JOURNAL: How many individuals have you talked with?

CHAO: I have had extended interviews with five people, and I have about a dozen more scheduled.

JOURNAL: Just who are these people?

CHAO: My interviews are primarily with residents of China who have emigrated lawfully, and with a few visitors who have been able to live there for periods longer than is possible for a normal tourist.

JOURNAL: What are those people telling you?

CHAO: They are all saying that the Church in China is very much alive. Not as an institution or an organization. But very much alive in small groups throughout the countryside, and especially in the eastern coastal areas.

JOURNAL: But ifit isn’t known as an institution, how can the Church even be identified?

CHAO: Testimonies coming from these people and all of them had once worshiped in these small groups—reveal at least three ways in which their witness is being extended:

First, Christians are known to their neighbors by their very exemplary lives. They stand out.

Second, the Gospel is being communicated faith· fully among very close relatives –especially from parents to children.

Third, Christians are known for their power in prayer. Even non-Christians are experiencing the power of God when Christians pray for their sick Ones or exorcise demons from those possessed.

So there is the Christian Church in China—a praying community, a witnessing community, a worshiping community. It is also a disciplined community. It abides by the Word. What else can you ask for a Church?

JOURNAL: In what way is an unorganized Church disciplined?

CHAO: In the sense that members really look after each other. If you‘re a person in need, the com· munity makes sure this need is met through voluntary sharing. The other side of this is that if you behave wrongly, another person in the community will reprimand you.

JOURNAL: We have understood for a couple of decades that being a Christian in China was risky business –maybe even to the point of losing your life. Can you now be a Christian in China with no fear of reprisal?

CHAO: No. It’s just that they are Jess persecuted than in the past. It was the worst during the cultural revolution. Severe persecution has mostly ceased now, but the Communists still don’t welcome Christianity. In fact, in some areas, Christians do still live in fear. But the government’s priorities have shifted from ideological purity to science, technology, defense, industry and agriculture. Still your point is fair: Christians can’t yet proclaim their faith openly without fear.

JOURNAL: What’s your guess about the size of the Church you’ve just described?

CHAO; About a million or more. Maybe up to five million.

JOURNAL: Out of a population of one billion?

CHAO; More like 940 million. About one tenth of one per cent. But really, there’s no way to estimate. Some places, the Christians are very much in the background.

JOURNAL: Would such a Church ever have developed if missionaries had not been forced out of China in the late 1940’s?

CHAO: I don’t think the Church would have developed in such a vital way. Even before 1949 there were groups of Christians like those we see now, household churches, with emphasis on spiritual gifts rather than on organization. But these weren’t the churches brought into being by the missionaries, for the most part. They were indigenous.

The fact that the non-institutional churches and Christian communities survive and even thrive in the coastal areas today is, in my opinion, an outgrowth of the earlier movements, some of which began in the 1920’s.

JOURNAL: That’s the good side – “God working all things for good” – of what many saw as a tragedy for the missionaries. What aspects of the expulsion 01 western missionaries do you regret?

CHAO: I would not regret anything about the dis· establishment of missions except in the field of theological education, which is not allowed now at all, and the field of Christian literature, where production and distribution are not allowed.

Yet, even in those areas, if the Church itself had been allowed to develop freely, it would have found ways of carrying on those tasks without missionary help. The indigenous trend had already been established when the missionaries had to leave.

JOURNAL: Are you really claiming that the expulsion of the missionaries was a good thing?

CHAO: Yes. You see, Communism was used by the Lord to purge His Church. It was purged of the non vital parts, of the wrong aspects of its missionary domination, and of what we call “rice Christians”—those who make professions just for the material gain they get from it.

JOURNAL: Do you believe that God is using Communism as part of His whole redemptive proeess? Was Chairman Mao one of God’s servants?

CHAO: No, we should make a distinction. Some liberal Church leaders make the mistake of identifying social movements like Maoism in China with God’s special redemptive acts. That view was reDected at the PCUS mission consultation at Montreat when they said that our mission is to discern what God is doing in the world and to join Him in that work.

Liberal missiologists and theologians tend to interpret God’s redemption in terms of human activities and events. In doing this, they confuse God’s special grace with His common grace.

God is in control of human history. But that control, or permissiveness, of what goes on in history is not the same as the saving work of Jesus Christ.

JOURNAL: Was Mao good or bad for China?

CHAO: I would interpret some of the good things that have come from Mao’s revolution as common grace. But common grace is only that positive side of history. There’s also the destructive side of history –like the way Mao killed those who opposed him and persecuted the Christians.

The Church has suffered much under Communism in China; there is no doubt about that. But the by product of suffering is purging and sanctification.

   

JOURNAL: Was the Church in China eradicated all at once in the Communist takeover?

CHAO: Not at all. It was a process that stretched over three decades.

During the first decade (1949–1958) the Chinese Communists started by actually involving the religious groups in an overall strategy for Chinese independence. But at the time there was an obvious effort to discredit the religious leaders.

In the second period (1958–62), sometimes called the “great leap forward,” rural churches became targets of oppression. But then the great drought led to widespread confusion, and there was a resurgence of Christian activity. But hard–liners gained control, and by 1963 there were new frontal attacks on Christian ideology.

