Wang Ming-Dao
In 1920, a young Chinese man named Wang Ming-Dao, who had been a Christian since childhood, resolved to take his faith seriously. Writing out a list of his sins, he prayed and vowed to leave them behind. Praying until he received assurance of forgiveness, he arose a changed man and zealously studied the Scriptures.
A teacher at a Presbyterian boarding school in Beijing, he came to believe the Biblical method of Baptism to be immersion. Stubbornly holding to this conviction, and teaching it, led to the loss of his job. Though the loss of his job discouraged him, he remained faithful and began preaching on his own and with a number of evangelistic campaigns in 1923. He pastored a church called the Christian Tabernacle and also began publishing a quarterly Christian magazine which was widely read.
Beijing fell to Japanese forces in 1937. By 1939, the Japanese occupiers insisted that all publications print patriotic slogans supporting the Japanese military. Wang faced a dilemma: become a political publication or shut down. He chose a third option: publish anyway without the propaganda. He faced immense pressure from the Japanese and from other Christians and Christian groups which had capitulated to their captor’s demands. Wang refused to join, and preached on the suffering, faithfulness, and protection that Daniel and his friends faced in Babylon.
The fall of Japan in 1945 led to the rise of Mao-Tse Tung and Communist rule in 1949. The Communists established an organization which came to be known as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) – an organization and a set of guidelines for Christian churches which included severing all ties with Western churches and organizations, agreeing to a rewritten Bible, denial of core beliefs including the Incarnation, the virgin birth, the resurrection, the Trinity, and other abuses of power. Wang Ming-Dao realized this was intended to bring the church under state control and, despite intense pressure, he felt it was his duty to resist and continue to teach uncompromising Biblical truth.
Wang published a number of books between 1951 and 1954, proclaiming the Gospel and defending Biblical truth. The TSPM ramped up its pressure and in 1954 convened a meeting to accuse him of crimes but, like Daniel in the Bible, they could find no fault with him. Into early 1955, attendance at the Christian Tabernacle reached record numbers.
On August 7th, 1955, police arrived at his home around midnight and arrested him, imprisoning him without a conviction. At the time, he did not realize that his wife had been imprisoned as well. To the Communists, his defiance was counter-revolutionary and a severe crime. He was subjected to daily interrogations and torture and then subjected to further torture by especially-placed cell-mates.
After over a year of this pressure, Wang was informed of a number of the detainment of Christians he was close to. Worse yet, he was told of his wife’s imprisonment and deteriorating health. Under such intense personal pressure, Wang broke and signed a document stating he was a counter-revolutionary and confessing to his ‘crimes.’
While TSPM leadership was elated, Wang was crushed at his actions. Plagued with guilt and remorse over his confession he, with his wife’s support, reneged on his promise to join TSPM and they were both re-arrested seven months after their release.
Wang served an additional 22 years in prison, subject to the same daily torturous interrogations faced before. However, the Lord stood by him and he remained faithful. He clung to a verse from Micah, “When I fall I shall arise, when I sit in darkness the Lord will be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him until He pleads my cause and executes judgment for me.” (Micah 7:7).
In 1979 China – suffering from famine, a result of Mao’s disastrous policies, let many prisoners go, including Wang Ming-Dao – malnourished and nearly blind from his ordeal. He settled in Shanghai and preached again, as God gave him opportunity. In his final years he became one of the leaders of the house-church movement which had sustained the Gospel through the dark years of Communist oppression.
Wang Ming-Dao died at home in 1991. He shows us that Christians, even when they fail, can have a radiant witness in their faith and do great things for the Kingdom of God.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/wang-ming-dao-faithful-political-coercion/
https://www.evangelical-times.org/the-fall-and-rise-of-wang-ming-dao/
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