Surviving the upheavals in China

My wife and I visited China a few months before the student demonstrations that attempted to bring democracy to that country. The Chinese have a sophisticated culture predating the Christian Era by more than 1,000 years. They are a resilient, frugal people who have maintained a determined work ethic, either by choice or by force. They have survived what seemed insurmountably destructive historical events.

With a tour group composed of 18 Adventists, we spent two and one-half weeks visiting major cities such as Shanghai, Xian, Beijing, Kunming, and Guilin. Our leaders, Pastor Milton and Mrs. Helen Lee, were born in China and spent most of their lives preaching the gospel to the Chinese. During the tour, their reunions with pastors and church members whom they had not seen for years provided many emotional moments.

The natural and man-made monuments we visited both surprised and intrigued us. The thousands of bicycles we saw weaving down streets and roads and parked in lots bore witness to China's immense population of 1.1 billion people.

During the eight years Marie and I spent in the Far Eastern Division we be came acquainted with many overseas Chinese and came to admire their philosophy and customs. Our visit to China helped us to a more complete under standing of the roots of these resourceful people.

But while we enjoyed becoming better acquainted with China's beauty and culture, our main reason for touring that country was to investigate the situation of Christianity, and more specifically of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in China.

All religions, Christian and non- Christian, suffered terribly during the decade from 1966 to 1976. Of course, many churches and their institutions had already been closed, but during the Cultural Revolution Mao's Red Guards undertook not only to close every visible religious institution that had been left open, but to eradicate everything that was perceived as Western. *

In spite of political repression under a dictatorship, China has made a truly remarkable economic recovery from those years of disaster. Food and consumer goods seemed in abundant supply every where. The cities were relatively clean and orderly, and the hotel accommodations for tourists were excellent.

Although our church has suffered during the nearly four decades of atheistic Communist rule, it has survived, as have other Christian groups. We pray earnestly that the situation will improve.

Meeting David Lin

The name David Lin is well known among Adventists. David, a 1941 graduate of Pacific Union College, spent 20 years confined in prisons, in labor camps, or on a farm, though he testifies that he was never physically abused. His dear wife Clara suffered persecution as well, being confined not in prison but to her home. In spite of their problems, by God's grace this family has survived. Their influence is a source of strength to our growing church in China. Just hearing his experience brought me courage.

We were thrilled to have David, his wife, daughter, and grandson meet us at the airport. During our visits in various places in Shanghai we spent several hours with him, listening to his reports and interviewing him. He answers the oft-asked question as to how many Seventh-day Adventists there are in China by saying that the exact figure is unknown. In 1949, our China Division encompassed 21,000 members, a large segment of whom worked in our institutions. When our schools, hospitals, and publishing houses were either closed or placed under government-selected management in 1951, large numbers left the church. David states that our member ship in China reached its lowest point at that time.

David was the division secretary when this "liberation movement" took place. Both he and Pastor Hsu Hwa, the division president, were removed from leadership. During our visit I was able to interview Pastor Hwa as well. Their stories, which had a tremendous emotional impact on me, convinced me that we in the West have no idea of what it really means to suffer because of our faith.

If I learned anything from this visit to China, I learned that it is people that comprise the church. Today we have no organizational structure in China no local conference, union conference, or division offices. We have no departmental structures. We have no schools, no seminaries, no publishing houses, no hospitals or clinics. We have no TV or radio broadcasts (though our Guam radio station, KSDA, reaches into China). We have no public evangelists, no public evangelistic campaigns, no retirement or medical or educational assistance for ministers. But we have a church! A church that is in all probability far larger and stronger than ever before.

David stated: "Now it is just a matter of the gospel seeds springing up in different parts of China, and many of our people, our believers, are responding to God's inspiration by going out and winning souls by themselves. So in one way we can say that the Chinese church is in better spiritual condition than it was be fore. Those who were in the church just for the pay left, while those who had a hold on God stayed. Even though the church may no longer be functioning as an organization, these dear souls who are still in touch with God are working for Him."

I don't mean to downgrade organizational structure, policies, and so forth. When structure serves our mission of preaching the gospel in the setting of the three angels' messages, then the church can move more rapidly and in a stronger way than it can without that dedicated structure. Nevertheless, if the structure should be destroyed, the church can and does survive. Under these circumstances, the two, three, or more people who meet together in the Lord's name in a house, barn, garden, park, or wherever those who love the Lord, obey His law, and have the common goal of sharing their faith in Jesus Christ in every way possible—comprise the church.

David's strong commitment to the Advent movement grows out of his unshakable confidence in both the Scriptures and the Spirit of Prophecy. In his youth, when he was studying to see which church he should join, he read The Great Controversy. This book dispelled his doubts about our message. (To our non-Adventist clergy friends, if you wish a complimentary copy of this book, which traces our Christian heritage from the time of Christ until our Lord's second coming, please send your request to the editor of Ministry.)

David remains committed to the importance of the Spirit of Prophecy. He believes that his removal from the post of secretary of the China division of our church was providential. When he was division secretary, committee meetings and problem solving totally consumed his time. His removal from that position gave him the time to devote to a special project. During the six-year period prior to his arrest, while he supported his family by operating a small slide rule factory in his home, he was able to take the leadership in translating the five books of the Conflict of the Ages Series. As soon as he translated a chapter, some of our enthusiastic youth would cut stencils and print a few hundred copies. These were distributed among our people in various parts of the country, and the influence of this action was immediate.

Lessons concerning our medical work

In our conversation, after he described the closing of all of our institutions by the authorities, including our 13 hospitals and sanitariums, David made some re marks pertinent to our medical work. In response to my question as to what he would recommend if we had the opportunity of starting our work all over, he emphasized the need of staffing our institutions with dedicated, converted Adventist Christians. He spoke of our hospitals as being our largest institutional presence in China, saying they had grown like mushrooms. In order to keep the buildings they had erected and equipped in operation, they had to hire doctors and nurses without regard to their religious affiliation.

Commenting on this situation, he warned: "Do the work according to the workers you have. If you have just three workers, undertake only a task that three workers can handle; don't try to make them bear a load requiring six. I believe that the limited witness those large institutions we had offered hardly justified the funds they required. We did have a few dedicated physicians and nurses, but when they were surrounded by a large number of non-Christian, secular-minded individuals they found it very difficult to witness for God. There was no cooperation. In the hospital you need an atmosphere—a religious atmosphere—that is part of the healing process.

I asked David about his privileges during his incarceration. Was he able to have religious books and the Bible during the six and a half years he spent behind bars? He replied that prisoners were allowed to read only the works of Mao Tsetung, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels. The jailers made regular searches to remove any diaries or notes the prisoners might have written. David's witness was restricted as well. Much of the time the prisoners were not allowed to speak to each other, especially if they were in large cells.

Although he was deprived of his Bible and for a time experienced a spiritual low, he never doubted God's love and presence. He believed that God had a reason for allowing all the confusion and trouble that came upon our church. He noted that in the destruction of the Temple in Old Testament times, God had been trying to teach His people a lesson.

David understands the Chinese church's experience during this time of persecution as necessary to learning a lesson. He said, "What we need most is the spiritual preparation that draws us near to God—that teaches us not to depend on the arm of flesh, not to depend on material prosperity and modem gadgets, so to speak. We should draw near to God every morning. The book of Daniel says that when Daniel was praying, the man Gabriel came in answer to his prayer. Now, if Daniel had not prayed, I believe Gabriel would not have come. He came in answer to Daniel's prayer for skill and understanding. We need that kind of heavenly aid, so we also need to pray.