General Observations
When I first arrived in Hong Kong in 1969, there was no accurate information about the church in China. The prevalent belief was that Christianity had been basically eliminated from China. It was common knowledge that all religion had been prohibited during the Cultural Revolution (1967–1976), the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) church—which was totally under the control of the Communist Party and preached only liberal theology—was closed, house churches were prohibited, all clergy were sent to labor reform camps or prison, seminaries and Bible schools were closed, and all Bibles and religious books had been destroyed by the Red Guards.
It was assumed by many that the whole nation had become atheistic. As China began to open in 1978, one major ministry, Asian Outreach, printed a tract which simply described the beautiful mountain scenery in Guilin (such as you see depicted in Chinese landscape paintings), and ended with this question, “Is it possible all this somehow occurred through natural processes, or might there perhaps be a Creator?” One would ask, why were these gospel tracts not more specific in presenting Christ and the gospel message? The reason is there was a fear that any religious literature would be confiscated and those distributing it would be arrested. It was thought that except for a few older people in the villages, the whole nation was now atheistic.
Most liberal churchmen stated, “What Christianity could not do, Chairman Mao did. Chairman Mao made a ‘new man’ out of the Chinese race.”¹ They claimed crime, prostitution, the taking of illegal drugs, gambling, and other vices had been eliminated. Liberal churchmen stated, “While the people were relatively poor compared to most in capitalist nations, what they had they shared one with another, the government provided basic educational and medical services, everyone greatly loved Mao and the Communist Party, and most were very happy.” It was then often stated, “There is no need for Christianity, a Western religion that puts guilt on people and allowed imperialism to take root in China.”
However, within weeks of my first trip to Guangzhou in the spring of 1978, I found that was totally false. During the past several decades we have been learning about the terrible atrocities, massacres, famines, political infighting, and horrendous persecution of religious believers. Even now we hear about the horrors of the Great Leap Forward (1958–1962) in which an estimated 32 to 45 million lost their lives through famine with about ten percent being victims of the radical leftists. Victims of persecution during the Cultural Revolution—those who “struggled against” it were persecuted and tortured—number in the millions including hundreds of thousands of Christians. No one is sure of the total number of deaths during the Cultural Revolution, but it is possibly several million.
Prostitution then and today was rampant, but prostitutes then sold their bodies to get ration coupons which were needed to purchase food. We saw this everywhere after China opened in 1978 as even then food could only be purchased using both money and ration coupons. As we began to travel throughout China, we saw not only prostitutes, but beggars everywhere. Poverty was widespread, and on visits to hospitals we saw dirty, rundown buildings with almost none of the equipment or medication that a hospital would need.
The idea promoted by liberal clergymen in the West that Mao had made a “new man” was not true, but what was true is that the small, Protestant, house church of perhaps not more than one million believers in 1949, had grown by multiple millions.
I became aware of one group of 40,000 believers in a district in Guangxi province. They met in multiple house churches, but we were told they had only one complete Bible among them. Due to that report, in the first part of 1979 we began our Bible ministry to China (called “Donkeys for Jesus”), and during the 36 years from 1979 to 2015 (the year Xi Jinping began to take tight control of the nation), countless millions of Bibles were delivered to China from Hong Kong. Most were provided free to house church leaders, and thus during those years I was privileged to travel throughout this vast nation.
During the past few decades, I have met with hundreds of house church leaders, and even many TSPM pastors, and have ministered in both types of churches on multiple occasions. This is what I learned: Through the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of all Christians through which the Full Gospel² was preached, with healings, deliverances, and signs following, the Protestant church of a million or less grew to a church of 70 to 100 million believers, conservatively speaking.
Due to the strict control of people’s movements, including that of foreign visitors, it is impossible for anyone to conduct an accurate religious survey. However, these estimates are based on the percentage of known Christians in different districts and an analysis of general religious beliefs in the different provinces. Many believe that at least eighty percent of the Christians are either Pentecostal or charismatic. While this is hard to verify, I firmly believe most people converted to Christ due to miraculous healings, deliverance from demonic powers, and other miracles that proved the truth of the gospel.
