17 April 2016
Dear Phyllis,
Last Wednesday my niece, Pam, asked me to speak to their pastor about the Back To Jerusalem Movement. This was particularly significant for me as the top spiritual man of China now lives in Santa Monica, not far from where I am staying with my niece and her family. I have had it much on my heart for many years to speak with Pastor Xu and it now looks like a distinct possibility as I am in contact with his son.
I have written to you twice about the BTJ movement , but at the expense of being redundant let me go over this significant movement one more time.
The Back to Jerusalem Movement originated in the 1920 on the Shandong peninsula of east side of China. A brother, Jing Dianying, saw how Jesus saidthe Gospel must be preached around the world and then the end would come. He observed that the Gospel had come to China from the western nations and felt commissioned of God to carry it by foot back to Jerusalem. The Jesus Family was an indigenous Chinese group of Christians whose motto was Sacrifice, Abandonment, Poverty, Suffering, and Death. If this is what you were willing to sign up for you were welcome to join them. They started walking west in the late 1920, going from village to village, preaching the Gospel, leaving thousands of Christians in their path all over China. By 1950 they got as far as Kashgar, which is the last city on the extreme west border of China. They made application to move on into what was then the Soviet Union; but the communists had taken over Xinjiang province and all the leaders of the movement were arrested and sentenced to 45 years of imprisonment.
In 1995 Brother Yun was conducting a meeting in central China with a burden for Chinese believers to move out of China as missionaries. At the close of the meeting they were singing a hymn taken from the old Jesus Family hymnal. He noticed an elderly man sitting in the back who was deeply moved. The old man came forward and asked for an opportunity to speak. He said, “My name is Simon Zhao. My brothers and I wrote that song.” He had spent 31 years in prison and was the only survivor of the original movement. He emotionally told how for many years he had stood in prison facing towards Jerusalem, praying that someone would pick up the baton and carry the Gospel on. Brother Yun said that was the pivotal moment of his life. Emotionally he said, “Uncle, we will do it.” The house church leaders in China banned together to form the Sinim Fellowship and surveyed 100,000 Chinese workers who volunteered to give their lives to take out the 10-40 window, which is the area of 90% of the unevangelized portion of the world and the home of the Muslin nations.
I intensely believe the Chinese are correct for three reasons.
First, I believe God speaks to humanity every day through nature that His movement is from east to west. Due to the rotation of the earth, the witness in heaven of the sun, moon, and stars rising in the east, traversing across the horizon, and setting in the west every day is a testimony that God's movement is from east to west.
Secondly, I believe that the testimony of scripture speaks to us very clearly that God's movement is from east to west. There are so many scriptures showing this that space does not permit me to mention them all. But all the movement in Genesis is from east to west; Abraham leaving the Ur of the Caldees, Rebeca going to Isaac, Jacob returning back home, Joseph being sold to Egypt. Perhaps the strongest argument is the layout of the OT Tabernacle and Solomon's Temple. The entrance of the Tabernacle was on the east side, and the Holy of Holies with the presence of God was on the back west. All the moment of the priest coming before the Lord was by moving from east to west. Even in his prayer at the Golden Altar, the priest was facing west towards God. The wise men seeking Jesus came from the east. When Jesus went up to Jerusalem the last time, He traveled from east to west. He came through Jericho and entered Jerusalem from the east. Jesus told the apostles in Acts 1:8 that the Gospel would be preached first in Jerusalem, then Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the world. As we read the book of Acts we see that was exactly the way the Gospel went.
Conversely, the movement away from God is from west to east. Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden east of Eden. When Cain killed his brother he went from the presence of the Lord east of Eden. When Lot parted company from his uncle Abraham he went east (Gen. 13:11). At the time of the Babylonia captivity the Jews were taken east to Babylon and when they returned back to Jerusalem they went west again. In Ezek. 8:16 the Lord showed Ezekiel the elders of Israel in the temple with their backs to the Lord facing east worshiping the sun. The glory of God departed from Jerusalem on the east (Ez. 11:23). When Jesus left to go back to heaven He left from the Mt. of Olives on the east side of Jerusalem, and when He returns He will land there and re-enter Jerusalem through the east gate. The overwhelming testimony of Scripture is that the movement of God is from east to west.
