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Back to Jerusalem Movement
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관리자
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2008-06-10 13:55:48, 조회 : 31,601 |
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Back to Jerusalem Movement
글쓴이 : 인보라 조회 : 156
Back to Jerusalem Movement
What is "Back to Jerusalem"?
The Back to Jerusalem vision is something that thousands of Chinese Christians are willing to die for. Why? When many people first hear about “Back to Jerusalem” they misinterpret from the name of the movement that the Chinese Church wants to evangelize Jerusalem.
The first thing to understand was that ‘Back to Jerusalem’ does not at all mean the Chinese want to rush to Jerusalem with the Gospel. The vision is much larger than that.
The BTJ vision is a passion for the house churches of China. We pray about it daily, dream about it, and talk about it over breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Back to Jerusalem vision is not some small trivial matter for us, but the driving force of our lives and ministries. Many feel it is God’s ultimate call and destiny for the Chinese Church, the very reason they exist!
Back to Jerusalem is not some kind of end times theory. We have no plans to rush to Israel. Rather, BTJ refers to a call from God for the Chinese Church to preach the Gospel and establish fellowships of believers in all the countries, cities, towns, and ethnic groups between China and Jerusalem. This vision is no small task, for within those nations lay the three largest spiritual strongholds in the world today that have yet to be conquered by the Gospel: the giants of Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
More than 90% of the unreached people groups in the world today are located within the 10/40 window ? more than 5,100 tribes and ethno-linguistic groups with little or no Gospel witness.
Of the world’s 50 least-Christian and least-evangelized countries, all 50 are located within this region!
As you read these pages, please remember that the Back to Jerusalem movement is not a crazy pipe-dream of a few fanatical Christians that may or may not happen. It is something that is already happening! Right now there are already hundreds of Chinese missionaries working outside China in the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, and Southeast Asia. Thousands more are in training, learning languages such as Arabic and English that will be put to use on the mission field.
A team of thirty-six Chinese missionaries departed China in March 2000 for a neighboring Buddhist country. They were the first contemporary team of Back to Jerusalem missionaries, the first-fruits of a great flood to come. Few people around the world knew of this event, but their going was the result of years of prayer and planning. On that day China once again became an active participant in worldwide mission.
During the training and orientation for those 36 pioneers, each one was asked to give their testimony. Many tears flowed as they told their stories. All of them had suffered much for the Gospel in China. Most had been arrested, imprisoned, beaten and tortured because of their testimony for Jesus Christ. They had all faced extreme hardship, separation from family, forced starvation, sleepless nights and perils on every side.
Despite tremendous opposition, all 36 of these house church missionaries had faithfully preached the Gospel throughout China for years, establishing churches and seeing more of God’s power manifested through their ministries each month than most Christians see during their lifetimes.
As the Back to Jerusalem vision unfolds, you may start to hear reports of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists coming to Christ in places where the Gospel has long struggled to make an impact. When this happens, don’t be amazed at the Chinese Christians, we are just sinners saved by grace and undeserving of any attention. Rather, be amazed at the wisdom and manifest beauty of God’s plan. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” 1 Corinthians 1:25
We hope you will be encouraged and challenged by the Back to Jerusalem vision, and moved to prayer and involvement in the fulfillment of the Great Commission in these last days, until “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11:15
Introduction to the History of "Back to Jerusalem"
The Back to Jerusalem vision is not a new vision. It was first given to a Chinese church called the “Jesus Family” in the late 1920s, and later to several different church groups in the 1930s and 40s. It is a vision of evangelism in the major unreached nations of the world.
Here in this history section we examine some of the fascinating experiences of these early pioneers as they attempted to take the Gospel, on foot, through the Islamic world back to Jerusalem. We will see how different groups and individuals responded to this vision, and how God intervened in their lives to glorify Himself. We also read about the suffering and persecution many of them suffered, and what happened with these faithful believers.
The Roots of the Back to Jerusalem Movement
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
In China, when we read the above verse, we didn’t know what “to the ends of the earth” meant. The way this Script-xure is written almost makes it sound like the earth is flat and it is possible for believers to reach the very end of the world before it drops off into space! We prayed and meditated on this verse, asking God to show us what He means by it.
Gradually the Lord opened our minds to understand that what he was referring to was a geographic progression of the advance of the Gospel throughout the world. When Jesus first gave this promise he was standing on the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem. (see Acts 1:12). The mount is located on the east side of the old city, and the central hill was approximately 60 meters (200 feet) higher than the temple area in Jerusalem. Therefore, when Jesus spoke the words of Acts 1:8 to his disciples, he was looking down on the city and his words showed a natural progression: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem” (the city down below where they were standing), “Judea” (the province west and northwest of Jerusalem), “Samaria” (the province north of Judea), “and to the ends of the earth.”
Could it be that Jesus was showing his disciples that the fire of the Gospel would first start to burn in Jerusalem, before spreading out into the countryside west and north of the city, then further into the lands bordering the Gentile world, and onward into those nations where God’s name was not known?
God helped the Church to spread the Gospel to the Gentiles. Even the location of Jerusalem was perfectly placed at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa. “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.’” Ezekiel 5:5
In the Book of Acts this is exactly how the Gospel did spread. After the Holy Spirit fell upon the believers with great power, Peter raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem…” Acts 2:14. The Holy Spirit anointed Peter with such authority that “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” Acts 2:41
What a wonderful moment in history! The glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ was just commencing its long and blessed journey throughout the world. Just as every parent longs to be present when his or her child takes their first step, surely all the angels watched and heaven stood still. The launch of the Church brought life and salvation to 3,000 people that very first day, in stark comparison to the introduction of the Old Testament Law, which had brought the death of 3,000 people on its first day (see Exodus 32:27-28).