Personal Reflections
From 1979 to 1997 I made multiple trips throughout China. Weekly, I taught English in Guangzhou, led a few hundred students to Christ and baptized them in the Guangzhou reservoir. I helped to coordinate a Bible ministry through which thousands of Bibles entered China every week, and I travelled all over the nation meeting with Christian leaders in hotel rooms or public parks in major cities.
I wanted to visit rural home churches, especially in Henan (where Hudson Taylor previously worked), but was told it was far too dangerous for a foreigner to visit them. However, knowing that our church was a Spirit-filled Pentecostal church, and almost one hundred percent of the Bible couriers and those supporting the ministry were Pentecostals, the Chinese believers wanted me to visit their home church coworkers’ meetings and teach on this subject.³ Thus, in early 1988, they arranged for me to go into the rural areas of Henan, Anhui, and Zhejiang provinces to teach in coworkers’ meetings that numbered from 80 to 800 attendees or more. Meetings would last three to five days in one village, and then we would go on to another village. Usually, I would teach and preach for up to nine hours a day, but during that time, in every session, we prayed for the believers to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. This continued until 1997 when I lost my visa. When my visa was restored in 2003, I continued this ministry until 2015 when I again lost my visa.
Before we visited China and taught the Pentecostal message, believers would experience miracles of healing and supernatural deliverances. This was due to the prayers of Christians. Even decades before I entered the rural areas to teach the Pentecostal message, churches had a habit of gathering early in the morning for prayer with these meetings often lasting up to two hours.
As people were baptized in the Holy Spirit, they also received gifts of the Holy Spirit: gifts of healing, words of knowledge, miracles, and so on. More than that, they received great boldness to openly preach the gospel. Thus, healings and miracles that followed the proclamation of the gospel led to the conversion of thousands of people.
Space does not allow me to share even a small percentage of what I saw; however, I want to state that we saw thousands of coworkers filled with the Holy Spirit accompanied by speaking in tongues and a massive outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Miracles, signs, wonders, and divine healings were seen everywhere we went. Many told me the main reason people became Christians was due to the testimony of divine healing, deliverance from demonic powers, and other miracles. While the Chinese church is not perfect—mistakes have been made, some false doctrine and teaching emerged during those years—nobody can deny that the Chinese church is like the church in the book of Acts. The gospel is widely preached with signs following; but, as in the first century, persecution is prevalent.
Hu Jintao was the moderate president of the People’s Republic of China from 2003 to 2013. He promoted the “harmonious society” policy. During those years we often visited the official Three-Self Patriotic Churches and with the approval of the authorities ministered in these churches in many cities. Many thus were opened to the work of the Holy Spirit with biblical worship services, praying for the sick, and the operation of the gift of the Holy Spirit. During those years official churches would unite with house churches to preach the gospel in their communities.
During recent years, restrictions on Christian ministry in general have increased and many overseas Christian workers have been forced to leave China. The government restricts the evangelism of children and youth, and Bibles can only be purchased in official church bookstores. Atheistic Marxist education is the norm for all Chinese young people. It would seem the present leadership of China is reversing the Open Door Policy of Deng Xiaoping which began in the 1980s. However, we thank the Lord that during the few short years China was open, thousands of Spirit-filled Christians from overseas entered China to provide Bibles, teaching materials, and to pray with countless tens of thousands of Chinese Christians to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Chinese church has a solid foundation based on the Word of God in which the Holy Spirit is honored. I believe despite temporary setbacks, the doors to China are still open in that the Chinese people are very open to Christ and the Holy Spirit. I believe that before the return of Christ, perhaps in our generation, this nation of 1.4 billion Han Chinese and other ethnic groups will be reached with the Full Gospel.
Endnotes
1. For a similar assessment of the naïve sentiments at that time, see Ross Paterson’s foreword to Tony Lambert, China’s Christian Millions (Oxford: Monarch, 2006), 7.
2. The Full Gospel is often understood as including all four elements of the Fourfold Gospel: Jesus is Savior; Healer; Baptizer in the Spirit; and Coming King.
3. “Coworkers’ meetings” refers to meetings for those actively engaged in ministry rather than the normal worship services that were open to all believers.
