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Home , Christianity in China, Christianity in Japan, Christianity in Korea, Christianity in Taiwan

The Growth of in John Mark Terry

Introduction The “to” issiologists and missions adminis- Christianity first came to China through the Mtrators focus much of their attention on East efforts of Nestorian . The Nestori- Asia. This is natural because East Asia contains ans entered China in the seventh century, travel- about 25 percent of the world’s population. China’s ing along the ancient Silk Road from the Middle population alone represents 20 per- East. They were welcomed by the emperors of the John Mark Terry is Adjunct Professor of and cent of the people on earth. What (A.D. 618-907) and were allowed Missions at The Southern Baptist is the status of Christianity in East to build monasteries and establish churches. The Theological Seminary. Asia? This article will survey the Nestorian monks continued their work in China In addition, he also serves as a progress of Christianity in these for two hundred years until Emperor Wu Tsung professor at a seminary in the Pacific nations of East Asia: China, , ordered the monks and their monasteries expelled Rim. Previously, Dr. Terry has , Mongolia, and . in A.D. 845. The fate of the Nestorian converts in served as a professor of missions As will be shown, much has been China is unknown, but a Nestorian monk, sent to at Philippines Baptist Theological Seminary, Asia Baptist Graduate accomplished, but much remains ascertain the state of the in China in A.D. Theological Seminary, and as to be done. 987, reported that he did not find any professor of evangelism and missions in China.1 at Clear Creek Baptist College, in Christianity re-entered China after the visit of addition to serving 15 years as a in the Philippines. Dr. A noted Chinese Christian Marco Polo in 1266. His account of his adventures Terry is also the author or editor leader, John Ong, often speaks in China prompted the Vatican to send a Francis- of a numbers scholarly works, of— “to” China, the can monk, Giovanni of Monte Corvino, to China including Missiology: An Introduction (B&H, 1998), Church Evangelism: gospel “in” China, and the gospel in 1294. The emperor welcomed him and gave Creating a Culture for Growth in “from” China. Those helpful des- him freedom to build a church and evangelize. Your Congregation (B&H 1997), and ignations provide an outline for By 1305 he had six thousand baptized believers. Evangelism: A Concise History (B&H, this brief survey of Christianity The Roman Catholic prospered in Bei- 1994). in China. jing and on the southeastern coast in .

42 SBJT 15.2 (2011): 42-51. Again, a change of dynasty brought He became so disgusted with that agency’s poor for the Christians. When the came administration that he resigned. Bad health forced to power in 1372, the Ming emperors favored Bud- Taylor to return to in 1860. While he was dhism and suppressed Christianity.2 recovering, he prayed and planned for a new type The Roman Catholics again sent Jesuit mis- of mission organization. In 1865 he founded the sionaries to China in 1582. They entered China China Inland Mission. He was determined to pen- through the Portuguese colony in . Mat- etrate all of China with the gospel, thus the name, teo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit, learned the Chinese Inland. was one of the great mis- language and culture in Macau and then trans- sionary recruiters, and the China Inland Mission ferred to , the capital city, in 1601. Ricci grew rapidly. One reason for its rapid growth was had been trained as a clock maker. He made a his openness to appoint single women as mission- beautiful clock and presented it to the emperor. aries. He also accepted missionaries with little for- The emperor liked the clock and named Ricci the mal schooling. He insisted that all his missionaries imperial clock maker. This gave Ricci both pres- live by faith, forbidding them to solicit financial tige and access to the emperor’s court. With these support. Thus, the China Inland Mission became freedoms Ricci and his fellow Jesuits were able to the first and prototypical “faith mission.” Taylor baptize two thousand converts by 1610.3 also required all his missionaries to adopt Chinese While the Jesuits prospered in Beijing, the dress, master the , and identify Franciscan and Dominican missionaries fumed with the Chinese people as much as possible.5 in Macao. They envied the Jesuits’s access to the Hudson Taylor’s determination to evangelize capital, and they disagreed with the Jesuits on all of China, especially the interior, was achieved. accommodation to the , especially By 1882 the China Inland Mission had deployed