n the first of these last two sessions of Chinese house church history, we will cover a special topic: the influence of the Reformed church on house churches, or the spread and influence of the Reformed faith within the house churches. Let’s look at it. We talked about it some before 1949. Let’s summarize what we previously discussed. We looked at the influence, history, and existence of the Reformed faith during the process of Protestantism’s pre-1949 entry into China.
In fact, we could trace it back a little further than Protestant missions in China. Prior to that was the Dutch arrival in Taiwan. The Dutch church was a Reformed church. After the Reformation, the Dutch established the very first Reformed church in Geneva, Switzerland.
In France, the Huguenots established a Reformed Church. But later, the Huguenots fell under severe persecution. There was a famous massacre against the Huguenots known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, named after one of the twelve apostles, Bartholomew, who was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. On the night of August 24, 1572, while Catholic forces clashed with Protestant forces, the Huguenots were massacred. Within a month, over one hundred thousand the Huguenots were killed in Paris and the French provinces. The Huguenots, the French Reformed church, basically disappeared from France. France would go on to remain a Catholic country. I am not saying there are no Protestant churches in France, but the country is more-or-less Catholic. At one point it had a king who converted to Protestantism, but after persecution, the Reformed church disappeared.
As you know, the 16th century was a period when nation states gradually came into being, but their borders were not as distinct as the countries of the Netherlands and France are today. At that time, there was a region called the Netherlands, which is today’s nation of the Netherlands. The Huguenots had influence in the Netherlands. Some of them fled to North America, and thus there were Huguenots in the New World.
After the Reformed church was established in Switzerland, in terms of Reformed nations, Scotland was another important country that established Presbyterian church. It is fair to say that Scotland and the Netherlands were the two most important European countries for Calvinism and the Reformed Church. At that time, Switzerland was not even a country, but rather consisted of a few city states. The Scottish Presbyterian Church and the Dutch Reformed church became the two main bases of the Reformed faith in Europe. Therefore, when we talk about the confessions of faith of the Reformed church, we should also mention the confessions of faith of the continental churches, namely the Dutch Reformed church, which also includes the German speaking regions.
Now, do you know the Three Forms of Unity, the three confessional standards of the continental Reformed churches? The Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dort. The Canons of Dort was created by the Dutch Reformed Church at the Presbytery of Dort in the 1610s. Therefore, the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession of the 16th century and the Canons of Dort of the 17th century formed the three confessional standards of the European Reformed churches led by Dutch Reformed Church.
England was under the influence of Scotland, who established the Presbyterian church. However, due to its incomplete reformation, England established the Church of England. The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England was essentially Calvinistic. In the mid-17th century, at the Westminster Assembly the Westminster Confession of Faith became another major confessional standard for the Reformed church.
Generally speaking, our main focus of missions to China through the Protestant movement and the Reformed church is on England, whose workers, combined with those from the U.S. and Canada, we call the British-American missionaries to China. These of course include missionaries from Canada and Australia, there being more Canadian missionaries to China than Australian missionaries. With the combination of these countries, the number of British-American missionaries made up 70% of all missionaries to China. Therefore, the main force of Protestant missions to China was made up of the British-American missionaries who theologically leaned towards the Reformed faith. Sometimes counting these British-American missionaries is not so easy. Sometimes, a missionary was sent by Presbyterian church and we can be certain that he was of the Reformed faith, but other times the missionary was interdenominational. Especially for those who were the first to arrive in China like Robert Morrison, who arrived 1807. His father was a pastor of a Scottish Presbyterian Church, and he was also a preacher in the Scottish Presbyterian Church. However, as a missionary, he was not sent by the Scottish Presbyterian church but by London Missionary Society.
Therefore, in the early stages of missions to China, there were two very important mission organizations, who were also the two main evangelical forces of the Reformed faith, the London Missionary Society and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The background behind their formation lies in the multitude of denominations in existence at the time in addition to the fact that even within one denomination there typically was more emphasis placed on the independence of congregations than on a strong central system. Under these circumstances in the 16th and 17th centuries, foreign missions was very difficult for one congregation, as it is still very hard for the five to six Reformed churches in Chengdu to do foreign missions in Africa today. It took the Protestant churches many years until the structure of the church, the body of Christ, was well connected and fit for each of the congregations so that they could have the capacity for foreign missions. Right? Otherwise, you cannot go too far.
The Netherlands rose to power before Britain did. The independence of the Netherlands preceded that of the United States by over one hundred years. Therefore, after the Reformation, the Netherlands was the first rising Protestant nation to take the place of Spain and Portugal as a maritime power. Consequently, the Dutch Reformed Church led the first wave of protestant missions to other regions. Where did the Dutch Reformed Church go? Do you still remember some parts of Chinese history? Where did the Dutch go? Did you learn only about Koxinga? The Dutch went to Taiwan. In 1824, the Dutch drove away the Spanish and occupied Taiwan. Three years later, Dutch pastors came to Taiwan. Therefore, the Dutch Reformed Church was the first Reformed church to come to China, the first Reformed church in Asia, and the first to establish Reformed churches in Taiwan. But the Reformed tradition was later cut off when the Dutch were driven away. It was not completely cut off, and it is interesting that all of the missionaries to Taiwan were of the Reformed faith. This is because the Dutch Reformed Church was the first to Taiwan.
