A Forced Baptism in China

A Chinese pastor’s journey of faith from China to the Philippines and back.

By Andrew McChesney, adventistmission.org

An influential Seventh-day Adventist pastor in China was baptized because of his mother. But he only gave his heart to Jesus a decade later while participating in a public evangelistic series in the Philippines.

David grew up in an affluent family in China. His millionaire parents owned two successful factories and quarreled about money matters continuously. They divorced while David was a university student.

David’s mother, who didn’t believe in God, was downcast until a cousin introduced her to a Sunday church pastor. She began attending worship services regularly and one day asked for a popular Christian book. Instead, the pastor gave her a copy of “The Desire of Ages” by Adventist Church cofounder Ellen G. White.

Reading the book, David’s mother noticed a strong emphasis on the sacredness of the seventh-day Sabbath and decided to become an Adventist. Her daughter, David’s younger sister, also accepted the Sabbath.

David had no interest in his mother’s new faith. She gave him “The Desire of Ages,” and he only read it out of a sense of obligation. Then his mother began to put pressure on him.

“Your mother is a Christian, and your sister is a Christian,” she said. “But if you don’t believe, we won’t be able to meet in heaven.”

David got baptized, but the ceremony meant little to him.

“It was a forced baptism,” he said in an interview.

He drank, smoked, and ate pork. He opened a car-parts company with his best friend and worked on Sabbaths.

His mother, meanwhile, threw herself into sharing the gospel. She opened an Adventist church and then another. The second church took much of her time, so she asked David to preach in the first church.

David didn’t even know the Bible, and he retorted, “How can I preach?”

“Just read,” his mother said.

The sermon lasted an hour every Sabbath, so David opened the Bible and read until the time ran out. Then he promptly left.

Searching for God

Around that time, David quit his business amid a devastating court battle and decided that he wanted to learn more about God. He stopped drinking, smoking, and eating unclean meat, and enrolled in the theology program at an Adventist school in the Philippines. Still wondering about his future, he joined an Adventist evangelist for a month-long evangelistic campaign — part of the requirement for his education.

At one of the meetings, a schoolteacher told him that she had longed to be baptized for years but feared her non-Christian husband. She said her husband had threatened to kill her if she became a Christian.

David began Bible studies with the woman and watched as her faith grew. Finally, she was baptized. Afterward, David asked her, “Aren’t you afraid that your husband will kill you?”

“He may kill me,” the woman replied. “But I still wanted to be baptized.”

David was astonished by her faith in the face of death.

“I had never seen such faith before,” he said.

David doesn’t know what happened to the woman, but he said her husband didn’t kill her.

Also at the evangelistic meetings, David befriended a young boy who came every night and longed to be baptized. David went to the boy’s house to ask his parents for permission, but the parents, who belonged to a Sunday church, turned him away.

“We visited the parents many times, but they would not relent,” David said.

The evangelistic series ended, and David returned to his studies.

A Big Surprise

Six months later, an Adventist pastor approached David with a bewildering story. He said a family of four had showed up at his church with a request to be baptized. He had quizzed the parents, son, and daughter about the Bible and found that they understood the church’s beliefs. But he couldn’t figure out how they knew the Bible so well. No local church members knew the family, and no one had given them Bible studies.

Finally, the pastor asked the parents, “What made you decide to join the Adventist Church? How did you hear about the church?”

“An evangelistic series was held in our town six months ago,” the father said. “A Chinese man came to our house many times to talk about our son, who wanted to be baptized. We strongly opposed his baptism. But after six months of consideration, our whole family has decided to join the church.”

David couldn’t believe his ears.

“I realized that God always has a way, even when everything seems hopelessness,” he said.

Those two experiences and others convinced David that he wanted to become a pastor, and he accepted Jesus in the Philippines.

“I learned about Jesus, strengthened my faith, and decided to work for Him,” he said.

Today, David is 49 and serves as an influential pastor in China.

“My life has been a journey,” he said. “From my forced baptism to my studies in the Philippines, I have learned to trust God and to work for Him.”

Adventist Mission is not publishing David’s full name or location to protect his work.