Abbreviation | TJC |
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Established | 1917 |
Founder | Holy Spirit |
Founded at | Beijing, China |
Type | Christian Church |
Headquarters | Lakewood, CA |
Area served | 70+ countries |
Membership (2013) | 1,500,000–3,000,000 [1] |
Official language | English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Malay, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese |
Key people | Paul Wei, Ling-Sheng Zhang, and Barnabas Zhang (early workers) |
Main organ | International Assembly |
Affiliations | Nondenominational Christianity |
Website | tjc |
True Jesus Church | |||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 真耶穌教會 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 真耶稣教会 | ||||||
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The True Jesus Church (TJC) is a non-denominational Christian Church that originated in Beijing, China, during the Pentecostal movement in the early twentieth century. [2] The True Jesus Church is currently one of the largest Christian groups in China and Taiwan, [3] as well as one of the largest independent churches in the world. [4]
The TJC emerged independently alongside other indigenous Christian groups of that period such as the Little Flock, the Jesus Family and The Christian Tabernacle. [5]
Established in 1917, the church’s early adherents in Hebei and Shandong [6] were influenced by certain charismatic practices of the Apostolic Faith Mission in China, [7] the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, especially faith healing, baptism of the Holy Spirit, footwashing, and Sabbath keeping.
Paul Wei (Wei Enbo, 1877–1919) was one of the early workers in 1917. [8] A former member of the Beijing branch of the London Missionary Society led by British missionary Samuel Evans Meech (1845–1937), Wei became a Pentecostal under the influence of Norwegian missionary to China, Bernt Berntsen. In 1917, he left Berntsen’s group as the Holy Spirit had moved him. He died of tuberculosis on September 10, 1919, and the pause of his prophecy did not prevent the further growth of the TJC. [9]
TJC’s other early workers included Zhang Lingsheng (1863–?), who convinced Wei that the church should maintain a seventh-day Sabbath, and Barnabas Zhang (1882–1961), who eventually left the group in 1929 and established a rival movement in Hong Kong. [10]
In mainland China, Wei’s son, Wei Wenxiang (魏文祥, Isaac Wei, 魏以撒, ca. 1900–?), emerged as the worker of the TJC. He also presided over TJC’s international expansion to various countries and the establishment of an effective bureaucracy. [11]
By 1949, the membership grew to around 120,000 in seven hundred churches. [12] However, as a result of the Chinese Civil war and following regime change, True Jesus Church lost contact with the churches inside China. [13] In 1951, Isaac Wei was arrested and “disappeared.” How and when he died is unknown. Li Zhengcheng (李正誠, ca. 1920–1990) replaced Isaac Wei as the main leader of the TJC and led it into joining the Three-Self Patriotic Movement as the government had requested. Persecution, however, came both before and during the Cultural Revolution, and Li Zhengcheng spent more than twenty years in jail. Because of the developments in China, the TJC abroad proclaimed its autonomy, with headquarters first in Taiwan and from 1985 in the U.S. The Chinese branch was however reconstituted, as part of the Three-Self Church, after the Cultural Revolution and the reforms of Deng Xiaoping and still has a substantial following in China. [14]
Today there are TJC members in more than seventy countries across six continents. According to scholars, the possible total number of members is up to 3 millions. [1]
In mainland China, most of the True Jesus Church congregations are members of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and usually meet on Saturdays in TSPM church buildings as separate sabbatarian sub-congregations. [15] However, since TJC practices such as healing and tongues are "frowned upon" [15] in the TSPM, other congregations are independent Chinese house churches. [16]
Outside China, member churches of the TJC look to the central synod of the TJC in California. [17] In 1967, church leaders from outside mainland China met for the first World Delegates Conference in Taiwan, and an international headquarters was established in Taichung, Taiwan, where a seminary was opened. The headquarters was subsequently moved to California in 1985. [10]
In the United Kingdom, True Jesus Church congregations were established as a result of immigration patterns in the 1960s and 1970s, coming largely from Malaysia and Hong Kong, the latter especially from Ap Chau. This would result in a number of congregations being established throughout the country, particularly in Northern England and Scotland, such as Leicester, Newcastle, Sunderland, Elgin, Edinburgh and Cardiff. [18] [19]
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The church practices baptism via full body immersion for both adults and infants, with holy communion. [21] Speaking in tongues is practiced and usually occurs while in prayer. [2]
The church believes that the sacraments must fulfill three requirements according to the Scripture. Firstly, they must have been performed by Jesus Christ himself as an example. Secondly, the sacraments must be directly related to one's salvation, eternal life, entering the Heavenly Kingdom, and having a part with Jesus. Lastly, they must be of the sacraments which Jesus Christ instructed the disciples to perform as well. There are ten articles of faith [20] that the True Jesus Church holds in order to worship God correctly. According to them, one must speak in tongues as evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit. The mode of baptism also determines salvation. The correct mode should be with the head facing down (in the manner of Jesus' death) and only in natural ("living") water.
To be born again, or to experience the new birth, is a phrase, particularly in evangelicalism, that refers to a "spiritual rebirth", or a regeneration of the human spirit. In contrast to one's physical birth, being "born again" is distinctly and separately caused by the operation of the Holy Spirit, and it occurs when one is baptized in water. It is a core doctrine of the denominations of the Anabaptist, Moravian, Methodist, Baptist, Plymouth Brethren and Pentecostal Churches along with all other evangelical Christian denominations. All of these Churches strongly believe Jesus's words in the Gospels: "You must be born again before you can see, or enter, the Kingdom of Heaven". Their doctrines also mandate that to be both "born again" and "saved", one must have a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers, comprising around 31.2% of the world population. Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and chronicled in the New Testament.
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement that emphasizes direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, an event that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles.
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In China, house churches or family churches are Protestant assemblies in the People's Republic of China that operate independently from the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and China Christian Council (CCC). They represent a tradition of independent churches that would not come under the control of the Chinese Communist Party dating back to Wang Mingdao in the 1950s. However they came into their current form of existence after the Cultural Revolution in the early-1980s.
The charismatic movement in Christianity is a movement within established or mainstream Christian denominations to adopt beliefs and practices of Charismatic Christianity, with an emphasis on baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the use of spiritual gifts (charismata). It has affected most denominations in the United States, and has spread widely across the world.
The Three-Self Patriotic Movement is the official government supervisory organ for Protestantism in the People's Republic of China. It is colloquially known as the Three-Self Church.
Ling-Sheng Zhang was a Chinese evangelist, born in Shandong. Zhang converted to Christianity at the age of thirty seven and became a member of the Presbyterian church for seven years and was then appointed as a Deacon for three years.
Paul Wei, also known as Wei Embo / Wei Enbo was a Chinese evangelist and the founder of the True Jesus Church.
Barnabas Zhang, was an early pioneer of the Chinese indigenous True Jesus Church.
The Chinese Independent Churches are a category of churches of Chinese people.
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Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person that brings about changes in what sociologists refer to as the convert's "root reality" including their social behaviors, thinking and ethics. The sociology of religion indicates religious conversion was an important factor in the emergence of civilization and the making of the modern world. Conversion is the most studied aspect of religion by psychologists of religion, but there is still very little actual data available. Neurological studies have determined that conversion is not the result of pathology.
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