What happened after missions were discontinued? In the 19th century, because the Protestant missionaries to China were clustered in Xiamen and Guangdong, the British Presbyterian Church went to the other side of the Taiwan Strait since they had learned Southern Min, the same language that was spoken by people both in Xiamen and in Taiwan. Therefore, they went to Taiwan. Later, the Canadian Presbyterian Church also went to Taiwan. Therefore, in northern Taiwan there were missionaries from the Canadian Presbyterian Church, while in southern Taiwan there were missionaries from the British Presbyterian Church.
A few decades later at the end of the 19th century, the Presbyterian Church showed its broad-mindedness. We mentioned the governance structure of the Presbyterian church, which is not centralized, but rather a federation of presbyteries. Each presbytery consists of independent congregations and does not control the business of those congregations. There is also spiritual authority among the different presbyteries, mainly in holding fast to the truth and examining the pastors. But the personnel, finance, and properties of the congregations are independent. And this is the structure of a federation. One benefit of such a structure is that it makes it easy to unite congregations. Also, unlike a centralized structure that demands high authority and makes it hard for a new member to join, a federation does not mind adding another member.
So, the British Presbyterian Church in the south of Taiwan and the Canadian Presbyterian Church in the north had a discussion and decided to establish a pan-Taiwanese Presbyterian church. They had to be very broad-minded in order to do this. So they gave over the church’s spiritual authority so that the Presbyterian churches in southern and northern Taiwan merged into the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. This is the history of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, but unfortunately our focus is not on the history of Presbyterian church in Taiwan. Brother Axin has done specialized research and wrote a book on the Presbyterian church in Taiwan, which has not been published.
There are a few notable characteristics of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. First, it was established very early. Before the Nationalists went to Taiwan, the Presbyterian church was already there. In fact, when the Nationalists moved to Taiwan in 1949, the Presbyterian church had already been in Taiwan for over one hundred years. Unlike in mainland China, where the government labelled the Presbyterian church and all of Christianity as a foreign western religion, in Taiwan the Presbyterian church was homegrown and the Nationalists were the foreign power. When the Nationalist regime moved to Taiwan, there had already been generations of Presbyterians there, and even the natives were all Christians. Therefore, Presbyterianism had become part of the native culture.
Therefore, since Taiwan is not big in size, the church enjoys a high societal status. It is fair to say that when the Nationalists went to Taiwan in 1949, the foremost non-government organization in Taiwan was the Presbyterian church, and the major elites of society were the Presbyterian believers, because the missionaries brought education with them. Why were the educational and cultural traditions also Presbyterian? Because good education was only available through the Presbyterians and people outside the Presbyterian church did not have many opportunities for education.
Therefore, when I first visited Taiwan in the 2000s, I visited a church and the people there asked me about our church. At that time our church had about 100 people. They asked me whether our church had a four-part choir. A four-part choir? We had never dreamed about that or even prayed to God for that. We were happy to have two to three singers in the choir and sometimes struggled to find a pianist. They said that in Taiwan, even a small church with twenty to thirty people would have a four-part choir, because the whole music education system in Taiwan was established by the Presbyterian church and therefore it had a very high level of music education, which in turn led to a high level of music in each church. So this is the situation today in Taiwan.
Robert Morrison arrived in China in 1807. He was a Presbyterian, but as the Presbyterian church in London was a small denomination that was unable to carry out foreign missions on its own, he was sent by the London Missionary Society, an interdenominational mission board, which became one of the chief means of protestant missions to China and any other foreign countries for over a century.
A few days ago, we watched the movie Amazing Grace again with our children. Besides leading the abolition of slavery in Great Britain, William Wilberforce also focused on foreign missions. He gave great support to the London Missionary Society, and its founding was closely related to Wilberforce’s efforts. Then, it was London Missionary Society that send Robert Morrison, the first protestant missionary to China.
Therefore, the first protestant missionary to Taiwan was Presbyterian, the first protestant missionary to China was also Presbyterian, and interestingly enough, the first protestant missionary to Korea was also Presbyterian. Even today, the Presbyterian church is the prevalent denomination in the Taiwanese indigenous church, and the Presbyterian church is also the most prevalent in the Korean church. In the past ten years, the government has been paying special attention to the development of the Presbyterian church within the Chinese church, because they do not want the Presbyterian church to become prevalent in the Chinese church. About seven to eight years ago, officials from SARA were heard saying: “We no longer research the Pentecostal movement because it no longer has much influence. We are now researching the Reformed faith, as we think it poses the greatest threat to the government”.
