Last night the state of New York had their primary elections and Socialists had a very good night – especially candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier.
Ms. Chevalier represents an alarming trend in New York that is reminiscent of China in the 1940s when zealous young college students and union workers took to the streets and demanded much the same words.
Like Chevalier, the earliest supporters of the Communist Party in China called for the abolition of property rights, the equal distribution of wealth, the confiscation of wealth, the abolishment of law in favor of “People’s Courts” and the return of “occupied land.”
Phyllis Thompson was a missionary with the China Inland Mission during the rise of the Communist Party in China and she witnessed the outcome first-hand.
“The clicking sounds of typewriters along the office corridor rose and fell spasmodically,” Phyllis Thompson wrote, remembering her days as a missionary when the Communists were taking over China. “Things weren’t going well, that was obvious, and everyone was affected. A shock of horror had run through the whole missionary body in China when the news leaked through that Miss Lenell of the Swedish Mission, who had been living in a region under Communist domination for some time, had been suddenly arrested, tried by the People’s Tribunal, and executed. Such a thing had never happened before. Missionaries had been killed in riots, murdered by bandits, died as prisoners of war, but this show of justice resulting in execution “by the will of the people” was new – and ominous.”
Elna Lenell’s martydom is not known outside of China and I might have missed it if it weren’t for the writings of Phyllis Thompson in her book China: The Reluctant Exodus, but what makes it so important was that Lenell’s martyrdom was a wake up call to the missionary community in China as to the real goal of Communists.
The Communist Party was, at first glance, appealing to many young Christians because they made a case that the Bible supports their efforts. Jesus helped the poor, just like Communists want to help the poor. Jesus stood for justice, just like the Communist stand for justice. Jesus’ disciples equally distributed their belongings just like the Communists.
The earliest Back to Jerusalem missionaries were enticed to support the idea of the Communist struggle, but it was not long before the socialists revealed who they really were. Phyllis’ book, available online for free, documents those earliest days.
Just after Christmas Day in 1947, Elna Lenell was placed in front of an angry mob that condemned her for sharing her foreign religion. She had given her life to helping and serving the Chinese people and she did it for free, but it didn’t matter. There was a fervor in the crowd and she represented land ownership, stealing indigenous land, unfair justice, and propagating a foreign religion. She was condemned and the mob beat her with sticks and poles until her lifeless body fell to the ground.
What was left of her trampled broken body was later found in a village close by called Juicheng, but she was unrecognizable. There was almost nothing left of her.
This year, I have been reading the early records of the Back to Jerusalem missionaries and their internal conflict about whether to join the Communist Party or not. One of the earliest supporters of the Communist Party was Pastor Jing Dianying, the founder of the Jesus Family.
The Jesus Family was a communal group that shared everything. The Communist Party convinced Pastor Jing to sign their Christian Manifesto, a document that declared support between the Party and the Church. Soon after he signed it, they arrested him and took him to prison where he was beaten and tortured for many years before his death.
This summer, I will be writing a series of timely books that will document, for the first time, the stories of the earliest BTJ missionaries. This books are not just historical testimonies of what God did 100 years ago in China, but they are lessons that we can all learn from as the spirit of Communism is once again on the rise with young people.
