The Way of the Cross and the Choices That We Made (Simplified Chinese)
by Wang Xiangheng
A house church pastor looks back on the choices of his generation when they were forced to choose between loyalty to the state and loyalty to God in 1950. In many ways unprepared for the test they were given, these saints who founded China’s house churches came to understand their path as “the way of the cross.”
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Wang Xiangheng (1938–2024) was a surgeon and house church pastor who lived in the same courtyard in Beijing for 74 years. Born in Hengyang, Hunan, his faith was nurtured from an early age in a Christian home. He graduated from Beijing Medical University and served many years as a surgeon at Xuanwu Hospital. He embraced the gospel during his youth, and suffered a five year imprisonment and 19-year separation from his wife and two sons during the Cultural Revolution. Later in life, he devoted himself to working as a medical volunteer among the poor and started a house church in his home. He became affectionately known as “Dr. Wang” or “Uncle Wang,” and many neighbors came to embrace the Christian faith through his testimony.
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Category: Devotional
Date created: 2016
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:19-21, 2 Timothy 2:15-19, Romans 13:1-2
Key terms: house church history, the way of the cross, persecution
