yod
27th January 2004, 03:54 PM
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Chinese Are Taking the Gospel 'Back to Jerusalem'
Movement crosses Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu strongholds.
Christians in China say that the horrible persecution they have endured for the last 50 years has not crushed them, but has prepared them to undertake a remarkable missionary challenge.
The Back to Jerusalem movement involves millions of Chinese Christians. Their goal is to take the gospel westward, evangelizing people throughout Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist strongholds, and all the way to Jerusalem.
The movement has begun and is gaining momentum. It will eventually consist of at least 100,000 missionaries being sent out from China, as well as some from overseas countries, organizers say. It is being carried out simultaneously with evangelistic efforts to reach the rest of China with the gospel.
Today, many Christians inside China are equipping themselves for the Back to Jerusalem movement. They are learning languages such as Arabic and English, and receiving training in how to reach across cultural barriers. They also are learning how to escape from capture and to endure suffering and death.
The Chinese say they are sending their best workers as Back to Jerusalem missionaries, including teams of leaders, trainers, people who pray, and pastors who tend to the spiritual and physical needs of the workers.
The goal of bringing the gospel back to Jerusalem, where it began, is taken so seriously that thousands of people are willing to risk persecution for it, according to Paul Hattaway of Asia Harvest, a mission group working among people who have not been reached with the gospel. He wrote the 2003 book "Back to Jerusalem," published by Gabriel Resources.
"There is little that any of the Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu countries can do to us that we haven't already experienced in China," said Brother Yun, who was imprisoned four times and arrested more than 30 other times for the gospel. "The worst they can do is kill us, but all that means is we will be promoted into the glorious presence of our Lord for all eternity."
Yun believes that much of the ministry of Chinese missionaries in the Back to Jerusalem movement will take place in prison. "Hundreds, if not thousands, will be arrested. Others will be beaten to death or executed because of the vision. The satanic hosts will do everything they can to stop our workers from going forward with the light of the gospel. But imprisonment and even death will not mean failure; they will be part of God's plan."
If hundreds of Christians are killed, "don't assume that is bad news and that the mission has failed," Yun said. "In China we have learned to trust the sovereignty of God. If we are in prison it is because He wants us there. The very thing some people may think is a failure may turn out to be the point of breakthrough and victory."
Yun, who left China in 1997, has spoken to more than 1,000 churches around the world since then about the Back to Jerusalem vision. His biography, "The Heavenly Man," was published in 2002 by Monarch Books.
Chinese outside of the mainland also are involved in the Back to Jerusalem movement. The first Back to Jerusalem conference was held in Paris in February. Hundreds of Chinese pastors, leaders and lay workers from 10 countries in Europe attended.
Chinese believers say the efforts of communist authorities to demolish Christianity paved the way for the rapid spread of the gospel in China. Thousands of temples and idols were smashed during the Cultural Revolution, creating a spiritual void in the hearts of people, and resulting in spectacular growth in the church, including mass conversions of people to Christianity, Hattaway said.
Today there are as many as 100 million Protestants and 12 million Roman Catholic believers in China, compared with fewer than 700,000 Protestants and 3 million Catholics when communists took over and expelled Western missionaries in 1949. China's population is 1.3 billion.
Two new churches are opening every three days in China, according to Samuel Hui-Ping Peng, a Christian leader in Taiwan. He spoke at last month's student missions convention in Urbana, Ill.
House churches in China have developed important strengths, said former missionary David Adeney. Stripped of nonessentials, they are flexible and confident in the sovereignty of God. They also love the Bible and prayer and are zealous in evangelism, Adeney wrote in the book "China: The Church's Long March."
Yun said Chinese Christians believe God "has given us a solemn responsibility to take the fire from His altar and complete the Great Commission by establishing His kingdom in all the remaining countries and people groups in Asia, the Middle East and Islamic North Africa."
The farthest the gospel can travel from Jerusalem is to circle the globe and return to Jerusalem, he said. The hope of Chinese Christians is that "when the fire of the gospel completes its circuit around the globe, the Lord Jesus will return."
The Chinese say they don't know where the money to send and sustain the workers will come from, but they look to God, because when God tells Christians to do something, He always provides.
If evangelizing all the way from China to Jerusalem "seems improbable or impossible to you, consider what the Chinese church has experienced over the past 50 years," Hattaway said. "They are used to seeing God do the impossible."
