A Spiritual Awakening in the “Land of the Morning Calm”
FOR many centuries Korea was called Cho-sen, meaning “morning calm.” But there is little calm during mornings in Korea now. Instead, the noises of bulldozers, trucks and cranes pierce the air at numerous construction sites. A remarkable surge of economic activity has swept Korea in recent years.
The “Land of the Morning Calm” is awakening, however, not just materially, but also spiritually. How so? Recently there has been a pronounced shift in the attitude of many Koreans toward the Bible teaching work of Jehovah’s witnesses. Typical of this change are the remarks of Mr. Kim, a successful businessman in Seoul, the capital:
“I made my fortune by hard work from the bottom up. I made all the money I thought my family needed. And now that we are comfortable for ourselves, I see the world falling apart around us.” Gesturing with strong, weather-beaten hands, he continues: “For many years I was skeptical of my wife’s being one of Jehovah’s witnesses. But now I am beginning to realize that as the world system crumbles, Jehovah’s witnesses are really teaching the truth.” Mr. Kim thus made his decision to learn about the unfailing hope offered by the Bible.
Similarly, Mr. Choi Chang-Soo, a gardener from Chonju city, at first opposed his wife’s house-to-house Bible teaching. But then things changed. “Though I had been a stubborn materialist,” he says, “I suddenly felt the limitation of humans and the need we have of the natural laws of God, which can be explained only through the Bible.” As a baptized Witness, he is now assisting others who feel this same need.
These expressions are typical of the many thousands who are now awakening spiritually in Korea. But twenty-six years ago the scene was quite different.
“SMALL BEGINNINGS”
In 1949, when Don and Earlene Steele arrived in Korea as the first missionaries from the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, they joined with less than twenty local Witnesses located in Seoul and Chonju. Most of these early Korean Witnesses had survived imprisonment and torture during the Japanese wartime occupation of Korea. Some are faithfully preaching even now.
“When we think of those days and the small beginnings,” the Steeles say, “it would have been very hard then to foresee the 119 thriving congregations we now have in the capital or the 10 in Chonju, where there is now an active Witness for every 200 of the population.”
In just five years, by 1954, the little group grew to 1,065. Ten years later, in 1964, over five times as many were preaching—5,538. And another ten years brought still another fivefold increase, to almost 28,000 active Witnesses at the end of 1974! Over 425 congregations throughout South Korea now serve every town and city of any size.
The Korean Bible has had a wide circulation, and even nonbelievers have respect for the Bible. Many are interested in its prophecies and their meanings. As a result, many thousands are finding the instructive meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses spiritually satisfying. About 40,000 attended the four district assemblies they held last summer, and more than 55,000 were at the annual celebration of the Lord’s Evening Meal on April 7, 1974. Their meeting places are usually full to overflowing on the three days they meet each week. The fact that most Kingdom Halls in Korea use straw floor mats rather than chairs helps, because more people can be seated in the available space on the mats.
“The thing that impresses us about the people here,” remarks Milton Hamilton, who came to Korea twenty years ago with his wife Elizabeth, “is the zeal with which they take up studying the Bible and their ability to stick to it—often attending the Kingdom Hall right from the start and beginning a Christian way of life.” The Korean Witnesses have developed into fine teachers of the Bible too.
“At first I thought they were not qualified enough to be out teaching,” says Mr. Park, the assistant principal of a Korean primary school who devotes all his time to education. “But the method of preaching, house-to-house work, return visits and home Bible studies is, I think, excellent. Especially when I studied for a while with your Mr. Cho, I could see the effectiveness of your method.” How effective was it? After having studied for just a short time, Mr. Park says, “Now I am no longer an atheist.”
FINDING LIFE’S PURPOSE
You may have noted from the foregoing experiences that the Bible teaching work of Jehovah’s witnesses is arousing the interest of Koreans from various walks of life. Honest-hearted people, from farmers to high government officials, are awakening spiritually.
