History and Development of Pentecostalism — Unit 8: Asia: India, Korea, China, and Southeast Asia

Key Verse

"After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palms in their hands," (Revelation 7:9, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Describe the Mukti revival of 1905 and the roles of Pandita Ramabai and Minnie Abrams.

2. Explain how Pentecostal churches grew in India, especially through Indian leaders.

3. Describe the Korean story, including the Pyongyang revival of 1907, David Yonggi Cho and the Yoido Full Gospel Church.

4. Describe Pentecostal-type Christianity in China, including the True Jesus Church, the Jesus Family and the house churches, and say why numbers there are uncertain.

5. Explain two debates about Asian Pentecostalism, whether it is a Western import and whether it has been shaped too much by local religion, and give a Pentecostal answer to each.

Why Asia Matters to Us

In Unit 1 we learned that most Pentecostals and charismatics now live in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Asia is the largest continent, and it is the home of many ancient religions and of some of the oldest Christian communities. Pentecostal Christianity there is not a foreign decoration. It has its own leaders, its own songs, its own martyrs and its own churches.

In the earlier units we met Mukti in India in 1905 as one of the "many origins" of the movement. In this unit we go further. We follow the Spirit's work in India, Korea, China and Southeast Asia. John the Revelator saw people "of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues" before the throne. A history of Pentecostalism that stops in Los Angeles is too small to match that vision.

We tell the story as the work of the Holy Spirit through human beings. We also state honestly what historians and other Christians have asked. Scripture tells us to "test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

India: Mukti and After

Pandita Ramabai and Minnie Abrams

Pandita Ramabai was an Indian scholar and reformer, born into a high-caste Hindu family, who became a Christian and gave her life to women and children in need. She founded the Mukti Mission near Pune. It cared for widows, orphans and girls rescued from hardship. She was a Bible translator and a woman of deep prayer.

Minnie Abrams was an American missionary who worked with Ramabai. In 1905 prayer circles at Mukti sought a fuller outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and a revival followed. Those who were there reported repentance, intense prayer and spiritual gifts, including speaking in tongues. Abrams wrote about it in The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire (1906). Her book teaches that the Spirit's coming gives power for witness and holy living, and it spread the news to other countries. Later Abrams went to Chile, where her writings and letters reached the Methodists in Valparaiso whom we meet in Unit 6. This is one reason historians speak of Mukti as part of a worldwide network, not a separate local event.

The Mukti revival shows two things that mark Pentecostal history in Asia. First, the Spirit came to a ministry of compassion for the poor, and the two were not separated. Second, women stood at the center: an Indian woman and an American woman. We note this as a matter of history. Our churches hold different views on women in ministry, and Course 4 will present those views fairly.

Indian churches and Indian leaders

After Mukti, the Pentecostal message grew in many parts of India, and the south, especially the state of Kerala, became a major center. Kerala already had old Christian communities, and many of their members were drawn to the Pentecostal message. Indian leaders formed their own churches. One of the best known is the Indian Pentecostal Church of God, founded in 1924 under K. E. Abraham. Other Indian Pentecostal groups and many independent churches followed. Some had links with missionaries from the West, and many did not.

Indian Pentecostalism grew largely through Indian pastors and evangelists who shared the gospel in their own languages. Also, Christians in India are a minority in a land with ancient religions, and they have often faced pressure and, in some places, violence. Pentecostal believers there understand "power for witness" (Acts 1:8) in a way that those who are never opposed may not.

Korea: From Pyongyang to Yoido

The soil: the 1907 revival

Protestant Christianity reached Korea in the late 1800s. In 1907 a great revival came to Pyongyang among Presbyterians and Methodists. Congregations gathered for long prayer, and many believers publicly confessed their sins with tears. This revival was not Pentecostal in the strict sense, because it did not teach the doctrine of Spirit baptism with tongues as we do. But it left Korean Christians with a habit of fervent, early-morning and persistent prayer. This habit still marks the Korean church today, Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal.

Pentecostal growth after the Korean War

Pentecostal missionaries and Korean believers were at work before the Korean War of 1950 to 1953. But the movement grew most after the war, when the country was poor and broken and many people were seeking hope. The Assemblies of God and other Pentecostal groups preached salvation, healing and the Spirit's power to people who needed all three.