Chinese Are Taking the Gospel 'Back to Jerusalem'
Movement crosses Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu strongholds.
Christians in China say that the horrible persecution they have endured for the last 50 years has not crushed them, but has prepared them to undertake a remarkable missionary challenge.
The Back to Jerusalem movement involves millions of Chinese Christians. Their goal is to take the gospel westward, evangelizing people throughout Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist strongholds, and all the way to Jerusalem.
The movement has begun and is gaining momentum. It will eventually consist of at least 100,000 missionaries being sent out from China, as well as some from overseas countries, organizers say. It is being carried out simultaneously with evangelistic efforts to reach the rest of China with the gospel.
Today, many Christians inside China are equipping themselves for the Back to Jerusalem movement. They are learning languages such as Arabic and English, and receiving training in how to reach across cultural barriers. They also are learning how to escape from capture and to endure suffering and death.
The Chinese say they are sending their best workers as Back to Jerusalem missionaries, including teams of leaders, trainers, people who pray, and pastors who tend to the spiritual and physical needs of the workers.
The goal of bringing the gospel back to Jerusalem, where it began, is taken so seriously that thousands of people are willing to risk persecution for it, according to Paul Hattaway of Asia Harvest, a mission group working among people who have not been reached with the gospel. He wrote the 2003 book "Back to Jerusalem," published by Gabriel Resources.
"There is little that any of the Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu countries can do to us that we haven't already experienced in China," said Brother Yun, who was imprisoned four times and arrested more than 30 other times for the gospel. "The worst they can do is kill us, but all that means is we will be promoted into the glorious presence of our Lord for all eternity."
Yun believes that much of the ministry of Chinese missionaries in the Back to Jerusalem movement will take place in prison. "Hundreds, if not thousands, will be arrested. Others will be beaten to death or executed because of the vision. The satanic hosts will do everything they can to stop our workers from going forward with the light of the gospel. But imprisonment and even death will not mean failure; they will be part of God's plan."
If hundreds of Christians are killed, "don't assume that is bad news and that the mission has failed," Yun said. "In China we have learned to trust the sovereignty of God. If we are in prison it is because He wants us there. The very thing some people may think is a failure may turn out to be the point of breakthrough and victory."
Yun, who left China in 1997, has spoken to more than 1,000 churches around the world since then about the Back to Jerusalem vision. His biography, "The Heavenly Man," was published in 2002 by Monarch Books.
Chinese outside of the mainland also are involved in the Back to Jerusalem movement. The first Back to Jerusalem conference was held in Paris in February. Hundreds of Chinese pastors, leaders and lay workers from 10 countries in Europe attended.
Chinese believers say the efforts of communist authorities to demolish Christianity paved the way for the rapid spread of the gospel in China. Thousands of temples and idols were smashed during the Cultural Revolution, creating a spiritual void in the hearts of people, and resulting in spectacular growth in the church, including mass conversions of people to Christianity, Hattaway said.
Today there are as many as 100 million Protestants and 12 million Roman Catholic believers in China, compared with fewer than 700,000 Protestants and 3 million Catholics when communists took over and expelled Western missionaries in 1949. China's population is 1.3 billion.
Two new churches are opening every three days in China, according to Samuel Hui-Ping Peng, a Christian leader in Taiwan. He spoke at last month's student missions convention in Urbana, Ill.
House churches in China have developed important strengths, said former missionary David Adeney. Stripped of nonessentials, they are flexible and confident in the sovereignty of God. They also love the Bible and prayer and are zealous in evangelism, Adeney wrote in the book "China: The Church's Long March."
Yun said Chinese Christians believe God "has given us a solemn responsibility to take the fire from His altar and complete the Great Commission by establishing His kingdom in all the remaining countries and people groups in Asia, the Middle East and Islamic North Africa."
The farthest the gospel can travel from Jerusalem is to circle the globe and return to Jerusalem, he said. The hope of Chinese Christians is that "when the fire of the gospel completes its circuit around the globe, the Lord Jesus will return."
The Chinese say they don't know where the money to send and sustain the workers will come from, but they look to God, because when God tells Christians to do something, He always provides.
If evangelizing all the way from China to Jerusalem "seems improbable or impossible to you, consider what the Chinese church has experienced over the past 50 years," Hattaway said. "They are used to seeing God do the impossible."