Who was Miao Zizhong, Cedar of Lebanon?

On the night of October 17, 1989, more than a thousand tearful Christians gathered outside a small village in Wencheng County, a mountainous area southwest of the city of Wenzhou. As the brothers and sisters respectfully sang “Waiting for the Lord’s Return to Meet Again,” the body of Miao Zizhong was lowered into a grave. This man, who had gone to be with his Lord at the age of 73, was so highly respected that he had earned the nickname “the Cedar of Lebanon” from his fellow believers.

In the 1950s a total of 49 Chinese pastors from the Wenzhou area were arrested and sent to prison labor camps in northeast China’s frozen Heilongjiang Province. Of these 49 men, Miao Zizhong was the only one to survive the ordeal and return home alive.

Miao was born in 1916, and grew up without knowing the gospel. Indeed he regularly hurled foul-mouthed insults at the servants of the Lord. He became an angry man, bitterly lashing out at other people without provocation.

Everything began to change in Miao’s life in 1948, one year before China became a Communist country. When he was 32 he contracted a fatal disease, and when he went to the largest hospital in Wenzhou they declared his case incurable and advised him to return home and prepare for death. News got around that Miao was perishing, and a relative visited and pleaded with him to believe in Jesus Christ. He accepted the gospel and repented of his sins.

From the moment Miao received God’s offer of salvation, his physical condition improved, and after a while he was completely healed. Overcome with gratitude to the Lord for sparing his life, Miao surrendered his future to serving Him, and he immediately traveled to another county to preach the gospel.

For the next six years Miao continued to proclaim the good news to the spiritually hungry people of Zhejiang, until the authorities finally caught up with him in the winter of 1954. He was hauled in front of a “struggle session” by the local people’s militia, and was lectured about the evils of Christianity and commanded to sign a statement renouncing his faith. With a calm demeanor, Miao looked his persecutors in the eyes and declared:

“Jesus is the Savior of my life. I would be ungrateful to deny Him and as such I would go to hell. I cannot do this.” Upon hearing that, the cadres began to gnash their teeth and with their fists they started beating Zizhong viciously. He prayed fervently, asking the Lord for help. The evil men used every method, but in the end were unable to coerce Zizhong into submission.1

Although he was permitted to return home that day, Miao was declared a “counter-revolutionary,” and it was only a matter of time before the government officials decided what they would do to silence him. A few months later he was falsely charged with the crime of “collaborating with overseas counter- revolutionary organizations,” and was sentenced to five years’ reform through labor in Heilongjiang Province near the bor- der with Russia.

Miao struggled with the bleak conditions and the incessant back-breaking work at the prison camp. He had no hope in this world, and reasoned that if he was destined to die in that place then he should die sharing the gospel with his fellow inmates. When the prison authorities discovered he was still propagating his faith, they flew into a rage and added ten years to his sentence.

This extract has been taken from Zhejiang: The Jerusalem of China, the third volume in the China Chronicles series. 

Zhejiang, a prosperous eastern province, is home to the highest percentage of Christians in China. This volume describes how God established His kingdom there, using a one-legged Scotsman to bring the gospel to the large city of Wenzhou, which today contains so many churches it has earned the nickname 'the Jerusalem of China'. 

Zhejiang: The Jerusalem of China publishes on 15th August 2019. Order your copy here >>