Take The Gospel To The Ends Of The Earth
In a quest to obey Jesus's command to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, believers across China were moving in groups with the gospel from place to place; mostly unconnected to each other but united in their quest to obey their Master. God used them to bring people from different ethnicities to the Kingdom.
Following excerpt from 29% into Back To Jerusalem by Paul Hattaway, Brother Yun, Peter Xu Yongze, and Enoch Wang
...By the end of the 1930s God had raised up a new generation of believers who were willing to forsake everything in obedience to seeing this call of God completed. They said, "Let's rise to our feet and carry the cross to the nations where God is not known. Let's go forth in Jesus' name, giving up everything we have, even our very lives if necessary, so that the name of Jesus will be glorified among all the Gentiles."
The strategy of the Northwest Spiritual Movement was simply to preach the gospel, believing that Jesus would soon return. They did not spend any effort on establishing local congregations, concentrating solely on evangelism and soul winning. Yet God in his mercy still established many new believers and there was much fruit that remains to this day. They won people to Christ among many ethnic groups including Muslim Uygurs, Hui and Kazaks. ...
In addition to the Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band and the Northwest Spiritual Movement, there were several smaller initiatives by different Chinese church groups in the 1940s. Some reached into Tibetan areas, others to the minorities of southwest China, still others into the Muslim regions. Yet despite their different origins and spheres of work, all of these groups considered themselves part of the larger vision to carry the gospel back to Jerusalem.
Writing in 1949, Phyllis Thompson, a worker based in Chongqing with the China Inland Mission, remarked: The thing that has impressed me most has been the strange, unaccountable urge of a number of different Chinese groups of Christians to press forward in faith, taking the gospel towards the west. I know of at least five different groups, quite unconnected with each other, who have left their homes in east China and gone forth, leaving practically everything behind them, to the west.
Some are in Xikang [now western Sichuan], some in Gansu, some right away in the great northwestern province of Xinjiang. It seems like a movement of the Spirit which is irresistible. The striking thing is that they are disconnected, and in most cases seem to know nothing about each other. Yet all are convinced that the Lord is sending them to the western borders to preach the gospel, and they are going with a strong sense of urgency of the shortness of the time, and the imminence of the Lord's return.
The strategy of the Northwest Spiritual Movement was simply to preach the gospel, believing that Jesus would soon return. They did not spend any effort on establishing local congregations, concentrating solely on evangelism and soul winning. Yet God in his mercy still established many new believers and there was much fruit that remains to this day. They won people to Christ among many ethnic groups including Muslim Uygurs, Hui and Kazaks. ...
In addition to the Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band and the Northwest Spiritual Movement, there were several smaller initiatives by different Chinese church groups in the 1940s. Some reached into Tibetan areas, others to the minorities of southwest China, still others into the Muslim regions. Yet despite their different origins and spheres of work, all of these groups considered themselves part of the larger vision to carry the gospel back to Jerusalem.
Writing in 1949, Phyllis Thompson, a worker based in Chongqing with the China Inland Mission, remarked: The thing that has impressed me most has been the strange, unaccountable urge of a number of different Chinese groups of Christians to press forward in faith, taking the gospel towards the west. I know of at least five different groups, quite unconnected with each other, who have left their homes in east China and gone forth, leaving practically everything behind them, to the west.
Some are in Xikang [now western Sichuan], some in Gansu, some right away in the great northwestern province of Xinjiang. It seems like a movement of the Spirit which is irresistible. The striking thing is that they are disconnected, and in most cases seem to know nothing about each other. Yet all are convinced that the Lord is sending them to the western borders to preach the gospel, and they are going with a strong sense of urgency of the shortness of the time, and the imminence of the Lord's return.
Back To Jerusalem
by Paul Hattaway, Brother Yun, Peter Xu Yongze, and Enoch Wang
| Genre: | Biography or personal narrative |
| Subject: | Brother Yun |
| Publisher: | Piquant |
| Year: | 2004 |
| Location: | Carlisle |
| Library: | Physical collection at walkingtogether.life |
| Purchase: | https://www.amazon.com/Back-Jerusalem-Ch... |
Scripture Testimony Index stories in this book
In the 1950s, just a few years after Mao Zedong's proclamation of a new China; communism came at Christianity with fire and brimstone. Christians were rounded up and imprisoned for decades, some—like the 48 pastors from Wenzhou—died in prison, and their only crime was preaching the gospel.
Believers in Nanyang were crucified on the walls of their churches, some were chained to horses or vehicles and dragged to their death, a pastor lifted up in a crane and made to crash back to the ground and die. For all of these people, their crime was the same: they refused to deny Jesus Christ as their Lord and personal Savior.
It was while praying on November 25, 1942 that Mark Ma heard an instruction from the Lord that will forever change his life. For God, was leading him and some others to preach the gospel in Xinjiang.
Seventeen-year-old Ho En Cheng was attending an evangelistic meeting when she received a clear vision from the Lord as the congregation rose to pray. In that vision, she received the call from God to go preach in Xinjiang and she obeyed!
Having successfully arrived Tulan as the first of a party of seven pioneers taking the gospel go Western China, Mecca Chao writes Mark Ma detailing the perils of the over 200-mile journey and the unwavering protection he enjoyed from God!
Led by Jing Dianying, the Jesus Family was a body of believers, much like the early church who lived communally and shared whatever they had with others. And though they faced much scorn and persecution, they moved from town to town, preaching Jesus to all who cared to listen and winning souls for the Kingdom in the process.
In a quest to obey Jesus's command to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, believers across China were moving in groups with the gospel from place to place; mostly unconnected to each other but united in their quest to obey their Master. God used them to bring people from different ethnicities to the Kingdom.
While in prison Simon Zhoa's captors tried all they could to make him renounce Christ but nothing they did got him to cooperate with them. Instead, he continued to witness for the Lord even as he remained and suffered behind bars.
All Simon Zhao ever wanted, right from when he was just a boy, was vengeance against the man who violated his mother. This hateful quest remained in Simon until he met God and things changed!
Brother Shui was publicly shamed by the Chinese police by being paraded through the streets wearing a dunce cap. But Brother Shui went the extra mile and continued to wear his dunce cap when working in the fields because it proclaimed to all that he was a follower of Jesus.