in regard to the veneration of ancestors. This “rites missionaries to all of China’s provinces, and its controversy” continued for a century until the Vat- total number of missionaries had risen to 641. This ican ruled in favor of the and Domini- made it the largest mission agency in China, and cans. The ’s ruling angered the emperor, and the largest Protestant missions organization in he ordered the expulsion of all the missionaries the world.6 and the closure of all the churches in 1724.4 China was the first foreign mission “field” The next phase of missions in China saw the for Southern . When the Southern Bap- entry of the first Protestant missionary, Robert tist Convention was established in 1845, its first Morrison, in 1807. Morrison served under the Lon- action was to establish the Foreign Mission Board don Missionary Society. He had to study Chinese (FMB). One of the first actions of the Foreign Mis- secretly because it was illegal for Chinese to teach sion Board was to make China its initial field of their language to foreigners. Morrison only made ministry. China was Southern Baptists’s main mis- twelve converts during his twenty-eight years in sion field until 1949. In the beginning Southern China, but his great achievements were the Chi- Baptist missionaries focused much of their work nese and his Chinese-English dictionary. in southern China, specifically in and around After the War of 1840 the Chinese Canton. Rosewell Graves, a missionary physi- government was forced to open five cian, served in Canton for an amazing period of for western commerce and missionary activity. A fifty-six years. His faithful ministry contributed number of missionaries went to China, but most to the development of what the FMB called the confined their work to the ports and nearby dis- South China Mission. Later, the FMB established tricts. Hudson Taylor arrived in China in 1854, work in . Matthew Yates led this work for serving under the China Evangelization Society. many years. This work became known as the Cen-

43 tral China Mission. Southern Baptist missionaries deployment to China came in 1925. In that year established the North China mission in Shandong there were 8,158 Protestant missionaries serving. Province in northeastern China. Prominent mis- That number declined in the 1930s due to the sionaries in that mission included J. B. Hartwell, world economic depression and in the 1940s due T. P. Crawford, and, of course, . In to World War II.10 1910 the FMB, inspired by the example of the In 1911 a Christian physician, Sun Yat-Sen, led China Inland Mission, opened its Interior China a revolution that overthrew the Manchu dynasty Mission in Hunan Province, and the Manchuria and installed a democratic government. Sun’s Mission was opened in 1924.7 weak government struggled and soon failed. There were 49 Southern Baptist missionaries in Regional warlords controlled much of China. China in 1900, but by 1918 the number increased From this chaos emerged two strong political to 172. The highest number recorded was 287 in forces, the Nationalist Party of Chiang Kai Shek 1924. The effects of the Great Depression and and the Communist Party, led by Mao Tse Tung. World War II caused the number to decrease They both fought the Japanese, who invaded steadily except for a brief increase between 1945 China in 1937, but after World War II they fought and 1948. When the Communists won the Civil each other. The brought even War, they gradually forced the missionaries out, more devastation to China, which had suffered and by the end of 1951 all Southern Baptist mis- greatly during the world war. Finally, in 1949 the sionaries had exited. The close of the China mis- Communist armies defeated the Nationalists, and sions did not mean that Southern Baptists ceased Chiang Kai Shek escaped with his army to Taiwan. to work with Chinese. The FMB reassigned the missionaries to work with diaspora Chinese all over The Gospel “in” China Asia, and, indeed, “the old China hands” opened When the Communists gained control of Baptist work in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malay- China in 1949 there were, perhaps, 750,000 Prot- sia, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea.8 estant Christians in China and 4,062 foreign The missionaries of the China Inland Mission missionaries. The Roman Catholics numbered and the Roman Catholic missionaries suffered about 1,500,000, and there were 5,682 foreign greatly during the of 1900. The priests and nuns. That was not many in a country Boxer Rebellion was a nationalistic movement of approximately 400 million.11 The missionaries that aimed to remove foreign influence from began leaving China during 1949, but they had no China. Because