The earliest protestant missionary was Robert Morrison of the London Missionary Society in England. But we know that England did not have much of a Presbyterian church, or we can say that the English Presbyterian church was weak. The mainstream church in England was not the Presbyterian church, but the Church of England and the Baptist church. But the Scottish Presbyterian church also began its mission to China after 1860. Then the Canadian Presbyterian church and the Irish Presbyterian church also began their missions to China. Therefore, among the missions to China, the most important was from Great Britain with four branches: the English Presbyterian Church, the Irish Presbyterian Church, the Scottish Presbyterian Church and the Canadian Presbyterian Church.
Now let’s look at the American mission to China, starting with the Presbyterian church. We know the Presbyterians are known for their long meetings. Every time we have meetings, my wife gets nervous and complains about why we have so many meetings. This is because the Presbyterian church is based on a republican system so that no decision can be made instantly. The American Presbyterians started discussing the possibility of missions to China, and the discussion took them about twenty years. While other churches sent missionaries right away, it took them over twenty years to discuss it. There were theological issues behind their discussion. The topics they discussed included who should send the missionaries. Should they be sent by the General Assembly? Would this kind of sending encroach upon the authority of the presbyteries and congregations? Would it lead to a trend towards centralized power? It took them twenty years to discuss the possibility of missions to China. The issue of whether the General Assembly should send the missionaries was related to the fact that the Presbyterian church was based on a federal system, the same as the United States government. At its early stage, the federal system of the U.S. was loose because the federal government did not have much power. Most of the governing power resided in the states. It has only been within the past century, especially in the 20th century, that the federal government has enjoyed increasing power.
Similarly, within the Presbyterian church, there was also a conservative force that watched the General Assembly to keep it from growing more powerful. The national spirit of the United States is localism, as is demonstrated in both the national system and the church system. This goes without saying for Congregational churches that do not even have general assembly or presbyteries where every congregation is independent. In the United States, from the churches to the political aspects of society, the most important spirit is localism, the importance of the locality. For denominations, the local congregations are the core and center of the church. For the nation, each town, each small town in the South, is the foundation of American society. Therefore, they were extremely worried about one thing, the emergence of a central government, and would rather have no central government. The federal government originally wanted to do as few things as possible with as small of funding as possible.
Therefore, in the Book of Church Order of the Presbyterian Church in America, as well as in the Book of Church Order of our West China Presbytery, there is a stipulation that the presbytery keeps small amounts of funding and does not own church buildings, which must be owned by individual congregations. Therefore, in our regulations, there is a sentence that says the cost associated with coming to the presbytery meetings, whether you ride a horse or take the train, is the burden of each individual congregation. That is to say, there is no reimbursement for attending presbytery meetings. Whoever comes to the meeting brings his own food and buys his own ticket with no possibility of future reimbursement. Therefore, it is easy to see the emphasis on localism, which was the reason why it took the Presbyterian church in the United States twenty years of meetings to discuss whether they should establish a foreign missions committee, which would consequently increase the authority of the General Assembly. It took such a long time to decide. Consequently, the first Presbyterian missionary was not sent by the Presbyterian church, but by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Walter Macon Lowrie (1819–1847) of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was one of the earliest Presbyterian missionaries.
At that time, the history of Presbyterianism in the United States was very complicated because of its constant divisions, which simultaneously influenced the growth of the Presbyterian church and the Reformed faith in China. For example, the most important incident in America in the mid-19th century was the American Civil War between the North and the South. During the war, the Presbyterian church was split into the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and Presbyterian Church in the United States. Therefore, if you look at the history of the American Presbyterian mission to China, especially the history of the second half the 19th century, you constantly see the names of both organizations, the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the Presbyterian Church in the United States.
However, the split between the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and Presbyterian Church in the United States was not only for political reasons. The Civil War ended after four years and slavery was abolished. In theory, the two denominations should have merged. Yet, it was easier for them to split and harder for them to merge. Therefore, the split remained for half a century until the 20th century when the great re-merging of the Presbyterian church happened. And the church split again after that re-merger, and another merger came again after that split. We have previously said that at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the most critical change was the conflict between the fundamentalists and the liberals. When the influence of liberal theology came into the Presbyterian church, there were incessant divisions within the denomination and constant charges against each other side of going astray from the Reformed faith. There were splits based on the claim that the denomination was no longer holding fast to biblical fundamentals. Therefore, today if you wanted to be clear about the various denominations of American Presbyterianism, you might have to do enough research to finish a Ph.D. degree. Our ordinary seminary students or even people with a Master of Theology cannot make it very clear because the history is so complicated.
We also said that in China, in the fifty years before 1949, the fundamentalists and the liberals began to form two camps. In China, the major force behind the fundamentalist camp was from the Presbyterian church in China. Of course, it also included some denominations that held fast to the Reformed faith, such as the Congregational church.