David Yonggi Cho and Yoido Full Gospel Church

The best known Korean Pentecostal is David Yonggi Cho (also called Paul Yonggi Cho). In 1958 he began a church in Seoul with Choi Ja-sil, who became his co-worker and mother-in-law. It began in a poor part of the city, in a tent. The church later moved to Yoido Island in Seoul and grew into the Yoido Full Gospel Church, which for years was reported to be one of the largest congregations in the world. These figures were given by the church itself, so we should treat them as estimates and not as audited counts.

Two features are often noted. The first is the system of small cell groups led by lay people, mostly women, which allowed the church to care for a very large number of people. The second is prayer: early-morning meetings, all-night prayer and prayer retreats on mountains. Many pastors in other countries have studied his cell-group method.

Cho's life also teaches a warning. In his later years Korean courts examined the church's finances, and in 2014 a court found him guilty in a case involving church money. We do not need to say more here. We need to say that honest historians must record both the fruit and the failures, and that a famous leader is still a man who must be held accountable. We will return to this in Unit 10 when we study teaching about prosperity.

China: Pentecostal Faith under Pressure

China is the hardest place to study. Under the government after 1949, foreign missionaries left and churches were controlled, and during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s public Christian life was almost entirely suppressed. Meetings went into homes. Many records were destroyed or never kept. For this reason, numbers for China are the least certain in this course, and any figure should be held loosely.

Even so, we know of several movements:

The True Jesus Church. It began in 1917 in Beijing and spread widely. It emphasizes speaking in tongues and healing. Its leaders were Chinese. It also holds teachings that classical Trinitarian Pentecostals cannot accept, including a Oneness view of God. We include it in the history because it was an early Chinese Pentecostal-type church, and we say plainly that it is not part of our family of faith on this point.

The Jesus Family. It was founded in the 1920s in Shandong province by a Chinese leader named Jing Dianying. Its members lived together in communities, shared their goods, worked on farms, and practiced prayer and healing. It was ended as an organization under the new government in the early 1950s.

The house churches. After 1949 many Chinese believers met in homes, outside the official churches. Many of these groups stressed prayer, healing, and the Spirit's power, and some are Pentecostal in practice even if they do not use the name. Others did not teach tongues. Scholars estimate that Christianity in China grew greatly in the last decades of the twentieth century, but it is not possible to say with confidence how much of this is "Pentecostal." Some researchers count broadly, others narrowly, and the government's own counts differ from those of outside researchers.

The honest conclusion is that the Chinese story is real and large, but we know less than we would like. We do not need to exaggerate. We honor those who have suffered for Christ, as Paul told Timothy: "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12).

Southeast Asia

In Southeast Asia the picture is varied, so we list a few examples with care.

Indonesia. Pentecostal churches began early in the twentieth century and grew over many decades. A widely known revival came to the island of Timor in 1965, during a time of national crisis, with reports of repentance, healing and powerful preaching. Today Pentecostal and charismatic churches are a large part of Indonesian Protestantism.

The Philippines. The Philippines is mainly a Roman Catholic nation. Pentecostal missions began in the early twentieth century, and today there are both Pentecostal churches and a very large Catholic charismatic movement. We study the charismatic stream further in Unit 9.

Singapore, Malaysia and other places. Many Pentecostal and charismatic churches grew in the cities in the later twentieth century.

The pattern is the one we saw in Latin America and Africa. The message arrived through missionaries, and then local believers took ownership and raised their own leaders.

Two Debates

Debate 1: Is Asian Pentecostalism a Western import?

The objection. Some writers, especially in the older histories, told the story as if Pentecostalism began in America and was exported to Asia by American missionaries. Critics inside and outside the church then ask whether Asian Pentecostalism is a foreign religion wearing local clothes.

What historians say. Allan Anderson argues that the old story is too narrow. He points to Mukti in 1905, to Indian and Chinese leaders, and to Korean growth that depended on Koreans. Pentecostalism, in his account, had many origins and Asian leaders were among its makers from the beginning. Other historians agree that American missionaries mattered, but they stress that Asians did most of the work of spreading the message.

