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THE SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE FOR KOREA Summary From its beginnings through the witness of three Koreans educated in China, to the present day, the Church in Korea has been in a spiritual battle. This overview presents the highlights of this struggle, culminating with the division of this country into North and South. The article represents preliminary research. Facts are presented as accurately as possible pending further investigation. Please e-mail your comments or suggestions to cornerstone@xc.org. Beginnings In the late 1800s, China was opening to the Gospel for the first time. Korea was closely tied to the Chinese Empire and the progress the Gospel made in China slowly filtered into the educated classes in Korea. Three Korean scholars visiting China were taught using a Chinese Bible. They heard the Gospel and accepted Christ. They asked for copies of the Bible to take back into Korea. They returned separately with their precious cargo. As he neared the border, one man had a vision of a scroll made into ropes. He took out his Bible and braided the long scroll into a rope. He tied his belongings together using it and carried it all across the border on his back. Later, when he met the others, he found they had lost their Bibles. Korean border guards had found and destroyed them. The scholars began meeting regularly to worship God. And God added to their number. Korea is unique in this way. When missionaries arrived in the late 1800s, they found a small community of faith already there. They built them up through baptism, communion, and ordination. In 1866, prior to any treaties with the West, an American trading schooner, the General Sherman, sailed up the Taidong River to Pyongyang and became grounded. One of its passengers was the Rev. R. J. Thomas, a Welsh missionary. On the way, he had tossed Gospel tracts to the Koreans on shore. When Koreans attempted to board the grounded ship the Americans opened fire. They held their ground for two weeks, killing twenty Koreans and wounding many others. The Koreans set the ship on fire and killed the crew as they came onshore. The missionary, on getting to shore, offered a Bible to the man who met him. It was refused. Rev. Thomas knelt to pray and was killed. His killer, convicted that he had killed a good man, took the Bible home with him. Years later the killer's nephew graduated from the Union Christian College in Pyongyang and helped in revising the Korean Bible. The first martyr's blood had borne fruit.1 In 1884, R. S. Maclay won Royal permission for Protestant missions to enter Korea. Dr. Horace Allen, saved the life of a royal family member, and along with Horace Grant Underwood and others, began ministering in Korea that same year.2 Religiously, Korea was a mixture of animism, polytheism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and ancestor worship. Of all these, ancestor worship offered the strongest opposition to Christianity. Japan Just ten years after Christians were allowed into the country, in 1894, war broke out between China and Japan over Korea. Japan was victorious and ended Chinese political influence. By then the missionaries had won 236 converts, most in the ruling class. Encouraged by John L. Nevius to be self-supporting3, the Church in Korea grew slowly until the Russian activities in the North sparked an international conflict. The war between Russia and Japan (1904-1905) took place in the North, much of it around the Pyongyang area. The Church blossomed in the fire. The missionaries held firm and stayed in place, and the people placed their hope in the hope of the missionaries. By war's end, the Japanese controlled Korean foreign relations. In 1910 Japan forced the surrender of the Crown, and formally annexed the country. The Church had undergone a great revival in January of 1907, starting in Pyongyang. It was characterized by confession of sins and repentance and spread all over the country. A great spiritual awakening, the Million Souls Movement followed in 1909-1910. By then, the Church had grown to over 26,000 believers and Pyongyang was affectionately called the second Jerusalem.4 To reduce the risk of revolt, the Japanese began re-educating the Koreans. Elements of Korean culture were outlawed, replaced by their Japanese equivalents. National pride resulted in the birth of a weak resistance movement. Koreans hoped that in Christianity they would find the answer to national weakness and their personal insecurity.5 For this and other reasons, many of the foreign missionaries were not supportive of the Japanese. More Koreans were drawn to the Church. By 1914, there were over 96,000 believers. The General Evangelical Council encouraged the formation of the Federal Council of Missions - and began sending Korean missionaries to Shantung, Siberia and other regions. The Japanese realized the church was a focus of national resistance. Persecution followed. On March 1, 1919, Japanese troops surrounded a church. They nailed its doors shut and lit it on fire. All 400 worshippers perished. The First World War fanned the flames of nationalism and, although persecuted, the Church continued to grow. The Japanese vowed to break the back of the resistance movement and increased the pressure on all people, including the Christian hospitals, schools, universities, and churches. Atrocities, torture and persecution continued into the 1930s, and the Church continued to grow. By 1935, there were over 168,000 believers. Two-thirds of their programs were fully self-supporting. The Japanese had to find something that could break the power of the Spirit. They succeeded. To Bow or Not To Bow It had long been a requirement that Koreans bow before Shinto shrines, giving honor to the emperor and the Japanese Sun Goddess. The relationship between Japan and the Sun Goddess dates back to 1281. The Mongolian emperor, Kublai Kahn, had conquered China and was preparing to invade Japan. The Japanese mikado summoned all the sorcerers of the nation. He determined to find out