The Church in Korea

The Church in Korea THE CHURCH IN KOREA
S. K. Dong

I am more than glad to have this privilege again on this lectureship, I thank Abilene Christian College faculty for this privilege. Last year they gave me the subject, “The church in Korea.” I have again the same subject, “The church in Korea.” Last year I told that the church in Korea needed many things, but first of all, she needed two American missionaries and asked you friends to pray “the Lord of the narvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest” because Korea is the field white already to harvest. Thank the Lord that he called two young couples to go to Korea as missionaries to help the Korean young and weak Christians grow in the wisdom of our Lord, and teach them to be teachers, preachers, and leaders in the future churches. One is Brother C. W. Rhodes, Man- gum High School Principal, Mangum, Oklahoma, who decided to go to Korea as a missionary with his fine young Christian wife; and the other is Brother "Wallace White- horn, one of the Abilene Christian College graduates and one of the Mars Hill Bible school teachers in Florence, Alabama, who also decided to be a missionary hi Korea with his good Christian wife. Certainly, it is wonderful that the young people gave up everything—their fathers, mothers, relatives, and friends—to do the will of our Lord in Korea. I thank the Lord for them and thank you friends wTbo prayed to the Lord. I hope they will go to Korea as soon as the conflict is settled and do the great work of our Lord m Korea.

Now I am standing before you again to speak on the subject, “The church in Korea.” I will not tell you about the church in Korea—when and how the churches were established there or other things concerning her. But one thing I want to sayr to you is that the church in Korea needs good Samaritans today. A long, long time ago a very intelligent and well educated young man came to Jesus and asked two questions— first, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” and secondly, “Who is my neighbor?” The result of these two questions was that there appeared three classes of men— namely, priest, Levite, and Samaritan—besides the thieves and wounded and half dead man, I will read the parable of the Good Samaritan according to the gospel of Luke (Luke 10:25-37). I am sure that you all know this parable well, but I want you to refresh your minds in this parable. “And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him saying, Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life? . . . Then said Jesus unto him, Go and do thou likewise.”

Let us think about this parable. I believe that it is the best and greatest teaching of Jesus Christ by the parables, for both humanity and morality. In this parable there are. five kinds of men—namely: priest, Levite, Samaritan, thieves, and wounded man. I think this parable represents the five human races in the world or the first three classes of men represent us m this room religiously. That is, according to the teaching of this parable, every one of us belongs to one of these classes—namely: priest, Levite, or Samaritan. Now where shall we put ourselves —in the place of the priest, Levite, or Samaritan. As far as I am concerned, I do not belong to any of these because I am a Korean and standing before you m behalf of the Korean refugees who are. starving to death and frozen to death as you know through the first- pages of the newspapers every day.

