8 Lessons We Can Learn from the Church in China

8 Lessons We Can Learn From The Church In China
A tract thought to be written by Mary Baker

Today I would like to encourage you to ask, “What can the Church in China do for us? Is there anything we can gain from them?” I believe there are eight lessons we can learn from the ‘poor, young, suffering” Church in China:

Willingness to Pay the Price 

The Gospel is free, but it is never cheap. For far too long, the Gospel has been presented in the western world as some kind of a cure-all problem-solving religion. “Become a Christian; everything is going to be fine for you.” That’s not the Gospel we read in the New Testament! What about counting the cost? What about paying the price? What about carrying the cross of Jesus Christ and following Him daily?

Right now a ‘prosperity theology’ is sweeping the western Church. A segment of such theologians strongly emphasizes materialistic and monetary reward for Christians who have the ‘right kind of faith.’ Enjoying materialistic prosperity, or the lack of it, is simply a matter of your faith. “Name it and claim it!” My question is, “Did Watchman Nee, who died after 18 years of imprisonment, not have enough faith in God? What about Pastor Wang Ming Dao? This Chinese saint spent 24 years in prison because of his faith! What about the Cambodian Christians who have been killed by the hundreds?”

I recall a meeting with a Cambodian pastor in a refugee camp in northern Thailand. He had just escaped from his country. l asked him about the Church in Cambodia. He told me that perhaps four out of every five Christians have been butchered. But the fifth is still willing to live for Christ, and if necessary, to die for Him. These Christians certainly are not receiving any material rewards, and they are willing to pay the price.

To be a Christian in China also involves paying a price, even today when there is supposed to be religious freedom. Martha became a Christian through listening to our radio broadcasts. She corresponded with us in Hong Kong and we nurtured her. Two years later I had the opportunity to meet this young Chinese woman in central China. She was working in a factory but she urged us to let her do something for the Lord. She did not want money. She did not want a bicycle. All she wanted from us was to regularly supply her with Bibles and sermon tapes, so that she could distribute them to the remotest provinces of China.

Martha was never on our payroll. From time to time, we helped to cover her traveling expenses. She was traveling and ministering totally by faith. I recall meeting her once in the city of Xian. We had arranged to meet at 9 p.m., but she did not turn up until about 1 a.m. She was delayed because she had been delivering Bibles in a nearby village. But the local commune leaders discovered what she was doing. They beat her up, robbed her, and threw her on a deserted road. It was a miracle that she was able to make it to our appointment.

I noticed something was wrong with Martha. She was thin as a wire and her face was bloated. I asked, “What is the matter with you? Did they beat you up like this?”

“Oh, no,” she said, “I’ve had this problem for some time now.” Then she rolled up her pants to show me legs covered with stings and mosquito bites. As she traveled in the remote countryside of China, often she had to sleep in deserted huts or even out in the fields. She was literally eaten up by bugs and mosquitoes.

“Tomorrow we must go to a doctor,” I urged her.

“No, no,” she said, “I have to catch an early train tomorrow to go to Inner Mongolia. Where are the Bibles?” Her only concern was to get the Bibles to Inner Mongolia!

In August 1983, Martha disappeared – as though she had just vanished into thin air. That was during China’s ‘Anti-Crime Campaign’ when many people were arrested and executed throughout China. We became concerned for Martha.

Later we got a letter from her through her friends. It was not really a letter – just a little piece of paper. She had been arrested and charged for distributing ‘superstitious materials’ in the People’s Republic of China. The little note read:

“I don’t know what the penalty will be, but please pray for me.” She quoted Paul’s words: “Pray for me that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.” (Eph. 6:19-20) A few weeks later, we received news that 24-year-old Martha had been executed. She paid the price.

We in the western world do not have the slightest idea of what fellowshipping with the suffering of Christ means (Phil. 3:10) Yes, the Gospel is free, but it is never cheap. For God so loved the world that He paid the price. He gave His only begotten Son. And the Son certainly paid the price. The Chinese Christians have counted the cost, and they are willing to pay the price. Are we willing?

Faithfulness in keeping the Word of God

I don’t mean just owning a Bible, or reading the Bible – but keeping the Word of God. Having a Bible in your home, reading it from time to time, and living by the Word are quite different matters.

Let me share this testimony of Professor Lim, a conductor with a Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestra. He is one of the finest violinists in Asia. Lim returned to China from Indonesia in the 1950s in response to China’s call to overseas Chinese to return to their motherland to help build a new nation. Lim dedicated himself to train China’s young musicians. But during the Cultural Revolution, Professor Lim was arrested by the Red Guards, some of whom were his very own students. He said that they had actually put his fingers on the steps of a concrete staircase and threatened to crush them with bricks. Reasons? He played pieces by Bach and Beethoven; therefore he was an anti-revolutionary. Only the intervention of Premier Zhou Enlai saved him, Lim later discovered. The Red Guards did not break his fingers, but they broke one of his knee-caps. Now he walks with a limp. At the time of that Revolution, Professor Lim was classified as a ‘ninth class parasite of society, an enemy of the masses.’ He had to be ‘re-educated.’

Lim told us, “For months, I was dragged daily to a public square. There I was made to kneel down with my hands behind my back. For the whole day people passing me would come to slap me, kick me and to reform me, spit on me. That was to re-educate and to reform me.”