Those who had started to obey the Lord’s command were doing a great job with stage one: Jerusalem. Indeed, soon the high priest complained to the followers of Jesus that they had “filled Jerusalem with your teaching.” Acts 5:28 Within weeks the Bible states, “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” Acts 6:7
It seems to be an unfortunate characteristic of many Christians that when things are going well we like to stop, make ourselves comfortable, and enjoy our successes. The Gospel had already saturated Jerusalem but it seems the disciples were starting to forget the other stages of the Great Commission. To help them remember, the Lord provided some persecution! On the same day that Stephen became the first martyr of the Church, “a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.” Acts 8:1
Philip was used mightily in Samaria, with many miracles and signs and wonders accompanying his ministry, and many people came to faith in the recently-ascended Christ. Soon after, God decided to reveal himself to one of the chief persecutors of the church, a man named Saul. The fourth stage in God’s plan of world salvation would be implemented by the efforts of this man, who would come to be known as the Apostle Paul. Immediately after he dramatically met Jesus on the road to Damascus (the capital of Syria), the Lord said about Paul, “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings…” Acts 9:15
The rest of the Book of Acts records how the fire of the Gospel spread throughout the Roman world, to Rome itself and to many areas along the Mediterranean Coast. The Lord lovingly yet firmly helped the Church obey his command, and in a short time the Jews said of Paul and Silas, “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here…” Acts 17:6
The words of Jesus in Luke 24:46-48 were being fulfilled: “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
As we meditated on how the Gospel had spread around the world, we saw that generally speaking, the fire has spread in a westward direction. From southern Europe it spread into central, northern and Western Europe. The fire also blazed into the southern Mediterranean countries in North Africa, giving birth to some of the great leaders of the early Church such as Augustine (from present-day Algeria) and Tertullian (c.155 - 220 AD), who made the following statement to the political leaders of his time which resonates among the Chinese house church Christians today:
Go zealously on, good presidents, you will stand higher with the people if you sacrifice the Christians at their wish, kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust; your injustice is the proof that we are innocent…. Nor does your cruelty, however exquisite, avail you; it is rather a temptation to us. The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed. [1]
In China we understand what Tertullian meant. The government in China has come to view the house churches like the Egyptians viewed the Israelites in captivity, “the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.” Exodus 1:12
We have numerous testimonies of powerful revivals that have broken out in places where Christians have spilled their blood and endured many hardships for the Gospel. In some difficult areas where there exists much opposition to the Gospel, it seems God’s children must suffer and bleed before the power of the demonic powers are broken and people can see the light of the Gospel.
Many centuries later, as adventurers and missionaries started exploring the world by ship, the fire of the Gospel spread to central and southern Africa, to the Americas, to hundreds of islands in the South Pacific, to Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Asia on the Pacific Rim. Around the beginning of the 20th century revival broke out in places like Korea, the Philippines, parts of eastern China and Southeast Asia.
Of course there were many exceptions to this pattern. Indeed the Apostle Thomas is credited with taking the Gospel to India just years after he had touched the wounded hands of the resurrected Savior. But generally speaking, we can see that the flame of the Gospel has moved in a westward direction.
Beginning around thirty years ago, genuine and sustained revival came to the Chinese house churches. We found ourselves on the frontline of this worldwide fire of God’s blessing, and many tens of millions of people have come to faith in Christ.
After God renewed our vision for Back to Jerusalem, we came to the realization that practically all of the remaining unevangelized and unreached areas in the world that have never been penetrated by the Gospel are situated west and south of China. We believe God has given us a solemn responsibility to take the fire from his altar and complete the Great Commission by establishing God’s Kingdom in all of the remaining countries and people groups in Asia, the Middle East, and Islamic North Africa. When this happens, we believe the Script-xure says the Lord Jesus Christ will return for His bride. “…We who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18
We believe the furthermost point in the world the Gospel can travel from Jerusalem, therefore, is to circle the entire globe and come all the way back to where it all started ? Jerusalem! When the fire of the Gospel completes its circuit of the whole globe the Lord Jesus will return! “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14
This is how the name "Back to Jerusalem" was created to explain the missionary vision of the Church in China. We have just shared some of the Biblical basis for the Back to Jerusalem movement, and some of our understanding about how the Gospel has spread around the world throughout history. Now let us recall some of the early efforts of pioneer Back to Jerusalem missionaries….
The Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band
“The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” Isaiah 52:10
An early thrust in the vision of Back to Jerusalem came when God gave a clear call to a small group of Christians studying at the Northwest Bible Institute in Shaanxi Province in the early 1940s.
For several years students from the school had been involved with evangelistic outreach to Muslims, Buddhists and scattered Chinese living in Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia provinces before the Lord specifically called some of them to consecrate themselves for the vision of carrying the Gospel outside China’s borders into the Islamic world, all the way back to Jerusalem.
The founder and leader of this group was Pastor Mark Ma, from the ancient city of Kaifeng in Henan Province. While ministering as the Vice President of the Northwest Bible Institute in Shaanxi, Mark Ma had a discussion with the Lord that changed his life forever and gave him the momentum needed for pioneer work into the vast unreached Muslim world.
The events leading to the founding of the Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band took place in a quiet, relaxed Bible school in Fengxiang, Shaanxi Province, central China in the early 1940s. The Northwest Bible Institute was a beautiful facility surrounded by a thick bamboo grove, with leafy trees ringing the single-storied buildings of the classrooms, student dormitories and missionaries’ homes. A flight of steps led down to a vegetable garden, from where a view could be seen of the Fengxiang City wall.
The Japanese invasion of China was directly responsible for the formation of the Northwest Bible Institute. James Hudson Taylor II (the grandson of the world-famous pioneer) and his wife Alice were forced to leave their mission field in Henan Province due to the continual bombing of enemy aircraft. They traveled westward into Shaanxi Province, where they had the vision to establish a Bible school. They had no land to commence the work, but much prayer was undertaken for God’s provision. The prayer was answered. The China Inland Mission offered their premises near the city of Fengxiang. The first year just eight students came for a three month course. James H. Taylor II was appointed the Principal of the school, and Pastor Mark Ma later became the Vice-Principal.
