Back to Jerusalem

11 April 2010

Dear Phyllis,

 This past week I have been so busy I have hardly had time to think what my own name was. The Lord is doing some amazing things at this house I am building for John, but I doubt that you would be interested in a long discussion about construction. As I have thought about what to write this week, it came to me to do a rerun on the Back to Jerusalem theme. Perhaps I have written to you about this before, but there is nothing that I feel is more primary in the Holy Spirit’s agenda today than the Back to Jerusalem Movement. It is the driving engine for the Church in China, and I believe it explains a great deal of what we are watching world wide.

 It is hard to point to one incident where the Back to Jerusalem Movement began, but if we were to choose one it would be on the Shandong peninsula of east China in 1921, with the founding of the Jesus Family. The Jesus Family was an unusual indigenous movement in China that believed in giving all to Jesus. They had five words that expressed their commitment – Sacrifice, Atonement, Poverty, Suffering, Death. If this is what you were willing to pay then you were eligible to sign up. You literally had to sell the farm, give everything to Jesus, and live communally. They saw that the Gospel had come to China by the missionaries from the western world; and that the Gospel must go around the world and return to Jerusalem before the Lord’s return. To accomplish this goal, they started out in 1921 walking across China, preaching the Gospel to every village they came to on their way to carry the Gospel back to Jerusalem by foot. They walked for 49 years until they came to Kashgar at the extreme end of Xinjiang providence in west China. They were making application to go into Kazakhstan, that was then the USSR, when they were arrest by the communists and sent to prison. That was the end of their road. But I believe they were dead right in their vision for three reasons.

The first is, because I see in nature a clear message that the movement of God is from east to west. Because of the rotation of the earth, the Lord speaks to humanity every day that His sun, moon, and stars always arise in the east, traverse the earth from east to west, and settle in the west. Everything in nature testifies to us that God’s basic movement is from east to west.

Secondly, I see in Scripture a directional orientation that God’s basic movement is from east to west. I spent three hours preaching at the Thai church on this subject and I certainly can’t write everything here. There are many proofs of this, but one is the layout of the OT Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple. Both were laid out east to west with the entrance being on the east and the Holy of Holies being at the back in the west. Everyday when the priest came before the Lord they had to progress from east to west. There are dozens of illustrations, but it is interesting that when Jesus went up to Jerusalem to be the sacrificial Lamb of God, He should have gone from north to south; but His last ministry was on the east side of Jordan. When He went up to Jerusalem He went from east to west. When He left to return to heaven He left from the Mt. Olivet which is on the east side of Jerusalem. When He returns again, He will land on that exact spot and reenter Jerusalem by the east gate. Everything in Scripture is in a direction of going from east to west.

 The third reason I passionately believe in the Back to Jerusalem Movement is the testimony of church history. In Acts 1:8 Jesus said that the Gospel would first be preached in Jerusalem, then in Judea, Samaria, and unto the utter most part of the earth. As we read the book of Acts we see that the Gospel went exactly that way. It first started in Jerusalem (chap. 1-7). In chapter 8 we see Phillip going down to Samaria. In chapter 11 the Gospel went up to Antioch. In chapter 13 the Holy Spirit sent out the first missionaries and they went west. In chapter 16 Paul wanted to turn around and head east but the Holy Spirit forbid him to go in that direction. Then he saw the Macedonian vision and went west to Philippi. And at the close of Acts we see Paul in Rome.

The movement of the Gospel went exactly that way. It started in Jerusalem and progressed across the Mediterranean to Rome. Then the Gospel was dormant in Rome until the time of the Reformation under Luther. At that time Christianity moved from Rome northwest to Germany. For the next several hundred years the driving engine of the Gospel was in Germany. The Moravians were German. But at the early part of the 1700s, during the time of the first great evangelical awaking under Wesley, the Gospel moved from Germany to England. For the next two hundred years England was the great power house for the Gospel raising up some of the finest preachers, giving us some of the best Christian literature and hymnology, and sending out historic missionaries. But at the early part of the 1900s the Gospel moved across the Atlantic to America. For the 20^th century America became the fortress of Christianity and became the main engine sending out the vast bulk of missionaries and mission support.

