Editor’s note: October 31, 2024, marks the 507th anniversary of the day in 1517 when Martin Luther, a German monk, nailed 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church. With his bold hammering, Luther began a revolution in the church that has lasted to this day.
Although the Chinese house church has in some ways been separated from her brothers and sisters in the global church, she is also an heir to the Reformation. In this article, an anonymous Chinese believer reflects on how the Chinese church is a part of the larger heritage of the Reformation. Reformed Chinese house church live just as Luther and Calvin preached: by grace, through faith in Christ, led by Scripture, and to the glory of God.
This article was originally published online last year in Chinese. This English translation has been edited for clarity and slightly condensed.
Where Was the Church?
Five hundred or so years ago, the first Protestant believers often faced a sharp question, verging on mockery, from the Roman Catholic church: “Where was the church before Martin Luther?” Luther’s answer was that the church was in the gospel. Because of this, when the German believers who rediscovered the gospel of “justification by faith” gathered to preach the gospel, worship God, and administer baptism and communion, their churches were called “gospel” churches.[1]
Just like the global church, the church in China today is the spiritual heir of this Reformation that returned to the Bible and the gospel.
Another answer to “where was the church?” is that the church was in Scripture. After the Reformation, churches who believed the Bible was the sole supreme authority, and who returned to Scripture for teaching, correction, and instruction in righteousness were called “Bible-believing” churches.
Just like the global church, the church in China today is the spiritual heir of this Reformation that returned to the Bible and the gospel. We are a gospel movement which God has raised up in China, and we have inherited the spirit of the Reformation.
In 1823, Robert Morrison, a missionary sent by the London Missionary Society, expounded on the gospel of justification by faith. In fluent Chinese, he wrote, “I believe, and I shall be saved. I doubt, and the Lord will not save me.” This marked the beginning of the Reformation gospel entering the Chinese world.
Is the Reformation over? We believe that, wherever the grace of Christ is not placed at the center of all Christian life through the cross – in that place, the Reformation is not over and must continue. If the glory of God is not made the foundation of the church’s life and mission through the infallible Word of the Bible, then the Reformation is not over, and must continue in that age.
Growth of Gospel Leaven
We gather, because this is both an age of faith and grace, as well as an age of doubt and pride. In this era, the gospel is being proclaimed, taking root, and bearing fruit in cities and villages across China. But it is also a time when the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. We must ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest field.
In the past hundred years, the Chinese church has experienced two major upheavals. One was the Boxer Rebellion, in 1900. The missionaries who came to China in the 19th century were mostly spiritual descendants of the Reformation and Puritanism. The gospel they preached was clear, ancient, and certain.
Yet through the suffering of the Boxer Rebellion, a group of indigenous revival preachers and evangelists emerged in the Chinese church. They had simple theology and faith, and inherited the gospel brought by earlier British and American missionaries.
But from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s, liberal theology and scientism almost completely eroded and took over the Western church. Among missionaries who came to China in the first half of the 20th century, the gospel gradually became mixed, pluralistic, and lost its focus.
Yet through the suffering of the Boxer Rebellion, a group of indigenous revival preachers and evangelists emerged in the Chinese church. They had simple theology and faith, and inherited the gospel brought by earlier British and American missionaries, the gospel that proclaimed, “I believe, and I shall be saved. I doubt, and the Lord will not save me.”
Later on, when the church faced its second upheaval, the same group of local, fundamentalist churches became the seeds of Reformation faith which was preserved in China. For six decades, that group formed the majority of traditional Chinese house churches.
Over the past 30 years, we have witnessed with awe and wonder the steady and continuous growth of the gospel of Christ – the leaven of God’s kingdom – in the flour of the earth’s largest population. At the same time, the Chinese church is also catching up on lessons it missed during half a century of isolation from the global church.
In the last decade especially, we have seen churches eagerly learning how to lead small groups, design worship services, grow, evangelize, disciple, ordain pastors, and even how to hold meetings, vote, exercise church discipline, and so on.
Same Questions, Same Answers
We want to ask ourselves, and today’s urban house churches, the two core questions of the Reformation 500 years ago: How can we be saved? And, where is the Lord’s church?
Based solely on our answers to these two questions, we want to promote an inward-outward gospel and church planting movement.
Our answers to these two questions are the same as those given by Martin Luther and John Calvin at the beginning. We are saved solely by the grace of the gospel – not by our piety, virtue, or good works. Our firm foundation in the past, present, and future is solely the precious blood of the cross – not our worldly success, effective ministry, or correct theology. The church is born solely from the gospel and from Scripture.
Our answers are the same as those given by Martin Luther and John Calvin at the beginning. We are saved solely by the grace of the gospel – not by our piety, virtue, or good works. Our firm foundation in the past, present, and future is solely the precious blood of the cross.
We, the humble servants of this generation, gather together and once again pray for the extraordinary grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to revive us in this time. We pray for more Christ-centered churches, born solely from the gospel and the Bible, to be planted in cities and villages across China. We pray for the Lord of the church to raise up and send out more servants, servants who will not rely on their own power or wisdom, but solely on faith in the eternal gospel. May they win every city for Christ, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be exalted and honored in countless saved souls.
[1] In English, this would normally be translated as “evangelical” churches. But in Chinese, the author is saying that the church exists “in the gospel.” The same word, “gospel” (福音 in Chinese) is used in both instances.
Wang Jianguo is the collective pseudonym for a group of Chinese house church pastors thinking and writing about issues related to the spread of Christianity in their nation. They are committed to preaching a grace-centered gospel, developing resources for the church, and loving China’s urban centers.
Pray for the Lord to raise up and send out more servants who will not rely on their own power or wisdom, but solely on faith in the gospel.