they considered Christianity a choice but to leave after 1951. In that year Chou “Western religion,” the Boxers attacked missionar- En Lai, Premier of the People’s Republic of China, ies and Chinese Christians and burned churches issued an order, expelling all foreign missionar- and Christian institutions. Tens of thousands of ies. This was not surprising, given the fact that the Chinese Christians died at the hands of the Box- was officially atheis- ers, and 135 Protestant missionaries and 53 chil- tic. The Communist government closed most of dren of missionaries died as . Most of the the churches and imprisoned many of the pastors missionaries escaped to the coast of China, where and church leaders. The Communists reorganized foreign soldiers protected them.9 Chinese Protestant Christianity into one national The missionaries re-engaged the Chinese peo- church—the Three-Self Patriotic Church. This ple after the Boxer Rebellion, and the martyred church was closely controlled by the Communist missionaries were replaced by new missionaries, government, which appointed all the pastors. The especially those enlisted by the Student Volunteer government chose that name to emphasize the Movement. The zenith of Protestant missionary church’s separation from foreign control. The

44 term “three-self” came from the indigenous mis- (and are) churches that refuse to register with the sion strategy espoused by Rufus Anderson and government because they reject government con- Henry Venn. They encouraged missionaries to trol of their congregations. Many different house plant churches that would be self-supporting, self- church networks developed, and some of them governing, and self-propagating. Of course, the have millions of members. Though they are called Communist government did not want the church house churches, they meet in many different loca- to propagate, but they did desire to eliminate for- tions, including factories. Some exhibit reformed eign influence on the Chinese church. , but many of them could be described as Chinese Christians responded to the govern- charismatic or Pentecostal.13 ment’s crack-down in two ways. Some rejected the The persecution of the church in China proved Three-Self Patriotic Church and took their faith to be an Acts 8 experience for the church in China. underground. They worshipped in small groups in Acts 8:1, 4 tells how the church in Jerusalem was homes, barns, and apartments. This was especially persecuted, but the persecution actually spread true in rural areas. In urban areas some churches the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. In 1949 remained open, and other Christians tried to the church in China was hindered by foreign con- adjust to the new realities. Some even stated that trol and by institutionalism. The expulsion of the the Chinese church was better off, freed from the missionaries and the closure of the institutions domination of the Western missionaries. forced the Chinese church into a new pattern of The situation for Catholic Christians was sim- operation. The Chinese church returned to its ilar. The Communist government insisted that roots. As the house churches the Catholics in China break with the Vatican. proliferated, the number of Christians multiplied Those who refused to do this experienced severe rapidly. In fact, the Asia Times reported that ten persecution. Others acceded to the government’s thousand Chinese become Christians each day.14 demands and formed the Catholic Patriotic How many Christians are there in China? The Association. real answer is that no one knows for sure, but there Both the Three-Self Patriotic Church and the are lots of estimates. According to the Chinese gov- Catholic Patriotic Association tried to serve as a ernment, there are 21 million (16 million Protes- buffer against the antipathy of the Communist tants and 5 million Catholics), but the government government. They both suffered during Mao’s only counts those in the registered churches.15 anti-rightist campaign in 1957-58 and especially In some provinces it seems the authorities delib- during the (1966-76). Dur- erately under-report the number of members in ing the Cultural Revolution intellectuals and reli- the Three-Self churches. Also, the government gious persons suffered persecution at the hands only reports the baptized members of Three-Self of the Red Guards. Many pastors were jailed or churches. Because it is against the law to baptize a sent to “re-education camps,” and more churches person under the age of 18, the Three-Self statistics were closed.12 do not include youth and children who attend the After the death of Mao Tse-Tung (1976) China churches, nor do the statistics include millions of opened up to the West. With this political renais- worshipers who have yet to be baptized.16 sance in China came a toleration of the church. The China Aid Association reported in 2007 Three-Self Patriotic churches were reopened as that Yie Xiaowen, director of the Chinese State were some theological seminaries. By 1987 four Administration for Religious Affairs, stated in a thousand Three-Self churches were established nonpublic meeting at Beijing University that the and were full of worshipers. The reduced persecu- number of Christians in China was 130 million, tion also benefited the house churches. These were most of whom were members of house churches.17

