Just over thirty five years ago, on June 1st 1972, a sixty nine year old Christian man died alone in a prison cell in China. He had been there twenty years. Having no immediate family, the prison authorities immediately had his body cremated. For them he was just another unknown, insignificant prisoner. His cell would soon be taken up by another. For the world this man was a complete failure: for the church he was one of her greatest saints.
It is true this man died with no physical children, but when he went into prison in 1952 he was the spiritual father of at least 70,000 – 150,000 Christians in over 500 independent indigenous house churches. They made up about 15-20% of the Protestant Christians in China. Nobody knows how many spiritual grand children and great grand children he has, but the BBC estimates the Chinese Church is between 40 to 70 million strong.
This unknown Christian prisoner was also one of the 20th C greatest Bible teachers. In China his meetings drew huge crowds where he would preach for hours without referring to any notes. His students made sure some of these sermons became books and titles like ‘Release of The Spirit’, ‘Sit, Walk, Stand’, and especially ‘The Normal Christian Life’ are still international best-sellers. In total he authored 114 books, and translated another 11 from English.
When this prisoner’s great-niece eventually came to the prison to collect her great-uncle’s ashes, she was given a piece of paper the prison guards had found under his pillow. The words were written in large letters with a shaky hand. They explained his life –
‘Christ is the Son of God who died for the redemption of sinners and resurrected after three days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of my belief in Christ. Watchman Nee’
Total Surrender
With Christian parents, Watchman Nee was challenged by this greatest of truths as a teenager. He was highly intelligent, always coming first in exams, and his teachers spoke of the successful career he could have. But he knew that if Christ was to be his Saviour, He would also be his Lord. Alone in his room, aged seventeen, he surrendered his whole life to Jesus Christ in 1920. It was a total surrender, and his school friends noticed. One wrote, ‘He became a fervent Christian and ceased pursuing the world. He frequently testified to his class-mates, exhorting them to believe in the Lord Jesus.’ Unfortunately these first attempts were not successful, but then Watchman Nee made a list of all his class mates names, prayed for them faithfully, and asked God to lead him in his witness. He followed the principle that, ‘You must speak to God first, before you speak to people.’ All but one of his 70 classmates became Christians.
Ministry
Though intellectually able, Watchman Nee turned down the opportunity to go to university and take up a career. After becoming a Christian he wrote, ‘All my previous planning became void and was brought to nothing’. Instead he knew he had been called to a profession which before he had considered ‘trifling and base’: preaching. With no fixed support he gave himself to evangelism, Bible teaching, and church planting throughout China. His preaching was plain, backed up by his seemingly photographic memory of the Scriptures and everything he read. In his preaching he warned of the danger of relying on our natural strengths, and emphasized the great power of the finished work of Christ for both forgiveness and deliverance from sin. He never went to Bible College, but was a voracious reader of spiritual classics and Church History with over 3,000 titles in his personal library.
Eventually basing himself in Shanghai in 1928, Watchman Nee’s ministry grew in influence, and in the 1930’s his fame spread further when he made preaching trips to Europe and America. As well as attracting attention for its clarity, his teaching also provoked some controversy for its views on the church. From his study of Scripture and his wariness over the way Western missionaries were importing their own denominations into China, he condemned all denominationalism as being fleshly and wrong. For him the only legitimate reason for separate churches was geography, so he wrote extensively on the need for there to be just one local church for each area. ‘Whenever I closed my eyes’, he wrote ‘the vision of the birth of local churches appeared...’
In 1934 Watchman Nee, who was considered to be other worldly, surprised some by marrying his teenage sweet-heart, Charity Chang. He surprised even more people when in 1942 he started a pharmaceutical business with his brother. This created a lot of tension within his movement’s leadership. Watchman Nee’s aim was never to make money for himself, but for the church, and he distributed gifts to many, including his critics. After the victory of the Communists in 1949, Watchman Nee knew it was only a matter of time before they sought to create a state controlled church and persecute all those who did not join. He was arrested in 1952, and sentenced in 1956 after listening to over 2,000 pages of accusations from the new government. He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment, but because he never ‘reformed’ to accept the Communist view of things, his sentence was extended indefinitely.
Lessons to Learn
There is much for all Christians to learn from the life of Watchman Nee. There is his courageous faith; his firm belief about the local church, and his willingness to accept injustice and suffering.