One of many examples is Dr. Pyun Keun-Suk, a plastic surgeon. After becoming a surgeon, he opened his own hospital and sent his wife to medical school so that they could become a medical team. His life’s goal was to accumulate wealth. Also, his ambitious personality and pride drove him to become proficient and well-read in many fields, including interior decorating, sculpturing and others.
In the meantime, Dr. Pyun found his former Buddhism to be unsatisfying and he finally joined the Presbyterian Church. Realizing the need to change his overly ambitious personality, he immersed himself in church activities, visiting nursing homes and orphanages and doing other charitable works, thinking this would help. But ten years as a Presbyterian brought no change. Finally another doctor told him about Jehovah’s witnesses, and, though initially prejudiced, he eventually decided to find out more.
As Dr. Pyun began to recognize the unfolding of Bible prophecies and the Bible’s solid hope for the future, his ambitions for material things and his pride began to fade. Putting these things behind, he was baptized as a Christian witness of Jehovah in 1974. Some of Dr. Pyun’s non-Witness friends recently marveled at the fact that this prominent plastic surgeon willingly performed the “menial” task of directing traffic at a circuit assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses. Now he and his wife take turns, alternating months between spending one hundred hours teaching the Bible and caring for the hospital.
Can political position give life purpose and serve as a basis for helping humanity? In Namwon there is a former politician who thought so. He had been elected to the local assembly as a state representative at the early age of twenty-five. He tried hard to root out corruption by means of his position, but finally gave up in discouragement, realizing that such is impossible. He finally quit politics.
In the meantime, his wife had become one of Jehovah’s witnesses, and, at her encouragement, he attended one of their large district assemblies. “I was jolted to my senses,” he reflects. “I realized that these people had something real that I could learn.” He accepted their free assistance to learn from the Bible what will truly help humanity. Now he spends his full time in teaching others about God’s promised new system of things, rather than trying to change the old one.
SEEING THE DIFFERENCE
Often sincere Koreans awaken to the Bible’s true value when they note the difference between those who adhere uncompromisingly to its principles and those who merely profess to do so.
A member of a socially prominent Catholic family, Mr. Pyo Hwi-Sung, was another who had spent time in political service. For six years he had been secretary to the then prime minister of Korea. During all his work in important government assignments and in the business world, he says, he continually felt the need to be closer to God, but his religion offered little help.
Mr. Pyo first learned of Jehovah’s witnesses through his wife, who became gravely ill and was also pregnant. Due to her knowledge of the Bible, she refused an abortion even though her aunt, a nun of the Maryknoll order for over thirty years, and a priest encouraged her to go ahead with it. Mr. Pyo saw for himself in the Bible that God’s law opposes abortion, yet these church representatives encouraged it.—Ex. 21:22-24.
Further comparison of the Bible with teachings and practices of the Church amazed him, especially when these are compared with the way that the Witnesses stick to Bible principles under all circumstances. After delivering a healthy baby, Mr. Pyo’s wife regained her health. Mr. Pyo is now a full-time teacher of Bible principles to others.
Another who observed a difference in the practices of true Christians was a well-known fortune-teller from the southern city of Masan. She noticed that, of all the different religions, only Jehovah’s witnesses did not come to her for readings, and she wondered why. When her sister began to study the Bible, she had the chance to find out. This fortune-teller learned that Jehovah’s witnesses do not worry about the future because they have confidence in Bible prophecy. She also learned that fortune-telling is contrary to the Word of God.—Deut. 18:10-12.
Immediately she stopped her occult business, though it was her means of livelihood. Instead, as people came to have their fortunes told, she would tell them about what she was learning from her Bible study and encourage them to study also. In this way she started fifteen Bible studies in just a short time!
Thus the Bible teaching work of Jehovah’s witnesses is awakening people in every corner and island of the “Land of the Morning Calm.” The great increase in the number of those responding to it both here and earth wide shows that many more sincere people realize that now is the time for spiritual awakening. “Look! Now is the especially acceptable time. Look! Now is the day of salvation.”—2 Cor. 6:1, 2.