March 28, 2024
All About Christ in North Korea

As in most of Korean history, the path of Christ and his people on the Korean peninsula is bloody.

In 1122 BC, 5000 subjects of Chinese rule rebelled and fled to the peninsula, which we now associate with Korea, creating a new state “Chosun”, a country of morning calm. For the next 3,000 years, this “hermit kingdom” was abused by the Mongols, Chinese and Japanese, until in 1876 Japan imposed a trade agreement on it. Korea was ripped from its shell, and for the next quarter century all its ports were open to the West.

However, Japan went even further. From 1910 to 1945 it occupied Korea entirely. The spread of Christian witness was gradually suppressed not by Koreans, but by their foreign “masters”. At the end of World War II, the country was divided. More intruders have arrived and are still there in the north. Christians were killed in mass during the prolonged occupation of Russian-Chinese-style totalitarian communism. 500 shepherds were killed during the Korean War alone.

Thousands of people to this day languish in the gulag of North Korea, trusting Christ daily through Korean Jesus for their resistance and liberation.

Korean Jesus

This is a rough sketch. Let’s go back now to fill in the details. First, Catholicism. It was in the early 19th century that Korean diplomats in Beijing, China, met with members of the Catholic world system. Contacts were made and secret attempts were made to infiltrate Korea. Catholicism spread rapidly, but Buddhist priests objected because Rome, a foreign power, posed a political threat to their rule over the lives of the Korean people. This anti-foreign fear in Korea, unfortunately founded in 1846, reached its climax as a result of the general massacre of the entire Romanian hierarchy, along with 10,000 members.

The name of Jesus was hit hard. But the Protestants were not far behind in their advance towards Korea. In 1882, the United States and Korea (then there was only one Korea) signed a trade agreement. Protestants have now entered this little kingdom on the other side of the world. Doctors have been leading the way, following evangelicals and educators.

The general scheme for the formation of the church was first presented by the Chinese missionary John Nevius. Churches were to arise in the homes of citizens and, as soon as possible, would be under the full control of the national church. It wasn’t supposed to be “American” or Roman. Christ would prove himself the sufficient leader of the people through His Spirit and His Word. The missionaries will serve as advisers and specialists and will then move on.

By 1907, Hefley says that more than 1,000 self-supporting churches were serving 120,000 evangelicals. And it was right in the Presbyterian part of the church. In the same year, there was a significant revival in Korea. Mass prayer meetings. Apostate confessions. Conversion of inveterate sinners. God was preparing His Church to be tested by fire.

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