A Review Article1
This profitable book, by two missionaries to Korea, was first published in 1977 and is now reprinted with some extra illustrations. The first of these men, both Presbyterian ministers, came to Korea in 1901. William Blair’s contribution forms the first part of the book, entitled “The Korean Pentecost and Other Experiences”, and was originally published separately in 1910. It gives interesting information about the progress of the gospel in Korea. The first Protestant missionary to visit Korea was the German, Charles Gützlaff, who called there briefly on a voyage which began in 1832; he was only able to distribute Bibles and religious tracts. The next missionary was Robert Thomas, who, when the ship in which he sailed was set on fire, “staggered out of the water with his arms full of books which he thrust into the hands of the Koreans as they clubbed him down” and killed him. In spite of efforts to destroy these volumes, which included Bibles, some of them survived.
William Blair gives an interesting account of his experiences in the years following his arrival in Korea. After America’s recognition of Japan’s control of Korea following the Russia-Japan war of 1905, there was violent opposition among the local people, causing a crisis for the Church. This led to the missionaries turning over authority in the Church to their Korean brethren. Following a time of special prayer, there was a period when the Word of God was greatly blessed. This is the time referred to in the title of the book (it is not a reference to charismatic gifts, but to an outpouring of the Holy Spirit). The author bears testimony to the purifying work of the Spirit on the Church at that time. Yet some things, such as a prayer meeting where everybody prayed out loud at once, can hardly be said to be orderly or scriptural, but it is clear that God visited the Korean Church with reviving power.
Bruce Hunt was born in Korea; his parents were missionaries there and in due course he himself became a missionary in that country. His contribution, the larger part of the book, focuses on the sufferings of the Korean Christians, first under the Japanese occupation forces, and then under the Communists following World War II. He himself was imprisoned in 1941 and recounted his sufferings in For a Testimony, published in 1966.
The main issue with the Japanese was worship at heathen shrines. The ministers in one Presbytery stated, “We know that the worship of deified spirits at the shrines is contrary to God’s command”. But not all professed
1On The Korean Pentecost, and the Sufferings Which Followed, by William N Blair & Bruce F Hunt, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, paperback, 203 pages, £6.25, obtainable from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
Christians remained faithful; indeed the Presbyterian General Assembly in Korea, under pressure from the authorities, declared in 1938 that shrine worship was permissible. The author compiled a list of over 30 who died for their faithfulness over this issue; another writer stated that “more than 50 church workers suffered martyrdom” and commented that “there were also those who suffered as much as, or more than, some of those who died”.
Ahn Youngae was a servant girl working for a Japanese family. One of her duties was to put a portion of rice every day in front of the “god-shelf”. At first she showed disapproval by spitting on the rice. Then she realised that this was insufficient and she left her job. Another Christian woman was arrested for her opposition to shrine worship, and Ahn went to visit her in prison. As a result the police decided to question Ahn about her attitude, and when she confessed that she believed that shrine worship was idolatry, she too was imprisoned.
Nearly a year afterwards, her fellow Christians were informed that Ahn was to be released as she was dying. They found her in a terrible state, suffering from typhus, dreadfully thin, her lips covered in sores, and her hair matted and infested with lice. But the state of her copy of the Bible testified to how much it had been used. Yet now she was too weak to read it. The author noticed her times of discouragement, though he could see how her face relaxed as he read God’s Word to her. He commented, “I only realised, as I had never realised before, that the devil has no mercy, and does not even leave the brand snatched from the burning to die in peace. He tempts and torments to the very end. I began to realise then, more deeply, what it means to ‘endure to the end’ and to prepare myself to be faithful ‘to the end’.” Ahn was lovingly cared for but she did not survive long. She passed into eternity after summoning up all the little strength that remained to her to cry, “I’m going into the presence of my Father”.
Kim Yoonsup, an evangelist, was very disturbed when his Church declared shrine worship not to be idolatry but merely a patriotic act. He preached on “Daniel’s purposed aim”, and this had a powerful effect on his hearers. However, detectives present at the service reported what he had said, and Kim was arrested and tortured terribly. At other times the police talked to him in a kindly manner, but told him, for instance, that the General Assembly had approved of shrine worship. Did he think, they asked, he was the only good Christian in the world? But he resisted all the police attempts to make him give in to their demands.
When he was released, Kim began preaching again. Then he was re-arrested and was tortured even more severely. The cycle was repeated again and again until he was arrested for the eighth time. His wife fully supported
his stand but he found it very difficult to hear his four-year-old boy crying inconsolably as the police led the father away. Kim wanted to die and attempted to commit suicide. Just at that time, a guard came to bring him out for further interrogation. Following his sin, he felt unable to pray and meekly obeyed the order to bow to the shrine. Mechanically, he signed a statement that it was not idolatrous to do so. He was released and told that he was free to preach. “But like Peter, Kim went out and wept bitterly.”
