
3，国外读书的这群人回来了，在各个城市建立了很多的教会。这样的情况在各大城市都有。职场大复兴，在企业里面成立了很多教会。
4，现在是第四波复兴。会堂式的复兴或者犹太人的会堂。犹太人被拒以后，他们学会了三件事情：不再拜偶像、学会了做生意和创立了犹太会堂。有超过十个犹太人的地方就一定会有犹太会堂。我们现在称为小组，其实就是犹太人的会堂。
陈弟兄说，在这样恶劣的环境当中，我们必须谨防狭隘的民族主义。在狭隘的民族主义面前，没有善恶。圣经里面有一个人就是狭隘的民族主义者，就是约拿。
第二个需要谨防的，就是斯德哥尔摩综合症。圣经里面比较典型的是在旷野里面的以色列百姓不恨埃及，反而留恋喜欢埃及。
第三个，谨防盲从的羊群效应。要警惕盲目的随大流，没有自己的独立思考，很容易被煽动和洗脑。旷野里面的以色列百姓喜欢看热闹其实背后就是盲从的反映。
陈弟兄分享的近代中国教会的四次复兴
A Chinese Christian leader believes that the church in modern China has experienced a total of four revivals.
First of all, rural rejuvenation happened during the Cultural Revolution period. The Cultural Revolution laid a great foundation for the revival of the church in China.
An elder man surnamed An is 94 years old this year and living in Guizhou/ Before the pandemic, he traveled around the world to spread the gospel by himself. He used to be a prince of the Yi ethnic group, and his family once lent land to British missionary Samuel Pollard to preach the gospel in Shimenkan, Guizhou Province. When he was studying at Peking University, one of the elders in the church liked him very much - that is, Wang Mingdao. An had a good relationship with Wang and refused to falsely accuse him of the government’s requirement. For this reason, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for God. When the pastor sympathized with his sufferings in prison, he said, "It's not a suffering at all, but that God has locked me in a safe for 25 years. During the Cultural Revolution, the safest place to be was in prison. I could probably get killed sooner or later if I had been not in prison. God has locked me in this prison safe. There is no safer place than this."
He added, “Right after the Cultural Revolution, the whole of China went into a vacuum of faith.” Since 1957, almost all the idols in the country had been destroyed through various campaigns such as casting away the Four Olds. Later, Chairman Mao died, too. Since then, the Chinese people have entered a vacuum of faith. There are no monks, no nuns, or no Taoist priests. Almost overnight, there were more preachers, pastors, and elders, all of whom had been released from prison to lead the first great revival of the Chinese church in modern times.
After the revival in the countryside, the fire spread overseas. It started back in 1981 or 1982 when many people chose to do business and got rich so that they could send their kids overseas to study. About 15% of them became Christians. Although the revival took place abroad, it was actually the revival of Chinese Christians.
Then the group of people who studied abroad came back to China and established many churches in various cities. This was the case in every major city. There was a revival of Christianity in the workplace, and many churches were being set up inside companies.
Now comes the fourth revival, which is called a "synagogue-style" revival. When the Jews were rejected, they learned three things: they stopped idolatry, learned to do business, and founded synagogues. Where there are more than ten Jews, there must be a synagogue. What we now call a small group is actually similar to the synagogue of the Jews.
In such a hostile environment where house churches are forced to become more scattered and underground, the pastor warned that we must first guard against narrow nationalism. In the face of narrow nationalism, there is no good or evil. Jonah is a narrow nationalist in the Bible.
The second thing to watch out for is "Stockholm syndrome". It is typical in the Bible that the people of Israel in the wilderness did not hate Egypt, but loved it.
Thirdly, we should be beware of the herding effect or "blind obedience". "Be wary of blindly following the crowd without independent thinking. It is easy to be incited and brainwashed. The Israeli people in the wilderness like to watch the excitement is actually a reflection of blind obedience," he said.
Christian Leader Shares Four Church Revivals in Modern China