Although the school had only been open for two years, the Easter morning prayer-meeting in 1943 was to prove the genesis for a chain of events that drastically changed the lives of many. The impact of that prayer time could be said to have impacted the Chinese Church to this day….
On the hard surface of the courtyard, under the tall trees whose thick boughs spread a leafy shelter overhead, a map of China had been outlined in whitewash. The students stood around, looking at it. They had been hearing again of the needs of the great provinces to the North and to the West…. The sky was lightening in the east, and thin rays of light obliterated the fading grayness of the night. It was very silent in the courtyard, and the white-washed outline of the map on the ground stood out sharply. The solemn moment had arrived, the moment which brought with it an almost breathtaking hush. ‘Let those who have received the Lord’s commission leave their places and go and stand on the province to which God has called them’…. There was a stir among the group of students. Cloth-soled feet moved noiselessly as one, then another, walked across the courtyard to the map. And as the sun rose over the distant horizon, eight young people were seen standing quietly on the patch that was marked with the word XINJIANG. [2]
The vast Northwest region of China is Xinjiang, a Chinese name meaning “New Dominion.” The traditional name for the area was Eastern Turkestan. Xinjiang was, and still is, inhabited by millions of Muslims, the majority of whom speak languages from the Turkic linguistic family, such as Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz and Uzbek. Other Muslim groups include Tajiks, Tatars, and Chinese-speaking Hui people. A large number of nomadic Tibetan Buddhists also inhabit Xinjiang.
Mark Ma and the Founding of the Back to Jerusalem Band
Mark Ma was a native of Henan Province. The only son of Christian parents, he had been educated in the ancient city of Kaifeng, but refused to open his heart to the Lord. Later he became a teacher in a Government school. It was not until 1937 that he was converted to Christ, when the tragic death of his little son broke his heart and brought him in sorrow and repentance to the foot of the Cross. He left his secular job and went into training at the Free Methodist Bible School. When Mr. and Mrs. James Taylor fled to Shaanxi, Mark Ma, his wife, and their several children accompanied them. He became a founding staff member of the Northwest Bible Institute.
Mark Ma recorded how he was called to enter Xinjiang with the Gospel: [3]
On the evening of November 25, 1942, while in prayer the Lord said to me, “The door to Xinjiang is already open. Enter and preach the Gospel.” When this voice reached me I was trembling and fearful and most unwilling to obey, because I did not recall a single time in the past when I had prayed for Xinjiang; moreover it was a place which I had no desire to go. Therefore I merely prayed about this matter, not even telling my wife.
After exactly five months of prayer, on Easter morning, 25 April, 1943, when two fellow workers and I were praying together on the bank of the Wei River, I told them of my call to Xinjiang and one of the fellow workers said that ten years before she had received a similar call. I thanked God that He had already prepared a coworker. When I returned to the school I learned that on that same Easter Sunday at the sunrise service eight students had also been burdened for Xinjiang. It was with joy that I gathered them all together, and we planned to have a regular prayer meeting. With permission of the faculty we decided on Tuesday evening as the time for our weekly prayer meeting. On the evening of May 4 we held our first prayer meeting and there were 23 present…. On May 11 we received the first offering for our mission, amounting to $50.
Gradually the question arose as to what our group should be called…. On the morning of May 23 as I fasted and prayed about the name of the Band the Lord revealed the verse of Script-xure to my heart, “This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then the end shall come.” Matthew 24:14.
I said, “O Lord what does this mean?” “It is this, I not only want the Chinese Church to assume responsibility for taking the Gospel to Xinjiang but I want you to bring to completion the commission to preach the Gospel to all the world.” I asked, “O Lord, has not the Gospel already been preached to all the world?”
The Lord said, “Since the beginning at Pentecost, the Pathway of the Gospel has spread, for the greater part, in a westward direction; from Jerusalem to Antioch to all Europe; from Europe to America and then to the East; from the Southeast of China to the Northwest; until today from Gansu on Westward it can be said there is no firmly established Church. You may go Westward from Gansu, preaching the Gospel all the way back to Jerusalem, causing the light of the Gospel to complete the circle around this dark world.” I said, “O Lord, who are we that we can carry such a great responsibility?” The Lord answered, “I want to manifest My power through those who of themselves have no power.”
I said, “That section of territory is under the power of Islam and the Muslims are the hardest of all peoples to reach with the Gospel.”
The Lord replied, “The most rebellious people are the Israelites, the hardest field of labor is my own people the Jews.” …. The Lord continued speaking, “Even you Chinese, yourself included, are hard enough but you have been conquered by the Gospel.”
I asked, “O Lord, if it is not that their hearts are especially hard, why is it that missionaries from Europe and America have established so many churches in China but are still unable to open the door to Western Asia?”
The Lord answered me, “It is not that their hearts are especially hard, but I have kept for the Chinese Church a portion of inheritance, otherwise, when I return will you not be so poor?
When I heard the Lord say He had kept for us a portion of inheritance, my heart overflowed with Thanksgiving and my mouth uttered many Hallelujahs! I stopped arguing with the Lord.
On May 23, 1943, Mark Ma reported the above revelation to the prayer group. They decided they needed a name for their group and the name “Bian Chuan Fuyin Tuan” was adopted. The Chinese name literally means, “The Preach Everywhere Gospel Band.” This is the name this small group of faith-filled men and women are known by in China to this day, but the missionaries agreed the English name of the movement should be “The Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band.”
It was the policy of the leaders of the Band not to solicit finances in any way, but to pray and trust God to provide for all their needs. Donations started coming in from all over China from Chinese believers whose hearts were touched by the vision and were moved to participate. Helen Hayes Taylor, the wife of James Hudson Taylor II, commented, “In a remarkable way money came into the treasury almost entirely from Chinese sources and they felt that they must use up what was sent in and trust God to send more. Chinese Christians from many places, hearing of this work sent generous offerings. It was manifest that the movement was God-inspired.” [4]
Despite the urgency of the call, it was not until 1944 that three women and two men were sent to Lanzhou in Gansu Province for a short term of service. In 1945 they sent two men to preach the Gospel among the Hui Muslims in Ningxia. In 1946 the Lord called two men, Mecca Chao and Timothy Tai, to go northwest into Xinjiang for a longer term of service.
