One of the greatest preachers of modern times is a Chinese man named John Sung. It is thought that, in China today, there are at least one hundred million Christians. This wonderful fact is, under God, owing a great extent to the remarkable preaching of John Sung, who, after a very powerful ministry which swept thousands into the kingdom of God, passed away in 1944. His labors and influence deserve to be known more widely in the English speaking world.
Leslie Lyall, of the China Inland Missions, describes Sung as “the greatest evangelist China has ever known.” Large areas of Asia were deeply influenced by his powerful preaching, which extended beyond China to such countries as Formosa, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia.
His ministry lasted only fifteen years, but it was characterized by these outstanding features:
- he was a deeply dedicated believer;
- he was enabled to preach with power and passion;
- he could stir in his hearers a deep conviction of sin;
- he was able to organize bands of excellent preachers, who would go out into the countryside to bring people the glorious Gospel of Christ.
John Sung was a man of remarkable and exceptional talent. He was born in China, in 1901, the son of a Chinese Methodist preacher. He became an assistant pastor to his father and was referred to as “the little pastor.” A brilliant academic student, he went to America to get a university education. He got his BA in 1923, MS in 1924, and PhD in 1926. He has been referred to as “Ohio’s most famous student.” His special interest was in chemistry, but he was inwardly moved to train for the Christian ministry.
During his years of study, he had an experience which profoundly shook his whole mind and conscience. In 1926 he began his theological studies at Union Theological Seminary, which was a liberal university in which the Bible was not taught as divine, infallible and inerrant.
He struggled with the vital question, Is the Bible inspired, as he had hitherto always believed it to be? Or is the Bible not divinely inspired, as the academics in the theological seminary were teaching him to believe? He became so upset and disturbed by this profoundly important struggle that, for a time, he was deeply depressed and lost a desire to live. He had to be put into a psychological hospital for over six months.
But God led him by a vivid experience, to know that the Bible is God’s infallible revelation. This assurance was so life-changing for John Sung that he was lifted with joy. He now knew the Bible to be God’s Word for our sinful world.
We may look on these years up to 1927 as years of preparation. His soul was now finally settled on the teaching of the Bible. The Bible was now all that he wanted. His eye was now lifted up to his homeland. So after seven and a half years in America, he set sail for home on a ship for Shanghai. Having now no respect for the academic attitude of his university teachers about the Bible, he threw away all his academic medals and kept only his doctoral diploma to show to his father.
Back in China, he discarded European clothes, announced his intention to be a preacher, and married a young lady, who, happily, proved to be a good wife.
John Sung now began his amazing, God-given ministry. March 5th, 1931, proved to be a memorable night. As John Sung preached with deep seriousness and conviction, there were now clear signs of blessing. Sinners began to be converted and to pray for the conversion of others. People who heard his preaching were moved with tears of conviction. John Sung laid stress on the need to be holy.
Japan was now threatening to make war on China, but despite the political tension, there was much blessing. Over a thousand persons confessed their sins. Two hundred persons were baptized, as they professed their faith in Christ. Clearly, the Holy Spirit was at work.
In the autumn months of 1931, in the Northeast province of China, over 3,000 people professed conversion. In the years 1931–34, John Sung was associated with an evangelistic society called the Bethel Band, with which he and his evangelistic colleagues travelled far and wide to take the Gospel to needy sinners. After leaving the Bethel Band, he travelled extensively to preach the Gospel by means of evangelistic missions.
John Sung’s method was to preach perhaps four times a day, each sermon being about two hours in length. At night, after Bible study, he would fall exhausted on his bed, fully dressed. In the morning, he would give two to three hours to prayer before his next busy day began. “He prayed until the sweat poured down his face,” it is said. Clearly he was a man very different from most other people. But he was a man greatly used by God. It is said that by 1934, John Sung had become a well-known national figure in the Christian world of China.
In 1934, Pastor Sung’s father died. The father had now gone home, but the son was to be spared for another ten years, to preach far and wide to multitudes of needy sinners in different parts of Asia. He was empowered to carry the Gospel of Christ to thousands. At the age of forty-two, John Sung fell asleep in Christ and went to his eternal reward. His God-given ministry deserves to be remembered in this needy modern world.1For further reading, A Biography of John Sung, Leslie T. Lyall (China Inland Mission, 1961). John Sung, My Teacher, Timothy Tow (Christian Life Publishers, 1985).
Footnotes
- 1For further reading, A Biography of John Sung, Leslie T. Lyall (China Inland Mission, 1961). John Sung, My Teacher, Timothy Tow (Christian Life Publishers, 1985). ↩︎
