Forest Man

Now when China has become the focal point of history, because of the coronavirus, let's remember some chinese church history, and meditate a little upon what the Lord has done in China.

 

Which person comes to my mind then? Watchman Nee, of course. The most famous chinese man throughout history, even more famous than Mao Tse Tung, Konfucius or Lao Tse.

 

Who is he? A saint, a martyr, a christian mystic, a revival preacher and holiness preacher. Born in 1903 and died in 1972 in chinese communist prison. After twenty years of imprisonment. He suffered and died for the Lord's sake. A true martyr.

 

Nee was a part of the holiness movement in China, and was the founder of the church named "Little flock", which became an extremely big house congregation movement in China, the biggest such in the world, with millions upon millions of members today. Brother Yun, for example, is a part of that movement.

 

Nee published many books, some of which have become great spiritual classics not only in China, but also in the West, yes all over the world. Mao never got such a popularity. Nee's most famous book, "The normal christian life", can be read for free on Internet Archive, just search for it. It's a pearl, I'm reading it now. Full of deep christian mysticism.

 

Very early in my life I got my hands on some of Nee's books. I think I was 13 then. My parents had  got his famous book "The spiritual man" in three volumes, in their house, in the attic. I fell in love with that book. It influenced me deeply, although it was in english, and I could barely read english then. But it was such a deep book, and I felt it. Someone (was it Ylva Eggehorn?) has said that Nee resembles the swedish mystic Hjalmar Ekström. I agree.

 

Nowhere in the world the house congregations have grown so strong as in China (I believe fully in the house congregation model of Nee), and that is largely because of Watchman Nee. I will seek for him in the heavenly world one day.