Originally from Webpage "China Source"
CCD edited and reprinted with permission
普遍观察
1969年，我刚到香港，几乎没有任何关于中国教会的准确信息。人们一般认为基督教在中国基本上已经被消灭了。众所周知，在文化大革命（1967年至1976年）期间，所有宗教都被禁止，三自爱国运动下的教会（完全受到共产党控制并只传播自由神学）勒停、家庭教会遭到封锁、所有牧师被送往劳改营或监狱、神学院和圣经学校也被关闭、所有圣经和宗教书籍都惨遭红卫兵摧毁。
很多人认为整个国家已然走向无神论。1978年，中国开放初始之际，一个主要的事工团体——亚洲外展事工（Asian Outreach）——印制了一份福音单张，简单描绘了桂林的美丽山水景色（如同在中国山水画中所看到的），末了以这个问题结尾： “这一切有可能是在自然过程中产生的吗？或是可能有一位创造者呢？” 你也许会问，为什么这些福音单张在向人们传讲基督和福音信息方面不具体一些？原因是人们担心任何宗教文宣都会被没收，分发这些文宣的人也会遭到逮捕。当时人们认为除了一些村庄中的老年人，全国都是无神论者。
大多数自由派教士声称：“基督教无法办到的事，毛主席办到了。毛主席将中国人民造就成了‘新人’。¹ ”他们宣称犯罪、卖淫、吸毒、赌博和其他恶习已经消失。自由派教士说：“与大部分资本主义国家的人相比，虽然中国人相对比较贫穷，但他们凡物共享，政府提供基本的教育和医疗服务，每个人都非常热爱毛主席和共产党，大多数人非常幸福。”他们常常说：“基督教是一个将罪孽加在人身上并允许帝国主义在中国扎根的西方宗教，没有存在的必要。”
然而，在1978年春天首次访问广州的几周内，我发现那些说法与事实完全不符。在过去的数十年中，我们不断了解到有骇人的暴行、屠杀、饥荒、政治内斗以及对宗教信徒可怕的迫害。即使现在，我们对大跃进（1958年至1962年）的恐怖仍有所耳闻，据估计，当时有三千两百万到四千五百万人死于饥荒，其中约10%是激进左派份子的受害者。在文化大革命期间，那些“反抗”者受到迫害和酷刑，人数以百万计，其中包括几十万基督徒。没有人确切知道文化大革命期间死亡的总人数，但估计约有好几百万人。
卖淫在当时和今日都很猖獗。当时的妓女卖淫是为了获得必需的配给券来购买食物。1978年中国改革开放后，这种情况随处可见，因为即使在当时，食物也只能用货币和配给券购买。当我们开始走访中国各地，不仅看到了妓女，还看到了无处不在的乞丐，贫困现象普遍存在。我们在参观医院时所看到的是肮脏破旧的建筑，医院几乎没有所需的设备或药品。
西方自由派牧师宣传毛主席造就了一个“新人”的观点是错误的。事实是， 1949年，中国新教小型家庭教会原本会众人数不到一百万，已经增长达到了数百万名的信徒。
我得知在广西省某地区有四万基督徒，他们在多个家庭教会中聚会，但却只有一本完整的圣经。因此消息，我们在1979年初开始了面向中国的圣经事工（称为“耶稣的驴驹”）。从1979年至2015年（习近平开始严密控制国家的那一年），数百万本圣经从香港送往了中国。大部分圣经都免费提供给家庭教会的领袖，所以在那些年里，我有幸走访了这个幅员辽阔的国家。
在过去几十年中，我曾与数百名家庭教会领袖，甚至许多三自爱国运动的牧师会面，并多次在这两类教会中事奉。我从中学到：藉由圣灵在所有基督徒生命中工作，全备的福音²得以传讲，医治、释放和神迹随之而来，那时拥有不到一百万会众的新教教会发展成了拥有七千万乃至一亿信徒的教会，这还仅是保守的估算。
由于对人员流动的严格控管，包括对外国访客的限制，无人能进行准确的宗教调查。然而，这些估计是基于不同地区已知基督徒的百分比，以及对不同省份一般宗教信仰的分析。不少人相信，至少80%的基督徒是五旬宗派或灵恩派。这虽然很难验证，但我坚信，大多数人归向基督是因为奇迹般的医治、从邪灵势力中的解脱和其他证明福音真理的神迹。
个人反思
从1979年到1997年间，我多次前往中国各地。每周，我在广州教授英语，带领几百名学生归向基督，并在广州的水库中为他们施洗。我协助统筹了一项圣经事工，每周有数千本圣经进入中国，我走访全国的主要大城市，与基督教领袖在酒店房间或公园会面。
