The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun, Paul Hattaway Read Free Book Online Page A

situated in a remote mountainous area where preachers had not yet visited. It had no church or pastor, so when I first visited there I was surprised to find the gospel had spread to many villages and that dozens of families had put their faith in Christ. Jesus himself had preached the gospel to them! These new believers were now hungry to receive teaching from his Word.
    In December 1980, a few weeks before Christmas, the devil used a new way to try to tempt and deceive us. Instead of torture and force, he started to use subtle suggestions and sly trickery. The government called a gathering of 120 religious representatives from all over our county. Muslim, Buddhist, Daoist and Christian leaders were all invited to attend.
    At that time we didn’t know anything about the Three-Self Patriotic Church that the government was forming. “Three-Self” stood for the movement’s three guiding principles: Self-Propagating, Self-Supporting, and Self-Governing. Most Christians considered it a good thing, and rejoiced that a new day appeared to be dawning when believers could worship freely without interference or persecution. I went to the meeting completely open to the idea of joining the new church, and was even open to the possibility of being a leader for our area if that was what God wanted.
    The meeting was organized through the joint co-operation of the local Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) and the PSB. In that meeting they intended to select the committee members and the chairman for each religion. The chief of the RAB invited me to the meeting because I had a reputation for proclaiming the gospel and also because I owned a Bible.
    More than 90% of the delegates wanted me to be the chairman of the Christian Association, but a few publicly slandered me, saying I was a false pastor because I had never attended a seminary.
    One man named Ho was my main accuser, because he wanted the job of chairman for himself. He claimed to have believed in Jesus since he was in his mother’s womb! It was well known, however, that Ho had denied the Lord during the Cultural Revolution and that he believed in an extremely liberal man-centred theology.
    During the meeting Ho proudly announced that he was a better-qualified pastor than I because he had attended a seminary and had also studied in a missionary school before 1949. He assured the delegates that he was the right person to take care of the affairs of the church in our area.
    Ho said the government should oppose my co-workers and me, because we went everywhere illegally preaching the gospel, healing the sick, and casting demons out of people. He said we should be stopped because we disturbed the social order and threatened peace and stability.
    In the meeting this man started shouting at me in anger. I kept quiet for as long as I could, but then I felt the fire of God rise up inside me, like Jesus when he confronted the money-changers in the temple.
    When Ho had finished his speech the PSB leader stood to his feet and urged him to continue to speak out against the “false Christians such as Yun”. Gleefully rubbing his handstogether, the leader said, “Please tell us everything you know about how Yun and his co-workers have disturbed the social order. Confess the dirtiness of your Christianity. Tell us how these false pastors are trying to destroy our nation.”
    Ho felt honoured and rose to his feet again. He proudly declared, “We true Christians have many complaints against false Christians like Yun.”
    I felt so angry that this man had spoken slander and disgraced God’s church in front of unbelievers. I could contain myself no longer. I stood up on my chair and commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to shut up!
    The meeting was in an uproar. I was filled with the Holy Spirit and with mighty words from the Lord I proclaimed, “This meeting does not please God!” I pointed my finger at those people who claimed to believe in Jesus. “You shame-faced people will be judged by