I would t'ke to emphasize one word in this parable; that is, the word of “chance.” Jesus Christ said, “And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.” “And likewise a Levite” and the Samaritan. These three men all had the same chance to prove themselves—what kind of people they were. I do believe that there is a chance for the world to be peaceful or to be in chaos. Each nation has also a chance to prove what kind of nation she is. So individually, every person has his or her chance to prove to be good or bad. .
The priest and Levite had exactly the same chance as the Samaritan had. But the first two men when they saw the chance, they passed by on the other side. I am sure that chance never came to them again. Thank the Lord that the third man, a Gentile or heathen, yet instead of passing by on the other side, took the chance “and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he de-parted, he took out two pence and gave them to the host, and said unto him, take care of him; and whatever thou spendest more, vdien I will come again, I w ill repay thee.” Indeed, he was wise enough to take the chance and use it. Certainly, he was gracious enough to have “compassion on him” who fell among the thieves and was half dead. Surely, he was merciful enough to go to him, and bind up his w ounds pouring in oil and wine and set him on Ins own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And. on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence and gave them to the host saying unto him, “Take care of him, and whatever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.” Indeed, he was lovely enough to be the “neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves.” I am sure you will agree with me if I will say that our lord had said to that Samaritan, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” because, “Inasmuch as ye did it unto him that fell among the thieves, even this least, ye did it unto me.” Don’t you think it will be a fine and wonderful thing if all of you put yourselves in the place of the Samaritans and can hear the voice of our Lord? We should take the chance and do it.
Now I will show you a picture that we Koreans have never passed away the chance, when we get it, by telling my own experience.
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In June, 1935, I came to Nashville, Tennessee, for my third trip to America. In Nashville I went to the graduation exercises of Mon Suk Kang (some of you might know him) who was a very intelligent and faithful young Methodist preacher. Dr. Yang, a Methodist bishop, brought him to Vanderbilt University and educated him four years because he thought that he would be a very useful man in Korea if he had an American education. After the graduation exercises, we went to a restaurant and had a fine dinner. Then we went to the capitol grounds and sat down on the grass and were talking about different things. Finally he said, “Oh, I am happy.” I said to him, “Why are you happy?” He said, “I will go back to Korea and will see my wife and daughter.” I said, “When will you go?” and he answered, “Next Wednesday.” I then said, “I am very sorry about it.” He got mad at me and said, “What is the matter with you?” I said, “Because it is exactly my experience. You have been in Vanderbilt only four years, but I was in Northwestern University seven years and went back to Korea. I preached for fourteen years nothing but Methodism to the Koreans. So you will preach Methodism only because you have nothing but Methodism.” He said, “What is the difference between Methodism and Christianity?” Then I took out my New Testament from my pocket and showed him the differences. Then he said, “It is different.” “Where will you preach next Sunday?” I said to him, “I will preach in Waverly-Belmont.” He asked me where the church was and I showed him how to get there. He came, and I preached on the subject, “What must I do to be saved.” Then I went to the 12th Avenue church of Christ in the evening to speak. Mon Suk Kang went to Waverly-Belmont that very evening and was baptized by one of the elders, Brother Lipscomb. Indeed, he took the chance to be saved. Certainly, this story proves that the Koreans never pass up the chance, if they have any chance to be saved. The next Monday morning he came to me and said, "Oh, I am really happy now.” I said, “I am happy, too.” He said, “I will go to Korea with you.” I said, “It is right, but I would like to make a suggestion. If I were you, I would stay in one of the colleges of the church of Christ at least two years. You have the truth but just enough for yourself. You don’t have enough truth to give to the Koreans. Therefore, you must have plenty truth first in the, college of the church of Christ, then you will go back to Korea with plenty of truth to give other Koreans.” Then he said, “Oh, I would like to do that, but how can I stay here two years because I haven’t any money. The Methodist church people supported me entirely for four years.”. I said to him, “Never mind about the money part, if you really want to stay in one of the colleges of the church of Christ. They will help you financially better than the Methodist.” He said, “Yes, I will.” So, I wrote to Brother N. B. Hardeman about him and Brother Hardeman wrote me back saying for me to send him there and they would take care of him. So he took that chance again and went to Freed-Hardeman College and got plenty of truth in two years there. Then he went back to Korea to give the chance to those Koreans who were in the shadows of death to be saved by the preaching of the simple New Testament truth. Do you think we Koreans pass away the chance as the priest and Levite or do we Koreans take the chance as the Samaritan? Certainly, we Koreans have never passed away the chance.

Now I will prove to you that the church in Korea has never failed to take the chance as Brother Mon Suk Kang did. Brother Kang went back to Korea and began to give the chance to the Koreans to be saved. In the first place, he gave the chance to his mother and wife by preaching the New Testament truth. They took the chance to be saved. His mother had been a Presbyterian Bible woman for thirty years. She had the highest salary among the Bible women because she worked longer than others, but she gave up the highest salary and poeicion to take the chance to be saved. Then she began to help her son, Brother Kang.

I am sorry to say that Brother Kang got sick and died, then she couldn’t live with her daughter-in law because they had no income to support them. So she went to China because her daughter who married a Presbyterian preacher was in China working among the Koreans. She stayed in the Presbyterian church preacher’s home and got all of her support from him financially, but she kept the truth just the same. We have a proverb in Korea something like this, “If a man has a needle in his pocket, the needlepoint comes out when the pocket is touched outside.” She had the truth in her heart. When she spoke with the Presbyterian women, the truth came out from her heart just a little, as the needlepoint came out from the pocket. One woman said, “Oh, I never heard that. Let me see my Bible.” She looked up her Bible then. She was interested and another woman did the same thing. There were four women who wanted to know the truth. They asked her to teach them the Bible regularly on every Sunday. It is the Korean women’s characteristic that when she sees something good, she wants to have it. She was very glad to have the chance to teach them the simple New Testament truth. Of course, it is a natural thing that those women were talking to their husbands at their homes, that they were learning the truth. One man was interested about it and said to his wife, “I would like to go to your Bible class and hear about the truth.” So she brought her husband to her Bible class. Another woman talked about the Bible study to her husband, and he wanted to come to the class, too; so she brought her husband there, too. Finally the four women brought all their husbands to the Bible class. Then the other Presbyterian church people joined the Bible class to learn the New Testament truth. Indeed, it is in the Koreans’ characteristic that if they know something good, they want to have it. Also, I may say it is the Korean church characteristic today because the Christians are the members of the body of the church of Christ.

