True Jesus Church in China
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- This article was originally a direct translation from zh:中國真耶穌教會史.
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The True Jesus Church in China is a non-denominational (independent) church that was established in Beijing, People's Republic of China, in 1917.
[edit] Early history
Not long after the Boxer Rebellion, independent churches were formed which were able to run their own affairs without outside help, interference, or control. Many Chinese people regarded Christianity as a Western religion and associated it with the European colonial powers.
During this period six major independent churches were established after splitting away from their Protestant denominations and they still exist to this day:
- The Church Assembly Hall (聚會所),
- The True Jesus Church (真耶穌教會),
- Gospel of Grace Church or Grace Evangelical Church (福音堂),
- The Chinese Christian Church (中華基督教會),
- The Jesus Family (耶穌家庭), and
- The Chinese Church in Christ (CCiC, 基督徒會堂)
(For further details, see Chinese Independent Churches.)
[edit] TJC missionary work in the Northern regions
Despite Paul Wei's passing away in 1919, the True Jesus Church work continued to grow at a fast pace. Wei's son Isaac Wei continued preaching in Northern China, and set up several churches. Barnabas Zhang, along with several co-workers, evangelised in the central regions of China. In 1920, they preached to the provinces of Hubei and Hunan; the growth resulting from their missionary work was large and numerous churches were established.
[edit] Missionary work in the Southern regions
In 1923, Barnabas traveled to Shanghai to help pastor and nurture the church with the local preacher. He then headed to Wenzhou of Zhejiang province and the Fujian province, spreading the Gospel and setting up churches there.
During this missionary trip, former Seventh-day Adventist Church members Thomas Guo and Silas Liu from Fuzhou province joined the True Jesus Church. Thomas was later remembered as having established the TJC General Coordination Board and The Holy Spirit News publication.
In 1935 Barnabas Zhang, Thomas Guo, Silas Lin and others preached to Xiamen,Zhangzhou and surrounding areas. It was in this region where Taiwanese left their former church denominations to join them. Together, they boarded a ship to Taiwan and three churches were established numbering over 100 believers, after preaching there for only forty days.
In 1927, the TJC coordination board sent Barnabas Zhang to evangelise South-East Asia and on his return journey, he established churches in Guangdong province
[edit] Church establishments in the provinces
- 1917 - The Beijing True Jesus Church in Hebei province
- 1919 - The churches in Shandong province, Hunan, Shanxi, Jiangsu, and Hubei were established.
- 1922 - The church in Henan province founded
- 1923 - Churches in Jiangsi and Fujian provinces established
- 1924 - Churches in Liaoning and Jilin provinces
- 1928 - The churches in Zhejiang province at Wenzhou,and Guangdong province at Guangzhou established.
- 1935 - Church established in Sichuan province at Zhongqi
- 1938 - Church in Shanxi province
- 1943 - Church established in Gansu province
- 1945 - Church founded in Yunnan province at Kunming
[edit] Important early church events
Not long after the True Jesus Church was formed, its development was very rapid. In 1922, representatives from all the Chinese provinces held their first conference. During their discussion they agreed to become a unified body and set out 15 basic rules and standards that is expected for every church.
During the 3rd TJC major conference, delegates approved the establishment of the General Assembly Board of China in Nanjing (moved to Shanghai the following year) and the creation of "The Holy Spirit News" newspaper bulletin. After an excited discussion, they established the basic teachings and beliefs of the True Jesus Mission.
A theological institution was opened to cultivate preachers that can help pastor the church.
[edit] The Barnabas Zhang incident
Brother Zhang was one of the early church workers; later, he claimed that he was the first founder of this Church.
Zhang was discontented with the decisions made by the General Assembly; as a result, when Barnabas was sent by the church to South-East Asia, he seized this opportunity to form his own General Assembly in Hong Kong and personally declared himself the head Bishop of the Church and began dressing like a Cardinal or Pope.
Despite many attempts by church Brothers to dissuade him, he was unrepentant of his actions; therefore, during a major church meeting in 1930, Zhang was excommunicated. Despite this, Barnabas remained as head of the Hong Kong church until his death.
[edit] The January 28th Incident
Beginning with the takeover of Manchuria in 1931, Japan launched an aggressive military campaign that was aimed at taking control of China. This event sparked an underground anti-Japanese opposition throughout the country.
On 20 January 1932, a Japanese citizen was murdered which provoked a war in the Zhabei (閘北 district, North of Shanghai. Japanese planes bombed this manufacturing and residential district to shreds.
