Gothold Beck- Part !

4 August 2019

Dear Phyllis,

Last week a brother wrote me asking about Gothold Beck. I have written to you before about Gothold, but he certainly is a missionary that deserves far more attention and credit than he will ever receive on this earth. At one point Gothold was the closest friend I had in Japan and I was very much a part of his family. It would be an irony if I am the one to write the most favorable account of his historic life. In my opinion Gothold Beck is unquestionably the most successful missionary Japan has seen in the second half of the 20^th century.

I'm not sure of the exact date of his birthday but it would have been sometime around 1928 in Germany. He came to Japan around 1955. On his way to Japan he stopped in Hong Kong for a few days where he encountered some elements of Watchman Nee's Little Flock. When he studied the mission philosophy of Watchman Nee, he purposed in his heart, “When I get to Japan I want pattern my work after Watchman Nee.” But that was impossible. He was with the German Libenzeler Mission in Japan who were locked into traditional methods. For 12 years Gothold fought a running battle with the Libenzeler field counsel while at the same time he way out in front as their one missionary.

In 1967 Gothold was finally able to extricate himself from Libenzeler to go independent, and inherited a house in Kichjoji (a city in west Tokyo) from some Plymouth Brethren missionaries. Because Watchman Nee was basically Plymouth Brethren, Gothold stayed in fellowship with PB until he became a lion in a kittys pen.

If God ever made a perfect man Gothold Beck would have come as close to being that man as any man I ever met. On every point of evaluation he was right at the top. Doctrinally and in method he was impeccable. He had tremendous energy, highly disciplined, a model man of faith, self-sacrificing, evangelistic, etc. In every category I know no equivalent. Gothold started his assembly (church) in Kichijoji by teaching German and English in some of the top universities in Tokyo. A nucleus of key young men got saved that turned out to be the foundation of what would later become the most powerful denomination in Japan. By a lot of just plain hard work Gothold built his church (they don't call themselves churches but assemblies [shukai]) to be in the upper 10% of successful mission stations in Japan.

Around 1978 Gothold told me of a new plan he had of having one special dendo (evangelism) meeting every month. That is utterly insane. Really good churches might have a week of special dendo in a year, but I know of no place on this planet – certainly not in Japan – that has special dendo meetings every month. He did that for three years. That is 36 weeks of special dendo. From 1982 on, I moved to Ikoma and very rarely got to Tokyo and more or less was out of touch with Gothold.

In 1987 I had a call from Gothold saying that a Japanese sister had been saved in Holland, and had returned to Japan with two teenage children that had never been to a Japanese school. Could she come to live with us and get her children in the MK Christian school in Ikoma? I said, “Please come”. Tomoko turned out to be a pivotal person. I had a circle of excellent Christian friends who frequently were in our home. I introduced Tomoko to my friends and brought her into our circle. I took her with us to the local Japanese church, but she was dissatisfied. In the mean time sister Koyoma had returned home to Kobe and started a Kichijoji shukai (worship service) in her home. Tomoko started going to the meeting in Kobe and pulled my circle of friends with her. Gothold and I had been very close friends for well over 20 years but I was still locked in traditional Christianity. But my friends that Tomoko pulled with her to the Kichijoji shukai were radically transformed. They would go to Kobe Sunday mornings and then come to our house to fellowship until midnight Sunday night. One Sunday I asked, “How was Kobe this morning?” They replied, “We didn't go.” “What? You didn't go to worship service? Why?” “Sister Yamada collapsed in her house last night, so we decided, rather than going to Kobe for worship we would go to her house and have a service there.” That was a pivotal remark in my life.. I saw in a flash the fundamental flaw of Christianity in Japan and vowed that was it for me with Kirisuto kyo (Japanese for Christianity).

In the interim five years since last I was close to Gothold he had grown to be what was undoubtedly the number one mission station in Japan - an exploding powerful denomination. Ninety percent of the churches are around 20 members. Mega churches might top out 100 or more. Gothold, with Kichijoji, was running in the thousands nation wide. This is such a vital subject that I can't begin to get this into one letter, and am going to have to stretch this out to a series of two, three, or maybe four letters. This deals with the number one problem of evangelism in Japan.

In 1946 the church was presented with a unique opportunity that has never been duplicated on this planet in human history. Through the war, Japan was literally burned to the ground. It was as if someone had not only erased the blackboard, but washed it clean. The demoralized Japanese were terrorized by the incoming conqueror. Like a lifeless zombie they were resigned to accept whatever tyranny was imposed upon them. But instead of a cruel tyrant they were startled to discover that their new emperor was a compassionate, benevolent, saving dictator. Never in human history has this world seen the unique combination of a man like General Douglas MacArthur and an obedient, searching nation like Japan. The Japanese are a unique race without an equal on earth. MacArthur had two goals; one was to make Japan a democratic nation, and the second was to bring Christian values – Christianize it. MacArthur pleaded for 2,000 missionaries. He said the more missionaries I have the fewer soldiers I need.” Mrs. Johnson of Manila knew Douglas and Jean MacArthur very personally and she felt he was a born-again man. He certainly was a man of history. And the Japanese were sitting there with their mouth open waiting to be fed. When I arrived 13 years after the war, Japan was still very much in the post-war recovery stage. You could pass out thousands of tracts at the eki (train station) and rarely see one tract on the ground. As a nation, Japan was looking for anything American and adopt it. If it was American it was good. The Gospel had been in Japan for 150 years and Japan was still 0.5% Christian. Sixty years later there are fewer Christians than when I arrived. Today the average age of a pastor is 65. During that seventy year post-war period I know of only one missionary that has had a significant impact – Gothold Beck.

It is hard to put your finger on one single point and say that this is the problem. But if was to take a stab at it I would say the biggest problem is KIRISUTO KYO (Christianity in Nihongo [Japanese]). All religions are called “Kyo”. The kanji (Chinese symbol) for kyo means “teaching”. You have Bukkyo – Buddhism, Isuramu kyo – Islam, Yudaiya kyo – Judaism, etc. And we have Kirisuto kyo – the teachings of Christ – Christianity. To put it plainly, there is a fundamental difference between religion and life. “In Him was life” (Jn. 1:$). We have shortchanged the Japanese by bringing religion to them under the guise of the Gospel. There is a life and death difference between Kirisuto kyo (Christianity) and Jesus. Gothold was able to draw a line and presented Jesus to the Japanese rather than another kyo. As no other place that I know, Gothold has produced Japanese people who fall in love with Jesus and love to share Him with others. That is why Gothold Beck is such a unique man in history.

This is such an Important subject I am going to run it into a series and keep writing.

Much love in Christ,

bill