which of their gods was the strongest, and ask that god for protection. The sun goddess won out and the mikado promised that if Japan were saved from the Mongols they would worship her forever. A typhoon sprang up out of nowhere and engulfed the Mongolian fleet. Over four thousand boats sank, with nearly 150,000 casualties.6 The Japanese called this special typhoon "Kamikaze," or Divine Wind. The mikado, in gratefulness, entered into spiritual union with the goddess through the Daijosi ceremony and become a god to his subjects. He was demonized. To this day, on ascending to power Japanese emperors unite through Daijosi with Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess.7 To commemorate this union, small shrines, Shinto shrines, were built throughout their empire. These small houses contained a picture of their god, the Japanese emperor. By bowing at the shrine, faithful Japanese could render homage unto their emperor and his consort, the sun goddess. As the Japanese grew more powerful, they began enforcement in earnest. In 1937, the Japanese ordered all Christian school students in Korea to participate in worship at Shinto shrines. Rather than submitting, the Presbyterians closed all their schools. Other denominations chose to conform to what they called a "cultural rite. " Given their success with the Catholic, Methodist and Holiness denominations, the Japanese continued their spiritual attack on Korea. In 1938 they ordered all Christian church members to present themselves to a shrine of the Sun Goddess before attending church services. They demanded that in villages where Shinto shrines did not exist, they should be erected on Church premises. The issue of worshipping the Sun Goddess at Shinto shrines split the Church. Many missionaries and church leaders felt they were being asked to bow to idols and refused completely. Others were weaker and rationalized it as a cultural event with no spiritual meaning. They did not oppose it vehemently and eventually bowed.8 On September 9, 1938, the issue reached the Presbyterians, the last holdouts. Their membership was split. The majority of missionaries and pastors opposed bowing to the Japanese Shrines. The rest were ready to give in. Over the course of the day, the split became real and those opposed walked out. The vote was taken. The next day, September 10, 1938, the Presbytery in Pyongyang, under pressure from the Japanese, announced the decision to allow their clergy and laity to bow to Shinto shrines. They declared to their congregations that this was not bowing to an idol. Instead, bowing before the shrines was Christian civic duty. The last Christian holdouts had officially given over their legal spiritual rights over the land to the enemy. In bowing to the sun goddess, most of the Korean church recognized her as god. Spiritual darkness fell over most of the land. Division By 1941, under increasing pressure to participate in Shinto observances and receive Shinto baptism, and with growing political tensions, most missionaries left the country. Then, in December, the Japanese, driven to increase their empire and prove the power of Shinto was greater than Christianity attacked the United States.9 Emboldened by their victory in Korea, Germany, and other nations, the spiritual hosts attempted against Christianity on a global basis. Hundreds of thousands of lives were harvested, but victory was not to be theirs. At the close of World War II the Japanese emperor was made to renounce his claims to deity, all ties were publicly severed between State and Shintoism10, and Japanese territory was divided.11 In Korea, those who bowed to idols and those who didn't had a big fight. They have never reconciled, to this day. Those who bowed remained in the North. Those who didn't moved south. This division among the people of God was reflected in the national division that was to happen soon afterwards. After negotiations among once allied forces failed in 1948, the northern half of Korea was given over to Communist control, while the southern half became an independent republic. Pyongyang, with more than one hundred Christian churches, became the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In the following three years, about five million refugees flooded the south. As missionaries returned from overseas the tensions over bowing to the Shinto shrines resurfaced. They have not been reconciled to this day. In an effort to control all of Korea, on June 25, 1950, the North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel. The Korean War went on until 1953, causing much hardship on the nation. Christians who lived north of the 38th parallel fled to the south, where they lived in poverty. Many of them died of starvation or were killed trying to escape to freedom. The Church responded. By the late 1950s, there were over 1,234,000 Christians in the South. The North was effectively cut off from the rest of the world. No word came across the DMZ or the Bamboo Curtain. Remaining Christians were suspected of having collaborated with the enemies of the regime and were brutally persecuted. At the helm of Communist North Korea was Kim Il Sung, a leader in the Korean nationalist movement against Japan. Kim Il Sung's father was one of the men who set fire to the General Sherman and was on the shore when the Rev. R. J. Thomas was martyred. Kim Il Sung was brought up in his maternal grandfather's house, influenced by Christianity. In throwing off the political mantle of Japan, he assumed spiritual control over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. He recognized the power of worship and set himself up to be worshiped as the supreme leader, the father of Korea. He became god of North Korea: all people revered and bowed before him. Because he understood Christianity, he knew it was the most dangerous opponent to his spiritual rule. So, he moved to stamp out all spiritual resistance. The Church in North Korea was aggressively pursued. Christians were tortured and killed for decades. In 1970, an underground church was discovered. It's pastor and twenty-six