Why was Walter Macon Lowrie sent by the Congregational church? Because Congregational theology was in fact Reformed, except that it adopted individual congregationalism as its ecclesiology. Therefore, the Reformed churches in China included the Congregationalists as well as some Baptists. There were two types of Baptist churches, the Reformed Baptist church, sometimes called Particular Baptist church, and the non-Reformed Baptist church, called General Baptist church. Therefore, a part of the Baptist church also belongs to the Reformed faith.
We mentioned that after Robert Morrison arrived, he translated some teaching materials for the early church in China based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism and Westminster Confession of Faith. At that time, the English Presbyterian church primarily worked in the southern part of China. The Presbyterians focused on Taiwan and Fujian on either side of the Taiwan Strait and some parts of Guangdong.
After 1860, the Presbyterian church began to push northward. The second focus of the Presbyterian church was Shandong, where the Presbyterian missionaries wanted to build the Chinese New England. Therefore, in Shandong, Calvin Wilson Mateer founded Tengchow College, the predecessor of Cheeloo University, which the missionaries hoped would become the Princeton University of China. Therefore, Shandong was another focus of the Presbyterian church in China.
Further northward was the third focus of the Presbyterian church in China, Northeast China. The Irish Presbyterian Church and the Scottish Presbyterian Church focused their mission work on Northeast China along the Songhua River. Then in 1900, Jonathan Goforth (1859–1936), an important Canadian Presbyterian missionary, escaped from the Boxer Rebellion. Later, he led the Northeast Revival, which transformed Northeast China into a critical region for the Presbyterian church and the Reformed faith and to this day still influences the spread of the Reformed faith in China.
It is fair to say that before 1949, the Presbyterians had three focuses in China. One was Northeast China where Jonathan Goforth led the Northeast China Revival. Another was Shandong. The Great Revival of Shandong was not completely from the Reformed faith. It also included indigenous denominations such as the Jesus Family. However, Shandong was a stronghold for the Presbyterian church. Previously, we mentioned a very important organization that had a tremendous impact on the Chinese fundamentalists. Does anyone remember what that was? It was in Shandong: The North China Theological Seminary. It was established out of a split from the theological seminary of Cheeloo University. Its major support came from the Shandong Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the Jiangbei Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. These two presbyteries became the most important forces for Chinese fundamentalism, and both supported North China Theological Seminary.
North China Theological Seminary had a tremendous impact on the house churches after 1949. The large group of leaders that we listed before, including, Yang Shaotang, Jia Yuming, even Wang Mingdao, and Zhang Guquan of the Northwest Spiritual Movement, these fundamentalist leaders and indigenous revival preachers were all closely related to North China Theological Seminary. Therefore, North China Theological Seminary was a strong force for the Reformed faith as it impacted the Chinese house church after 1949.
The third focus, the South China region, honestly did not a major influence on the Chinese house churches after 1949, especially from the perspective of the Reformed faith.
So why do we say that the Reformed faith had a huge influence in Northeast China? Because after the Northeast China revival led by Jonathan Goforth, some Canadian Presbyterian missionaries, which also belonged to the British system, and some missionaries from the Dutch Reformed Church in the U.S. also came to Northeast China.
Then, the Scottish Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (also very interesting) also went to Northeast China and established a very important seminary, a Bible School, called Yingkou Bible College. Both Yingkou Bible College and North China Theological Seminary were bases for the Reformed faith that greatly influenced Chinese house churches after 1949.
So who were the famous people from Yingkou Bible College? The chief figures included Johannes G. Vos (1903–1983) and a few other missionaries. This college had a big influence on one person, pastor Charles C. Chao. Pastor Chao believed in the Lord at the evangelical assembly of Wang Mingdao. Later he went to Yingkou Bible College and was influenced by the Reformed faith. After 1949, he fled to Hongkong and met Johannes G. Vos there. Thus, they formed the Reformation Translation Fellowship. It is fair to say that the North China Theological Seminary’s influence was mainly on a group of post-1949 fundamentalist leaders of the Chinese church, while Yingkou Bible College and the Presbyterian church in Northeast China’s influence was mainly over all of the post-1949 overseas Chinese churches. Charles C. Chao became the most important figure in all of the overseas Chinese churches. He translated large volumes of the Reformed faith and the Reformation Translation Fellowship developed into the Reformation Publishing Company.
Pastor Chao would go on to have sons. One of them, who we have spoken about several times, pastor Jonathan Chao, was also greatly used by God. In the development of the Chinese house churches after the 1980s, especially in Henan and Anhui, he was the foremost missionary and he founded China Ministries International. Therefore, the Chaos were a family that played a great role in increasing the influence of the Reformed faith in China and its spread in the Chinese house churches after the 1980s.