45 Paul Hattaway is recognized as one of the most the networks, are coming to under- knowledgeable researchers on Chinese Chris- stand their responsibility to bring the gospel to tianity. In August 2010 he reported 82 million the world. This is wonderful development because Protestants of all types in China and 21 million the Chinese church has great missions potential. Catholics, for a total of 103 million.18 The latest There are several reasons for its potential. First, edition of the highly respected prayer guide, Oper- Chinese Christianity has grown amidst great ation World, estimates that there are 21 million persecution. Chinese Christians know how to Catholics and 85 million Protestants (Three-Self evangelize, plant churches, and endure hardships. and house churches combined).19 Most of these Second, the rapid development of China’s econ- Christians are ethnic Chinese, and they live omy can provide the funding necessary for world mainly in the eastern part of China. One encour- missions endeavors. Third, the large number of aging sign is that the Three-Self Patriotic churches Chinese going overseas to work makes it possible are increasingly evangelical in their theology and for Chinese missionaries to enter restricted access practice, though there are some restrictions on countries more easily. 21 their evangelistic efforts. There are two aspects involved in the recent Why is it so hard to get an accurate count? Chinese missions movement. As mentioned Several reasons complicate the work of missions above, the vast majority of Christians in China researchers. First, the Chinese government does are , who live in the eastern part of not want the total number of Christians publi- China. The Han comprise about 90 percent of cized. Researchers risk arrest and punishment. China’s population. However, there are many eth- Second, there are hundreds of house church nic groups in China (about five hundred according networks. Some of them do not keep records for to Operation World). Most of the people groups security reasons. Other networks refuse to num- in western China are Muslim. The two largest of ber their members, believing that practice is con- these Muslim people groups are the and trary to Scripture. They cite ’s punishment of the Hui. So, the first goal of the mission-minded King David for numbering (2 Sam 24:1-17). believers in eastern China is to bring the gospel to Third, the house churches are so decentralized the of western China. that many house church leaders do not know how The second aspect of the Chinese missions many people actually belong to their churches. movement is international missions. Several large Fourth, China is a big country with a big popula- house church networks in China have joined tion, and accuracy remains a great challenge. Still, together to sponsor the Back to Jerusalem Move- Western Christians can rejoice that the number of ment. The basic idea of this movement is that Christians in China has risen from perhaps three the gospel traveled from Jerusalem westward million in 1949 to more than one hundred million into . Then the gospel was brought to the in 2011. Patrick Johnstone writes, “China remains Americas. Later, missionaries from Europe and one of the biggest challenges for world evangeliza- North America carried the gospel to China. Now, tion…. We all marvel at the millions of Chinese Chinese Christians have a special calling from who have come to Christ over the past twenty God to complete the circle and bring the gospel years, but this fact obscures a vital truth that this through Central Asia and the Middle East and turning to God is not happening for every part of “back to Jerusalem.” The Chinese believers mean China nor for all its constituent peoples.”20 to traverse figuratively the ancient “silk road” that leads through Central Asia and the Middle East The Gospel “from” China toward Jerusalem. The Christians in China, in at least some of This vision of bringing the gospel back to Jeru-

