Global Chinese Ministries Newsletter - Jan 2007/Feb 2008

Edited by Tony Lambert, OMF Director for China Research

CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING MILESTONE IN CHINA

The publication of a modern, Chinese translation in simplified script of the complete text of John Calvin’s Christian Institutes is a milestone in Chinese Christian publishing. The three-volume paperback edition has been issued by the China Christian Council in Shanghai, and went on sale earlier this year [2007]. Five thousand sets have been printed.

This is the first time that a major work of a Reformation theologian has been published by the China Christian Council (CCC). There is a growing interest in Reformation theology among educated Chinese Christians, as evidenced by the publication of several volumes of Martin Luther’s works by other Chinese publishing houses.

The Chinese church is struggling to produce its own mature, biblical theology. At one extreme is the modernism encouraged by a minority of Chinese church leaders, such as Bishop Ding, whose “theological construction” campaign has been widely propagated in seminaries and at pastors’ seminars with mixed results. It denies the full authority of the Bible, the centrality of the atonement and the uniqueness of Christ. At the other end, is a rather narrow fundamentalism and dispensationalism which is widely accepted at the grassroots by both Christians in the house churches and in the registered churches. For all its limitations, this kind of theology has kept believers loyal to the full authority of the Bible and produced a warm, vibrant faith. However, it is sometimes marred by legalism and fanciful prophetic speculation.

Publication of Calvin’s and Luther’s main works provides access for Chinese believers to the riches of Reformation theology with its healthier emphases on justification by faith, God’s sovereign grace and the centrality of the cross. They can now get back behind the narrow confines of 20th century fundamentalism and modernism and 19th century pietism to the rich sources of our evangelical heritage in the 16th century when the Reformers recovered the biblical message of salvation by faith through grace. Both Calvin and Luther drew upon the best theologians of the medieval period and of the early church fathers—men such as Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Augustine. And of course, their ultimate source of inspiration was the gospel of grace as taught by St. Paul and our Lord himself. They were men of giant intellect and sound faith. This combination of the highest academic standards with warm biblical faith is exactly what is needed by the Chinese churches which sometimes have traditionally been suspicious of the use of the intellect and have placed a sharp division between faith and reason.

The cultural contexts of 16th century Europe and 21st century China are very different, so no mere automatic reproduction of Lutheran or Calvinist theology is sufficient. However, by drinking deeply at the wellsprings of Reformation thought, Chinese pastors, theologians and students will have their horizons broadened while being drawn all the time back to the full authority of God’s word. The danger is that in seeking to create a Chinese theology in tune with modern Chinese society, young Chinese Christian leaders will be tempted up the arid cul-de-sac of Western academic liberal theology which has devastated and emptied so many European churches. Rediscovery of the theological giants of the Reformation may help to provide Chinese Christian thinkers with solid, biblical foundations as they wrestle to make the gospel relevant in an ever-changing society.

THE LIFE AND TESTIMONY OF NORMAN HOWARD CLIFF (1925-2007)
A tribute by his sister, Estelle

There are hundreds of aging people all over the world who have a lifelong love affair with a beautiful little former treaty port on the coast of Shandong formerly called Chefoo, now Yantai. Norman was born there in 1925 of missionary parents and grandparents. There was a school there founded in 1881 for children of missionaries in China by Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, who was the uncle of our grandfather.

Our parents, Howard and Mary Cliff, both pharmacists, went with baby Norman into the poverty-stricken interior provinces of Henan and Shanxi. Our father was transferred to Hangzhou to be the principal of the Bible institute there, and we were sent to Chefoo School.

In 1938 Chefoo was occupied by the Japanese, and after the invasion of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, we became enemy aliens. The whole Chefoo school was interned by the Japanese. Norman and I spent a year in small Chefoo camps and then two years in a large camp at Weihsien, now Weifang. Norman spent his time learning Chinese, New Testament Greek and Hebrew, as he had a natural flair for languages. He taught in the camp and one of his colleagues was Eric Liddell of “Chariots of Fire” fame, winner of a gold medal in the 1924 Olympics. Eric died of a brain tumor a few months before the war ended. Norman helped to carry his coffin to our little graveyard, followed, like the Pied Piper, by a hundred children. He wrote: “It was during the trying years of internment that I first felt the call to missionary and ministry work. On my 19th birthday, walking thoughtfully within the electrified wires surrounding the camp, I made a promise to God that if he would release me from this harsh environment I would give my life to him in full-time service.”

Finally, after release by American paratroopers, we were taken to Hong Kong and traveled to our parents whom we had not seen for six years. They had been bombed out of their mission station in China, flown to India, and sailed to Durban in South Africa to wait for our release. Norman went to Rhodes University and took a B. Comm. degree. He worked at city hall for a while and then went to Johannesburg, studied theology and was ordained. He pastored five churches in South Africa and then two in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in the middle of the civil war. Everywhere he ministered he also worked among the Chinese communities.

His health suffered, and he moved to Britain. He used both his professions, working in Christian ministry and accountancy for the United Reformed Church. He became a prolific writer, researching deeply the history of mission in China, especially that of his family for four generations. He has written seven books and two theses. He gained two degrees and was capped by Lady Thatcher at Buckingham University.

After the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, China opened up again, and in 1984 a Chefoo party visited the land of our birth. In Nanjing we visited the seminary and met dear Chinese Christian friends who had been our father’s co-workers. Norman visited China again 12 times and contacted five of the students from the Hangzhou Bible Institute. He visited our childhood haunts and marveled at China’s vibrant, growing church in every corner of that great land.

My son John in Johannesburg has sent me this tribute: “Norman’s enthusiasm for God, China, his family and mission history was infectious. Norman threw his energies into writing, traveling to China, staying in touch with his global network and encouraging everyone he knew to live for Christ.”

Norman leaves two sons and six grandchildren, and his dear wife, Joyce, without whose loving care and support he would never have succeeded in all he accomplished.

STUDENT PIG-FARMER A SYMBOL OF CHINA’S FEARS FOR THE ECONOMY

A student who gave up university to farm pigs has become an emblem of China’s fears that its long boom is at risk from inflation and the crisis in the international economy.
Wang Chao, a 22-year-old from near Xi’an, gave up his college place, normally the dearest ambition of Chinese families, to profit from a surge in inflation that is frightening politicians worldwide. Big price rises in staple foods—above all, pork, China’s favorite meat—mean that the once-poor rural economy is in some cases outstripping that of the educated urban elite. “I can sell one pig for 1,200-1,300 RMB; the people I know who graduated from college were earning only 1,500 a month.”

China’s rising inflation is a symptom with the credit crisis in world banking markets of what economists fear may be the end of a financial “golden era.” For a decade cheap goods from China lowered prices round the world, allowing people to borrow and spend more money without interest rates rising. Now that era may be ending. Inflation in China is 6.5 percent, its highest for 11 years.

Pig prices have doubled in the past year. This year the Wang family hope to sell 40 pigs and to make 75-85,000 RMB—a big income in China. But what is good for the Wangs may prove bad for shoppers and mortgage-holders everywhere (Daily Telegraph, 10 October 2007).

Copyright 2007 by OMF International