Now that the call was being acted on in a more serious manner, a business meeting was held on May 15, 1946 at which a constitution was accepted and Officers elected, thus formerly organizing the Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band. Some of the extracts of the Constitution included:
This is an inter-denominational but not an anti-denominational group of workers accepting the whole Bible as God’s revelation. Its aim is to join members of the Lord’s body in fellowship to consecrate strength and will on the preaching of the Gospel in order to be ready for the Lord’s return. The sphere of the work is two-fold:
First, pioneer work is as follows:
In the seven provinces on the borders of China: Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Xikang [Tibetan areas of today’s western Sichuan], Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia.
In the seven countries on the borders of Asia: Afghanistan, Iran, Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Palestine.
Second: To establish new churches in evangelized areas as well as to shepherd and revive existing churches. In pioneer districts we plan to establish churches according to the example of Script-xure. In places where churches already exist, we plan to serve such churches. We look to the Lord alone for all financial supplies. [5]
Mark Ma was always considered the leader of the Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band. In addition to his responsibilities as Vice President of the Northwest Bible Institute and his busy schedule of evangelistic work, he assumed the added responsibility of traveling throughout China, “calling the Church to prayer and spiritual warfare on behalf of the Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band, and enlisting volunteers for service in this great work.” [6]
The following words of Mark Ma ring true for the present generation of Chinese believers who are now pressing forward with consecrated hearts to fulfill this great call: “My hope is that our Chinese Church will with determination and courage hold fast this great responsibility and, depending upon our all victorious Saviour, complete this mighty task, and taking possession of our glorious inheritance, take the Gospel back to Jerusalem. There we shall stand on the top of Mount Zion and welcome our Lord Jesus Christ descending with clouds in great glory!”
The Testimony of Mecca Chao
Mecca Chao was born in Linxian, Henan Province, in east-central China. When he was a child his family fled to Shanxi Province to escape famine. In his late teens Chao entered into relationship with Jesus Christ and his life change forever. His heart had been so deeply touched by the love of God that he unreservedly dedicated himself to the King of Kings, promising to go wherever He should lead him, to do whatever his master required of him.
A short time after his salvation experience, Mecca Chao was praying for God’s guidance concerning his pathway in life, when he received a vision in which he saw a piece of paper being held before his eyes, with the word “Mecca” written upon it. He had no idea what this word meant and eagerly asked his fellow Christians if they knew, but nobody could help him. Mecca Chao testified, “It is not necessary for you to tell me again for now I know that Jesus is the true God, the living God; I have heard His voice and He has shown me clearly the way wherein I should go.” [7]
In his first year as a believer, Mecca Chao experienced God in a similar way to countless Chinese house church Christians today: deep repentance and zeal coupled with intense spiritual warfare.
At this time my zeal was very fervent…. God gave me a special power in prayer. At each service we only read the Bible, sang and prayed. Every time I prayed the Holy Spirit worked, convicting the hearts of the people so that they wept and confessed their sins…. This continued for half a year but the devil was working in great power ? assaulting me on every side; especially when I prayed he manifested his wicked power. He often brought before me fearful, strange-looking beings to frighten me, causing me to pray less and less, until finally I did not dare to pray at all…. Gradually I fell into temptation. My spiritual life grew colder and colder each day…. I walked the way of the world, the ambition for position and gain taking the place of God in my life…. The heavenly Father’s loving heart must have been sorely wounded, but in my disobedience I did not realize how His heart was grieved. [8]
For the next several years the backslidden Mecca Chao fought in the Chinese army, facing death every day and feeling miserable within. He was captured during battle and became a prisoner of war, experiencing dreadful torture and deprivation. It was while behind bars that the Lord lovingly called His prodigal son back to his embrace. In his dingy, isolated prison cell the Lord started to revive Mecca Chao’s spirit and remind him of everything he had walked away from…. “I asked the Lord, ‘O God, is this the kind of life that ‘Mecca’ means? Is this the way wherein I should go?”
The Lord responded by giving him a vision of a map of Ningxia Province, the seat of Islam in China. In another vision he saw a long bright road leading westward along which he must one day travel. He later said:
God was thinking of me and gave me a ray of hope to dispel a little of my prison despondency. He promised me that at the age of twenty-five I would leave the prison and at the age of twenty-seven I would take up the work committed to me. It happened exactly in this way. In May of my twenty-fifth year I was delivered from prison and in July of my twenty-sixth year I came to the Northwest Bible Institute as a student. In my twenty-seventh year I went on preaching tours to Gansu Province and in the summer to the place I had seen in the vision ? Ningxia Province. We must truly rely on the faithfulness of God. [9]
Mecca Chao was now a broken young man. His zeal had been balanced with substance, and he hungered to know God’s Word in an intimate and knowledgeable way. He testified:
After passing through seven or eight years of sore testing, often times in extreme difficulty and danger, I had come through at last to a state of peace and calm. Had it not been for my Heavenly Father’s great power, which was my sole protection, I should long ago have returned to dust. Although I had become greatly weakened because of the hardships of the past several years, even so I was much stronger than when I had left home years before, a thin, yellow, weakly specimen of humanity. Hallelujah! This was God’s wonderful protection over His child in order that He might use him in the Northwest. Yes, Lord, I am willing for You to use me as You please. You are the potter, I am the clay…. The Lord understands me perfectly, I belong to Him. I am brought with a price, never again should I make my own plans…. He merely asks that I leave myself utterly in His hands to be used by Him. [10]
While studying at the Northwest Bible Institute Mecca Chao had the mystery of his name unraveled to him by Mark Ma. Ma told him the commission he had received several years before was to travel westward to preach the Gospel to the Muslims, going on until he reached the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. From that time onward he discarded his given Chinese name and called himself “Mecca” Chao.