Our answer. We believe both things are true, and neither makes the work less genuine. Missionaries did bring the message and teaching, and we honor them. But the Spirit does not need a Western license. Ramabai was an Indian woman praying with her people before Azusa Street was famous. Cho was a Korean pastor, not a missionary's assistant. The promise of Acts 2:39 is "to all who are afar off," and Asia was "afar off." Pentecost was itself a day when people heard the gospel in their own languages (Acts 2:6-11). The gospel is at home in every nation.

Debate 2: Has Asian Pentecostalism been shaped too much by local religion?

The objection. Some scholars of Korea note that Korea's older folk religion also stresses prayer to receive blessing, health and success in this life. They ask whether the emphasis on blessing in some Korean churches has been influenced more by that older religion than by the New Testament. Similar questions have been asked about India, China and Southeast Asia, where ancestors, spirits and healing rituals are part of the culture.

What is fair to say. Every church lives in a culture, and no church is free of its surroundings, including our own. A good historian will notice where the message may have taken a local shape. Sometimes a culture helps the church to see something the Bible says plainly that other churches overlooked, such as the reality of spiritual warfare or the importance of prayer. Sometimes a culture pulls the church away from the Bible.

Our answer. The test is Scripture, not origin. Where local ways agree with the Bible, such as persistent prayer (Luke 18:1) and care for the sick (James 5:14-15), we thank God. Where a practice mixes the gospel with the worship of ancestors or spirits, or turns prayer into a way of bargaining for success, the Bible must correct it. Paul told the Corinthians to flee idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14). Pentecostals who love the Spirit ought to be the first to want the Spirit's own test: "Test the spirits, whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). We return to this danger of confusing blessing and the gospel in Unit 10.

What Asia Teaches the Rest of Us

First, a church can grow under the cross. Chinese and Indian believers have shown that the Spirit's power does not depend on freedom or wealth.

Second, prayer is not a side issue. The Korean example reminds us that mighty works have often followed hours of prayer.

Third, mercy and the Spirit belong together. Ramabai did not separate Spirit baptism from caring for widows and orphans.

Pastoral Application

A pastor in a village church in Latin America or Africa is told by a young man, "My uncle says our church is an American religion, and that real Christians should follow the old ways of our own people." The young man loves his church but is troubled.

The pastor can first thank the young man for asking honestly. Second, he can explain the history. He can tell the young man about Ramabai in India in 1905, who was an Indian woman leading a prayer revival, and about Korean and Chinese believers who spread their faith under hardship. He can show him that Pentecostalism has never been the property of one nation.

Third, he can take the question of "our own ways" seriously. The gospel respects language, music and family, and a church can sing in the people's own tongue and honor their good customs. But it does not mix Christ with practices that Scripture forbids. The pastor can open Acts 2:6-11 and Revelation 7:9 with the young man, and ask him what it means that people from every tongue stand before the Lamb.

Summary

Asian Pentecostalism has many roots and many leaders. At Mukti in 1905, Pandita Ramabai and Minnie Abrams saw a revival of prayer and spiritual gifts, joined with mercy to widows and orphans. Indian Pentecostal churches, such as the Indian Pentecostal Church of God founded in 1924 under K. E. Abraham, grew through Indian leadership, especially in Kerala. In Korea, the 1907 Pyongyang revival prepared a praying church; after the Korean War, David Yonggi Cho and Choi Ja-sil began the church that became Yoido Full Gospel Church, known for cell groups and prayer, though its famous leader later faced a court case about church finances. In China, the True Jesus Church, the Jesus Family and the house churches show Spirit-centered faith under pressure, but numbers are uncertain and the True Jesus Church teaches a Oneness view we cannot accept. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia, the Philippines and other nations show the same pattern of local ownership. We answer the claim that Asian Pentecostalism is a Western import by pointing to Asian origins and leaders, and we answer the worry about local religion by the test of Scripture.

Further Reading

• Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (2nd ed., 2014).

• Minnie Abrams, The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire (1906), a primary source.

• Cecil M. Robeck Jr., The Azusa Street Mission and Revival (2006).

• Stanley M. Burgess and Eduard M. van der Maas, eds., New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (2002), articles on Asian countries.

• Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, annual statistics in the International Bulletin of Mission Research.

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