members were lined up on a concrete road and a steamroller was slowly driven over them all. They died singing praises to the Lord. The persecution continued until the government announced all Christians were wiped out in North Korea. This is not true. There is a remnant, still hidden deep underground, that have never bowed in their hearts to Kim Il Sung. Today the bronze idol of Kim Il Sung stands proud in Pyongyang, glorying in the homage of the people. Everyone, from the elders to the children, bow to the idol that stands in every city. The elders bow because they must. The children bow because they've always done it and don't know any different. Everyone must wear a red-flag pin with the portrait of the great leader. This effigy covers and proudly proclaims Kim Il Sung's ownership over the heart of every North Korean. This forms the core of our spiritual battle. Through idol worship, the enemy received a legal right to hold North Korea. The enemy also obtained division among the Church in the South over this issue of idol worship. The spirit of division is evident in the hate Christians in the South still bear for their brothers in the North. America's Role America has had a special relationship with Korea from the start. Though God allowed the Koreans to hear and be the first to bring in the Gospel, the nurture and support of the newborn Church in Korea can be traced directly to American missionaries. Their prayers were granted, resulting in great fruit in Korea. They requested and accepted the spiritual responsibility for discipling the Koreans. They labored and shed their blood during persecution on behalf of their spiritual sons and daughters. When the majority of these spiritual leaders gave in, bowing to the idols of the Japanese at the Shinto shrines, they sinned. This gave strength to and encouraged the enemy. It gave the enemy the authority to rule over part of Korea. During World War II the enemy ruled all of Korea, then lost ground until it ruled over half. The blood of Korean Christians ran deep. Then, just a few years later, joining forces with the spirit of Atheism, using a new idol, Kim Il Sung, the enemy attempted to rule over all of Korea again. Again, the blood of Korean Christians ran, joined by the blood of young American Christians. The enemy was pushed back again, to rule with an iron fist over the half of Korea it held the spiritual rights to. At the end of the Korean War, the armistice agreement was not signed between North and South Korea, but between North Korea and the United States. It seems the spiritual legal rights over the Korean remnant have not been transferred to South Korean Christians yet. In the decades after the war, the Korean Church became proud, expelling many missionaries because they were no longer needed. By dishonoring its spiritual fathers, spiritual authority over Korea may not have been transferred over to the South Koreans, remaining with the American missionaries. Spiritually bound by the spirit of divisiveness, hatred and dishonor, the South Korean Church cannot be effective in releasing Korea from the enemy's hold. As long as American missionaries retain the legal spiritual rights to Korea, the Koreans cannot be released. Steps to Reunification American missionaries have to come together, in a process of repentance and restoration over bowing to idols. Then, they will be ready to release the spiritual rights held over Korea to the South Korean Church. The South Korean Church will have to go through a process of repentance and reconciliation over the martyr and later dishonor given to missionaries, the divisions over bowing to idols, and their hatred of North Koreans. Only then will they be able to receive the spiritual mantle of authority over Korea. If repentance and reconciliation do not happen, then the American missionaries will continue to hold spiritual rights over Korea and, after repentance and reconciliation over bowing to idols and division, they themselves will have to come release the bondage of the North. Until these spiritual issues are addressed, there can be no reunification. The Immediate Need The past three years have seen record flooding and drought in North Korea. This has opened the doors for caring Christians to enter the country. North Korean leadership is trying to deal with the effects of these natural disasters but the underlying cause is spiritual. Kim Il Sung accepted the worship of his people. He called himself God. Now there is punishment. In 2 Samuel 21, when there was famine for three years and David went to God asking what was wrong. God said King Saul had violated the covenant between Joshua and the Gibeonites. Until things had been set right, there was no rain on the land. Korea belongs to God. The North Korean people have been claiming there is no God. God will not tolerate this forever. The floods, the drought, and other signs of God's displeasure are evident in this land. Until things are set right, there will be no blessings on this land. All of us, God's people in North and South Korea and America, need to humble ourselves and seek God's face and turn from our wicked ways then God will hear from heaven and forgive us and heal our land. Let's seek God's face together. Let's repent and ask for forgiveness. This will be more important spiritually than bringing food or addressing the physical need. Let's pray to God for healing in our land. REFERENCES
© 1997 Cornerstone Ministries International - All Rights Reserved World Wide. The goal of Cornerstone Ministries International is to encourage the suffering Church in restricted nations, strengthen its leadership, and accompany them as they bring others to Christ. For more information please visit the rest of our web site at http:\\www.bibles.org or write to us at P.O. Box 55819, Seattle, WA 98155. Please contact Cornerstone Ministries International for permission prior to duplication, distribution, or publication of this electronic document. Call us at 011 (206) 776-2927 or e-mail us at cornerstone@xc.org. |
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