When Mecca Chao learned about the vision God had given the leaders of the school to take the Gospel back to Jerusalem, he was amazed to find it exactly matched his own call. Not surprisingly, he enthusiastically enlisted in the mission and became one of the first workers of The Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band.
In March 1947 seven members of the Back to Jerusalem Band left Gansu Province by camel towards Xinjiang. Two men and five women from the Bible school in Fengxiang set out on the long westward trek. Their luggage was restricted to a small bag each, and ? an interesting item ? one wash basin each! In a magazine of the Back to Jerusalem Band, appearing before the team’s departure, they wrote:
THE TIME FOR WORK HAS ARRIVED!
OPEN FAITH WARFARE!
These are God’s words to us. He has indicated that some are soon to leave for the Northwest. So we see it is not only His message to us, but it is command ? an urgent command to advance. It is a message that involves the sword and blood, but also the crown and song. Because of this it frightens the weak, but makes the blood of the strong to mount up.
Praise the Lord, there are already five women of Fengxiang called of the Lord, and following His commission, who have decided to leave for the West next March (1947). Perhaps the prophecy of Psalm 68:11(R.V.) will soon be fulfilled in our midst, “The Lord gave the Word; great was the company of women who published it.” Realizing the dangers and hardships of the road ahead of them, we fear it is not one which young women should ordinarily travel, but one of them has said, ‘We may not reach there, we may die on the way, but we are willing to shed our blood on the highway to Mount Zion.’…. This shows the caliber of our young women missionaries. But what about the men? Brethren, awake! [11]
The five women missionaries included Miss Ho En Cheng (Grace Ho), who had been dedicated to God by her mother when she was a newborn baby. As a little girl she was well acquainted with Bible stories and pasted the names of places such as Jerusalem, Bethany and Mount Zion around the family courtyard! After graduating from Bible School in Tianjin in 1937, the seventeen-year-old Ho En Cheng received a clear call from the Lord to take the Gospel into Xinjiang, and ultimately all the way back to Jerusalem….
She was attending an evangelistic meeting, and as the congregation rose to pray, she received a vision from the Lord. Her immediate surroundings faded from her vision, and she seemed to be standing alone in a vast, bright wilderness plain. In the distance she heard a voice ? a voice full of sorrow, painfully crying for help. She looked but saw no one, only the horror of great darkness, from whence the sound of great anguish came. Then, as she gazed, another voice spoke, a Voice from heaven, deep with mercy and compassion. ‘The people in the darkness have no one to preach the Good News to them.’ Greatly moved at the sound of that Voice, the tears springing to her eyes, she replied, ‘O Lord, here am I.’ [12]
Some of the members of the Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band pictured at their farewell meeting. Left to right: Fan Chi Chieh, Lu Teh (Ruth Lu), Wei Suxi, Chang Moxie (Moses Chang), Ho En Cheng (Grace Ho), and Li Chin Chuan.
cotinue to "The BTJ Band II"
[2] Back to Jerusalem, p.3-4. A small prayer booklet with no author, publisher or date listed (probably 1947)
[3] Taken from a small, little-known 16-page privately published booklet entitled The Chinese Back-To-Jerusalem Evangelistic Band. A Prayer Call to Christian Friends of the Chinese Church, 1947.
[4] Alice Hayes Taylor, Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band (unpublished paper, 1948), p.2
[5] J. Oswald Sanders, Seen and Heard in China, 1948, p.38-39
[6] The Chinese Back-To-Jerusalem Evangelistic Band, p.5
[7] The Chinese Back-To-Jerusalem Evangelistic Band, p.5
[8] The Chinese Back-To-Jerusalem Evangelistic Band, p.8
[9] The Chinese Back-To-Jerusalem Evangelistic Band, p.9
[10] The Chinese Back-To-Jerusalem Evangelistic Band, p.9-10
[11] J. Oswald Sanders, Seen and Heard in China, 1948, p.39-40
[12] Back to Jerusalem, p.6
The Northwest Spiritual Movement
“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:24-25
In the 1920s God first told a group called the "Jesus Family" to take the Gospel on foot all the way from China to Jerusalem.
Founded in 1921 in Shandong Province by a man named Jing Dianying, the Jesus Family believed members should sell all their possessions and distribute their wealth among the other family members. The group’s five-word slogan encapsulated their commitment to Christ and their pattern of frugal living: “Sacrifice, abandonment, poverty, suffering, death.”
The Jesus Family targeted towns and villages, preaching the Gospel as they walked from one place to another. Their example of communal living and their deep Christian love amazed many onlookers. It attracted those searching for answers to life as well as those who were homeless, destitute and despised. Many blind people and beggars joined the Jesus Family and found eternal life in Christ.
As they continued to grow, the Jesus Family suffered terrible hardships. Often when this mobile community entered a new town the entire population came out to beat, scorn and humiliate them. The opposition didn’t deter them, however, and when they preached the Gospel there always seemed to be a few people willing to forsake all that they had to follow Jesus.
The Jesus Family was the first to have the Back to Jerusalem vision. Their workers carried baskets of food and essentials as they walked on foot across China. By the late 1940s there were some 20,000 Chinese believers enlisted in more than 100 different Jesus Family groups throughout China, enabling them to cover many different regions with the Gospel. Some believers went to Manchuria, some to Inner Mongolia, others to southern China. All of these groups considered themselves part of the Back to Jerusalem vision. They all prayerfully and practically supported the main evangelistic band that was heading west into the Muslim nations on foot, to establish the Kingdom of God in all the territories along the way.
It seems that after a period of time the Jesus Family had lost their direction in the Back to Jerusalem vision. This was probably due to the fact that all the authority was invested in the one leader, Jing Dianying. The vision had become extremely centralized and was not the vision of most of the common believers.