Faith
Regarding faith Watchman Nee learned that God speaks into present circumstances and is completely dependable. In 1924, aged just twenty-one, he contracted TB and the doctors expected him to die. He decided to use his few remaining days to write a book, ‘The Spiritual Man’, and when he had finished it he said, ‘Now, let thy servant depart in peace’. But instead he believed God spoke to him – ‘The first sentence was: ‘The just shall live by faith’. The second sentence was ‘By faith you stand’, and the third was ‘We walk by faith.’ Watchman Nee took these words literally, got up from his sick bed, and walked to where he knew a group of Christians were praying for him. He was miraculously healed, and the next Sunday he preached for three hours. He also had to learn as a young evangelist that God controlled the weather. During an evangelist trip in the village of Mei-hwa one of Nee’s co-workers Li Kuo-ching became frustrated at the lack of response. Finding out that all the villagers believed in the god Ta-Wang (Great King) because he always provided sunshine on whatever day was chosen for his festival, Li Kuo-ching rashly declared that on that day it would rain. The whole village soon heard about this challenge. Watchman Nee was initially worried, but then the team of seven sought God in prayer and he heard the word, ‘Where is the God of Elijah?’. Now the whole team proclaimed it would rain. The day in question dawned with blue skies and bright sunshine, but then so much rain fell that the idol Ta Wang fell off his sedan chair. Many villagers cried, ‘There is God; there is no more Ta Wang!’. Regarding faith and money, Watchman Nee never told others of his needs and followed the rule ‘Give and it will be given unto you’. God always provided for him. One story he tells to illustrate this is when he was invited to preach somewhere and only had a third of the fare that was needed for the trip. He believed he should go, so accepted, but then it was impressed on his hear to give a third of the small amount of money he had to another worker. He struggled a lot with this, but eventually obeyed. It turned out that he was able to get a much cheaper seat on the boat and then the church he ministered to insisted on giving him money: this not only covered his expenses, but also the printing costs of one of his books. On his return he learned that his small gift had literally kept food on the table for the Christian worker and his family. For Watchman Nee the Christian life was all about experience, and so he was always able to point people to a God in heaven who is ‘forever dependable’. It was this courageous faith in the dependability of God that motivated him throughout his ministry and enabled him to see so much spiritual fruit.
It is true this man died with no physical children, but when he went into prison in 1952 he was the spiritual father of at least 70,000 – 150,000 Christians in over 500 independent indigenous house churches. They made up about 15-20% of the Protestant Christians in China. Nobody knows how many spiritual grand children and great grand children he has, but the BBC estimates the Chinese Church is between 40 to 70 million strong.
This unknown Christian prisoner was also one of the 20th C greatest Bible teachers. In China his meetings drew huge crowds where he would preach for hours without referring to any notes. His students made sure some of these sermons became books and titles like ‘Release of The Spirit’, ‘Sit, Walk, Stand’, and especially ‘The Normal Christian Life’ are still international best-sellers. In total he authored 114 books, and translated another 11 from English.
When this prisoner’s great-niece eventually came to the prison to collect her great-uncle’s ashes, she was given a piece of paper the prison guards had found under his pillow. The words were written in large letters with a shaky hand. They explained his life –
‘Christ is the Son of God who died for the redemption of sinners and resurrected after three days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of my belief in Christ. Watchman Nee’
Total Surrender
With Christian parents, Watchman Nee was challenged by this greatest of truths as a teenager. He was highly intelligent, always coming first in exams, and his teachers spoke of the successful career he could have. But he knew that if Christ was to be his Saviour, He would also be his Lord. Alone in his room, aged seventeen, he surrendered his whole life to Jesus Christ in 1920. It was a total surrender, and his school friends noticed. One wrote, ‘He became a fervent Christian and ceased pursuing the world. He frequently testified to his class-mates, exhorting them to believe in the Lord Jesus.’ Unfortunately these first attempts were not successful, but then Watchman Nee made a list of all his class mates names, prayed for them faithfully, and asked God to lead him in his witness. He followed the principle that, ‘You must speak to God first, before you speak to people.’ All but one of his 70 classmates became Christians.
Ministry
Though intellectually able, Watchman Nee turned down the opportunity to go to university and take up a career. After becoming a Christian he wrote, ‘All my previous planning became void and was brought to nothing’. Instead he knew he had been called to a profession which before he had considered ‘trifling and base’: preaching. With no fixed support he gave himself to evangelism, Bible teaching, and church planting throughout China. His preaching was plain, backed up by his seemingly photographic memory of the Scriptures and everything he read. In his preaching he warned of the danger of relying on our natural strengths, and emphasized the great power of the finished work of Christ for both forgiveness and deliverance from sin. He never went to Bible College, but was a voracious reader of spiritual classics and Church History with over 3,000 titles in his personal library.
