Pray for North Korea: Will Be the Next World's Greatest Revival?

[This article originally appeared on the Open Doors Australia blog by Mike Gore. Edited version, mine]

Over the last few weeks I’ve read post after post on my newsfeed of the tension increasing between North Korea and the US, South Korea and China. It made me think particularly of the church in North Korea. On top of being one of the most oppressive countries in the world, North Korea is also the hardest place on the planet to be a Christian. It’s illegal to own a Bible, and Christians face severe punishment and life in a labour camp if their faith is discovered. I heard from a friend and colleague, Ron Boyd MacMillan, about the time he met a believer who shared about the greatest revival in the modern world. It was in a country under a harsh dictatorship, yet it was a dictator that God used to bring revival–in China.

A toast to Mao Zedong

Statues of Mao

Just months after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, Ron met Mr. Bao in China. Mr. Bao was a professor by day, but at night taught the Bible in underground churches. Ron was invited to meet with Mr. Bao and other Christians in Beijing. Shortly after he arrived, the Chinese Christians raised their glasses and shared a toast, to Mao Zedong–one of the worst dictators in the modern world. Ron was confused, he asked Mr. Bao, “Surely Mao was a monster?”

“God has a use for monsters too!” Mr. Bao replied. “Mao said we were going to build heaven on earth. He said we would build it through truth. He said we could only do it by faith–in each other. He said we would be part of an eternal China. Then he organised us. Gave us hymns to sing. He instituted rituals of confession and repentance, called ‘struggle meetings’. He even forced us all to get together into small groups and expound a ‘sacred’ text together. At the height of it all he would gather us together at Tiananmen Square. Millions would crowd in, especially the youth. Mao would walk out onto the balcony and spread his arms sideways, palms raised almost in the crucifixion position–the crowd would thunder back their adulation, slapping their little red books to their breast. He wouldn’t need to say a thing.”

Ron asked what was he doing, playing god? “Exactly!” was Mr. Bao’s response. “He taught the Chinese people how to worship.” Meo Zedong became a ‘god’, a jealous god. No other gods were allowed. He closed the churches, jailed pastors, burned Bibles – he tried to wipe out the church, and many Christians died.

So How Does that Bring Us to the World’s Greatest Revival?

After Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, freedom increased, people were able to travel around the country. So Christians went from village to village with the gospel. Mr Bao was one of them. He said, “We would start telling them about Jesus Christ and the people would shout, ‘Stop–we want to believe!’ I would tell them wait a minute. You haven’t heard the whole story yet, and they would say, ‘No, this is the God who Mao taught us to look for. We thought it was Mao who would save us, but it cannot be because he died. We see now that it must be Jesus.’” By the mid 1980’s, it’s estimated 50 million people had come to faith in Jesus.

“That’s why we say Mao brought us this huge revival,” said Mr Bao, “He created a society full of worshippers and when their object died, they became a society of seekers intent on finding another god. Mao thought he was the largest annihilator of the church; in fact he was doing the pre-evangelism on a scale unique in human history. Mao meant it for evil but God meant it for good. Mao was used to prepare this country for the greatest outpouring of the Spirit ever seen in his church. He’s God’s fool! He planted in the people’s hearts the desire for true religion then failed them so spectacularly that they kept seeking until they found the one true God.”

What Does this Mean for North Korea?

The Kim's statues

For decades, the people of North Korea have been ruled by the Kim dynasty. People are forced to worship their ‘dear leader’ Kim Jong-un, who promotes himself as an all-powerful god. They must attend weekly meetings and memorise communist ideology. They even have a kind of religion written by Kim Il Sung known as ‘Juche’. They have limited TV channels and websites, and an underground market to purchase goods from abroad. Some North Koreans even think he can read their minds.

Sound familiar? What would happen in North Korea if the current leadership dissolved? North Koreans have been taught to worship the Kim’s as gods–as their saviour. What will happen when they are free to hear about the One True Saviour, Jesus?

Oh yes!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Pray for North Korea: "The Gospel Cannot Advance Without Sacrifice"

Recently Open Doors, a Christian organization, spoke to Brother Simon* who works for them with North Korean believers. Simon has worked with the North Korean underground church for many years. He knows exactly how deadly working with Christians in North Korea is. Here I summaries this interview:

Kim Jong-Un’s government has sent hundreds of security officials along the North Korean border with China. The aim – to kidnap, and now kill, missionaries and others helping North Korean refugees.

In April 2017, a Chinese Pastor, Han Chong Yeol, was murdered by suspected North Korean agents. It was a warning to everyone helping North Korean refugees in China, and in particular Christians. Brother Simon is aware of the risks and lives everyday knowing the danger of this ministry.

Brother Simon, how did you find out about what had happened to Pastor Han?

“I heard from a person who lives near the Chinese-Korean border that his friend was called in by the police. They showed him CCTV footage of four people crossing the river: one lady and three men, one of them very muscular. They carried some sort of box. The lady was later recognized as someone who had been in touch with Pastor Han a year ago. She probably knew Han and made a phone call to him. They agreed to meet in the woods. Pastor Han fell into the trap and was brutally killed. The assassins left China before the murder was discovered.”