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.”
This is how the Northwest Spiritual Movement was birthed. Most of the original leaders of this evangelistic group hailed from Shandong Province, including the founder, Zhang Guquan.
Today’s Chinese believers interpret the split between the Northwest Spiritual Movement and the Jesus Family in different ways. Some say the split was a bad thing, while others believe the Lord had led them to do it because the vision was floundering under the control of the Jesus Family leaders and a fresh start had to be made.
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, just 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.
You need to understand that this was not a large spiritual army marching across the nation! The top leaders of this vision numbered just four or five individuals, plus a few dozen other workers. Despite their small numbers the Northwest Spiritual Movement was effective because their vision was focused. They were like a sharp arrow head, while the new converts they left behind were the shaft of the arrow.
They won people to Christ among many ethnic groups including Muslim Uygurs, Hui and Kazaks.
In addition to the efforts of the Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band and the Northwest Spirit Movement, several smaller initiatives were launched in the 1940s by different Chinese church groups. Some reached into Tibetan areas, others to the minorities of southwest China, still others into the Muslim regions. Yet despite their different origins and sphere of work, it seems all of these groups considered themselves part of the larger vision to carry the Gospel back to Jerusalem.
After the end of World War II, 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. [21]
In the 1940s the Lord raised up a young man named Simon Zao who became the principle leader of the second generation of workers in the Back to Jerusalem movement.
Simon Zao
Although he was a relatively young man in his early 30s, Simon Zao was appointed the leader of preaching and evangelism in the Northwest Spiritual Movement.
In the 1940s Simon married a young lady named Mu Lingqu, whose forefather had been a leading government official during the Qing Dynasty. Together they led a small team that slowly advanced across China to the northwest border with the Soviet Union. On the way they won many soldiers to faith in Christ, as it was a troubled time in China’s history with civil wars and widespread internal chaos. The team made their way from Shandong to Xinjiang mostly on foot, but there were some places such as in the desert where no people lived and it was impossible to walk so they went by other means.
When Simon Zao was a young boy his father died, and his mother was forced to raise the children alone. She was a beautiful woman. On several occasions the village leader came to their home and tried to lure her to commit adultery with him. He brought her expensive gifts but grew more and more frustrated as she repulsed his advances. Finally the evil village leader could stand her resistance no more and he raped her.
When little Simon found out what had happened to his beloved mother he was furious and decided to wreak revenge on the village leader. Simon told his mother when he grew up he would become a county leader so that he could bring justice for the wrongs done to her. His mother replied, “There is no use. The county leaders are just as corrupt as that evil village leader.”
“Then I will become higher than the county leaders!” Simon exclaimed.
“There is no use. The provincial leaders are just as corrupt as the county leaders,” his mother replied.
“Then I will be a higher leader than the provincial leaders!”
“Again, son, there is no use. The emperor is just the same.”
Simon was heartbroken and angry and asked his mother, “Then who is more powerful than the Emperor? Where can we go for justice?”
His mother replied, “Only God can grant justice, my son.”
“Then I will become a god!” the zealous little boy concluded.
The wound in Simon’s heart did not mend. When he was in his teens he pursued a career as a writer. Using his writing skills he got a measure of revenge on the village leader, exposing his crimes in a local newspaper.
Years later God got a hold of Simon’s life and he no longer wanted to take revenge against the man who had violated his mother. His new soft heart changed his goals in life and now all he wanted to do was preach the Gospel and make the glory of God known to all mankind.
Simon Zao, (whose original name was Zhang Haizhen) and his wife were in their 30s when they met. He was originally from Shenyang in Liaoning Province in northeast China. It was during a prayer meeting in Shenyang that the Lord first gave him a vision. It was winter time and very cold outside. The believers prayed inside but the snow drifts grew so high that the doors were blocked and the believers were unable to leave the house.
As three believers were praying over a map of China the Lord focused their thoughts on the northwest province of Xinjiang. They placed their hands over that part of China on the map and prayed with great authority. Before that day they had never seriously considered ministry in the remote northwest.
Later Simon went to Nanjing, and it was from there that he met other Christians who had received exactly the same vision from God to take the Gospel to Xinjiang and the regions beyond. They decided to join together in the harvest. The first group had already left and was working together in Xinjiang. Simon Zao’s second group left Nanjing and traveled to Xinjiang via Shaanxi Province. They made their way on foot, horseback and camelback, and occasionally by vehicle. Later a third group made their way into Xinjiang, after 1949, but they only walked on foot. The leader of the third group was Zhu Congen, from Zibo in Shandong Province.
Simon Zao and his coworkers arrived in Kashgar with between twenty and thirty team members at the end of 1948. During that very same time, however, the Communist armies took control of Xinjiang and sealed the borders shut. All the Northwest Spiritual Movement leaders were arrested and charged with being traitors because they were found to be trying to leave China. In those days it was impossible to obtain passports and to enter Soviet Central Asia was a practical impossibility, so the only way was to sneak across the border.
Every member of the Back to Jerusalem Band was sentenced to prison, for various lengths of time. The five top leaders were given extremely harsh sentences. Simon was the only one of the top leaders to see out his sentence alive. Simon’s wife was pregnant at the time of their arrest, and soon after she suffered a miscarriage. Later she died in the women’s prison.
During the first few weeks and months in the Kashgar prison labor camp the guards tried to make Simon denounce his faith, but they soon learned this would not work. They ordered him to stop praying and beat him every time they found him doing so. He never stopped praying, but learned to do so in secret when nobody was watching.
After some time the prison authorities thought he must have changed because they never saw him praying so they ordered the former author to write a column in the prison newspaper, praising the transforming power of the Communist system.
He commenced work on the article, which greatly pleased the prison authorities. When they saw what he had written, however, they flew into a rage and realized they had been tricked. His article consisted of a short poem about the beauty of Jesus and a sketch of the Cross.