 In 1970 we saw a surprising thing when the Gospel jumped the Pacific rim and moved to Korea. For 30 years we saw an amazing revival in Korea where it looked like Korea would become the number one Christian nation on earth. Today Korea has overtaken America as the number one missionary country sending out and supporting more missionaries per capita than America.

But then, totally hidden from human eyes, the Lord did an astounding thing in pouring out the greatest moving of the Holy Spirit the earth has ever seen on China. Today things are happening in China that eclipses what the Apostles saw in the 1^st century. With my position at NLL, I personally witnessed the sending out of millions of Bibles to China. Never before in history have we seen anything liked what is going on in China for the demand and supply of the Word of God to millions.

In 1997 Brother Yun was conducting a meeting in central China. He was making an appeal for the church in China to look beyond its borders to sending out missionaries. At the close they were singing a hymn taken from the old Jesus Family hymnal. An old man at the back was greatly moved and came forward to speak. He said, “My name is Simon Zhao. I wrote that hymn. I was a leader in the Back to Jerusalem Movement and we wrote that hymn. But in 1950 we were all arrested. I was sentenced to 45 years in jail. They are all dead now. I am the only survivor.” As the believers sat bathed in tears by this moving testimony that night, Brother Yun said that was the pivotal moment of his life. He tearfully said, “Uncle Zhao, the vision isn’t dead. We will take the flaming baton of the Gospel back to Jerusalem”. From that moment, this has been the burning vision of the church in China.

I believe I have shared this history with you before. But rather than commenting on the obvious trajectory of the Spirit of God today in moving through the 10-40 window, and an amazing harvest of millions of Islamic souls; I want to briefly consider the spiritual phenomenon of what happens after the sun has passed an area. Darkness sets in. As certainly as the Gospel has moved across the Mediterranean, Rome, Europe, England and America; the darkness that has engulfed these countries today is undeniable. North Africa, Turkey, Greece, Rome, all saw a sweeping revival where Christianity was the dominant religion. And much of that is Islamic today. If the present demographic alteration continues at the present pace, in another 25 years, England will be an Islamic state. Already there are more mosques in London than churches and some Shari laws are being enacted in England. Europe has become a moral zoo. We think this could never happen in America but we are seeing things today in America that were unthinkable 50 years ago. Obama has advocated and implemented things that, if someone had tried them in 1950, they would have been in prison. In his first year in office he has altered the US system of government more than everything in the previous 225 years. In his first eight months in office he took over the US banking system, took control of the US auto industry, and restructured the US government with his unauthorized czar system. He declared in Egypt that America was no longer a Christian nation, and praises Islam. He openly told how he and his wife had attended several flag burnings, and now is attempting to take control of every soul in America through his health care system.

The astounding thing is that he has done all of this openly and no one is listening. America is deaf. With the exception of Fox News and a few conservative commentators the main stream media has ignored most of his stunning policies.

There seems to be only one possible explanation for this drastic plunge in America. God has abandoned her. When America turned her back on God, and insulted Him by banning the Bible and prayer from the education system and the public arena, God has stepped back and turned America over to the fate of the wicked in Rom. 1:18-32. It appears that the sun has gone down on America.

 But the reverse is true in Asia. The work of missions here in SEA is unprecedented. The spirit of revival has burned intensely in eastern and parts of central China. The situation in western China has not yet caught fire but I have no doubt but what we will soon see millions saved there. Never in history has there been such an interest in missions in the Islamic world, and I fully believe we will soon see a revival there that will exceed anything previous on this planet.

Jesus is coming soon. The Gospel is progressing on its irresistible course westward. The Chinese brethren are totally committed to clearing out the 10-40 window and see the Good News of salvation complete its course back to Jerusalem. Far from being discouraged; these are the most exciting days in history, and it is our great privilege to be participants as the witnesses for Christ in this historic hour.

Gambarimasho (let’s let it all hang out and give it our best shot) for Jesus.

                                                     bill