46 salem is not new. It actually harkens back to the Many young adults have received missionary vision of a small group of Bible college students training, and many more are currently in train- in northwestern China. On Sunday, 1943, ing. Beyond that, a missionary infrastructure is the students at the Northwest Bible Institute in being developed. Rest houses, safe houses, and Fengxiang, Province, received a chal- field supervision are being provided now, and lenge from one of their professors, Mark Ma. He these will enhance the effectiveness of the second challenged the students to commit themselves to wave of missionaries. evangelizing western China. Eight of the students responded by declaring their call to evangelize Province in far northwest China. Mark Jesuit missionaries sent by the Roman Cath- Ma committed himself to accompany the students olic Church first brought Christianity to Japan. to the Northwest. He and the students adopted arrived in Japan with two Jesuit a Chinese name and an English name for their companions in 1549. Japan was in political, cul- group. They chose “The Back to Jerusalem Evan- tural, and religious turmoil at that time, and the gelistic Band” as their English name. The group Catholic missionaries found Japan a fertile field. made short-term mission trips to the Northwest However, eventually central rule was established beginning in 1944. They sent a group into far in Japan, and that was a bad thing for the Chris- western China in 1949; however, the events of the tians. In 1587 King Hideyoshi ordered that all the China Civil War overtook them, and they were missionaries be expelled, but many missionaries turned back. Eventually, most of the members of refused to leave. In 1614 the persecution intensi- the band were arrested and spent time in Com- fied until by 1630 the authorities had eradicated munist prison camps. The vision of the Back to Christianity. Jerusalem Movement could not be implemented Christianity was reintroduced to Japan in 1853. for almost forty years. In that year Commodore Matthew Perry sailed his In 1988 Simon Zhao, a pastor who had spent squadron of U.S. Navy ships into Bay. He thirty-one years in prison camps, encouraged demanded that the Japanese government estab- the house church leaders to resuscitate the Back lish relations with the U.S. This was done, and an to Jerusalem Movement. Several house church American consul, Townsend Harris, went to live network leaders responded, and the Back to Jeru- in Japan. He was a dedicated Episcopalian, and salem Movement was reborn. There was much ini- he held services in his home. tial enthusiasm, and the house churches deployed In 1858 a Roman Catholic missionary entered the first wave of missionaries into Central Asia. Japan, and between 1859 and 1869 four Ameri- Unfortunately, these missionaries received no can missionary agencies (Episcopalian, Presby- training, and they struggled to cope with the terian, Reformed Church, and Northern Baptist) harsh realities of service in Muslim countries. sent missionaries to Japan. The reign of the first Some returned home; some were arrested; some emperor, Mutsuhito, began in 1867. He was became ill; and some were martyred. The leaders interested in Western culture, and he eventually of the house church networks realized that zeal allowed missionaries to enter Japan freely. By 1882 alone would not suffice. The missionaries needed there were 145 missionaries in Japan, and they training in order to serve effectively in cross-cul- claimed about 5,000 converts. By 1888 there were tural settings. 451 missionaries and 25, 000 believers.22 Southern The initial failure of the Back to Jerusalem Baptist missionaries entered Japan in 1889. Movement has prompted the house church net- The number of Christians in Japan grew works to develop missionary training centers. slowly but steadily until 1940. When World War

47 II began, the military-controlled government of Japan tried to force all the Christian denomina- Roman Catholic Christianity first entered tions to combine into one—the Church of Christ Korea from China around 1860, but the king of in Japan (Nippon Kirisuto Kyodan). After the war Korea reacted against it. By 1864 no vestiges of American missionaries flooded into Japan, and the Catholic mission remained. Protestant mis- they did find some response in the war-torn coun- sionaries began work in Korea after 1882 when try. However, the interest in Christianity proved the Korean government established diplomatic short-lived. By 1963 there were perhaps 500,000 relations with the . Methodist and Protestants in Japan and 250,000 Roman Catho- Presbyterian missionaries arrived in 1885.25 lics. This was in a nation of 90 million.23 Two significant events shaped Korean Chris- The are the largest unreached tianity. The