Now they learned the truth fully how to be saved and wanted to be baptized in immersion for the remission of their ‘sins, but who could baptize them? There wasn’t anyone who was baptized in immersion except Brother Kang’s mother, but she was a woman so she couldn’t do it according to the New Testament church. Their hearts were burning for the truth more and more. They wanted to obey the Lord in the baptism for the remission of sins. They knew through the Bible studies that they had to be buried with Jesus Christ in the baptism to be a new creature. Their hearts were burning continuously for the truth; therefore, they decided to collect some money and send one of the them to Korea to be baptized in immersion and come back'to China to baptize them all. So they did it. One of them came to Seoul, Korea. I was in the North and he couldn’t come to me for he had limited money so he went to one of the digressive preachers, Mr. Sung, and was baptized in immersion by him. Then he went back to China and baptized all of them there. It is the characteristic of the church in Korea. Did you ever hear such a story as this? Indeed, the Koreans are trying to have the truth, if someone will teach it to them. That is how the church in Korea wants to grow in wisdom of God and in the grace of our Lord.

Then the Presbyterian church in Korea heard about how their members in China had been baptized in immersion. They wrote to the missionary, “What was the matter? We sent you money every month to preach Presbyterianism, but you did something else.” Of course, the preacher didn’t want his mother-in-law to stay in his house any more so she had to come out from her son-in-law’s house. Then all of the new born Christians came out from the Presbyterian church and had their own worship services to worship the Lord in spirit and truth as the apostolic church did, and they collected money on the first day of the week to support Sister Kang. They kept the Lord’s Day, just as the churches of Christ in America, having communion services every Lord’s Day and had no musical instruments in the worship of the Lord. They were getting along very nicely; but when the second World War was stopped, then the Chinese rose up and killed the Japanese and Koreans. All the Koreans were trying to come back to Korea. Three families of Christians came to Seoul and joined the Nasoo Chung church of Chust which was the first of the four churches in Seoul and my family attended there. They were very active. The name of one of the three families is Ohai. That family saved my family at the time of the Red’s occupation of Seoul. It is also a wonderful story which shows the characteristic of the church in Korea. When the Reds captured Seoul the first time on June 27, 1950, the Reds came to our home and forced all of my family to go to the outside of the city where no one could see them to kill them. But my wife and whole .family were crying out and making a big noise. Then the Reds let them stay at the home, and they took away all the rice and money that my wife had, leaving them to starve to death. The Reds did this twice. After that robbers came with pistols and took away everything they could. Then my wife had absolutely nothing for the family to live on. There were many people around our home whom we thought were our friends. But they did nothing for my family. Even Mr. Lee, a son of the Methodist preacher who was very rich, and wrho I thought was our best friend and neighbor and who lives in the next house to us, did nothing for my family. But Brother Chai and his family brought a few pounds of barley to my wife, although they live a long way from us. My wife put a handful of the barley into a big kettle with lots of water and boiled it. The whole family ate the barley soup winch helped to keep them alive until the IT. N. Forces recaptured Seoul, September, 1950. Thank the Lord that he saved my family through Brother Chai and his family. This event proved the parable of the good Samaritan and the characteristic of the church in Korea. The church in Korea is certainly like the church at the apostolic age; they helped each other as they could. The above event reminds me of a proverb in Korea which says, “Anything comes out from you will return to you.” And I also remember the scripture which says, “Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.” I hope you all see the picture that I have tried to show you; that is, if I hadn’t helped Mon Suk Kang in Nashville, June, 1935, to have the chance to obey, the Lord, do you think my family could have been saved in Seoul last year? Surely 'it couldn’t be. How wonderful the work of our Lord is! I did just little work of salvation in Nashville in 1935, but it went around to Korea and China and came back to Seoul and saved my whole family. Indeed, this event proved the parable of our Lord of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32). By the way, I don’t know how long I will speak this morning. The program shows that there isn’t anyone going to speak after my speech until this evening. It means that I can speak all day long if you will listen to me that long. Well, I suppose you like to have your good dinner rather than to hear my poor speech; so I will stop my speech at twelve because I don’t want you to miss your good dinner. In conclusion, again I say to you, friends, I am standing before you and am seeking to find “Good Samaritans” for, as you know through the pictures on television, and through the voices on the radio, and from the first pages of the newspapers daily, the terrible conditions in Korea. Indeed, millions of Koreans fell among the thieves of communism. Some of them are the members of the church of Christ who are your brethren and sisters. Certainly, they are wounded and half dead physically and spiritually. Won’t you have compassion on them? Won’t you bind up their wounds and pour in oil and wine? Won’t you take care of them? Won’t you be a neighbor to them as the Samaritan was for the wounded man? I am sure if you do it, likewise you will hear the voice of our Lord, “Well done, good and faithful servant—enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these, my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me.”