我想参观农村的家庭教会，特别是河南（之前戴德生的工作地点），但有人告诉我，外国人去访问这些教会太危险了。然而，由于我们是一个圣灵充满的五旬宗派教会，几乎百分之百的圣经递送人员和事工支持者都是五旬宗派的信徒，中国的信徒希望我去拜访他们家庭教会的同工，并教导圣灵充满。³ 因此，1988年初，他们安排我去河南、安徽和浙江等省份的农村地区，在同工聚会中进行教导，人数从80到800人不等，有时更多。聚会通常是在一个村庄持续三到五天，随后再前往另一个村庄。通常，我每天的教学和传道长达九个小时。在这期间，我们每次聚会都为信徒祷告，让他们受圣灵的洗礼。如此一直持续到1997年，我失去了通往中国大陆的签证。2003年恢复签证后，我继续进行这项事工，直到2015年我再次失去签证。
在我们走访中国并传讲五旬派信息之前，因为基督徒的祷告，信徒们经历了医治和超自然的拯救神迹。甚至在我进入农村地区传讲五旬派信息的数十年前，教会已经养成了群体晨祷的习惯，每次晨祷往往长达两个小时。
当人们接受圣灵洗礼的同时，他们也获得了圣灵的恩赐：医治的恩赐、启示的话语、神迹等等。更重要的是，他们有了极大的勇气，公开传扬福音。医治和神迹随着福音的宣讲而发生，成千上万的人因此归信基督。
即使我仅分享我所见所闻的一小部分，此处的篇幅也容纳不下。但我想说的是，我们看到成千上万的同工被圣灵充满，伴随着说方言和圣灵恩赐的大量浇灌。在我们所到之处，都能看到神迹、奇事、异象和神圣的医治。许多人告诉我，人们成为基督徒主要是因为奇妙的医治、挣脱邪灵捆绑和其他的神迹。虽然中国教会并不完美，近年来也出现了一些错误的教义和教导，但无人能否认中国教会如同《使徒行传》中的教会一般，福音广传，神迹接踵而至；但正如第一世纪的情况，迫害也普遍存在。
胡锦涛在2003年至2013年期间担任中华人民共和国主席，是温和派的领导人。他提倡“和谐社会”政策。在那几年，我们经常拜访官方的三自爱国教会，并经过当局的批准在许多城市的教堂事奉。许多教会因此接纳圣灵的工作和恩赐的运行，实践了符合圣经的敬拜并为病人祷告。在那些年里，官方教会与家庭教会合作，在他们的社区传扬福音。
近年来，中国增加了对基督教事工的限制，许多来自海外的基督教工作人员被迫离开。政府限制向儿童和青年传福音，圣经只能在官方教堂的书店购得。无神论的马克思主义教育成为所有中国年轻人的常态。中国现在的领导层似乎正在扭转上世纪80年代开始的对外开放政策。但我们感谢主，在中国开放的短短几年间，数千名被圣灵充满的海外基督徒进入中国，提供圣经、教材，并与数以万计的中国基督徒一同祷告，使他们接受圣灵的洗礼。因此，中国教会以上帝的话语为本，尊崇圣灵，拥有坚实的根基。我相信，尽管暂时遇到挫折，中国的大门仍然敞开，中国人民对基督和圣灵非常开放。我也相信，于基督再来之前，也许是在我们这一代，全备福音将在这个拥有14亿汉族和其他少数民族的国家中传扬。
尾注：
有关针对当时无知论点的类似评估，请参阅罗斯·帕特森（Ross Paterson）为林保德（Tony Lambert）所著以书《中国基督徒亿兆》（牛津：帝王图书，2006）的前言第7页。
全备福音通常可理解为包括四个要素：耶稣是救主、医治者、圣灵施洗者和再来的君王。
“同工聚会”指的是积极参与事奉者所参与的会议，而非对所有信徒开放的常规礼拜。
中国的五旬节
General Observations
When I first arrived in Hong Kong in 1969, there was no accurate information about the church in China. The prevalent belief was that Christianity had been basically eliminated from China. It was common knowledge that all religion had been prohibited during the Cultural Revolution (1967–1976), the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) church—which was totally under the control of the Communist Party and preached only liberal theology—was closed, house churches were prohibited, all clergy were sent to labor reform camps or prison, seminaries and Bible schools were closed, and all Bibles and religious books had been destroyed by the Red Guards.
