The True Jesus Church was first preached into Malaysia in 1926 when a deacon of the True Jesus Church in Singapore named John Voon handed out a copy of the Holy Spirit News (聖靈報), published by the Nanjing True Jesus Church General Assembly, to friend named En-fook Tsen in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.[1] However Tsen was an overseas Chinese businessman pre-occupied with his work and lacked the time to glean over the material, hence he redirected it to a Sandakan friend named Siak-lin Lee.
Siak-lin Lee was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and asfter carefully examining the Holy Spirit News, he was deeply moved. As a result of his eagerness to seek the truth, he boarded a ship headed for Singapore to search for the True Jesus Church and throughout the whole journey he enquired for the whereabouts of the church. After his encounter with deacon Voon and a period of examining their teachings he received baptism on 11 January 1927; three days later he received the Holy Spirit.[2]
At the same time, with consent of Elder Tan and deacon Voon, he headed back to Sandakan to preach the gospel. In this way the first True Jesus Church in Sandakan was formed in 1927. In 1932, they sent deacon Philip Tyan to represent the church in Malaysia at the Eighth Delegates Conference held in Shanghai.
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The churches in Penang and Ipoh were established in 1928 by Deacon Ng,[3] followed by the churches in Kuala Lumpur and Kajang between 1930 and 1931. Despite persecution during the World War Two Japanese Occupation of Malaysia, chuches were also established in other parts of Peninsular Malaysia from 1940 to 1950. The church also has congregations amongst the Malaysian Tamils and the indigenous people of Peninsular Malaysia.
As of 2008 there are churches and prayer houses in the following states:
As Siak-lin Lee was actively preaching to the Chinese Christians in Sabah during 1927, the local Protestant denominations such as the Seventh-day Adventists, the Basel Church and the Presbyterians began to panic because they had already heard of the True Jesus Church's evangelizing efforts on the Mainland and their emphasis on the Holy Spirit. However, due to the fact that their home councils in Britain and North America had previously issued a statement condemning the Pentecostal movement in 1915, the local pastors warned their local congregations: "My fellow brethren, do not deceived by the false prophets of the false christ, they use hypnosis and obstruct the truth."
Despite this, some Christians were still eager to inquire further on what they were preaching, and the attendance during night services averaged sixty seven people. Later, thirty-nine people were willing to receive baptism with immersion and three of them received the Holy Spirit that day.
When their evangelisation efforts reached Sabah, the TJC Elder Chen Chien-hsin [4] became involved in a debate with an English Pastor, whose adopted Chinese name Mashun [5] As they were debating, a certain pastor named Mark Chen [6] also watched closely on the sidelines and was convinced that the TJC was preaching the truth and received baptism. After the debate, Pastor Mashun was angered and from then on, he sought ways to hinder the work of this fledgling group.[7]
According to the regulations of the Sandakan Port during that period, a license had to be obtained from the local government in order to legally evangelise. However the TJC Elder Chen Chien-hsin did not obtain the license in advance and, despite bravely preached for several days, the local government still did not make any remarks. Upon seeing this, pastor Mashun became alarmed because he noticed that the TJC converts were increasing daily whereas the Seventh-day Adventist congregation were reducing daily. Since his salary was assessed on the congregation attendance, Mashun devised a plan to expel those preachers.
Since Mark Chen was residng at a rented house, Mashun informed the landlord that the men were carrying out unlawful preaching activities and as a result, Mark Chen was denied further residence there and had to seek accommodation at the houses of the new converts, whom had also provided a school facility for him to teach.
The English pastor Mashun and a Chinese named Jiang Ming-han [8] could not bear this any further and reported to the authorities claiming that Mark Chen, Siak-lin Lee and others were stirring up a rebellion and as a result, Mark was arrested around 1 pm at 11 April and thrown into prison. However since Siak-lin Lee was a member of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and had several investment funds in the area, the government feared that his arrest could lead to negative impacts, hence they decided to arrest Mark Chen first.
