During the Japanese occupation period, several Taiwanese Christians accepted the True Jesus Church gospel in Fujian province, China and quickly decided to preach the good news back in Taiwan before it was too late.[1] Hence in the autumn of 1925, the Chinese TJC members Barnabas Zhang, Thomas Kuo, Luke Gao, Yuan-qian Chen along with Taiwanese TJC members Daoyuan Wu, Qinglong Wang, Elisha and Gideon Huang boarded boarded a ship from Xiamen to Taiwan.
When the ship reached the port of Keelung harbour, the coast guards came to inspect the ship and, hearing that they were TJC members, they were very glad. There were also journalists who arrived to inquire of their planned schedules. They also visited the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan to explain the essential teachings and the origins of the TJC.[2] They replied,
| “ | "According to the Constitution, there is freedom of religion. As long as it is not contrary to the laws of the land, the Government officers cannot interfere. You teach people to do good and this is beneficial to the hearts of mankind, therefore we should make it our responsibility to protect you. However, since this is your first time to Taiwan, many people do not yet understand the aims and purposes of this church, therefore please be careful to avoid arousing any misunderstandings."[3] | ” |
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,[4] 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 [5] went to Tainan, lodged at an English hostel and invited Wu Dao-yuan [6] 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 [7] 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[8] - 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.[9] | ” |
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 [10] | ” |
| “ | "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." [11] | ” |
| “ | "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."[13] | ” |
| “ | 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".[14] 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.[15] 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.[16] 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 [17]" 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.[18]" "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."[19] | ” |
1927: Tainan, Chiayi, Dalin churches founded after many miracles were performed.
1929: Church in Erlin Township founded.
Evangelising the northern regions
1935: Taipei TJC church founded.
In 1941 the Second world war broke out in the Pacific region and the TJC Taiwanese coordination board was made by Japanese officials to change their name to "Japanese True Jesus Church" [20] but by 1948 the name was renamed to "True Jesus Church of Taiwan province".[21]
Evangelising the eastern and central mountain regions
There was one major population that had not yet been reached by True Jesus evangelists - the mountain people. Beginning in the mid-1930s, the church tried to reach out to these non-Chinese people. There was one formidable obstacle - the Japanese Colonial government. During the Japanese occupation period, the indigenous Taiwanese aborigines had no religious freedom. Its officials tried to keep the Chinese and mountain people apart,[22] going so far as to set up zones or reservations for the tribal people and erecting a long fence of electrified barbed wire to separate the two populations.[23]The True Jesus evangelists settled for working with those mountain people who had already been Sinified and lived among the plains people.[24]
- Hualien district
Not long afterwards, the Japanese discovered that they refused to abandon their faith in Jesus, so a group of Japanese policemen started using brutal methods by forcing a group of Fushi village [28] brethren to place themselves in cold water during the winter season. They also persecuted the church members on Sanli Mountain,[29] threatening them with swords and guns, telling them not to believe in Jesus. Some presbyterian members became timid and left the faith whereas the TJC members chose to resist such instructions and would rather die than discard the faith. They constantly prayed and sang hymns.
The Japanese policemen, seeing that they still held on to the faith, started losing their patience and began using unscrupulous methods such as the confiscation of their cooking pots, bowls and other items so that they were no longer able to cook. So they chose to undertake fasting sessions and continued resisting pressures on them to deny the faith.
Tian Sando also began spreading the gospel regarding salvation to other mountain villages and testifying to them. One a certain day, while he and three other mountain people secretly crept in to the TJC in Hualien to attend a church service, they were discovered by the police and so the four of them including four Taiwanese members were arrested, and placed in detention under supervision. There they suffered beatings and other methods of torture inflicted upon them; nevertheless they did not bear any grudge at all. Once they were released, they continued to secretly spread the gospel to other mountain villages, accompanied by a Taiwanese evangelist named Liu Rong-shu.[30]
Later on, the Preachers Sheng-Gong Chen and John Yang would often secretly enter the mountains and hold church services in the midst of night to avoid persecution from authorities. This continued until the end of World War II.
- Taitung district
The TJC brethren preached to the Mei and Ami tribe youth. The coordination board sent Yong-Sheng Wang Yu-Lin Wang, Jian-Xin Zhu and Sheng-Ming Tsai to pastor and take care of the believers.
However the TJC Ami brethren were persecuted by their own tribesfolk since they no longer participated the annual harvest dance in order to appease their gods. But through patience, long-suffering and forbearance they eventually won over the hearts of their tribesmen through doing what is good and not tolerating evil, by keeping a firm and deeply rooted faith, changing their behaviour, following the Lord's teachings. Many miraculous events occurred and the church their prospered.
- Ilan district
However, the village chiefs and portions of the youths in Nan-ao and Xingang, Jiali, and Doulan [32] had already been deeply indoctrinated with Japanese customs, values and religious practices. They disregarded the new laws of the Guomindang and continued following the examples of the previous Japanese authorities by not allowing their fellow villagers to have freedom of faith. They repeatedly beat up and expelled the missionaries and believers. The new local Police of the Guomindang turned a blind eye to these unlawful acts committed by those people and some of them even joined in the persecution and placed some converts in prison.
In December 1945 at Nan-ao village, around twenty to thirty local youths, who claimed that they supported the Three Principles Doctrine, surrounded the brethren and beat them up several times. The Bibles and hymn book were incinerated. Although some families were expelled from their homes several times, they did not retaliate and instead prayed for their persecutors.
The evangelists also faced opposition from the Thao tribe. In August 1947, a village chief and policemen severely beat up the TJC members, forced them to perform hard labour, and locked them up in prison until August 19. Amongst them were two female church members, one with the name of Fu Tian-jing [33] whose head had been seriously bruised during the beatings and died three days after her release from prison. In this way, she waas the first martyr of the TJC in Taiwan.
It was not until 1951 when law and order was finally restored to the area in which they could truly obtain religious freedom and hold services in peace. During this period, many tribesfolk who had illnesses were miraculously healed during their prayers[citation needed] so the number of believers grew.
1950 - Shanli church established. 1953 - Nantou and Chiayi County churches formed. 1955 - Hsinchu district church founded. 1959 - Taoyuan district church formed. 1961 - Pingtung County church established. 1962 - Kaohsiung region church formed.
Modern developments
1950 - The church started Youth Spiritual Convocations and religious education which were followed by student spiritual gatherings. These became important aspects for the advancement of the Divine work in which the aim was to cultivate the knowledge of the faith to the younger generations.
In 1959 The first Theological classes were held and by 1962, formal Theological seminars were commenced. The main goal was to train full time preachers that could be sent worldwide for missionary work. 1956 - The coordination board was renamed, "The Taiwanese General Assembly of the True Jesus Church" which is the present name today.
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