29 September
2019
Dear Phyllis,
In the Song of Solomon the Lord has
given us two snapshots of church history. The first one is a picture of Jesus
and the second one is a shot of His Bride. They both are taken in the same place
with the same background. Both verses begin by mentioning the scene where the
pictures are taken - “the wilderness”. The first verse says, “Who is
this that cometh out of the wilderness...?”; and the rest of that verse
focuses on the fragrance of Christ. I wrote about this verse a few weeks ago.
In the second picture we see the Church as it describes her as “Coming up
out of the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved”. Nothing could be more
clear than that.
I have not been a major player in
church history, but the Lord has given me a front row seat to be an observer
and rub shoulders with some of the major actors who have left their mark in
writing the book of church history.
After the communist takeover of China
in 1949, a large number of “China hands” missionaries came to Japan. One of
them was Will Schubert. Will had been a missionary in China for 30 years and
then spent another 17 years in Japan. We were together in Karuizawa for nearly
all that time. How major a man of God Will was in China I don't know, but he
frequently spoke about John Sung as though he was almost a father and mentor to
Sung. The only confirmation I have of this is that Leslie Lyall did mention
Will Schubert in his biography of John Sung.
If we were to list the five greatest Chinese
men of God, John Sung's name should be on that list. John Sung was born in 1902
the son of a poor Methodist pastor. He obviously was exceptionally brilliant,
having gone to Ohio State University and won a PHD in chemistry. Prestigious
offers in chemistry came in from all over the world But after finishing in OSU,
John Sung decided to serve the Lord and went on to Union Theological Seminary -
which was one of the most anti-Christ seminaries in America. Sitting under that
modernistic theology the professors stripped John Sung of all his Christian
faith. But then one night the Spirit of God came upon him. He rushed out in the
hallway shouting, “I'm saved! I'm saved!”. He stood in the midst of campus and
burned his books denouncing them as doctrines of demons – which is true. The
facility at Union said he obviously was crazy and had him committed to an
insane asylum, where he read his Bible through 50 times in 192 days. Some
Christians got him out of the funny farm and on a boat going back to China. As the
ship was approaching China John Sung had a dream where he saw himself in a
coffin with an angel standing beside it weeping. He asked the angel, “Why are
you weeping?''. The angel replied, “Because he is not dead yet”. Sung said to
the angel, “By the grace of God I will keep him dead”. He reached in his
trunk and took out the PHD and all the awards he had won at Ohio State and
threw them in the ocean. Getting off the boat as a poor itinerant evangelist
John Sung began to serve the Lord.
Will Schubert told me it was at his
mission station in Sung's very early years that he had him for some special
meetings. One night Sung woke up in the middle of the night and could hear Will
praying for revival downstairs. This convicted Sung to join in that prayer. The
next night Sung stood up to preach, but the meeting was absolutely flat. After
a few futile minutes, Sung decided to quit, and have everyone go back to their
homes and pray asking the Lord why the meeting was so bad. He said, “I will
pronounce the benediction and then let's all go home to pray.” He raised his
hands to pronounce the benediction, and suddenly everyone in the church burst
out praying at the top of their lungs. Sung shouted them down and said, “Be
quiet. I will pray and we can go home.” He raised his hands to pray, and
suddenly the same thing happened again. Sung thought it was a misunderstanding.
He quieted the crowd and explained “Now be quiet and I will pray.” When he
raised his hands and the same thing happened the third time, he let it go. The
Spirit of God fell on that congregation. A group of communist students had come
to that meeting to be disruptive. When the Spirit of God fell on that crowd
they were terrified and tried to escape. The Christian kids locked their hands
on the benches and held them down so they couldn't get out. Those radical
students stood screaming, “My sin! My sin! My sin!”; and everyone was saved.
Will told me that happened at his church in the very early years of John Sung's
ministry and that was the beginning of a remarkable 15 years of historic
revival.
John Sung and Watchman Nee knew each
other but they were not close friends. Watchman Nee was a deeply devotional,
quiet man, and John Sung was a fiery man with a very hot temper. He would have
historic meetings seeing thousands saved, and shortly thereafter come unglued
at a train station master where you wonder if he was saved.
John Sung was married and had five
daughters that he named Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
Will told me he loved Numbers the least as that was the book of spiritual
failure. One day Will met Sung at the train station. He had been gone for three
months. When Sung saw Will he asked, “Brother Schubert do you know where my
wife is?”. He replied, “Yes, after you left, she had no money and I have taken
her and your daughters to live with me. They are at my house.” Apparently they
were very close friends. Sung was a man who was so totally given to his
ministry that he virtually abandoned his family. Schubert stepped forward to take
care of the needs of Sung's family, and was a close confident during Sung's
short career.
I can't cover John Sung's biography in
five short pages, but he probably was the greatest evangelist China ever
produced. He was famous for is use of props. His best known one was a coal
stove. He would put coal in the stove to demonstrate the fire of God. Then he
would hold up the largest chunk of coal and say, “This is the pastor. He is the
hardest one to set on fire.” The crowd would roar.
Sung told Will that he thought his
ministry would be a short one. That proved to be true. It lasted only 15 years
divided into three, five year periods – sowing, reaping, and blood. During that
time he impacted millions of souls in China and SEA. It has been said that he won
well over 100,000 souls for Christ. His time in Thailand was very brief but he
is credited with having the greatest impact on Thailand of any man in church
history here. The war with China and Japan began in 1938. His life was a
reflection of that suffering as he was stricken with TB of the lower
intestines. At times he could only preach leaning over as the pain was too
great to stand erect. In his last year he could only lay on a sheet suspended
between two poles. As he lay dying in a hospital, there was a famous Chinese
movie star that had been converted, but after he was saved, disaster struck his
life, and he lost his family. He visited Sung in the hospital sharing his
tragic story. When he finished, Sung suggested, “Let's sing.” The man was
offended and asked, “What could we sing?” Sung replied, “We could sing the song
of Job. You could sing chapter one and I could sing chapter two.” Will said in
his final years he was a greatly subdued man and repented of the frequent
temper outbursts of his earlier years. He died at the age of 42 in 1943.
The Song of Sol. gives us two snapshot
pictures of church history. The first is of Jesus and the moving of the Spirit
of Christ for 2,000 years, characterized by the fragrance of Christ (2:6). The
second snapshot is of the Bride of Christ who are the mighty men of God (8:5).
It is our great privilege to not only read about these heroes but to leave our
footprints in the sand of time as we walk with them coming up out of the
wilderness leaning on our Beloved.
Lord, let our lives count for Christ,
bill
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