Barnabas Zhang (張巴拿巴 Pinyin: Zhāng Bānábā, 11 February 1882 - 1961), was an early preacher for the True Jesus Church in China, an indigenous Chinese church. Born in Wei County, Shandong Province, Zhang's former name was Diàn-Jǚ (殿舉). His mother died when he was four years old and when his father remarried, Diàn-Jǚ often fled to distant locations. At the age of fifteen he began work as a farmer and by the age of twenty, he started learning commerce - eventually becoming a collector and trader of antiques.
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In the autumn of 1909, when Diàn-Jǔ was twenty-seven years of age, his uncle Zhang Lingsheng paid a visit to his village where he preached sermons concerning repentance and the forgiveness of sins. His wife was moved by the gospel but Diàn-Jǔ initially opposed it. However after three to four of reading through the Bible which his wife had brought back home, he became curious of the passages mentioning the prophet Elijah being taken up into heaven, of the Apostles Paul and Peter performing wonders and he wanted to have the same spiritual powers that they had [1]. He repented of his sins and sought for grace. He often prayed in the quiet place, but without feeling anything different for a long time; then he thought of the Bible verse, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you [2]." This strengthened his resolve and Diàn-Jǔ increased the frequency of his prayer day by day.
At dusk of 16 March 1911, while walking in the wilderness, Diàn-Jǚ heard a sound from above saying "Salvation during the last days comes from the east to west; Go and save all nations". He then started prayed on his knees and received the Holy Spirit through glossolalia [3]. Shortly afterwards, Diàn-Jǚ and his whole family were then baptised by Zhang Lingsheng. After cultivating their faith for four years, Ling-Sheng laid hands on Diàn-Jǔ as an Elder [4]
In 1913 Diàn-Jǔ was labelled as a 'devil' and beaten up by his own clan for preaching to them about Jesus and the 'faith of the foreigners'. Diàn-Jǔ had to flee to his aunt's house. He did not return home until five days later. On his way home, he knelt down near a river shore to pray that the persecution would stop, and the persecution ceased [5]. In the spring of 1914, Diàn-Jǔ intended to commence business in the leather industry and aid in the formation of the church there. During his planning stage, he met with fierce resistance from his clan and the church was persecuted. His name Diàn-Jǚ was removed from the family scroll and his house was burnt to the ground.
Diàn-Jǔ then moved his business operations to Qingdao, Shandong, but due to war skirmishes and the ensuing civil unrest, his capital and goods were looted by bandits during the autumn of that same year. At the beginning of 1915, Diàn-Jǔ and Zhang Lingsheng opened a primary school so that the children of the believers and their friends could receive education. The syllabus included hymn singing and worshipping God. Within a year, the pupils achieved good grades and sixty of the pupils were willing to receive baptism. As they travelled two kilometres to the nearest river, the locals there tried all they could to block them on the pretext that they were 'polluting' the river. So Diàn-Jǔ knelt down and prayed in the middle of the opposing crowd. After his prayer, an army officer, whom often attended his sermons, came out from the city to receive baptism. The crowd was afraid of his power and hence the opposition ceased. In the spring of 1915, Pastor Berntsen and Zhào Délǐ (趙得理) from the Church of God in Beijing came to Wei County and resided in Diàn-Jǔ's residence for several days. Berntsen and Zhào Délǐ proposed that their two church congregations be merged together into a single entity so that they could cooperate alongside each other and jointly preach the gospel. However Diàn-Jǔ rejected this proposal after he disagreed on a passage written by Berntsen in the Popular Gospel Truth periodical mentioning the Sabbath:
| “ | "When travelling from the Mediterranean Sea to our China, you would lose a day from among the seven days, therefore the Sabbath day in China is actually supposed to be on a Sunday.[6]" | ” |
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During February 1916, while walking on the road, Diàn-Jǔ again heard a voice saying "You are to head south to preach the gospel, I will give you great powers". On April, he changed his name to Barnabas after revelations by the Holy Spirit.
In 1919 he headed to Southern China, preaching the gospel and establishing numerous True Jesus Church prayer buildings. When preaching, Barnabas was humbly dressed up in normal peasant clothing. Most people believed him, owing to many miraculous signs and wonders attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit such as the casting out of demons and healing fatal illnesses on the sick [7]
By 1926, he preached to Taiwan and established three churches in forty days. In 1927 after an invitation from Southeast Asian believers he journeyed to Singapore and what is now Malaysia where he established four churches for the first time.
Later on, Barnabas claimed to be the founder of the church and after a dispute with Isaac Wei, headed to Hong Kong where he declared himself "Bishop" and the head of the Church by setting up his own General Assembly. As a result, he was later excommunicated by the church general coordination board in 1931.[8]
The supporters of Isaac Wei labelled Barnabas as having gone 'insane' during his last years since he and his wife wore clothing which closely resembled that of a Cardinal or Pope during services in the Hong Kong church [9]
Barnabas died in Singapore on 25 January 1961[10]