And thirdly, church history is an undeniable testimony that God's movement is from east to west. In the 1st century we see that the Gospel was first preached in Jerusalem (Acts 1-5), then Phillip took it to Samaria (chap. 8) . The Gospel went up to Antioch (11), the first missionary trip (13), over to Philippi (16), and ending in Rome (28). The Gospel was somewhat dormant in Rome for 1000 years and then went up to Germany in 1200, From there it went to England at the time of the Wesleys in 1715. For two hundred years the British were the custodians of the Gospel giving us our best Christian literature, hymnology, preachers, and missionaries. And then for the 20th century America was the custodian of the Gospel with the strongest churches, funding, and sending out 90% of world missions. But then in 1970 we saw and amazing thing when the Gospel jumped the Pacific rim and went to Korea. South Korea has now taken over as the number one Christian nation, funding and sending out more missionaries per capita than any other nation. Korea has gone well past America as the leading mission nation. But from the mid 1980s we saw an amazing thing in China, in a moving of the Spirit of God, such as has not been seen on this plant since the 1st century. With my years with New Life Ministries and working in SEA, I have personally witnessed the explosive expansion of the Gospel and astounding miracles in China. Facts have exceeded exaggerated reports. There are an estimated 130,000,000 believers in China today, and the projection is that in another 15 years China may be the most Christian nation on earth.
What we have witness is a tsunami of the Holy Spirit that began at Jerusalem, went across the Mediterranean, went through Germany and Europe, was in England, America, Korea; and is now that tsunami is in eastern and central China. We are not seeing the revival phenomenon in west China that is happening in east and central China, but I passionately believe we will see the movement of the Holy Spirit move westward into west China and then through Central Asia. There is no question that the most intense target of missions today is the Islamic world. And it is reported that the fastest growing church in the world today is in Iran.
I may be slightly off in this presentation of the history of world missions. Of course you have the southern hemisphere of Africa and South America. But without question the general truth of these three witnesses, of nature, the Bible, and church history is an incontestable fact. This being true, I passionately believe the Lord has raised up the Chinese church to carry the Gospel message westward to the Islamic world, and we are going to see a movement of the Holy Spirit such as has never happened before.
But I believe the Chinese have it wrong on one point. Abraham had two sons. The first son was Ishmael and the second son was Isaac. Ishmael is the father of the Arabs, and Isaac the father of Israel. I believe what we are going to see is the Lord using the Chinese to bring millions of Muslims to Christ. I believe the tsunami of the Holy Spirit is going to go to the Middle East and we will see Ishmael hand the Gospel baton to Isaac for the last mile of the Gospel going around the world – back to Jerusalem. Then Jesus will come.
These are tremendously exciting days. We are presently seeing spiritual activity on a scale never before seen. But from here, I believe we are going to have to do world missions on a totally different level. Todays traditional missionary with a degree from a high level seminary, living in a comfortable house with his wife and family, and driving a new Toyota will not get the job done. It is going to cost a great deal of blood. What we need is an army of Christian jihadist who are willing to strap a bomb of the love of God on their bodies and go to dangerous places to see how many they can save. And if they get killed in the process that is what they signed up for. This was the spirit of the Jesus Family and this is what it is going to take to take the Gospel Back To Jerusalem.
In the wake of that tsunami is terrible darkness. Just as the sun traverses the horizon, darkness follows the light; darkness is falling on formally Christian nations. But these are the days spoken of by the prophets.
Oh Lord give us courage to do our part even if it cost our lives. Lord Jesus, You died for us, please, Lord, give us the grace to give our lives for You. Lord Jesus come quickly,
bill
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