God uses families for His purpose. He used the Chao family. He used the Tang family. Later Andrew Gih and John Sung, together with their Bethel Mission and Global Mission, went to Southeast Asia. Andrew Gih established the Southeast Asia Bible Seminary in Malaysia where Dr. Stephen Tong attended. Dr. Tong’s mentor was Peter Huang, who also graduated from the seminary. Then, Stephen Tong went on to become the most important force for the Reformed theological movement in the Chinese church in the past half century. It is fair to say that the whole Reformed movement came from the efforts and preaching of Dr. Stephen Tong as well as the translation work of pastor Charles Chao.
By the end of the 1990s, initially due to the ministry of pastor Jonathan Chao in mainland China and then due to of the widespread piracy of spiritual materials, there was revival in the Chinese church. Therefore, without piracy there would not have been revival in the Chinese house church. Dr. Tong once said that in the whole world there was only one country where the publication of his materials was prohibited, which was China. Meanwhile, China was also the country that listened to his preaching the most. Therefore the Chinese church experienced revival. All of us watched pirated videos of his preaching and read pirated works of his.
With the emergence of the internet, particularly after 2000, the Reformed faith underwent a unique period of development in China. This is because the internet broke through physical limits. It used to be that one’s faith primarily relied on the legacy of one’s spiritual life as one lived with his or her mentor and gradually experienced a deeper faith and spiritual life. But if the government did not allow access to one’s mentor, or if there were no mentors around, it was very difficult for him or her to grow spiritually. But if your faith led you to become extremely hungry for the Word of God and for theological study, the ministry of literature became very critical. Because of its emphasis on theology, the Reformed church had a sound literature ministry. While one’s spiritual life might not spread via the internet, literature can. Therefore, after 2000, the overseas movement of Reformed theology greatly influenced a great number of pastors—not only in China but also overseas.
For example, many of the pastors who serve among us like pastor Guo Mingzhang from Taiwan and pastor Chen Biao all have offered themselves at the evangelical assemblies of Dr. Stephen Tong, have committed to the Reformed theological movement, and have offered themselves as preachers. It is fair to say that among today’s preachers of the Reformed faith there are very few who have not been influenced by Dr. Tong, while many have offered themselves as preachers at his evangelical assemblies.
The same thing has happened in China. Very few of the Reformed churches and preachers of the Reformed faith inside of China came to the faith or offered themselves directly through the preaching of Dr. Tong because we have had fewer opportunities to hear his preaching. However, we all read his pirated books before we professed faith in the Lord or offered ourselves to the Lord. I read the pirated books of Dr. Tong and decided to commit my life to the Lord. Praise the Lord!
After the Reform and Opening movement began, the Presbyterian churches in the United States have had a mission outreach to China, including the Reformed Presbyterian Church and Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Yet the Reformed churches in the United States have developed into liberal and fundamentalist camps. Previously, we emphasized that in the 20th century, the history of the universal church, mainly the British and American churches, largely influenced the history of the Chinese church in many aspects. The first issue was the conflict between the fundamentalists and the liberals. During that time, most of the Reformed churches and Presbyterian churches in the United States became liberal churches, and of course the same thing has happened to other denominations.
Consequently, during this process, the Presbyterian church in Taiwan has basically become a liberal Presbyterian church. The situation within the Korean Presbyterian church is very complicated. There are both Pentecostal and liberal Presbyterian churches in Korea.
Therefore, it is not enough to hear the name “Presbyterian Church” and know to which faction a church belongs. The biggest faction is the liberal Presbyterian churches, and some others are fundamentalist Presbyterian churches. The fundamentalist Presbyterian churches are an important part of the fundamentalistm in the United States.
Later in the 1940s, another movement—the evangelical movement—arose as churches left fundamentalism and transitioned to evangelicalism. The fundamentalists held fast to the essential beliefs such as belief in the authority of the Bible and resisted the social gospel of the liberals, moves which were all correct. But the fundamentalists gradually developed into a church that no longer cared about the world and separated itself from society. They were against anything the liberals might do. If the liberals watched movies, they would not, as if by watching movies, they might turn into the liberals. If the liberals cared for society, they would not, as if caring for society might turn them into liberals. If the liberals helped others, distributed food to the poor, and hosted projects of social welfare, they would not, because they were the fundamentalists who opposed anything the done by the liberals.
Therefore, by the 1920s and 1930s the fundamentalists in the United States had become increasingly self-isolated and had set themselves apart from the world. All they cared about was sharing the gospel. While the liberals claimed that sharing the gospel was not important, and only social change was important, the fundamentalists went in the other direction. They cared only about sharing the gospel and saving souls and set everything else aside. Therefore, in that time, seeing the situation in 1940s following World War II, the evangelicals rose up. They wanted to hold fast to the faith while also caring for society. They focused on the relationships between the church and the world and church and culture.