Eventually basing himself in Shanghai in 1928, Watchman Nee’s ministry grew in influence, and in the 1930’s his fame spread further when he made preaching trips to Europe and America. As well as attracting attention for its clarity, his teaching also provoked some controversy for its views on the church. From his study of Scripture and his wariness over the way Western missionaries were importing their own denominations into China, he condemned all denominationalism as being fleshly and wrong. For him the only legitimate reason for separate churches was geography, so he wrote extensively on the need for there to be just one local church for each area. ‘Whenever I closed my eyes’, he wrote ‘the vision of the birth of local churches appeared...’
In 1934 Watchman Nee, who was considered to be other worldly, surprised some by marrying his teenage sweet-heart, Charity Chang. He surprised even more people when in 1942 he started a pharmaceutical business with his brother. This created a lot of tension within his movement’s leadership. Watchman Nee’s aim was never to make money for himself, but for the church, and he distributed gifts to many, including his critics. After the victory of the Communists in 1949, Watchman Nee knew it was only a matter of time before they sought to create a state controlled church and persecute all those who did not join. He was arrested in 1952, and sentenced in 1956 after listening to over 2,000 pages of accusations from the new government. He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment, but because he never ‘reformed’ to accept the Communist view of things, his sentence was extended indefinitely.
Lessons to Learn
There is much for all Christians to learn from the life of Watchman Nee. There is his courageous faith; his firm belief about the local church, and his willingness to accept injustice and suffering.
Faith
Regarding faith Watchman Nee learned that God speaks into present circumstances and is completely dependable. In 1924, aged just twenty-one, he contracted TB and the doctors expected him to die. He decided to use his few remaining days to write a book, ‘The Spiritual Man’, and when he had finished it he said, ‘Now, let thy servant depart in peace’. But instead he believed God spoke to him – ‘The first sentence was: ‘The just shall live by faith’. The second sentence was ‘By faith you stand’, and the third was ‘We walk by faith.’ Watchman Nee took these words literally, got up from his sick bed, and walked to where he knew a group of Christians were praying for him. He was miraculously healed, and the next Sunday he preached for three hours. He also had to learn as a young evangelist that God controlled the weather. During an evangelist trip in the village of Mei-hwa one of Nee’s co-workers Li Kuo-ching became frustrated at the lack of response. Finding out that all the villagers believed in the god Ta-Wang (Great King) because he always provided sunshine on whatever day was chosen for his festival, Li Kuo-ching rashly declared that on that day it would rain. The whole village soon heard about this challenge. Watchman Nee was initially worried, but then the team of seven sought God in prayer and he heard the word, ‘Where is the God of Elijah?’. Now the whole team proclaimed it would rain. The day in question dawned with blue skies and bright sunshine, but then so much rain fell that the idol Ta Wang fell off his sedan chair. Many villagers cried, ‘There is God; there is no more Ta Wang!’. Regarding faith and money, Watchman Nee never told others of his needs and followed the rule ‘Give and it will be given unto you’. God always provided for him. One story he tells to illustrate this is when he was invited to preach somewhere and only had a third of the fare that was needed for the trip. He believed he should go, so accepted, but then it was impressed on his hear to give a third of the small amount of money he had to another worker. He struggled a lot with this, but eventually obeyed. It turned out that he was able to get a much cheaper seat on the boat and then the church he ministered to insisted on giving him money: this not only covered his expenses, but also the printing costs of one of his books. On his return he learned that his small gift had literally kept food on the table for the Christian worker and his family. For Watchman Nee the Christian life was all about experience, and so he was always able to point people to a God in heaven who is ‘forever dependable’. It was this courageous faith in the dependability of God that motivated him throughout his ministry and enabled him to see so much spiritual fruit.
The Church
Watchman Nee’s views on the church are radical. He utterly rejected the structure of the Western denominations with their divisive central control and offers of money which attracted people to Christian service for all the wrong reasons. Instead he insisted that believers in a locality should be self supporting, self governing – and self propagating. As a small nucleus they would first meet in a private home, and then as they grew through their witness, so the group would appoint elders, and if necessary they would rent premises, but only to help believers, never as a memorial. From these groups there would be some ‘apostles’ whose work was to be full-time evangelists, establishing churches where none existed. With such a clear sense of ownership, his net-work of churches, known as ‘Little Flock’ grew rapidly. And when the communists unleashed the full force of their atheistic persecution against Christianity this house-church structure proved the most difficult for the government to suppress: they have never succeeded.