It was assumed by many that the whole nation had become atheistic. As China began to open in 1978, one major ministry, Asian Outreach, printed a tract which simply described the beautiful mountain scenery in Guilin (such as you see depicted in Chinese landscape paintings), and ended with this question, “Is it possible all this somehow occurred through natural processes, or might there perhaps be a Creator?” One would ask, why were these gospel tracts not more specific in presenting Christ and the gospel message? The reason is there was a fear that any religious literature would be confiscated and those distributing it would be arrested. It was thought that except for a few older people in the villages, the whole nation was now atheistic.
Most liberal churchmen stated, “What Christianity could not do, Chairman Mao did. Chairman Mao made a ‘new man’ out of the Chinese race.”¹ They claimed crime, prostitution, the taking of illegal drugs, gambling, and other vices had been eliminated. Liberal churchmen stated, “While the people were relatively poor compared to most in capitalist nations, what they had they shared one with another, the government provided basic educational and medical services, everyone greatly loved Mao and the Communist Party, and most were very happy.” It was then often stated, “There is no need for Christianity, a Western religion that puts guilt on people and allowed imperialism to take root in China.”
However, within weeks of my first trip to Guangzhou in the spring of 1978, I found that was totally false. During the past several decades we have been learning about the terrible atrocities, massacres, famines, political infighting, and horrendous persecution of religious believers. Even now we hear about the horrors of the Great Leap Forward (1958–1962) in which an estimated 32 to 45 million lost their lives through famine with about ten percent being victims of the radical leftists. Victims of persecution during the Cultural Revolution—those who “struggled against” it were persecuted and tortured—number in the millions including hundreds of thousands of Christians. No one is sure of the total number of deaths during the Cultural Revolution, but it is possibly several million.
Prostitution then and today was rampant, but prostitutes then sold their bodies to get ration coupons which were needed to purchase food. We saw this everywhere after China opened in 1978 as even then food could only be purchased using both money and ration coupons. As we began to travel throughout China, we saw not only prostitutes, but beggars everywhere. Poverty was widespread, and on visits to hospitals we saw dirty, rundown buildings with almost none of the equipment or medication that a hospital would need.
The idea promoted by liberal clergymen in the West that Mao had made a “new man” was not true, but what was true is that the small, Protestant, house church of perhaps not more than one million believers in 1949, had grown by multiple millions.
I became aware of one group of 40,000 believers in a district in Guangxi province. They met in multiple house churches, but we were told they had only one complete Bible among them. Due to that report, in the first part of 1979 we began our Bible ministry to China (called “Donkeys for Jesus”), and during the 36 years from 1979 to 2015 (the year Xi Jinping began to take tight control of the nation), countless millions of Bibles were delivered to China from Hong Kong. Most were provided free to house church leaders, and thus during those years I was privileged to travel throughout this vast nation.
During the past few decades, I have met with hundreds of house church leaders, and even many TSPM pastors, and have ministered in both types of churches on multiple occasions. This is what I learned: Through the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of all Christians through which the Full Gospel² was preached, with healings, deliverances, and signs following, the Protestant church of a million or less grew to a church of 70 to 100 million believers, conservatively speaking.
Due to the strict control of people’s movements, including that of foreign visitors, it is impossible for anyone to conduct an accurate religious survey. However, these estimates are based on the percentage of known Christians in different districts and an analysis of general religious beliefs in the different provinces. Many believe that at least eighty percent of the Christians are either Pentecostal or charismatic. While this is hard to verify, I firmly believe most people converted to Christ due to miraculous healings, deliverance from demonic powers, and other miracles that proved the truth of the gospel.