We can divide the Presbyterian churches in the United States into three sections. The first is the liberal Presbyterian churches, the second is the fundamentalist Presbyterian churches, and the third is the fundamentalist Presbyterian churches that have transitioned to evangelicalism, or the evangelical fundamentalist Presbyterian churches. The third group is made up of the Presbyterian churches that belong to the big family of evangelicals. There is one section of the Presbyterian church that has not been through the wave and renewal of the evangelical movement, but hold entirely to the traditional fundamentalist faith, which we might call the fundamentalist Reformed faith. After the 1990s, missionaries from the American fundamentalist Reformed faith have connected with the Reformed faith within the Chinese house churches and formed a strong fundamentalist Reformed camp in China.
American evangelical Reformed missions to China connected with the post-1989 generation in their hopelessness, their pursuit of their personal destinies, the destiny of society, as well as the destiny of their age, and formed the evangelical Reformed camp in China.
Therefore, today you find a spectrum in the Reformed faith in China. Some name the West China Presbytery as the representatives of the evangelical Reformed faith. There are many other representatives of the Reformed faith in China. The system of Reformed churches in Wenzhou under the leadership of pastor Zhou Dawei belongs to an extreme fundamentalist Reformed faith. Pastor Yang Bin in Xuzhou and pastor Wang Yuehan in Shanxi belong to the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States (RPCUS). Including elder Lin Gang in Fuzhou, they more or less belong to the fundamentalist Reformed faith. The system of the Disciple Reformed Churches have fundamentalist traits but generally still belong to the evangelicals. The West China Presbytery is basically a representative of the evangelical Reformed faith.
Therefore, our church is known among many fundamentalist Reformed churches as not being “Reformed” enough. In the past few years, there have been some not-too-severe dissentions in that regard within our church. Previously one of our co-workers left because we were not “Reformed” enough. As a result, he went to the system under pastor Zhou Dawei and established a gathering in Chengdu where they watch a recorded video of pastor Zhou Dawei’s preaching in Wenzhou every week. Then there are brothers and sisters among us who used to belong to a branch of the Reformed church that only sing Psalms. These brothers and sisters experienced the gospel of grace at our church and gradually gave up their previous views. Some may still hold those views, but no longer judge the church or other brothers and sisters by them. We welcome these brothers and sisters to stay with us. There were also brothers and sisters who left unhappily. They actually left the church again and brought charges to the church. We have witnessed this trend in these past few years.
In fact, from a broader perspective, the split our church has experienced over the past two years also had this kind of background. The difference between the two pastors’ respective visions is actually the same difference as that between the fundamentalist Reformed faith and the evangelical Reformed faith. The way we have walked over the past ten years is the way that combines the public house church and the traditional house church in active pursuit of the threefold vision that particularly expresses the position of the evangelical Reformed faith: the combination of the gospel commission and the cultural mandate, the evangelization of Chinese people, the Kingdomization of Chinese churches, and the Christianization of Chinese Culture. In fact, God is leading us to continue on this path.
Therefore, you will see this difference in the face of today’s persecution in China. In fact, after we initiated the joint statement of pastors on the new religious regulations, you can see that all those who signed are basically from the evangelical churches, and those who are unwilling to sign are basically from the fundamentalist churches. The Reformed churches are also divided on this issue. The evangelical Reformed churches signed, while the fundamentalist Reformed churches did not.
In fact, Pentecostal churches are also willing to sign, since the influence of Pentecostal churches on the overall Chinese church is not as great as it could be, and the churches influenced by the Pentecostal movement are gradually transitioning to evangelicalism. As a whole, the churches in Henan are influenced by the Pentecostal church and they are gradually transitioning.
Therefore, I think there are three big sections in the Chinese church today. One section consists of the post-1950s fundamentalist churches who are the foundation of the Chinese house church. One section is made of the evangelical churches who, since the 1980s, have gone through the important aforementioned transition from traditional Chinese fundamentalism, especially in the 2000s. Most house churches have gradually transitioned to evangelicalism and hold onto one mutual evangelical faith, belief in salvation by God’s grace alone, belief in the cross of Jesus as the sole core of our faith, belief in the way of the cross as the way we should take, and belief in the authority of the Bible as the inerrant, unchanging Word of God. Churches who hold onto these three points are conservative evangelical churches. Therefore, I would prefer to see the Reformed churches become part of the big family of evangelicals
We do not intend to display our differences from the other evangelical churches. We previously went down that path, and I walked in that way as I was spiritually growing and studying, the way of the young angry Calvinists. Once we studied the Reformed faith, we discovered that no one else was Reformed, that everyone else was not Reformed enough, that they knew nothing about the true gospel, that the hymns they sang were not right, that their worship was done wrong, that their leading of worship was done wrong, that the way in which they allowed sisters to preach was wrong, that their seats were placed wrong, or that their choirs sang hymns wrong. In a word, everything everyone else did was wrong. And we were the only orthodox church.
