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Till the late nineteenth century, lower than 0.1% of the Korean inhabitants was Christian. Immediately, solely somewhat over a century later, 28% of South Koreans are Christians. South Korea at the moment sends extra missionaries overseas than some other nation besides the USA. Right here is the way it occurred.
From the inception of Christian motion, Korean Christians determined to not take part in ancestor worship, which was an integral a part of the predominantly Confucianist Korean society. They consulted Scriptures and determined that it was unbiblical. On account of that call, there was a scientific persecution of Christianity in Korea for the reason that late 18th century when Roman Catholic Christianity was first formally launched to Korea.
In the course of the nineteenth century, about 10,000 Catholics had been martyred. Presently, Korea has the fourth largest variety of saints within the Catholic world. Korea’s first native-born Catholic priest, Andrew Daegun Kim, was beheaded in 1846 on the age of 25. The primary Protestant missionary martyr in Korea was Robert Jermain Thomas who handed his final Bible to his executioner with a smile, earlier than he was beheaded on the age of 27 in 1866. The executioner saved his Bible, and his nephew later turned a pastor.
From 1910 to 1945, the important thing problem for Christians in the course of the Japanese occupation was Shinto Shrine worship. Many Christians refused to bow down. Rev. Chu Kichol is without doubt one of the martyrs who steadfastly preached towards Shinto shrine worship. He was imprisoned for it in 1938, refused to recant even underneath extreme torture and ultimately died in jail in 1944.
In the course of the 1919 Independence Motion underneath Japanese colonialism, 15 of the 33 signers of the Declaration of Independence had been nationwide Christian figures. Within the Thirties when many Christians had been persecuted for refusing to worship the Japanese emperor and the spirits at Shinto shrines, Rev. Sohn Yang Gained was additionally imprisoned for 5 years for refusing to let his congregation take part.
Throughout “The 1948 Yeo-Quickly Rebel,” his two sons had been brutally murdered by a left-wing pupil. In obedience to Christ’s command to like the enemies, Rev. Sohn requested the courtroom to pardon him and later even adopted him as his personal son. This man was radically reworked by Rev. Sohn’s love and have become a faithful follower of Christ.
Shortly after the top of Japanese occupation, the Korean Warfare broke out in 1950, and Christians went via one other horrific interval of extreme struggling and martyrdom. The communist regime of North Korea sought to crush the Christianity, and the brutal atrocities of that period are effectively chronicled and documented, as is the heroic and brave witness of Christians who died for his or her allegiance to Christ. An estimated 300,000 Christians disappeared from North Korea since 1948, and about 100,000 extra had been despatched to labor camps.
The martyrdom of many believers in the course of the Korean Warfare triggered many others who survived the persecution in North Korea to maneuver to South Korea and start spreading the gospel, which was the first cause for the fast progress of the South Korean church buildings after the struggle. Korean Christianity roughly doubled every decade from 1945 to 1985.
As Tertullian declared, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Korean church buildings grew quickly within the midst of persecution and martyrdom. Simply as Jesus’ loss of life and resurrection introduced many to religion and the early Christians’ martyrdom led to fast progress of Christianity, the expansion of the Korean church was additionally largely indebted to the struggling and martyrdom of Christians in key moments of its quick historical past. There are most likely many contributing elements to the thriving of the Korean tradition and economic system immediately, however I imagine a lot is owed to the affect of Korean Christianity strengthened by martyrdom.
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