Rev. John Sung: Gulangyu Miracles

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8 耶稣基督，昨日今日一直到永远是一样的。希伯来书 13:8

John Sung (click here for biography & photos), the famous Chinese evangelist from Fujian, is said by many to have been the greatest evangelist of the 20th century--perhaps surpassing even Billy Graham. But like most famous figures, he was controversial. Chinese flocked to hear him, but many foreigners, including missionaries, were not so enamored of him, as I learned when I interviewed two elderly Christians (brother and sister) on Gulangyu Islet, who shared with me about the John Sung service they attended, and of John Sung's unique preaching style--as well as the controversial healings.

I have seen amazing answers to prayer, but even so, I am skeptical of the "professional healers," so this story was especially interesting to me, and is a good reminder that our Father is indeed "the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow."

Interview of two eyewitnesses of John Sung's Gulangyu Service (1930s), Bill Brown, 2008

Gulangyu Brother: "We were junior high students when John Sung preached here on Gulangyu in the 1930s. Foreign missionaries did not like his style. They said he was too theatrical on stage. He was animated, and waved his arms about as he preached. He prayed for hours, and then preached for hours, but people could never get enough of his preaching.

"So many people went onto the stage for John Sung to pray for them that it was like an assembly line. They went up the left side of the stage, John Sung prayed for them, then he touched their forehead, and they would exit the right side of the stage. But many of them fainted when he touched their forehead, and someone would catch them. And after his services, there were crutches left by those who had been healed."

Bill Brown: "This sounds like a modern televangelist meeting to me! Were any healings really documented? Did you personally see any people that you know for sure were healed?"

Gulangyu Sister: "We were just children, and did not know most of the people. But one that for certain was healed was our school principal's son, who could not walk because of childhood illness [I was just told it was congenital, and he'd not walked since birth]. They wheeled him in his chair up the left side of the stage. John Sung prayed for him as quickly as he prayed for everyone else, and touched his forehead--and the boy got up out of his wheelchair and walked off the stage! So we don't know about the other healings, but that one healing was enough to shake up a lot of people on Gulangyu Islet!"

Related Link: "Water From a Chinese Rock"

Mr. Lim, who is writing a dissertation on John Sung, wrote the following about this famous healing:
"Following up on your interview account, I have actually met and interviewed (2003) the older brother of the young boy healed by Sung.  The family's name is X.., I was told the boy was five years old and his father taught at the Anglo-Chinese School (some literature say college, but i know it's a high school, can you confirm?). Apparently he walked home by himself.  His grandmother, though a faithful Christian, doubted the news she heard that the grandson could walk. Upon seeing the boy walking towards her house, she suddenly found that she could not utter a single word (literally). Realizing she was much like Zechariah of old who was mute due to his disbelief, she quickly knelt to confess her sin of disbelief. She regained her speech after that...


[The rest I have discretely left out; needless to say, this made a big impact upon the family, especially upon the healed boy's older brother, who is still alive today.  It helped give him courage during the difficult 50s and 60s].

"Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize...  Philippians 3:13,14  "弟兄们，我不是以为自己已经得着了。我只有一件事，就是忘记背后努力面前的，向着标竿直跑，要得神在基督耶稣里从上面召我来得的奖赏。" 腓利比书3:13,14
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