The prison guards beat him by slamming a heavy wooden bench on his back, and beat and kicked him mercilessly. The local authorities punished him by extending his prison sentence for many more years. Simon was relocated to a coal mine labor camp, where most inmates died within six months of entering due to the inhumane conditions and backbreaking work. Every day he was required to meet a quota of several tons of coal, a task humanly impossible for such a small and frail man. Not only did he have to mine the coal, he also had to carry it from the mine in a basket tied to his back.
All the prisoners were forced to work 14 hours per day, seven days per week. The food was meager and rancid, and the summer months were spent laboring in sweltering oppressive heat followed by harsh winters with the temperatures well below freezing. Simon Zao became a living miracle of God’s sustaining power. Hundreds of fellow prisoners came to the coal mine, most of them physically stronger than Simon, only to die within a few months of their arrival.
For years Simon discreetly witnessed his faith to many of his fellow prisoners, and some believed. There were a few other Christian pastors in the labor camp with him, but the authorities placed them in separate cells and work units, allowing Simon only fleeting moments of contact with them. For all the years he remained in confinement Simon was not allowed to receive any visitors, but he knew in his heart that nobody remembered him anyway in this remote Muslim border town, thousands of miles away from his home.
Except for the faithful presence of his Lord, who had promised to “never leave or forsake him,” Simon felt completely alone and abandoned by men. Back in his home province of Liaoning on the opposite side of the country his relatives didn’t know if he was dead or alive, and as the years of silence stretched into decades, few people thought about or prayed for him.
The Back to Jerusalem vision truly went underground. The seed had died.
Simon later recalled how, during those harsh years in the prison labor camp, he would look up at the stars and remember the vision God had given him and his coworkers to take the Gospel all the way back to Jerusalem on foot. He had heard that his wife and unborn child were dead, but knew nothing about what had happened to his precious coworkers.
Inwardly, Simon Zao lost the fire and passion for the Back to Jerusalem vision, but he never denied the Lord Jesus who had given him that vision.
In the early years of his imprisonment, when the guards and his fellow prisoners weren’t watching, Simon often prayed, “Lord, I will never be able to go back to Jerusalem, but I pray you will rise up a new generation of Chinese believers who will complete the vision.”
After many years of suffering in the coal mine Simon was almost dead, so the prison authorities transferred him to a chemical factory in another area of Xinjiang. Although this factory was a commercial entity, they used prisoners as their main source of labor.
This new job was hardly a promotion, as he was daily exposed to toxic gases and other poisonous chemicals. Every evening after work he was returned to the prison. The beatings continued, though now most of them were at the hands of his fellow prisoners rather than the prison guards. The guards had devised a plan to get the prisoners to vent their frustrations on each other, rewarding those who reported on the behavior of others. Being a hated Christian who the authorities had never been able to break, Simon Zao was a particularly easy target for the brutal men.
God continued to protect his child, however. On one occasion in the midst of a severe winter his cellmates refused to let Simon stay in their heated cellblock. They stripped him down to his underwear and forced him to stand outside in the snow and frigid air. As they pushed him out the door they mocked him by saying, “You believe in your God, so why don’t you pray to him and ask him to keep you warm!”
For the first few minutes the cold wind tore into his flesh like a razor blade. Simon cried out to the Lord for mercy. Immediately something amazing happened. He felt a tremendous warmth come upon him, so much that he soon had sweat dripping off his body as though he was relaxing in a sauna! The snow around his feet started to melt away from the warmth emanating from his body. He called out to his cellmates inside and when they looked out the window they could scarcely believe their eyes as they witnessed steam rising from his body!
On many other occasions such dramatic miracles didn’t take place, and he suffered terribly. Hundreds of times he was beaten mercilessly. The majority of the prisoners were ethnic Uygurs, the predominant Muslim people in Xinjiang. The Uygur prisoners were especially cruel to Simon, because he was a hated Chinese “pig eater.” He later described the way the Uygurs beat him as “the same way they surround and pounce on a goat just before they kill it.”
Once he was beaten and kicked so severely that his skull fractured and he fell to the ground unconscious. While he was in his unconscious state he had a vision where the Lord lovingly spoke to him, “My child, I am with you. I shall never leave you or forsake you.” At that moment he regained consciousness but had no idea how long he had been out. He was dizzy and unsure of where he was. He touched his head on the spot where his skull had been smashed and discovered the wound had miraculously healed up even though there was dried blood on that spot.
Simon Zao was beaten for thirty of the forty years he spent in prison. It was only during the last ten years or so ? when he was an elderly man in his sixties ? that he wasn’t subjected to physical torture.
During those long years behind bars he wrote this poem:
I want to experience the same pain and suffering
Of Jesus on the Cross
The spear in his side, the pain in his heart
I’d rather feel the pain of shackles on my feet
Than ride through Egypt in Pharoah’s chariot
One day in 1988 the prison superintendent ordered Simon to come to the main office. He walked down the corridor a little apprehensive, wondering if he had managed to get himself into more trouble. His sentence was due to expire just five years away in 1993, and he hoped something hadn’t happened that would further extend his punishment.
The superintendent invited Simon to sit down and fumbled through a thick file as he puffed on a cigarette. Finally after a minute’s silence he spoke, “The government of the People’s Republic of China has decided to have mercy on you and show you lenience for the crimes you have committed against our nation. I have been authorized to release you five years early. You are free to go.”
The man of God shuffled back to his cell in a dazed and numb state. He had never expected this day would come.
Simon Zao in 1988 soon after his release from 40 years in prison
When he was first arrested in 1948 China was a Republic in the grip of a Civil War. He was in the prime of his life, an energetic man in his early 30s. Simon had a beautiful young wife who was expecting their first child. God had called them to take the Gospel back to Jerusalem and despite the dangers and many challenges, his life was rewarding and exciting.