Consequently, these words and deeds resulted in a situation over the past ten years of the Reformed faith movement where the Reformed faith was hated by everyone else in the Chinese church because the Reformed churches kept bringing about church splits in every city. Every local congregation was afraid of sending co-workers to a Reformed conference for fear that the co-worker would come back telling the pastor what’s wrong with the church and what should be corrected. If the pastor refused to correct it, the co-worker would rebel against the church’s leadership. Over the past ten years, such things have happened frequently, and they have resulted in a bad name for the Reformed faith among many Chinese churches. Of course, we would respond with a “heart of suffering,” believing that Chinese churches are too stubborn, that human hearts are too depraved, and that we were the only ones suffering for the Lord. Right? This is what Sister Feng shared with us yesterday, that even Brother Song Enguang was judged as a heretic in his hometown.
Therefore, from one side many churches misunderstand the Reformed church and even hold an extreme attitude against it. Within fundamentalism there is strong tendency toward legalism. While some of this could be good, like forbidding smoking or drinking, there is no clear teaching in the Bible and the Ten Commandments that forbids Christians from smoking or drinking alcohol. You cannot find this kind of clear teaching in the Bible.
In the traditional Chinese house church, the prohibition of smoking and alcohol is demanded even more absolutely than the observance of the Ten commandments. They are absolutely forbidden, and smoking or drinking might even result in the refusal of a request for baptism. Can you see the legalism within that? This practice means that additional laws are added, even good practices. Right? But once it becomes the law, it deteriorates into a bondage of the human heart, a persistence of legalism, the stiff faith of the fundamentalists. When someone stays in a fundamentalist church for a long enough time, he can end up lacking the liveliness of grace. I heard from our co-workers that when some brothers and sisters came to our church from fundamentalist churches, they were happy to find out that they were allowed to drink a little at Reformed churches because the Bible’s teaching is only against drunkenness. If you, however, feel tempted by alcohol, you’d do better not to drink it at all. But this is based on how the individual believer is impelled in his or her process of the sanctification of his or her spiritual life rather than being based upon a requirement of the law.
There are many other requirements for the fundamentalists as well. The Chinese fundamentalists have their own set of Ten Commandments. For example, the first commandment is you shall not drink alcohol. The second commandment is that you shall not smoke. The third one, an important one which is frequently used by the fundamentalists to criticize our church, is that you shall not engage in a lawsuit. This the iron law among the traditional Chinese fundamentalists. Around ten years ago, someone was wrongly oppressed and went to Beijing to ask for advice from Allen Yuan, who at that time was still alive. Uncle Yuan replied, “how could a Christian engage in a lawsuit? I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it. (Psalm 39:9) Never avenge yourself, for the vengeance is God’s, not yours. If you want to avenge yourself, your way will not be the way of the cross”. The Chinese fundamentalist understanding of the way of the cross is that the believer should be mute and not open his mouth under oppression. Therefore, some of the basics for fundamentalists include the prohibition to join the army, to be government officials, to engage in lawsuits, along with other requirements like dress codes. None of these are in the Ten Commandments.
So, one large branch is the fundamentalist churches, another branch is the evangelical churches, and another is the Pentecostal churches. I essentially do not include the Reformed church as one of the big three branches because half of the Reformed churches are evangelical and the other half fundamentalist. For the Chinese church in the 20th century up to today, the most critical difference is between the fundamentalists and evangelicals, since the liberals still to this day have not gained a foothold in the Chinese house churches.
The absence of the liberals is a result of God’s preservation through government persecution. Once the government stops persecuting the house church, once there is over a decade of peace, liberal churches are destined to appear. Because God sustains this government oppression on our house churches, the TSPM churches remain the only liberals in China, and there is no liberal presence within the house church.
I am not saying no one has been influenced by liberal theology. In the past five or six years of revival in urban house churches, we have seen the danger of liberalism in the liberal threat of secularization that even doubts the authority of the Bible. Particularly, when the preacher, after finishing his theological education in the United States, comes back and tells you that the Book of Isaiah was not written by Isaiah, that Genesis was not written by Moses, that the Gospels in fact came from an earlier source called the Q document, and that books were redacted in later ages. Such liberal influence has been spread widely. But for the purpose of loving and saving us, God preserves for the Chinese church the fundamental faith, which is different from fundamentalism. The task of the Reformed faith in today’s China is to hold onto the fundamental faith, a strong evangelical confession, and a passionate concern for the culture and society as the whole of the Chinese church is faced with this major situation.
For the preservation of the Chinese church, God has allowed the CCP to launch a new round of persecution. Do you think this is good or bad? It is good. Because if the government no longer persecutes the church, the church is doomed. Think about the church in Wenzhou that we just mentioned. There were two hundred Christian children in one school. The teachers talked to them over and over, trying to persuade them to give up their profession as Christians. One cycle of questioning later, there were forty students left who still professed Christianity. Three days later, only one student was left who insisted on professing Christianity. Isn’t it sad? Without a new persecution, how bad might the situation become? It seems like the Chinese church has been doing well and reviving, yet the fundamental faith and the core have been melting in the face of the rising age.