Suffering
Watchman Nee’s ministry was successful, but there was a price in suffering to pay. He suffered physically as his health was never good. There was the TB he fought as a young man, and he also suffered from chronic stomach disorders and angina pectoris, a serious heart condition, which constantly threatened his life. There was also a lot of emotional suffering. As a new Christian he had to give up his love for Charity Chang, as she clearly was not devoted to Christ. He was helped though this by Psalm 74:25 –‘There is none on earth that I desire besides thee.’ When later she became a Christian and Watchman Nee felt it was right to marry her, he then faced a ferocious campaign of slander from Charity’s aunt, Mei-chen, a worldly woman shocked that her niece was marrying a preacher. She accused him in newspaper adverts and pamphlets of receiving funds from foreigners and of being immoral. Nee did not retaliate. A further personal sadness he had to contend with was that he and Charity never had any children.
Like many genuine spiritual leaders, some of his most painful emotional suffering was caused by other Christians. Early on in his ministry he was excommunicated from his fellowship for refusing to support the ordination of a fellow worker by a denominational missionary. When later he wrote and preached strongly against denominations, he faced a torrent of criticism. And when he went into business in 1941 the leaders at his local fellowship in Shanghai, disturbed by this seeming alliance with the world, asked him to keep away. He was only reconciled with them in 1947.
All of this physical and emotional suffering was nothing compared to what he faced from the communists. First he had to deal with the avalanche of accusations made against him both by communist officials, and traitors in the church in public hearings. He was a spy, a collaborator with the Japanese, a lawless capitalist, a corrupter of youth, a serial adulterer, a thief who demanded money from his followers. Nee denied the spying charges: to the rest he remained silent. As well as being slandered, the government also ordered all his house churches to meet and study Watchman Nee’s ‘crimes’ and then organised large meetings to bring his followers into the state church. Meanwhile Watchman Nee was learning to deal with a prison day made up of eight hours labour, eight hours of indoctrination, and eight hours in a cell of nine by four and a half feet. This monotony was broken once a month by a visit from Charity – the only visitor he was allowed.
As the years went by, supporters of Nee in the West raised funds to buy Watchman Nee out of prison. This had happened for other political prisoners. But the deal was called off, and it is assumed that Nee himself had turned it down. He accepted this unfair suffering in prison as being God’s will for his life, for this was in line with one of the major emphases of his teaching – that Christians should deny their natural selves and be broken to experience Christ’s resurrected life. He began to learn this lesson very early on in his Christian walk when he kept on having disagreements with an older brother on an evangelistic team. He shared his anger with a mature Christian who told him to obey the older brother, however unreasonable the request, for Christians are called to bear the cross. ‘In that year and a half’, Nee wrote, ‘I learned the most precious lesson of my life…the lesson of obedience. My head was filled with ideas, but God wanted to see me enter into spiritual reality.’
Many years later in 1950 he faced a much tougher call to obedience. Watchman Nee was in Hong Kong and he knew it was very dangerous to return to mainland China. Many tried to persuade him not to, but he knew this was not the way of the cross. He told his friends, ‘If a mother discovered that her house was on fire…would she not rush into the house? Although I know my return is fraught with dangers, I know that many brothers and sisters are still inside. How can I not return?’ And so he returned, and suffered. Watchman Nee could have had a comfortable life in the West and contented himself with sending in his books and tapes of his sermons. But he knew this was not the way of Jesus: he had to go himself. To some his journey into inevitable persecution and prison must have seemed fruitless. How much better, they argued, if he had tried to encourage the church from the outside. But Watchman Nee had long ago entered into that spiritual reality where the golden rule is obedience, and he knew it would bear fruit. In a stinging rebuke to the absurd form of Christianity that deceitfully declares that Christians can enjoy a healthy prosperous life here on earth, this apostle of China wrote these truthful words ‘To keep our hands on the plough, while wiping away our tears – that is Christianity’
He had to wipe away many tears, but he kept his hand on the plough, and there has been a tremendous harvest. For just thirty five years after his death, nobody can count the millions in China who have come to faith through house churches similar to the type pioneered by Watchman Nee.
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T.G.s. Hawksley
Thank you for this wonderful piece on Watchman Nee's life, which is truly inspiring.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Your well informed and researched article has brought alive and supplied more detail concerning someone whose name most of us are familiar with, (and honour 'at a distance,')and helped us to see afresh how relevant Watchman Nee's life and witness continue to be.
ReplyDelete