Though free, Kim felt unable to preach. He resigned his position as an evangelist and took up secular work. The author writes, “It was my privilege to point out to him that ‘there is no more sacrifice for sin’ – fastings, prayers; nothing whatsoever can be added to what Christ has done. . . . ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness‘. It was not a new story to Kim, but it helped to turn his eyes to Jesus alone, and in turning he found forgiveness and victory.”
Kim now wrote to the police to retract his statement and returned to expounding God’s Word. But a month later, he was arrested again. In December 1940 Kim’s wife was told to come and take her husband away, as he was dying. She found him lying on the frozen ground, too weak to adjust his clothes to bring them between his body and the ground. But Kim’s health improved at home and he became strong enough to conduct services there.
Then, about a month later, in early 1941, Kim was arrested for the tenth time. After suffering from typhoid fever, Kim was brought to trial along with 13 other Christians. On the first day of his 10-day trial, the judge asked, “According to your beliefs, if a man serves any god except your Jehovah God he will be cast into hell; do you then believe that His Majesty the Emperor, who serves the gods of his ancestors, will go to hell?” Kim appeared calm and relaxed and answered the question honestly. He was found guilty of various charges and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. He could have received preferential treatment if he had worked as a “technician” – repairing machinery. But that would have meant working on Sabbaths and he chose rather to work as an ordinary labourer. He had great influence among the prisoners; in particular, two robbers were converted as a result of his teaching. He died on 3 May 1943.
Korea was delivered from Japanese oppression in 1945, only for the northern part of the country to come under Communist oppression instead; in fact, the greatest number of professing Christians lived in what is now North Korea. Many of their difficulties centred around Sabbath observance. Christians, like others, were often called out on Sabbaths for public works. As a minister explained, “to obey meant breaking the Sabbath, and the disruption of church services, while to disobey was considered opposition to the
government”. Even children were impacted; for instance, it was difficult for them to get a place in school if their religious affiliation was recorded on their application forms as “Christian”. A particular matter of difficulty was the requirement to participate in elections, which were held on Sabbaths. The Communists were even more ruthless than the Japanese in putting prisoners to death, and many faithful Christians perished. Some accounts of them are preserved in this book.
Today Christianity is, in practice, illegal in North Korea, but the Lord who revealed Himself to many in the period covered by this book is able to deal in mercy even with those who today are most violently opposed to God and to His Word. The book provides not only evidence of God’s saving power, but also His power to support His children when, in His wise if unfathomable providence, He allows them to experience the most difficult of circumstances. Without a doubt, they will experience in heaven the reward of their real if imperfect faithfulness – which itself was the result of God’s grace. “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Mt 5:11,12).
Book Reviews1
The St Andrews Seven, The Finest Flowering of Missionary Zeal in Scottish History, by Stuart Piggin & John Roxborough, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, paperback, 168 pages, £6.50.
As explained in the preface, this book, first published in 1985, is “about a university professor and six of his students”. It is, according to the writers, “a record of the most remarkable flowering of evangelistic and missionary enthusiasm in the history of Scottish Christianity”.
The professor was Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), who was Professor of Moral Philosophy at the ancient university of St Andrews at this time: the mid-1820s. The six students were: Alexander Duff, John Urquhart, John Adam, Robert Nesbit, William Sinclair Mackay and David Ewart.
Following an outline of Chalmers’ “Grand Design” – a conviction that Christian insights should be applied to economics and the needs of the working class so that “society is renovated as well as man” – we are introduced to those students, who were all young men of high academic ability. We are shown how the Lord, as well as giving them this ability, drew
1Both books reviewed here are obtainable from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
them to Himself and gave each of them an earnest desire to serve Him in bringing the gospel to a heathen land. It is significant that this was a time when Moderatism was predominant in the Church of Scotland, and the zeal and vision of Chalmers stands in sharp contrast to the deadness and coldness that characterised the majority of its ministers.
John Urquhart died young, but his life, witness and death did much to focus the minds of the others. We are shown how, following their struggle to know the Lord’s will for them, and after Urquhart’s early death, the remaining five were all led to serve India. Much of the latter part of the book tells of the labours of those men as well as their difficulties with the climate and the various illnesses they suffered from. What comes out particularly in this book is what those men achieved, under God, though in some cases their lives were relatively short.
The best known of the six is Alexander Duff who, after landing in Calcutta in 1830, opened a school and laboured there for the greater part of his life until his death in 1878. William Mackay also laboured in Calcutta until broken health forced him to return to Scotland in 1862; he died in 1865. David Ewart taught in the school in Calcutta until his death in 1855. John Adam, who also went to Calcutta and who was able to preach in Bengali after five months’ “intensive language study”, died in 1831 of suspected sunstroke. Robert Nesbit laboured in Bombay, where, among other things, he revised the Marathi New Testament; he died in 1855.
