Background

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) the tangible church no longer existed. In some regions, although Bibles had been burnt, Christians copied the Bible by hand and trained their children to memorise passages. When these children grew up they became preachers: when Nanjing Union Theological College reopened in 1981 a student came from Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, who had begun to preach at the age of 15 years.

In Wenzhou, Christians were familiar with the Bible. They not only memorised the Bible but also obeyed its teachings in their lives. The number of Christians increased in secret during the Cultural Revolution. In the early eighties, when the church resumed its legitimate status, 300,000 Christians emerged from the underground church in the Wenzhou region. By 1996 this number had doubled (620,000) which is 10 per cent of the population. Most of these are young people; many of the preachers are volunteers.

The Chinese government is sympathetic to the church because there are no criminals, no tax evaders among the Christians, and there are fewer cases of divorce. Many Christians become factory directors and managers, and play an important role in the economic development of the region. The growth of the church depends upon the growth of the Christian, and the growth of the Christian depends upon being fed with the Word of God.

l The following is the testimony of Dr Li Bixia who is a very famous Chinese Christian and paediatrician, and has twice been a guest at the White House breakfast prayer meetings:

“I was granted my MD degree in the summer of 1936 by Peking (Beijing) Union Medical College. In that same summer we had a discussion about whether Jesus was the Son of God or not. I disagreed that he was, but after the discussion I felt I had committed a great sin in disputing what the Bible says. When I was only a baby of 40 days old God had saved my life, and now I felt that God would discipline me for such a denial.

“That summer I developed a high fever and went into hospital where I was told I was suffering from typhoid, which was incurable then. That was where I picked up a New Testament and began to read it, and it seemed sweeter than honey. After seven days I had read it through and God was speaking to me: ‘the wages of sin is death . . .’ I had committed the greatest sin by denying that Jesus was the Son of God. I shivered all over my body and did not know what to do.

“I realised then that I should confess my sins. I had been confined to my bed all this time but there and then I got up and knelt by the bed and prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, asking him to cleanse me of all my sins with his blood and to forgive all my unrighteousness. I said: ‘Lord, open my heart, come in and live in my heart and be my Saviour. Let the Lord govern me, and I will live for the Lord, in Jesus’s name, Amen.’

“As soon as I said ‘Amen’ my fever was gone and I stopped fainting. My recovery was quick and complete. My doctor was amazed and asked me what had happened. I told her that when I began to pray in Jesus’s name I had begun to recover. ‘Wonderful, wonderful,’ she exclaimed; ‘I will believe in Jesus.’”
 

A Christian woman knew about Sun Jinlan and was concerned for her; she prayed for her and tried to talk to her, but Sun Jinlan’s response was negative. The Christian continued to pray and show her concern, and after two years Sun Jinlan agreed to go to church with her. The woman gave her a Bible, but Sun Jinlan could not read.

She taught herself to read and began to find out from the Bible that she was a sinner. She was deeply moved by the words in Matthew 27:46: “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” She realised that the death and suffering of Christ were for her sake. She took strength from these words and determined to let the Word of God enter her heart. She became a member of a church choir.

Sun Jinlan found comfort in the Bible; only God could wipe away her tears. Her baptism was the turning point in her life; she started to examine herself by the standard set in the Bible. After several years of study she was able to read the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

One day the words of Matthew 10:8 spoke to her: “You have received without paying, so give without being paid.” She started to visit patients in hospitals and preach the Gospel to them. She went to the poorest region in another province where the people had only rice and pickled vegetables for food during winter. She stayed with them for more than a month and preached to them, teaching them church hymns and how to play a church organ. Sun Jinlan wrote a play about Ruth which was presented at Christmas 1996.

l The Bible is also having an effect upon Chinese culture. In the 1920s there was a new cultural movement that caused a revolution in literature: vernacular Chinese literature was promoted rather than old classical Chinese. The Chinese Bible is the best specimen of vernacular Chinese and it exerted great influence on modern Chinese writers. 


v A prominent leader of the Chinese new cultural movement was Chen Duxiu who was also the first leader of the Chinese Communist Party. In his article Christianity and the Chinese he writes: “It is necessary to cultivate the sublime and great personality and the enthusiastic emotion of Jesus in our blood, to save us from the cold-blooded, dark and filthy pit into which we fall.”

v The famous modern Chinese essayist Zhou Zuoren studied biblical literature. He writes: “The Book of Jonah expresses the noble spirit of universalism and the Sermon on the Mount has the spirit of universal love.” He thought that Christianity was suitable for giving a new spirit to the Chinese.

v Famous novelist Bajin wrote: “Death is the door leading to eternal life. The sacrificial life is the first condition of true life.” And modern dramatist Tian Hun writes of the passage where Jesus is anointed by a sinful woman: “Nothing is more lovely, more artistic and holier than that incident and that passage; since Jesus has such power to affect people he is worthy to be the founder of a religion.”

Lo Chen-fang continued: “Now the Bible enjoys high respect among Chinese intellectuals. In 1994 I participated in a seminar on Western Literature and Christianity. Most of the participants were non-Christian scholars who were teachers of biblical literature in universities all over the country. I have never before seen so many Chinese scholars show so much interest in the Bible.”

v Professor Zhu Weizhi, an expert in biblical literature, was over 90 years old. His student read his treatise for him at the seminar: “The newness of the New Testament consists not only in its new literary form but also in a new spirit infused in the literary trend of thought. The old stylistic characteristic of the European Greek and Roman classical literature is its emphasis on reality and reason. However, people should always have some spirit, some faith and ideals. The contribution of early Christian literature to European Literature is its spirit, faith and ideals.”

The Holy Spirit works through the Bible  both inside and outside the church.  There is still a long, long way to go before the Chinese  church attains maturity but there is no doubt that  Chinese Christians hunger and thirst for the Word of God.

“Now the Bible enjoys high respect among Chinese intellectuals.”

“The moral ideal of the Bible is divine love. The Bible gives the guiding principle of governing the country with love, justice and law . . .

“The miraculous effect of the Bible is that it gives men wisdom, peace and joy. The philosophy of the Bible is dialectical, realistic and having foresight . . . The Bible says that people should obey the authorities and not rebel. Furthermore, Christians come together because of their hunger and thirst after righteousness and for the purpose of seeking the truth. In their meeting they read the Bible, sing hymns and share with one another their testimonies of doing good and showing their inner spiritual beauty . . . They come before God of their own will, not for the purpose of winning promotion and getting rich or for worldly eating and drinking . . . Their lives are a sharp contrast to and poles apart from worldly mammonism, corruption, theft, degeneration, bribery and falsehood.” He concludes his article by quoting from Psalm 19:7-11 to express his joy and praise to God.

The Holy Spirit works through the Bible both inside and outside the church. There is still a long, long way to go before the Chinese church attains maturity but there is no doubt that Chinese Christians hunger and thirst for the Word of God. Thanks to Amity Press and the 10 million Bibles printed between 1987 and 1995 (now approaching 17 million) Chinese Christians need not copy the Bible by hand and are grateful that God is providing for them.