During the cultural revolution (1966–69), Christians were attacked as remnants of an old ideology. So were Buddhists, Taoists, Confucianists, and liberal intellectuals. Bibles and hymnals were hunted out and burned. Believers were sometimes beaten and humiliated. The few remaining state-approved Churches were closed during this time, and even some home meetings were temporarily suspended.

JOURNAL: So the Church became almost extinct?

CHAO: Almost. But the sting of anti-Christian attacks under the cultural revolution has been removed. There has been a gradual shift from the ultra-left toward the center.

The new constitution of 1975 asserts both the legality and freedom of all religious beliefs and at the same time the freedom to oppose religions. With that small opening, institutioniess Christian communities began holding house meetings again in a semi-clandestine manner. I see them as a modern counterpart to the early Christian Church.

JOURNAL: So do you expect China to open up to Western Christians?

CHAO: No. In light of past patterns of Communist control of religion, it is safe to predict that China will not permit professional missionaries or even Chinese evangelists.

JOURNAL: What about informal contacts?

CHAO: Christian contacts with China through visits by overseas Christians, tourist groups, or even possibly future technical assistance programs might improve. But this would amount to no more than personal contacts as citizens of good will.

JOURNAL: If China should ever open up to missionaries again what would you think of mass evangelism efforts such as have been used in other places in the world?

CHAO: I would not be happy with that.

But even more damaging than any particular form of evangelism would be the likely onrush by multiple denominations and organizations, all eager to reach the millions of people in China. A fragmented approach would not be a healthy thing.

Pluralism, denominations, division—all that is one thing in America. But when you take it to a foreign country it produces problems among Christians and in the churches.

JOURNAL: What specifically should be the role of Westen missionaries if China ever does open up?

CHAO: Working side by side with Chinese Christians in evangelism and other tasks. In every land and especially in China if that day comes—we need missionaries. But we need missionaries who are humble enough to listen to their Christian brothers, in this case their Chinese Christian brothers, and to work together with them in developing methodologies and strategies -and even the lifestyle the missionaries should lead.

JOURNAL: What role does the China Graduate School of Theology plan to have in that educational task?

CHAO: Besides training Chinese for the ministry, we have four specific goals, especially in our new research center.

First, we want to inform ourselves and then others about the realities of China. We want to discover how Chinese on the mainland might respond to various forms of evangelism, so that when our day comes we will be ready. We want to know their culture and everything we can learn about how they think.

Second, we want to explore how to reach people who have been so totally influenced by Marxism for so many years. Some of them have lived their entire lives under that ideology. How do we approach them?

Third, we will not ignore Chinese scattered around the world. While those on the mainland have been conditioned by Marxism, those in Taiwan are conditioned by Confucianism. How should we approach them?

Fourth, we want to inculcate a missions consciousness among Chinese believers around the world, so that their churches will reach out as well.

JOURNAL: Tell us about your school’s beginnings.

CHAO: Twelve years ago when I was a student at Westminster Seminary, I went to Taiwan for a year of short-term missionary work. I came back with a strong burden to help develop evangelical Chinese theological education, to build up Chinese Biblical scholarship, and to train university graduates for the ministry.

Until then, most Chinese training schools were receiving only high school graduates. The society around them was changing, becoming better educated, but the ministry was falling behind.

I came back and shared this vision with other Chinese theological scholars, and then four of us in 1967 committed ourselves to the task. Not long after, we recruited seven more, and then there were 11

JOURNAL: That’s a good example of Chinese patience.

CHAO: Perhaps so. We allowed ourselves eight years just to get ready.

During that time, we shared our vision with Chinese churches around the world, and now they carry most of the support for the schooL In fact, 95 per cent of the support comes from Chinese.

Our budget is about $16,000 per month. We have 50 students pursuing master of divinity degrees, and an evening extension program with from 250 to 350 students each quarter. They are lay leaders of us—elders, deacons. Sunday school teachers. We also offer theological education by extension.

JOURNAL: In terms of ultimate outreach, you obviously see your new research center as very important. What is it costing?

CHAO: About $48,000 for this first year, because we have to buy some equipment. Next year the budget should be about $35,000.

We have always used a four-step approach. First, we center what we do in prayer. Then we look for a good team. Next, we plan the details carefully. Last, we seek the funds that we will need.

God has really prospered our efforts.

Editor’s Note: As much attention is being given to China especially since the official decision by President Carter to recognIze its Communist government. This article about the persecuted Christian church In that vast land may be of more than ordinary interest to many of our readers. Jonathan Chao is the son of Rev. Charles Chao who worked briefly for our Christian Reformed mission as an evangelist before the work in mainland China had to be broken off. As Christians we must not thoughtlessly echo the political and economic concerns that motivate our politicians and dominate our news. God’s Word instructs us in Christian sympathy to “Remember them that are in bonds. as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity” (Heb. 18:3). Let us pray and hope that the Lord who governs the course of nations will make also the present world developments tUrn to the advancement of His gospel and Church.