It is calculated that, between them, the “St Andrews six” gave 141 years of service to the missionary cause. When one considers that, as is reckoned, some 500 British missionaries laboured in India by 1857, one cannot but conclude that those six men – and the zealous Professor who had such an influence on their preparation – had, under God, much to do with inspiring this “army” of labourers in God’s vineyard.
The story throughout is fascinating, shedding light on those days when, although Moderatism was blighting the Scottish Church, the Lord was preparing men, not only for the Disruption struggle in Scotland but also for overseas service. To all those who desire an insight into the lives, labours and deaths of those noble men, we warmly commend this most interesting book.
It is perhaps fitting to conclude with the words of John Urquhart, written on 30 June 1826, just seven months before his early death: “We may be gaining new victories over the devil, the world and the flesh, even while here. Let it be our earnest endeavour to maintain this holy warfare within our breasts; and while we drink freely of the fountain of life, let us not forget to present its waters to that world, which is dead in trespasses and sins.”
(Rev) W A Weale
You Must Read, Books that Have Shaped Our Lives, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, 303 pages, hardback £15.00, paperback £ 8.00.
This is an unusual volume. In the main part of the book, each of 32 writers, whom one can loosely describe as belonging to the wider Banner of Truth circle, describe a book (or a set of books) which has had a particular influence on him or her. Some lay more emphasis than others on their chosen book’s influence, but each writer describes important points in his book and analyses its contents. Given that all the books described are published by the Banner of Truth, one might be tempted to dismiss You Must Read as purely an exercise in advertising their own publications. But it is much more than this: it draws attention to some of the best Christian books available today.
We should never forget that, in God’s kind providence, the English-speaking world has had the privilege of a vast selection of reliable Christian literature. Many of the best of these works come from over 100 years ago, and these form the vast majority of the books highlighted here. They include Thomas Watson’s A Body of Divinity, Thomas Brooks’ Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, Thomas Boston’s Human Nature in its Fourfold State, Archibald Alexander’s Thoughts on Religious Experience and J C Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels. We should all, if we value our souls, make every effort to read such spiritually-profitable matter – subject to our other responsibilities and to giving the Scriptures the highest place in our reading. And – bearing in mind that other publishers also are making available sound, helpful literature – this is an interesting and helpful resource to guide readers, especially those new to the world of Reformed books, as to where they should seek spiritual instruction in written form.
Protestant View
Rome and Marriage
The Pope has introduced reforms which make it easier to have marriages annulled by the Roman Catholic authorities. Annulment generally involves the cancellation of a marriage on the grounds that it was “null” – because grounds were subsequently found which invalidate the marriage in the eyes of the Roman Church. These grounds usually consist of reasons which are held to show that valid consent was not given at the beginning of the marriage. Another ground for annulment would be a Roman Catholic marrying a Protestant in a Protestant ceremony where a special dispensation had not been given by the diocesan bishop; and annulment could be granted in the case of two Romanists marrying outside of their Church.
Children born of such marriages are generally held to be legitimate and the way is open to marry someone else in the Roman communion. Scots law, rightly, does not recognise the concept of annulment and those whose marriages have been thus terminated need to obtain a divorce before they can remarry in Scotland.
The new reforms are administrative rather than doctrinal but, by reducing the legal procedures involved and the costs incurred, it is believed that the annulment process may take as few as 120 days. Annulments have become very common in recent times, with 27 000 annulments taking place in the USA alone in 2006 compared with only 338 in 1968. The two previous popes warned against the practice of using annulment to terminate valid marriages and the view has been expressed that the current reforms are the ecclesiastical equivalent of granting “no-fault” divorces.
Even with this reform, Roman Catholic canon law remains a labyrinth which is reminiscent of the laws of the Scribes and the Pharisees. We certainly cannot see how making annulment easier will strengthen the institution of marriage. Since Rome has never adhered to the scriptural teaching on marriage and lawful divorce, we fear that much of what lies behind this move consists of the present incumbent of St Peter’s seeking to present a more conciliatory face to this wicked and adulterous generation.
Furthermore, a recent special Synod in the Vatican dealing with the family has been described by one American writer as an “ugly scrum” and a “shambling disaster since the moment it started”. It seems that the Pope has been seeking to find a way to present a softer line on Roman Catholic teaching on the family but has in the process alarmed some traditionalists. On the other hand, the Romanist bishop of Northampton, Peter Doyle, an English member of the Synod, has criticised it for not taking the concerns of homosexuals into consideration: “The Lord loves us all and we need to find a way of embracing everyone”. It would be good if this divided and ungodly house would quickly begin to fall finally and irrecoverably. AWM
Notes and Comments
Former Muslims Persecuted in Britain
We need not look at Syria or other Islamic countries to discover Christian converts from Islam being persecuted. In those lands the media reports barbaric treatment – including death – meted out to those who name the name of Christ. Even in Britain, one family (and, it appears, several others too) have suffered severely from members of this intolerant religion.
