As we have seen before, one low-cost, high-impact way to communicate Bible-based truth to Chinese (and others) worldwide is the use of Christian literature.
In fact, from the beginnings of the Protestant missionary movement, Christian books have played a vital role in both evangelization of non-believers and in edifying Christians.
In addition, Christian literature also helps us to achieve our other aim: to strengthen Christians at home, encourage them to participate in cross-cultural missions (by going, sending, or praying), and equip them for cross-cultural ministry.
In addition to the Studies in Chinese Christianity series that I described last month, I have, over the years, been working on other literary projects.
Books in Print
As I have sensed a need, either in the West or among Chinese, I have written books that address various issues or expound some of my favorite parts of the Bible. By God’s grace, working through your prayers, I have composed the following:
The Lord’s Healing Words began as a personal study in 1978 of what the Bible says about health and healing. Jesus: The Complete Man was originally part of a book published in Chinese called Confucius and Christ. It compares what Confucius and Christ said and did that would help men to grow into full maturity as loving, effective people. (Note: I do not write in Chinese or translate into Chinese. Chinese Christians translated these books for me.)
Christ The King is a 400-page commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, while Worship and Wisdom contains six months of meditations on selected Psalms and Proverbs. Both of these started out as email devotional messages.
Carl Henry: Theologian for All Seasons serves as an introduction and guide to his six-volume God. Revelation, and Authority, one of the most important works of theology of the twentieth century.
Christianity in America: Triumph and Tragedy, is a revised and expanded version of a book that originally appeared in Chinese. It traces and evaluates the successes and failures of American Christians from the Pilgrims to 2012.
China: Ancient Culture, Modern Society, co-authored with Dr. Peter Yu, provides essential information on both China’s traditional culture and on contemporary conditions among Chinese in Asia. As a guide to effective ministry among Chinese both in Asia and elsewhere, I wrote Reaching Chinese Worldwide. To my knowledge, both of these are unique.
Two volumes have appeared as part of the Studies in Chinese Christianity series: Wise Man from the East: Lit-sen Chang (Zhang Lisheng) includes translations of Chang’s Critique of Indigenous Culture (by me) and Critique of Humanism (by Dr. Samuel Ling). I served as editor and composed an introduction to Chang’s life and times.
Builders of the Chinese Church: Pioneer Protestant Missionaries and Chinese Church Leaders features biographies of nine men who laid the foundation for today’s Chinese church. As editor, I contributed an introduction and four chapters.
Finally, The Good the Bad, and the Beautiful: A Handbook to Marriage seeks to offer biblical guidelines for a better marriage. Before I sent it to the publisher, Dori read it and offered valuable criticisms.
“Books” on the Internet
Besides these, you can find seven works, some rather short but others quite long, at Books — China Institute (reachingchineseworldwide.org). These are free PDF files for you to download or read online.
Let me highlight three of these: Truth and Life: Doctrinal and Ethical Notes on the Bible consists of more than 1,500 pages of full-sentence comments in outline form on about half of the books in the canon.
Chinese Christianity: An Introduction to the Literature, and The Missionary Movement in China contain summaries and evaluations of major representative works by experts on these subjects. Together, they run to 700 pages. Like Truth and Life, they are works in progress.
I invite you to browse this section of our website, and I urge you to pray for God to use these writings to advance his kingdom.
“Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your mercy, because of Your truth” (Psalm 115:1). Soli Deo gloria!