In recent years, missionaries and church workers have been kidnapped by North Korean secret agents. The risks are real, including for people working with Open Doors. Is this sort of ministry just too dangerous?

“No. We are a risk-taking organisation and we will never abandon the North Korean Church. God has called us to do this work. Besides, the North Korean Christians are far more dedicated than us. In a sense, they are spiritually much stronger than we (are). Yes, it’s true that perhaps some of them – especially young believers – don’t know the Bible that well. Their understanding of the Bible may be limited, but their faith runs deep. There are so many unknown heroes in North Korea and they are able to withstand torture.”

What happens when a North Korean Christian refugee is captured in China?

“When a person is captured in China and brought to North Korea, it usually doesn’t take long before there are a wave of arrests. The people this person was connected to, are then taken to prison and tortured as well. But usually they don’t arrest new people. That means the North Korean Christians didn’t talk despite the torture.”

The North Korean church has little or no access to the Bible. It seems that though they lack Biblical knowledge, they remain faithful?

“Yes, but you have to understand that when the Bible speaks about possessing knowledge, it means ‘living knowledge’. In other words, knowledge and action. We often separate Biblical knowledge and daily living. The Bible and the persecuted church cannot afford to separate the two. We still operate safe houses in China where we disciple North Korean Christians. I can’t share with you how many exactly, and I hesitate to say this because I don’t want to boast, but we are successful. Those disciples, when they are arrested, don’t collapse but remain faithful.”

In Simon’s mind, the gospel cannot advance without sacrifice. After all, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) North Korea’s underground Christians are even more than friends, they are our family in Christ. To support our family, we may need to sacrificially lay down our lives through speaking out, prayer and giving.

Pray now:

§  Pray for North Korean believers and those ministering to them.

§  Pray their faith and trust in God would grow, and many new believers would be added to their numbers.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Book Review: North Korea's Hidden Revolution (2016) by Jieun Baek

North Korea's Hidden Revolution:
How the Information Underground is Transforming a Closed Society (2016)
by Jieun Baek

After conference at Incheon, South Korea, I and my friends stayed for two more nights at Seoul. As I walked around the city area, I stumbled upon second-hand bookstore and bought this book (after I browsed books for only God know how long!). One of the talks that I could never forget during the conference is when a student shared about some issues in North Korea. I’ve watched documentary about North Korea before, but this personal story goes deeper into my soul. Since that day, I wanted to know more about North Korea… and thank God I found this book. Lord, saves North Koreans!

 This book is an insightful look into North Korea today and how the people are slowly getting information about the outside world at the risk of harsh punishment. The author also interviews some North Koreans who have defected to South Korea and a few to the U.S. It is fairly easy to cross at certain times at narrow points of the Tumen River into China, but there are armed guards on both sides (Google it!). Some of the guards can apparently be bribed to look the other way, though (because of the economic crisis).

‘The Information Underground’ refers to the illegal radios that allow North Koreans to listen to broadcasts from South Korea and other parts of the world in addition to USBs and DVDs that are smuggled in from China into NK with South Korean movies and television shows that have enlightened many to the fact that they have been brainwashed and not allowed to know anything about the rest of the world. Young people like the fashions that they see on South Koreans in the movies and soap operas, but dare not be caught trying to emulate them.

A bit of capitalism has entered the country in the form of small markets where people sell food, clothing and other items, even illegal ones. These black markets are far from Pyongyang, the capital city, place where most elite citizens live. During the famine in the 1990s, housewives would make anything they could such as rice cakes or cookies, and sell them to make money to buy more food for their own families. These little home-grown markets have become bigger with more items for sale and the author tells about one woman who gets used clothes in bulk from China to sell.

Overall, most people in North Korea are living in fear, communism/dictatorship and delusions (for examples, a defector once believe that “Kim Il-Sung was the greatest ruler in the world” or that “our Dear Leader will save us”). But not without hope. The people – especially young people – are becoming more open minded and more connected to the world as ever before.

Jieun makes an interesting observation that there are no experts on North Korea, and she considers herself a North Korea watcher. The country is so closed off from the rest of the world that it's impossible for an outsider to study it from the inside. The prison camps are still in operation and school children are taken to watch public executions. The Kim regime governs with fear. But there is hope. Kim Ha-Young, a student-defector, told the author:

“People say mountains change in about 10 years. If something as stubborn and mammoth as a mountain can change in a decade, the hearts of ordinary North Koreans can change. I’m sure of it. I’m living proof. I’m from North Korea. North Korea is my home, and I revere the soil that my family tilled. But I grew to embrace democracy over time as I settled in my new home in South Korea. It’s hard, and lots of things are still confusing in a democratic country. But if mountains can change, humans can change. North Koreans are humans too, you know. Just like me, and the reader. North Koreans can and will adapt to newer, better circumstances. I’m sure of it.”

Oh, pray for North Koreans!

Contents:

#1 Immortal Gods: Why North Korea Is Such a Durable Regime

#2 Cracks in the System: An Information Revolution

#3 "Old School" Media: From Trader Gossip to Freedom Balloons

#4 The Digital Underground

#5 A New Generation Rising

#6 Implications, Predictions, and a Call to Action

[This is quite a well-written book and allows the reader to learn about a changing society whether the regime knows it or not]

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.