Evangelising The Southern Regions
From Tainan and Taichung, the church evangelists moved out into the countryside and into the towns and villages. Many of the converts that were made during these years were members of the Presbyterian church.
At Wenzi, the first evangelical service was held. Some Japanese bureaucrats also attended and were quite moved by the sermons. At Xianxi Public school grounds, four hundred people came to listen. A Hemei police officer was also present and was deeply moved. The evangelising reached Hemei where an audience of several hundred attended. The evangelists took turns at preaching and gained the audience's praise. A Taichung Presbyterian church Elder named Philemon Guo was baptised during this time. He later established the Philemon Trust to further advance the gospel.
Daniel Huang went to Tainan, lodged at an English hostel and invited Wu Dao-yuan to attend a meeting and the usual Taiwanese Presbyterian church members came to listen to the sermons. One of them took out a thesis which had been produced by Pastor Gao Jin-sheng titled "Discussion regarding the True Jesus Church" which contained content that slandered the TJC. Nevertheless there would often be presbyterian members coming to hall to listen to what they needed to say.
On 2 March 1926 Wu Daoyuan and Luke Gao held an evangelistic service in Changli resulting in sixty two people being baptised, in Niutiaowan - twenty-seven baptised and in Qingshui - eleven baptised.
When Elder Kuo and four others arrived in Niutiaowan to evangelise, students from the Taiwanese Presbyterian Theological College and the ordinary church members would often listen to the preaching. During one session, a their preacher inquired, "Did you come here to destroy the church in Taiwan, or to establish the church in Taiwan?". The TJC's Elder Kuo responded,
| “ | "We have come to establish a True Jesus Church which has the abidance of the Holy Spirit, the words and deeds of Jesus, and the examples set by the Apostles. We did not come here to for the purpose of gaining fame or wealth; rather we were willing to endure hardship, and to glorify Jesus. | ” |
Another student from the Theological College asked, "Please tell us the differences between us and you." Hence Elder Kuo informed them on the various aspects of the Presbyterian church which were not in accordance with the Bible, and after having pointed them out one-by one, they had nothing to say to that.
Then a Taiwanese Presbyterian member told the TJC evangelists, saying
| “ | Our Presbyerian pastors earn their living from salaries paid to them from the western churches, therefore no matter how correct or incorrect the matter in discussion is, in the end they are is still required to please the Westerners and to obey their commands. At the end of the day, they place more attention to those who have wealth and prestige, regardless whether or not it is in accordance with God's teachings. Rather, the pastors use their authority and the power of the main Councils to make the ordinary church members get in line | ” |
He then took out a sheet of letter printed in Romanised Taiwanese which read,
| “ | "Recently, thirteen people reached Taiwan and, calling themselves the True Jesus Church, travelled to various locations to disrupt our holy congregation, to wreck the faith of our church brethren. Our central Council has decided that they will not be allowed to lend our chapels to give their lecturing and it would be even better if they are denied entry to our brethren's residences." | ” |
An English pastor named Rev. Duncan MacLeod used fabricated words to criticise the TJC saying, "In overseas countries during every century, there would always be false prophets and false christs who come to deceive people. No long after they were all destroyed, so the True Jesus Church should not be seen as anything strange, so do not fear." He said further,
| “ | "They are opposed to the Bible. they fool the weak and people with lack of knowledge. They are very familiar with the Bible so if you go and debate with them, you will lose the debate. They say that baptism must be fully immersed in water, that is fine to me. However Sunday is the day when the Apostles observed the Lord's resurrection day, therefore the Sabbath day which they had observed has now already been abolished." | ” |
One day, Rev. Duncan Macleod and ten others went to the hotel to listen to the TJC evangelists. One of the TJC Elders explained to them,
| “ | Speaking in tongues is a type of spiritual language, it is not a language of this world. The language that our true God speaks cannot be comprehended by ordinary people. After someone has received the Holy Spirit, they will have this type of gift". During the day of the Pentecost when the Holy Spirit had descended, the Apostles were filled with the Holy spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Holy Spirit enabled them. The language that they spoke is a form of speech, however the speech is not your usual dialect spoken in the villages. In the days of the apostles, those who could not understand what they were saying, thought that they were drunk with new wine. Paul had said, "You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance " Jesus also once said, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you." "Now this is spring-rain period of the Holy Spirit's advent. Everyone should take this opportunity to receive the Holy Spirit; if we do not receive the Holy Spirit then our channel of faith would eventually come to nothing. When Jesus comes the second time, it would be too late to regret and would suffer eternal hardship." | ” |
28 October 1926: Taichung True Jesus Church established where Philemon Guo and Joel Tsai were elected as committee members. The church in China sent Abe Guomei to continue the growth and development in Taiwan.
1927: Tainan, Chiayi, Dalin churches founded after many miracles were performed.
1929: Church in Erlin Township founded.
Read more about this topic: True Jesus Church In Taiwan
Famous quotes containing the words southern and/or regions:
“... so far from thinking that a slaveholder is bound by the immoral and unconstitutional laws of the Southern States, we hold that he is solemnly bound as a man, as an American, to break them, and that immediately and openly ...”
—Angelina Grimké (1805–1879)
“What is a television apparatus to man, who has only to shut his eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen, who has only to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust.”
—Salvador Dali (1904–1989)