Nissar Hussain, a nurse living in Bradford with his wife and six children, claims that they are being driven out of house and home by Muslim neighbours for a second time. One report states that they are “effectively prisoners in their own home after suffering an appalling ordeal at the hands of neighbours who regard them as blasphemers”.
In 1996, the 49-year-old rejected Islam and embraced Christianity. Later his wife professed faith in Christ. Over the next decade, they suffered serious abuse from Muslims. Their property was vandalised and “Christian dog” was written across their front gate. Three of their vehicles were written off by attackers. Their children were sworn at and spat upon. Death threats were received. Hussain said, “They told me categorically had I been in an Islamic country, [for example] Pakistan, that they would actually be the first to chop off my head”. He claims that police took little notice of his complaints and that a sergeant said to him: “Stop trying to be a crusader and move out!” The constant fear of attack led them to relocate to their present accommodation, where they remained relatively anonymous for a time.
However, in 2008 Mr Hussain felt he had to highlight the treatment shown to Muslim converts to Christianity and took part in a Channel 4 TV documentary called “Unholy War”. Then their troubles began all over again. They have been suffering attacks in the street; their car windows have been repeatedly smashed and eggs have been thrown at their house windows. Suffering from depression, as a result of stress, Mr Hussain was forced to give up his work. At one point when his wife was threatened with violence by a local man, Mr Hussain grappled with him and was arrested. He spent 12 hours in prison before being released without charge.
Several times police have been called to deal with the problems, but Mr Hussain believes that, because the area is predominantly Muslim, officers are afraid of accusations of racism. Only one successful prosecution has been made – when one of his children recorded a neighbour’s threats on a mobile phone and the person was convicted of a “public order offence”. The whole family continues to face harassment almost daily, being denounced as blasphemers and apostates and ostracised by the Muslim community. The police say they are now “working closely with partners to resolve this situation”, but no action seems to have been taken to improve matters.
Barnabas Fund, a charity highlighting Christian persecution throughout the world, has statistics showing that, in Britain, about 3000 Muslims a year convert to Christianity and that attacks against such converts can number up to 1000; some are verbal abuse, others involve serious assaults by groups of Muslim men. The charity also fears that some women converts have been abducted and taken forcibly to Pakistan.
Worldwide the persecution by Islamic fundamentalists is growing. The barbaric actions of ISIS are well documented. In Nigeria, when the son of a Muslim imam converted to Christianity, the extreme Islamic group Boko Haram burned his stores, his father’s house and offices, and plan to execute him when they find him. In Yemen a woman who converted to Christianity and refused to return to Islam had petrol poured into her kitchen by relatives conspiring to kill her. While cooking, she caught fire and burned to death. Her husband, who also professed Christ, is on the run with their children. According to Sharia law, “apostates” from Islam must be sentenced to death.
Recently it was encouraging to see both Houses of Parliament debate the potential influence of Sharia law in the UK, and good to see prospects of action to curb this pernicious influence. Protection is needed for people like the Hussains. However, there can be no doubt that Islam is determined to spread its influence in the UK and throughout the world. Our great need is for the Lord to bless us with a revival of true religion. We are encouraged to plead the promise, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (Is 59:19). KHM
Special Creation and Climate Change
Those who believe that the earth was specially created by God in the recent past have an attitude towards climate change and global warming that is very different from those who believe, mistakenly or willfully, in an ancient earth on which men and animals evolved. If the world is a recent creation and was specially formed for man, then the use of fossil fuels is obviously in accordance with the Divine purpose. We are not to waste fossil fuels – and sin in that direction is likely to lead to problems, as sin always does – but we believe we may use them in the expectation that, if they run out, then the wise Creator is likely to have some other provision for mankind. While the world lasts, the people of God will be on the earth, and their Heavenly Father will know that they have need of all such things (Mt 6:32). The promise to Noah that “while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen 8:22) includes whatever is necessary for the general well-being of mankind.
Equally, if it is true that the use of fossil fuels raises the temperature of the earth – a claim which seems to be far from proven – it is also true that the temperature of parts of the earth has changed greatly since many of the fossils were formed. The fossils of animals from warm climates are now found buried in ice. These climate changes, much greater than those supposedly taking place at present, must have happened in the recent past, but before men started burning fossil fuels on a large scale. With the promise to Noah, we
can entrust such things to the Lord’s hands without troubling ourselves about what seems to be greatly beyond our power. Christians have a far more urgent work to attend to, namely delivering their own souls and the souls of others from the damnation of hell, through the gospel of Christ. DWBS