Jesus said, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.” (John 18:37)
As a man, he was born, and as the eternal Son of God, he came into this world, to bear witness to the truth. He spoke the truth, he acted according to the truth, and he was Truth incarnate (John 14:6).
Pilate, who was integrity-challenged, cynically replied, “What is truth?”
False Accounts of Missionaries and Chinese Christians
We too live in a world marked by lies, distortion of facts, and slander. In particular, the truth about God’s work among the Chinese suffers from neglect and distortion, and many of God’s faithful messengers have been either idealized by well-meaning friends or demonized by enemies of the gospel.
Missionaries and Chinese Christians alike sometimes stride as larger-than-life heroes across the pages of adoring biographies and overly positive books and articles.
At the same time, anti-Christian Chinese have always portrayed missionaries as agents of Western imperialism or high-handed despisers of Chinese culture.
In a reaction against the hagiography of earlier writers, revisionist historians have repeated those claims and added new ones that paint a very ugly picture of those who went from the West to propagate a foreign message to an unwilling audience.
Non-Christian Chinese have repeatedly claimed that their countrymen who decide to follow Christ have “eaten foreign religion” and renounced their country and its rich cultural heritage.
Our Mission
In contrast to both of these falsifying tendencies, we seek to tell the truth about foreign missionaries and Chinese believers.
We do not shy away from unpleasant facts in an effort to show only their good side. At the same time, we do not magnify their faults or minimize their genuine achievements and sincere efforts to glorify God, imitate Christ, and proclaim the truths of Scripture.
Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity
For example, our stories on J. Hudson Taylor, one of the greatest missionaries of all time, and John Sung (Song Shangjie), China’s greatest evangelist, properly highlight the extraordinary spirituality and stunning achievements of these incomparable men.
Their faults also receive attention, however, as do those of outstanding leaders like Watchman Nee and Timothy Richard. Richard receives deserved praise for his respect for Chinese culture, his monumental efforts at famine relief, and his pioneering work in education, but his problematic later theology and missiology also come under scrutiny.
Studies in Chinese Christianity, the book series co-edited by Dr. Carol Lee Hamrin and me, has become the premier collection of monographs on the history and current conditions of Protestantism in China. Written by skilled scholars but aimed at ordinary readers, these books have corrected many false charges against missionaries, Chinese Christians, and the Christian movement in China. The series, with fourteen volumes published and several more in process, helps to solidify the status of Chinese Christianity as an important academic field.
Globalchinacenter.org features reviews and analyses of almost one hundred books on almost all facets of Christianity in China, including its history and current state. Volumes about Chinese history, culture, and society are also reviewed. These articles have gained a reputation for accuracy, fairness, and balance, as well as for frank criticism of inferior or flawed works.
The China Institute website features short articles on the practical lessons to be learned from books reviewed on the GCC site, plus other reviews and articles, as well as several books that can be read or downloaded as free PDF files.
Please ask God to enable us to continue to publish the truth about his works among the Chinese.