first occurred in 1890. The new mis- people group in Asia. Although there are strong sionaries in Korea felt quite intimidated by the churches and strong Christian institutions in task they faced. They decided to invite John L. Japan, the percentage of the population profess- Nevius, a veteran missionary to China, to come ing Christianity has remained quite small. The and teach them how to do missionary work effec- population of Japan in 2010 was 127 million, tively. He and his wife came to Korea and spent while the number of evangelical Christians was several weeks, instructing the missionaries. Nev- only 596,498. These numbers raise the question— ius had developed a strategy in China that had Why is the number of Christians in Japan so low? proved successful. He believed strongly in the A number of factors have negatively affected the indigenous approach to missions; that is, that mis- growth of Christianity in Japan. First, Japanese sionaries should work in such a way that the new view Christianity as a Western religion. Second, churches could be self-supporting, self-governing, the Japanese are loyal to the religion, their and self-propagating. The three “selfs” were not national religion. Thus to be Japanese is to be new, but Nevius further developed the indigenous Shinto. In actuality, many Japanese practice syn- strategy. He taught that: (1) Each believer should cretism; that is, they worship at Shinto shrines, continue in his home and work, witnessing to but they also practice or one of the those around him; (2) Christian institutions and “new religions.” They see no inconsistency in this programs should be developed on a scale that was at all. The Shinto religion does not condemn syn- sustainable by the local Christians; (3) the local cretism, but Christianity does. Third, the Japanese Christians should select and support financially are very group-oriented. To profess faith in Christ those they deemed worthy of church leadership; would be seen as breaking fellowship with their (4) the churches should be built in an Asian style family, friends, classmates, and co-workers. The and with money and work provided by the local fact that approximately 50 percent of Christian Christians; and (5) the church leaders—elders, converts renounce the faith within three years pastors, evangelists, and church planters—should speaks to the great pressure to conform to group be gathered each year for a period of intense expectations. Fourth, some researchers say the instruction in Bible and doctrine.26 The mission- true religion of Japan is materialism. They are aries heeded Nevius’s advice, and the Korean seeking money and the comfortable lifestyle it can church was indigenous from the beginning, in provide.24 The Japanese government freely grants stark contrast to the church in China. missionary visas, and many missions agencies The second shaping event was the revival of have missionaries in Japan. New strategies and 1907. As mentioned above, it was the custom of methods have been employed, but the response the Korean Presbyterian leaders to gather for a remains disappointing. period of biblical and theological teaching each

48 year. The teaching was done during the day, and are closely monitored by the security police.28 at night worship services were held. On the night represents one of international of January 6, 1907, the leader encouraged the wor- missions’s great successes. Flying into at shipers to pray aloud at the same time. Soon, many night is a blessing for a Christian. One can see of the participants were weeping and confessing florescent crosses on top of church buildings all sin. Throughout the night the service continued over the city. During the 1970s and 80s Christi- with praying, confessing, and singing. William anity grew tremendously in Korea. That explosive Blair, one of the Presbyterian missionaries pres- growth has slowed now, but Christians com- ent, wrote this: “We may have our theories of the prise 31 percent of the population. The Korean desirability or undesirability of public confession churches have embraced the cause of interna- of sin. I have had mine; but I know now that when tional missions, and they have sent more than the Spirit of God falls upon guilty souls, there 20,000 missionaries throughout the world. At will be confession, and no power on earth can first these missionaries primarily ministered to stop it.”27 When the participants returned home, living abroad, but improved missionary they took the revival with them, and many local training has brought a greater emphasis on cross- churches experienced renewal. cultural mission.29 The revival that began in Pyongyang in 1907 still affects Korean Christianity. Most churches ChristianITY