Personal Reflections
From 1979 to 1997 I made multiple trips throughout China. Weekly, I taught English in Guangzhou, led a few hundred students to Christ and baptized them in the Guangzhou reservoir. I helped to coordinate a Bible ministry through which thousands of Bibles entered China every week, and I travelled all over the nation meeting with Christian leaders in hotel rooms or public parks in major cities.
I wanted to visit rural home churches, especially in Henan (where Hudson Taylor previously worked), but was told it was far too dangerous for a foreigner to visit them. However, knowing that our church was a Spirit-filled Pentecostal church, and almost one hundred percent of the Bible couriers and those supporting the ministry were Pentecostals, the Chinese believers wanted me to visit their home church coworkers’ meetings and teach on this subject.³ Thus, in early 1988, they arranged for me to go into the rural areas of Henan, Anhui, and Zhejiang provinces to teach in coworkers’ meetings that numbered from 80 to 800 attendees or more. Meetings would last three to five days in one village, and then we would go on to another village. Usually, I would teach and preach for up to nine hours a day, but during that time, in every session, we prayed for the believers to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. This continued until 1997 when I lost my visa. When my visa was restored in 2003, I continued this ministry until 2015 when I again lost my visa.
Before we visited China and taught the Pentecostal message, believers would experience miracles of healing and supernatural deliverances. This was due to the prayers of Christians. Even decades before I entered the rural areas to teach the Pentecostal message, churches had a habit of gathering early in the morning for prayer with these meetings often lasting up to two hours.
As people were baptized in the Holy Spirit, they also received gifts of the Holy Spirit: gifts of healing, words of knowledge, miracles, and so on. More than that, they received great boldness to openly preach the gospel. Thus, healings and miracles that followed the proclamation of the gospel led to the conversion of thousands of people.
Space does not allow me to share even a small percentage of what I saw; however, I want to state that we saw thousands of coworkers filled with the Holy Spirit accompanied by speaking in tongues and a massive outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Miracles, signs, wonders, and divine healings were seen everywhere we went. Many told me the main reason people became Christians was due to the testimony of divine healing, deliverance from demonic powers, and other miracles. While the Chinese church is not perfect—mistakes have been made, some false doctrine and teaching emerged during those years—nobody can deny that the Chinese church is like the church in the book of Acts. The gospel is widely preached with signs following; but, as in the first century, persecution is prevalent.
Hu Jintao was the moderate president of the People’s Republic of China from 2003 to 2013. He promoted the “harmonious society” policy. During those years we often visited the official Three-Self Patriotic Churches and with the approval of the authorities ministered in these churches in many cities. Many thus were opened to the work of the Holy Spirit with biblical worship services, praying for the sick, and the operation of the gift of the Holy Spirit. During those years official churches would unite with house churches to preach the gospel in their communities.
During recent years, restrictions on Christian ministry in general have increased and many overseas Christian workers have been forced to leave China. The government restricts the evangelism of children and youth, and Bibles can only be purchased in official church bookstores. Atheistic Marxist education is the norm for all Chinese young people. It would seem the present leadership of China is reversing the Open Door Policy of Deng Xiaoping which began in the 1980s. However, we thank the Lord that during the few short years China was open, thousands of Spirit-filled Christians from overseas entered China to provide Bibles, teaching materials, and to pray with countless tens of thousands of Chinese Christians to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Chinese church has a solid foundation based on the Word of God in which the Holy Spirit is honored. I believe despite temporary setbacks, the doors to China are still open in that the Chinese people are very open to Christ and the Holy Spirit. I believe that before the return of Christ, perhaps in our generation, this nation of 1.4 billion Han Chinese and other ethnic groups will be reached with the Full Gospel.
Endnotes
1. For a similar assessment of the naïve sentiments at that time, see Ross Paterson’s foreword to Tony Lambert, China’s Christian Millions (Oxford: Monarch, 2006), 7.
2. The Full Gospel is often understood as including all four elements of the Fourfold Gospel: Jesus is Savior; Healer; Baptizer in the Spirit; and Coming King.
3. “Coworkers’ meetings” refers to meetings for those actively engaged in ministry rather than the normal worship services that were open to all believers.
Originally from Webpage "China Source"
CCD edited and reprinted with permission
Pentecost in China (2)
