Primary source content from the True Jesus Church in China (prior to 1949).

For years, I've held on to a "stash" of a few original documents that my mom carried over to the United States from China. These were "treasure" to her. And yet for years I've been unable to read them, since I'm unable to read Chinese.

Recently, I've taken to scanning them and having ChatGPT translate for me. ChatGPT still in its nascent stages, but from what I can tell so far it's not doing a bad job. As AI improves it'll surely do a better and better job, so I've also included high-resolution scans for other non-Chinese speakers like me who want to run it through AI themselves (or Chinese speakers who wish to translate it on your own). 

There are those who believe that church members should not be able to see early publications like these directly, and that someone needs to "screen" them for their own "safety". I disagree. Especially if you believe that the Holy Spirit dwells within you.

These were words written within the first 30 years of the church's founding. These early workers saw miracles happening among them constantly. They saw the Spirit descending abundantly. When they prayed, they heard the Spirit clearly. 

Anyone with the Holy Spirit and a decent dose of humility should should be able to read these and discern, fairly easily, which parts were from the Spirit and which parts were not. And even for those parts that may strike you as not 100% scriptural, ask yourself—what was the Spirit trying to tell them? 

Honestly, I'm thankful that my Chinese is so bad that I don't have to listen to revisionist historians try to project what was in the minds and hearts of these early workers. For example, I read in passing some nonsense about early workers aspiring to become a "state church" of the Republic of China, simply because they had some government officials sign a commemorative anniversary booklet of the church. All I had to do was read one article from the Holy Spirit Times to show how ludicicrous that notion is. And yet because these men are not able to speak for themselves, others put words in their mouths. 

After reading a fair amount of these, I'm convinced that those who are quick to pass off these "treasures" are blocking others from the Kingdom of God. 

I suggest that if you choose to read this, you do so in the same Spirit: think of the world that these holy workers lived in. 

They had been granted something that no one else in the world had been: baptism according to the Bible that enabled the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 70 years of cynicism and disappointment may tempt us to project our own foibles and biases into their words. But step into their world as you read their words, and try to understand how the Spirit led them. It may open our eyes today to learning again how to accept the Spirit's guidance as they did.