Now, forty years later, he walked out of prison gates a free man. He was in his seventies, with white hair and a long white beard. China had completely changed during this time. Simon had missed the entire reign of Mao Zedong, including Mao’s death in 1976. He had missed the insane Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, when millions of people were killed by the fanatical Red Guards. He was now an old man with little strength. His body was damaged from decades of beatings, torture and hard work, and his face was marked with deep lines revealing the struggle of four decades in the lion’s den.
Nobody in the whole of China was waiting for him. Everyone he knew forty years earlier had either died or long forgotten about him. He managed to make his way to Kashgar City where he found a small room to live in. He didn’t have a clue what he should do. For months he remained silent, except for his daily prayers of thanksgiving to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who had kept his promise and never forsaken him during all those painful years.
Without Jesus Christ, Simon knew he would have died a thousand deaths. The Living Christ had kept him alive and sane, and had helped him to never renounce his faith in God. Simon knew that no matter how lonely a person is in this world, Jesus will always be there as “a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24
After some time local Christians in Kashgar learned about Simon Zao and heard his testimony. Out of respect they brought the old saint food and a Bible and helped him however they could.
News spread from church to church in Xinjiang about Simon, and soon the news was carried back to other parts of China that a miracle man had been sustained by the power of God during forty years in prison for the sake of the Gospel.
Starting in the late 1960s, God had poured His Spirit out on Henan Province and many millions of people had experienced God’s salvation there. Henan became known as the center of revival in China, and was given the nickname “The Galilee of China” ? the place where Jesus’ disciples come from.
Many of the house church leaders in Henan had heard about the original Back to Jerusalem workers in the 1940s. Our knowledge of the details of those early workers was somewhat cloudy, but when we heard that one of the top leaders was now out of prison we were eager to meet him and learn from him.
Some of our coworkers were ministering in Kashgar. They met Simon Zao and sent us letters informing us of his story. Our church members in Kashgar loved him like their own father. They enjoyed very close fellowship with Uncle Simon. He had been deprived of fellowship with other believers for forty years and now the Lord gave him spiritual sons and daughters who deeply respected him. Women from the church cooked for him, washed his clothes, and helped him however they could. They treated him like they would an angel of God.
Finally a group of house church leaders caught trains and buses all the way across China because we felt we had to meet Simon Zao for ourselves. We found he was a broken, humble servant of God.
At that time we published a magazine which we used to encourage believers. Uncle Simon refused to write any articles or share his testimony. We tried to show him that the current generation of Chinese believers needed to learn how the Lord had taken him through so many years of suffering. He always declined our offers, however, simply saying, “I don’t want to have any attention focused on me.”
For all those decades throughout the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s and into the 1980s there had been no active talk about taking the Gospel Back to Jerusalem. Times were so dark for believers in China that it took all of our energy and prayers just to survive those years with our faith intact.
In the early 1990s, the Lord again showed us that it was important for Simon Zao to come to Henan Province to share his testimony with our house church Christians, to inspire them to carry on the vision God had given him almost fifty years before.
We sent Deborah Xu (Peter Xu’s sister) by train and bus all the way to Kashgar, to prayerfully persuade him to reconsider. Every day she was away we prayed the Lord would grant her success. To start with Simon Zao was hesitant. He said, “The Lord called me to go west back to Jerusalem and here in Xinjiang I am at least on the way. Why should I travel back east again and go further away from Jerusalem? Why don’t you leave me alone to die here in Kashgar?”
Deborah is a very persistent sister in the Lord! She wouldn’t take no for an answer and followed Uncle Simon wherever he went, repeatedly asking in a loving manner if he would come back to Henan. She assured him they had no intention of taking him away from the front line of the battle, but only to bring him back to where there were thousands of new troops who needed training and equipping if the Back to Jerusalem mission was to be rekindled in the life of the Chinese Church.
Deborah explained that his vision could be multiplied many times over and thousands of new recruits would be sent back to fight on the frontlines if he would just come and share his story.
Finally Simon Zao realized this sister would not give him any peace until he agreed to return to Henan Province with her. He started to realize it must be the Lord who had given this woman such stubborn persistence! When Uncle Simon prayed about returning to eastern China the Lord confirmed that he should go by giving him a Script-xure that was deeply personal and brought healing after all the years of suffering and loneliness he had endured: “Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than or her who has a husband,” says the Lord. “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband ? the Lord Almighty is his name ? the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.” Isaiah 54:1-5
We didn’t have any money to buy him a sleeping berth or even a seat on the four-day train journey across China. He just found a spot on the floor and curled up on a newspaper.
When he ministered to our churches in Henan it was very powerful and a fire was lit in the heart of everyone who heard him. Many tears flowed and thousands of believers were touched and envisioned for missionary work. Even Simon Zao’s physical appearance was unique and added to his ministry. He looked like an ancient sage, with a long white beard and white hair.
For many house church leaders the Back to Jerusalem vision became very clear and God placed on us a heavy burden to see this vision fulfilled.
Simon Zao finally went to be with the Lord on December 7, 2001. He died in Pingdingshan, Henan Province, among Christians who loved him.
His life was a remarkable one. Like Joseph, Simon started with a dream from the Lord but before its fulfillment he was imprisoned and his vision was put in the ground where it died while he silently suffered an unjust punishment for forty years, remembered by no one but God.
Yet that was not the end of the story! Unbeknown to him, the Lord was sowing this same vision in the hearts of many Christians in China. After he was finally released from prison God graciously gave him another 13 years of ministry.
The house church Christians treated Uncle Simon with the utmost respect in the Lord, and honored him as a prince in the house of God. Before he died he came to realize that “God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.” Romans 11:29.
Simon Zao learned that the Lord always finishes what He starts, and is always faithful to fulfill his promises.
[21] Prayer letter of Miss Phyllis Thompson, March 3, 1949; cited in Tony Lambert, “Back to Jerusalem: Origins of a Missionary Vision (Part II),” China Insight, March-April 2003
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선교운동소개
제4세계선교 