“Heavenly Man” faces Canadian challenge

Exiled pastor preaches amidst persecution and conflict

DOUG KOOP
CW Editor
— Winnipeg —

An apostle of China’s underground church packed churches throughout Canada during a three-week speaking tour this fall.

Preaching a message of radical evangelical obedience, Liu Zhenying, also known as Brother Yun or “Heavenly Man,” riveted large audiences with harrowing tales of persecution and extraordinary spiritual revival—both now in full swing in his homeland.

Yun’s own remarkable story of imprisonment, torture, escape and exile is told in a small book, The Heavenly Man, by David G. Hunt, president of WorldServe Ministries, one of two Christian missions sponsoring Yun’s Canadian crusade. Asian Outreach Canada also organized meetings for the Chinese evangelist in Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario.

At the first of two appearances at large churches in Winnipeg, Yun resorted to metaphor to describe the status of Christians in China. There are two kinds of birds—“caged” (state sanctioned Three-Self Churches) and “free” (independent churches).

“The free birds’ only purpose is to spread the gospel,” he explained through a translator. “Birds in cages have a hard time reproducing.” He then related how the “master of the caged birds” learned about strong free birds and wanted “to bring them in to improve their quality.”

“Now it’s bird hunting season all over China,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of those outside the cages have been imprisoned. However, many have escaped and laid eggs.” That, he said, is how the “current great revival” began.

Behind the scenes

Yun’s spellbound audiences were largely unaware of a behind-the-scenes struggle troubling the early days of the Canadian tour. California-based Christian journalist Dan Wooding’s September 15 article, “Who is the ‘Heavenly Man’ from China who has come to the West to be a money machine?” called Yun’s credibility into question.

In the article, an unnamed source told Wooding that Yun was not the high level leader he claims to be, and went on to accuse him of being “the most likely Judas who sold out all the top-level leaders” in a crackdown last year.

Dismayed by the charges, organizers provided concerned journalists with photos and documents substantiating key elements of Yun’s story. On September 21 Wooding circulated a second story, a lengthy question and answer format interview with Yun and a sidebar testimony from another Chinese Christian giving credence to Yun.

Wooding has declined to comment beyond “what is included in the follow up interview with the Heavenly Man in which I let him share his side of the story.” His earlier article, however, echoes phrases published on a website operated by Asian Outreach International, which has been in a long-running dispute and is no longer affiliated with Asian Outreach Canada.

Offerings taken at the meetings organized by WorldServe were slated to support the underground churches’ Bible printing and distribution efforts. “We need Bibles,” said WorldServe vice president Ron Pearce. “We expect 10 million new Christians this year.” Money was also designated to support the families of imprisoned pastors, and to provide “tools to equip the national church,” such as “bicycles, motorcycles and mules.”

According to Pearce, “more than 800 pastors [in China] are now in prison for their faith.”

Work goes on

Yun, who speaks no English but communicates through a Finnish interpreter, seemed unperturbed by the allegations, telling Hunt that he would pray for those spreading false stories. Meanwhile he continued to preach a basic evangelistic message, challenging Christians to “introduce Jesus to people as master.”

He described how supernatural healings and other wonders are attracting tens of thousands of rural Chinese peasants to faith in Christ. “People in the house churches are mostly uneducated, mostly farmers,” he said, adding that people are more open to the gospel after they’ve been healed or delivered.

“Miracles and wonders follow those who earnestly follow Jesus with all their heart,” he said. “They follow Jesus. They are obedient. They preach the gospel.”

North Americans are too comfortable to follow Jesus so sacrificially, he suggested. “Canadians have an insurance policy. They don’t need Jesus any more.”

Yun’s “great vision” for the church in China involves partnering in prayer and solidarity with Christians throughout the world for “one reason—so that Jesus will come back.” Some Christians, he said, don’t really want that to happen. “They have created heaven on earth.”

Christians need to “get excited about Jesus” and obey his command to “bring the gospel everywhere.” Christians who are not working in “real mission labour,” said Yun, are “opposing the Second Coming of Christ.”

Yun also asked people to pray for the persecuted pastors of China. But don’t ask for the persecution to stop, he insisted. Pray instead for the glory of God to be revealed wherever the pastors are. “Don’t deprive us of the opportunity to do what God wants us to do—to visit those who are in prison; to take care of their families.”