1939 - Wang Jinzhang

November 1939

Taiyuan, Shanxi

Many had thought the terrible blows inflicted on the Church in Shanxi Province during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 would set the gospel back generations. This proved gloriously wrong, as God poured His Spirit out throughout the province, bringing thousands into his kingdom. At the capital city of Taiyuan, the leaders of the Baptist churches were warned in May 1939 that they would face trouble unless they agreed to leave their mission compound.

The frontline of the Civil War between the Nationalists and the Japanese was nearby, and the Chinese Christians were suspected by both sides of aiding the enemy. In June, a Chinese evangelist was arrested by the Japanese. Later, “he and another, possibly the Chinese pastor who had organized the mission, were beaten to death.”[1]

On Sunday July 16, 1939, after the conclusion of a service at the Martyr Memorial Church, Japanese gendarmes surrounded the entire congregation of about 200 Christians and loaded them onto lorries. They were taken to the police headquarters and questioned. A total of

“46 were detained, but released after some of them had been beaten, and all had been ‘warned’. But 16 of our more prominent brethren, including evangelists, hospital-staff, nurses, and members of the church and congregation, were taken to Japanese military headquarters and…charged with complicity in Chinese guerrilla activities in the neighbourhood. All were bound and beaten, and some were tortured to extract information or confessions. It is understood that all, except one, our evangelist Wang Jinzhang…were eventually released.”[2]

Wang Jinzhang was an elderly evangelist associated with the British Baptist Mission. It is believed the reason he was singled out for harsh treatment was because of the courageous manner he had endured being beaten when first arrested. The Japanese tried to torture him into signing a false confession saying he was part of the Chinese guerrilla forces. He refused to admit to something he had no knowledge of. The Japanese then told Wang that he must bow down and give honour to a picture of the Japanese Emperor. This Wang steadfastly refused to do, telling his torturers that only Jesus Christ was worthy to be honoured. After several months of “the severest treatment he was barbarously done to death.”[3]