Therefore, we pray that the Lord will refine His church through this persecution. It is okay if we lose half of the churches. Lord willing, he might destroy the churches that will not hold to the fundamental gospel faith of the cross. Take our church for example. If the congregation disappears once the pastor is arrested, or if, upon government threats, the number of family-based small groups families decreases from twenty to only a few, then this church ought to be destroyed by God.
However, I do believe that God’s will is not only to destroy some churches in the Chinese church today or even to destroy some believers’ faith so that they would admit that they actually do not believe, they actually have no true faith, they do not follow the way of the cross, or that their understanding of the gospel is so shallow. God will reveal this to us, but God’s will is to give a lesson to the Reformed churches in this process. If the Reformed churches believe that they better understand the gospel of grace, they should show more grace to the Chinese church rather than being the military police from within the Chinese church, or they should bless the Chinese church with their perseverance and their suffering.
If the Reformed churches are not willing to bless the Chinese church with their suffering, if the Reformed churches are not willing to lead the way, to stand out, to suffer in the face of persecution, of suffering, of secularization, of the power of money, of political power in today’s China, there is no future for the Reformed faith in China. Therefore, pray that the Lord will help us. If we think the Reformed church is the Chinese church that best knows the gospel truth, we should say to the government: “Come strike us! Don’t strike down others, strike us!” We should hope that this test from God will come to those who think they themselves best know the truth. Those who think they themselves know best about the gospel should be struck by the Lord in this round of persecution so that they can demonstrate whether or not the gospel of grace that they claim to believe is the true gospel of grace. Amen!
Therefore, we pray that the Lord will help us. May the Lord help us through this persecution so that we will not judge other churches, that we will not judge the Lord’s churches and the Lord’s servants, that we will not become the “young angry Calvinists” who stay remote in comfortable settings and build up arrogance discussing theological issues. Let us become those who are willing to suffer for the Lord’s church. We know that God saves us by His grace. While many brothers and sister may not have the correct or complete understanding of that grace, grace works in the way that even those who are theologically wrong will be saved by God, which is a demonstration of the gospel in-and-of itself. The gospel is not for the most theologically correct, but for whomever God is willing to grant it. Are you angry at this? Why are you angry at this? Even if the Pentecostal church is firmer in the faith than you are, why should you be angry? If the fundamentalist churches live out good testimonies under government persecution while the Reformed churches disappear, the faith and spiritual life of the Reformed churches will be ridiculed and their own teaching will be destroyed. Therefore, we pray that the Lord will not let this church’s spiritual life destroy its teaching. Amen! May the Lord bless this church so that when the brothers and sisters of this church face persecution, our spiritual condition will not destroy the teaching of this church.
Who can destroy the teaching of this church? I can tell you that the government cannot destroy the teaching of this church, Xi Jinping cannot destroy the teaching of this church, only you can destroy the teaching of this church. If you are willing to hold to this faith under persecution, you should know that going back to home worship is our line in the sand. One day we may lose this sanctuary, we may not be able to keep up public worship, no matter how we fight. But I want every Christian to know that returning to home worship is our line. If the government wants us to give up home worship, I would rather be arrested, be killed, be lynched, be thrown out of the city, be laid off, as this is my bottom line. Home worship is my bottom line. Amen! If you can keep to this, the teaching of this church will never be destroyed. Amen!
Let us bow our heads and pray:
Lord, we thank you and we praise you. Lord, as we talk about house church history, it seems that you are leading the house church to a historic turning point, and it seems that the days of your grace in Old Testament history are coming. Lord, as worldly persecution approaches, challenge our faith. Lord, let us sit down and count our costs and confess before you our weakness. Not one of us is strong, we all confess before you that we are weak. But let me believe in you with fear. While I am weak and I do not know how I will respond in the face of persecution, Lord I will still follow you. Lord, I will still worship you, although I am filled with fear. In the morning when the sun comes up, Lord, you will help your church, you will help this city.
Lord, lead this church, and lead the Reformed churches in China. Have mercy on us, have mercy on these opinionated people, have mercy on these people who think that only they themselves know so much truth, which leads to their arrogance and self-righteousness, that leads to their splitting of the church and judgment of other brothers within the whole of the Chinese church.
Lord, may you strike the Reformed church of China, may you destroy the Reformed church of China, so that their lives would surrender to the doctrine of grace, Lord, so that your church will embrace a bigger harvest, so that the Reformed faith is indeed the faith we believe, which really blesses the Chinese church after persecution, not only through the gospel we teach, but also through the testimony of our lives, so that we will win the respect rather than the distance of our brothers and sisters in more churches in China. Lord, help us, prepare us. We pray in the precious and holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
Please greet each other.