By that time, most of the residents living there had already evacuated and fled to safer parts elsewhere. However, the True Jesus Church General Assembly (which was located in the Zhabei area) was holding the 6th delegates conference during that time. Japanese soldiers advanced to that area and wrongly believed that anti-Japanese rebels were hidden inside the church and were using it as headquarters. The soldiers quietly poured gasoline and ignited the whole church building which included the Holy Spirit Times newspaper printing factory.
Unaware of what had just occurred, the 21 church committee members continued with the meeting until they started seeing smoke fumes. Two of the committee members decided to flee from the building. Unfortunately as they were escaping, one of them was riddled with bullets on his leg (since the Japanese soldiers had surrounded the entire church building) and died shortly afterward - the other church member disappeared and was never seen again.
The remaining church members were frightened and decided to pray. Fortunately, the Japanese military officer heard the word "Hallelujah" shouted from inside the church and concluded that they were "good people". The Japanese soldiers then escorted the church members from the building to the safe foreign settlement zone. This is considered the worst disaster that this church had faced ever since its establishment fifteen years before. After this incident, the church headquarters was relocated inside the safer foreign settlements of the city.
[edit] The "Tribulation period"
Shortly after the Communists took control of China in 1949, one of their main aims was to rid the country of any foreign influence that could threaten to topple the regime. Initially, Christianity was tolerated but the authorities quickly changed their minds and a law was passed to ban Christians evangelising or holding services. Every Christian denomination had to go to the government approved Three-Self Patriotic Movement church for services which were strictly and secretly monitored.
The following is a list of significant dates:
- 1950 - The "three self" renewal doctrine for churches proposed by government.
- 1951 - The outbreak of the Korean War stirs up anti-American sentiment. All foreign missionaries are ordered to leave the country.
- 1954 - Three-Self Patriotic Movement churches commences. The following year it becomes the only legal church. All preachers must undergo government training.
- 1956 - Many underground family services secretly held.
- 1957 - Numerous preachers including Isaac Wei were arrested and imprisoned for illegally holding services.
- 1958 - The True Jesus Church and all other Christian churches (save the Three-Self Patriotic Church) suffered from the government-imposed bans - The majority of the followers participated, along with other church denominations, in various "Christian unification services" to continue worship. (These operated under government surveillance).
- The only exception was True Jesus Church in Fujian which was still allowed to continue maintaining the original organization and hold services by themselves.
- 1959 - Only a few large churches left; the rest are closed down.
- 1966 - In June, the Cultural Revolution began, by August all churches are closed.
The situation deteriorated into anarchy during the infamous Cultural Revolution initiated by chairman Mao Zedong where Christians were among those who were persecuted, martyred, attacked, and imprisoned by the communist authorities. Mao's young red guards forced people to hand over Bibles and they were burnt.
On the outward appearance, evangelising came to a standstill; it seemed that Christianity in China had been effectively crushed. However, services were still secretly held in homes or underground and bibles were handwritten. Individuals started memorizing entire Apostolic letters and books in order to duplicate them later on.
When the Christians' underground hideouts were discovered, they fled to other cities and provinces, carrying the Gospel with them and preaching to new faces.
It is said that many Christians climbed high up into the Wenzhou mountains where they could pray unhindered.
[edit] The church situation from 1975 to present
In 1975, Richard Nixon, former President of the United States, re-established ties with Mao Zedong's government. Due to foreign pressure on human rights issues, their official policy changed to: "You can admit that you're a Christian but do not evangelise." The Cultural revolution had stopped by 1976.
Since Deng Xiao Ping's took over the communist regime, the situation has improved as their tight grip has been relaxed. In April 1979, the first church reopened and gradually other churches followed. The number of Christians increased rapidly during this period and numerous miracles occurred. Nevertheless, people that are caught preaching will face a minimum prison sentence of 3 years.
In 1980 a law was passed that allowed Christians to worship at specific locations and venues; evangelising elsewhere is prohibited. Seven prohibitions were listed. This includes: no secret family services, no building of churches, and no preaching.
After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 incident, Christians returned to underground services for only a brief period.
From 1996 - present, China's welcoming open-door policy to foreign investors has lifted its economy to new heights and since China wishes to enter new markets and continue the prosperity, Christians can now hold services safely.
Today there is an estimated figure of 50-70 million Chinese Christians (about 5% of the population--note that this number refers to all Christian denominations and is not limited to those under the True Jesus Church).
The number of registered churches is 13,000 and they have 20-25 million members. The number of unregistered churches is 35,000; they have 30-40 million members. The number of "House churches" is obviously difficult to estimate. There are an estimated 2.4 million True Jesus Church members in China today.
There is no well organised church governing structure so many areas still lack Bibles and other reference materials.