in Mongolia still have dawn prayer meetings, and many have Nestorian missionaries tried to establish work all night prayer meetings on Friday nights. Kore- with the Mongolian people in ancient times, but ans continue to pray aloud at the same time in nothing remains from those efforts. James Gilm- prayer meetings and worship services. our, a British Methodist, worked in Mongolia The Korean church grew steadily until World from 1872-1888, but he baptized only sixteen War II, though the church was often persecuted converts during those years. The church he estab- by the Japanese colonial government due to the lished disbanded after he died in 1893. When the Christians’s anti-colonial activities. After the war Communists gained control of Mongolia in 1921, Korea was divided into North and South Korea. there were no known Christians left in Mongolia. became Communist, while South The Communist government collapsed in Korea established a democratic government. In 1990, and Christian missionaries entered the 1950 North Korea invaded the South, and a dev- country. There were perhaps only four Christians astating war began, which lasted until 1953. The in the country at that time, but by the year 2000 government of North Korea persecuted the Chris- there were approximately 10,000. Today, there tians and closed all but a few churches left open are more than 45,000 Christians of all denomi- for show. Most of the Christians fled southward or nations. Evangelizing the Mongolians presents a died as martyrs. Little is known about the status great challenge because one-third of the people of Christianity in North Korea today. The govern- are nomads. Beyond that, the great distances ment has outlawed worship services in any loca- between settlements and inclement weather tion, and it is a serious crime to possess a Bible or make missionary work difficult. Many Christian speak of God or . Operation World estimates relief organizations work in Mongolia, seeking to that there are 300,000 Christians in North Korea, address poverty and social problems. There is a including 100,000 in prison camps. Missionaries missionary radio station operated by the Far East- are not allowed to minister in North Korea. Some ern Broadcasting Company, and the Jesus Film is Christian relief organizations do operate there; but available in the local languages and has proved they are not allowed to witness, and their activities quite popular. Korean missionaries have been

49 especially active in Mongolia. The total popula- and Missionary Alliance, and the China Inland tion of Mongolia is less than three million, but the Mission (now Overseas Missionary Fellowship). people, especially the younger people, have shown Beyond these Western agencies, a number of an interest in Christianity.30 indigenous Chinese groups opened work on Tai- wan, like the Assembly Hall Church, founded by . All this activity led to a marked Christianity came to Taiwan (Formosa) when growth in the number of Protestants from 13,000 the established a trad- in 1945 to 180,000 in 1960.31 ing post in 1624. Company chaplains preached to Unfortunately, the rapid growth, mainly due the local people and won many converts, after they to migration, did not continue after 1960. Today, gave up preaching in Dutch and began preaching Christians only comprise 6 percent of Taiwan’s in Hokkien, the local language. The chaplain-mis- population. True, there are a number of strong sionaries organized churches and consistories of churches and outstanding seminaries, like the the Dutch Reformed Church. A local rebellion, China Evangelical Seminary and Taiwan Baptist led by , defeated the Dutch and forced Seminary, but the people have resisted fervent mis- the Dutch East India Company and its chaplains sionary and evangelistic efforts. Taiwan remains a to leave the island. Without any missionaries, the bastion of Buddhism and especially Chinese reli- once thriving Reformed Church in Taiwan with- gion. Chinese religion is a syncretistic amalgam of ered and died. , , Buddhism, and traditional The Treaty of , signed in 1858 after the shamanism. Taiwan freely admits missionaries, , opened several Taiwanese cit- and a number of evangelical missionaries continue ies as “treaty ports.” Missionaries were free to live to work in Taiwan. Operation World describes Tai- and minister in treaty ports, and both the Catho- wan as “politically open, but spiritually closed,” lics and Presbyterians soon established mission and that is an accurate assessment.32 stations. The Japanese gained control of Taiwan in 1895. The Japanese were familiar with Chris- Conclusion tian missionaries, but they wanted to avoid com- Sometimes it is good to step back and get a petition between