The local government had also issued new legislation which stated that any Chinese accused of sedition would be imprisoned and re-offenders would be deported. Mark Chen was imprisoned for over ten days, and he decided to undertake a fast as soon as he entered prison. The prison guard that he refused to eat at every meal so he noticed the Police officer. The police officer thought that it was because the prison food was not of good taste and feared that Mark might die in prison. Hence he notified the church members and allowed them to bring food to him. On careful observation, the police officer discovered Mark Chen's Bible and started asking him questions which made him realise that Mark was imprisoned due to religious jealousy and from then onwards, mark was given preferential treatment.
During the days of Mark's imprisonment, the Sandakan church prayed fervently for Mark and also prayed for God to forgive his persecutors, Pastor Mashun and Jiang Hou-ming,[9] for their sins of ignorance. These events soon drew the attention of the political authorities, and they secretly sent spies to attend the church services to examine their movements to see if the accusations contained any substance. Then they understood that this was just a religious issue, that the TJC were preaching according to the biblical truths, the brethren showed love towards newcomers. They also noticed that despite the current hardship, they did not bear any resentment, and still persisted in their religious devotion. Once all this was reported to the city populace, the public citizens soon knew of what really happened and became outraged. The city populace rebuked the local Seventh-day adventist church for their false rumours and biased accusations, and severely reprimanded pastor Mashun and Jiang Hou-min as the big sinners of the devil. Whenever the two of them walked on the streets, members of the public would mock them and shout the public opinion towards them. Even their own Seventh-day adventist members began labelling pastor Mashun and Jiang Hou-min as deceivers.
Because the public protests and unrest had been sparked by this incident and was increasing daily, the members of the Colonial Government — of the Governor, the Colonial Secretary, the General, the Chief Secretary for Administration, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Business Kapitan — held a temporary emergency meeting on 20 April 1927 to speedily determine whether this was an act of sedition or simply religious matters only and how this issue should be dealt with under the public law because they could not ascertain what had really happpened. The two topics of religion or sedition were considered to be important political issues because it related to the Freedom of Religion Act and the Sedition Act. The governing authorities feared that if the accusations against the TJC evangelists turned out to be a false rumour and that they were persecuted due to religion factors, then it might lead to a religious war like that of the crusades.[10] On the other hand, if it was confirmed to be an act of sedition, then the perpetrators ought to be severely dealt with. Shortly afterwards they took note of all this and sent police detectives to report on all aspects of their activities. After undertaking intense inquiries from the Chinese Kapitan, the Chamber of Commerce and a list of others, they ascertained that the claims of sedition were unsubstantiated and that the accusations had originated from the jealousy of the Seventh-day adventist pastor Mashun. They also confirmed that the TJC's activities were specifically for missionary work that was beneficial to the hearts of mankind, and that they do not involve themselves in foreign or political affairs at all. Therefore they released Mark Chen and permitted him to continue preaching in that location and gave him the freedom to build chapels.[11]
Shortly after the dedication of the Tuaran church, a certain church sister named Lumbihan Gimpit, whom belonged to an indigenous Borneo tribe named Dusun, preached the gospel into the mountainous region of Wangkod and thereby established the first Dusun church with brother James ordained as deacon to pastor the church. Numerous church prayer houses were also formed near the vicinity and church dedication ceremonies were conducted in an area whenever the number of believers attained a sufficient level.
In early 1958, a man named Sahoh, who belonged to the Murut tribe located in Sungei Paal fell seriously ill, and hence the tribesman urgently invited deacon Philip to come to the interior regions. Deacon Philip, after preaching the gospel to Sahoh, interceded for him through the laying on of hands and miraculously he was no longer spitting out blood; a few days later his sickness was totally cured. In this way, Sahoh believed in the Lord and a prayer house was formed at his house. This charismatic movement soon spread throughout the whole village, many signs and miracles were manifested. After a surge in the number of believers, deacon Thomas Chew and ten other fellow co-workers came to Sungei Paal and built a church chapel.
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