Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
Part of the incentive for rejecting denominationalism was the desire to reject of foreign mission organizations, aka "imperialists." This may have been the most important catalyst in the establishment of the local ground doctrine. Note an interesting fact: The local ground doctrine has mainly been used, not as a unifying doctrine, but as a marginalizing doctrine. It has always been used to discredit unwanted Christian influences.
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...and isn't it interesting that we see the first seeds of this movement in China "to reject foreign mission organizations" can be found in the bloody Boxer rebellion, which martyred
thousands of saints.
The political propaganda churned out during this era by the Imperialist Chinese, just prior to Nee's birth in 1903, surely left an aftermath that would later color his own perspective. It must have, because he seemed to paint the work of the missionaries in his generation as evil. Any history of the Chinese churches that excludes the Boxer rebellion is (at best) an incomplete history. I would suggest that the propaganda of the Imperialist Chinese that lead to the Boxer rebellion
profoundly shaped Nee's ecclesiology.
Quote:
"
In the summer of 1900, 239 missionaries were martyred in China in what is known as the Boxer Rebellion. Of these, 189 were Protestant and 40 were Catholic. The two mission societies with the greatest toll of martyrs were the China Inland Mission, now called Overseas Missionary Fellowship, and The Christian and Missionary Alliance. The CIM (OMF) lost 79, and the C&MA lost 36. Each of these missionaries was committed to serving the Lord in China to bring hope and light to her millions.
Many things contributed to this mass slaughter of foreign missionaries, the largest ever such martyrdom in the history of Christian missions. China was in the throes of upheaval. The Manchu Dynasty, of Mongolian origin, was a very unpopular dynasty tottering on the brink of overthrow.
Discontent began to sweep through the land and threaten the Empress Dowagers dynasty. The people cried out for China to rid itself of all foreign influence, both Western imperialism and the Manchu dynasty. The Empress managed, however, to turn the people’s revolt against westerners and particularly missionaries. She convinced the people that the disasters in China were the result of turning away from the old Chinese religion for the new foreign one. The spirits were angry because ancestor worship was being neglected. Believing that Western bullets could not hurt them, and under the influence of drugs and Satan, the Boxers, mostly young men, set out to rid China of all foreigners. The Empress threw her lot in with the Boxers and decreed that foreigners in China be killed.
Not only were missionaries killed, but also numerous Chinese pastors lost their lives as well as more than 32,000 Christians."
for more on this, and stories of the some of the martyred Christians, click here:
The Boxer Rebellion