How Long?

“How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou forget me for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?” — Psalm 13:1 (ASV)

After his arrest Nee waited years for a trial. The system did not work like a modern court, with a quick hearing, open evidence and an independent lawyer. Meanwhile the state pressed hard on the churches: co-workers were investigated, meetings were watched, and public accusation became part of the show. For the believers, the not-knowing may have been harder than a sentence.

In 1956 Nee was publicly condemned as the head of a “counterrevolutionary” group and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. The state's case included charges of economic misconduct, political crimes and sexual immorality. Many of the people who loved him were devastated.

How should anyone handle charges like that? The full-length biography refuses two easy answers. It won't erase the charges, and it won't repeat them as if they were proven.

On one side, the trial took place inside a system that used forced confessions and public denunciation as political tools. A confession signed under that kind of pressure isn't worthless, but it isn't like evidence given in a free court either. On the other side, some later biographers outside the movement argue that the evidence of serious personal wrongdoing was substantial, while accounts from within the movement stress fabrication, coercion and persecution. A Christian's loyalty to the truth means we can't declare every accusation impossible just because Nee was persecuted.

So the biography lands on something narrower and firmer. Nee was without question targeted and imprisoned as part of a Communist campaign to bring independent religious leaders under control. The exact truth of every moral and financial charge is still disputed. You can admire him without pretending to a certainty that history doesn't give.

His wife Charity paid too. She was educated and capable, and she also suffered arrest and persecution for being married to him. During his imprisonment she became one of his few links to ordinary life outside.

The churches went on without him. Some joined the state-recognised structures; some kept meeting outside them; persecution scattered others. Because ordinary believers had learned to pray, teach and gather in homes, the movement survived in many forms. The state silenced the teacher, but it couldn't easily silence the teaching.

What happens to your faith when someone you look up to is accused of something terrible? Paul gives a steadying line: “let God be found true, but every man a liar.” The truth of the gospel doesn't depend on any messenger being perfect. That cuts both ways. If a leader really did wrong, the truth should come out and be faced. If a leader is falsely accused, the truth should be defended. Either way, Christ, not the leader, is Lord.

The Bible itself doesn't airbrush its heroes. David committed serious sin and still wrote psalms we pray today. Peter denied Jesus and was restored. A faith that can survive the truth about people is stronger than a faith that needs its heroes to be perfect.

And if you are in a stretch of waiting yourself, the psalm at the top of this chapter is in the Bible for a reason. You are allowed to ask God, “How long?” Biblical faith makes room for that question, and God does not turn away from the people who ask it.

One thing to do this week: think of a Christian you admire, a leader, writer or musician. Thank God for what you've received through them. Then write one sentence finishing this: “My faith rests on Christ, not on them, because ...”