the different mission agencies. better perspective on things. Historians can look Therefore, the Japanese government excluded all back over four hundred years of Roman Catholic missionaries except Roman Catholic and Presby- missionary work in East Asia and two hundred terian. These were permitted to continue because years of Protestant ministry. Certainly, much has they were already ministering in Taiwan when the been accomplished. There are more than 100 mil- Japanese assumed control. The Japanese oppressed lion Christians in China, and Korean churches the churches and Christians during World War II have sent twenty thousand missionaries around because they viewed them as pro-Western. At the the world. One can travel to any city in East Asia end of the war control of Taiwan reverted to China. and find a church to attend. Seminaries, Christian When Chiang Kai-Shek and the Nationalists institutions, and Asian mission agencies abound. lost the Civil War in China, General Chiang and So, a Christian can heave a sigh of contentment more than a million soldiers and supporters fled and thank the Lord for his faithfulness through to Taiwan. Many veteran missionaries transferred the past centuries. their work to Taiwan, and many Christian insti- That feeling of contentment might be mis- tutions were re-established on Taiwan. These placed, though. Although many in China have included Southern Baptists, Episcopalians, Meth- come to Christ, the western provinces of China odists, Assembly of God, Lutherans, the Christian are still sadly underserved, and more than 90

50 percent of the Chinese people still do not profess 15“Sons of ,” Global Chinese Ministries Prayer Christ. Taiwan boasts large churches and out- Letter (January 2009), 1. standing seminaries, but 94 percent of the popula- 16Paul Hattaway, “How Many Christians Are There in tion is lost. The Japanese people remain the largest China?” [cited 24 February 2011]. Online: http:// unreached people group in Asia. So, our reflective www.asiaharvest.org/pages/Christians%20in%20 Christian should thank the Lord for his marvelous China/christiansInChina2.html. work in the past and pray to ask God for strength 17“News Briefs: China,” Lausanne World Pulse [cited 9 and spiritual power to finish the work. Much has June 2011]. Online: http://www.lausanneworldpulse. been done, but much remains to do. com/newsbriefs.php/09-2007 18Paul Hattaway, “Asian People Group Profiles” [cited Endnotes 9 June 2011]. Online: http://asiaharvest.org/pages/ 1Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Missions (Lon- profiles/pageChina.html. don: Penguin, 1986), 81-82. 19Jason Mandryk, ed., Operation World: The Defini- 2Samuel H. Moffett, A in Asia: tive Prayer Guide to Every Nation (Colorado Springs: Vol. 1—Beginning to 1500 (, NY: Orbis, Biblica, 2010), 216. 1998), 445-46. 20Paul Hattaway,Operation China (Pasadena, CA: Wil- 3Ibid., 141. liam Carey Library, 2000), xi. 4Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of the Expansion 21Michael Tai, “The Chinese Are Coming!” unpub- of Christianity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publish- lished manuscript, Malaysia Baptist Seminary, 2009. ing, 1970), 3:356-57. 22Neill, History of Missions, 276-81. 5Neill, History of Missions, 282-83. 23Ibid., 427. 6Ibid. 24Mandryk, Operation World, 492-93. 7J. Winston Crawley, “East Asia,” in Advance: A History 25Neill, History of Missions, 290. of Southern Baptist Missions (ed. Baker J. Cauthen; 26Ibid., 291. Nashville: Broadman, 1970), 79-86. 27Wesley Duewel, Revival Fire (Grand Rapids: Zonder- 8Ibid., 89-102. van, 1995), 254-55. 9Ibid., 287. 28Mandryk, Operation World, 507-508. 10Ibid., 429. 29Ibid., 511. 11The number of missionaries can be stated accurately, 30Ibid., 594-97. but the number of Protestants and Catholics in China 31Tsu-Kung Chuang, “China (Taiwan),” in The Evangel- is difficult to ascertain. The statistics given come from ical Dictionary of World Missions (ed. A. Scott Moreau; Ralph Covell, “China,” in The Evangelical Dictionary Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 179-80. of World Missions (ed. A. Scott Moreau; Grand Rap- 32Mandryk, Operation World, 258-60. ids: Baker, 2000), 179; and Stephen Neill, History of Missions, 429. Daniel Bays estimates there were three million Roman Catholics in 1951 and perhaps one million Protestants. See his article, “Chinese Prot- estant Christianity Today,” The China Quarterly 174 (2003): 491. 12Paul R. Spickard and Kevin M. Cragg, A Global His- tory of Christians (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 445. 13Ibid. 14Spengler, “Christianity Finds a Fulcrum in Asia,” The Asia Times (August 7, 2007), 1.

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