What Wang Ming-Dao Preached before His Arrest
The Chinese pastor rejected compromise.
SUPPOSE YOU WERE A PASTOR and knew you were going to be arrested for your faith at any moment: What would you do? Wang Mingdao did what Christ did. He shared his last thoughts with his followers.
On this day, 7 August 1954, he preached his final sermon, taking as his text, “The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners” (Matthew 26:45). Following the service, he distributed his spiritual manifesto. Near midnight, the police descended on the tabernacle where he had preached, and bound him, his wife and eighteen other Christians with ropes before leading them to prison.
Although Wang’s voice was silenced for twenty-five years, his writings were passed from person to person, treasured for their depth of Christian understanding.
Wang was born in 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion—a reaction to foreign influence in China which resulted in many Westerners being killed. Wang’s father was in danger, having been closely associated with Western missionaries. Rather than face the Boxers, he killed himself. Wang's mother named her boy Tie-Zi (Iron Son). After the uprising, she bought a house with compensation from the imperial government and rented out rooms to support her family. Wang often went hungry and was neglected. The neighborhood was rough and Wang saw lying, fighting, assaults, acts of prostitution, and drug use. His mother screamed insults at her children.
When Wang was fourteen he became a Christian. Spiritual struggles followed until he accepted that Christ demanded complete obedience. During a serious illness, he promised God he would give up his intended career in politics and enter the Christian ministry if God would allow him to live. Soon afterward, he changed his name from Tie-Zi (Iron Son) to Mingdao which means “understanding the word.”
While teaching at a Christian school, Mingdao became convinced he should be baptized as an adult. The mission school taught and practiced infant baptism. When he and five friends broke ice at a creek in January and plunged themselves in the frigid water, school authorities fired Wang. His mother and sister, who had counted on his income, heaped angry words on him and mistreated his wife. Mingdao then started a Bible study in a greenhouse, stressing holy living. He baptized no one unless they demonstrated evidence of regeneration. When his group outgrew the greenhouse, they raised funds to build a tabernacle.
During the Japanese occupation of China, Wang refused to join a religious federation that would tie his church to mediocre Christianity and give the Japanese more oversight and control of its activities. The Japanese threatened him so often that he ordered a coffin, expecting to be executed. All the same, he testified, “I am the servant of the most high God. Unless God permits, no one can harm me.”
After the Communists seized power, they arranged a denunciation of Mingdao. He sat silent, eyes lifted toward heaven. Unable to come to consensus on what to do with him, the Communists sent him home. However, he knew his arrest was imminent and he would disappear into the Chinese prison system. He occupied his time writing Christian articles, preaching, and urging his flock not to compromise.
Mingdao was indeed sentenced to fifteen years in prison for “resistance to the government.” Subject to intense brainwashing, he signed a confession and was released. Convinced that he had betrayed Christ, he compared himself to Peter and Judas and lost his faith. His wife agreed with him that he must tell the authorities his statement was made under duress. He did so. He was returned to prison, but his faith was restored. The authorities then sentenced Liu Jingwen, his brave wife, too, torturing both repeatedly.
The Communists released Liu Jingwen in 1973 but held Mingdao until 1980 when international pressure mounted for his release. He died in 1991.
—Dan Graves
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Christian History #98: China examines the phenomenon of the Chinese church, and has a short article on Wang Ming Dao.
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