A "CEMETERY" WHOSE PRESIDENT
WAS A "COFFIN"

1926-1927

The autumn of 1926 saw Dr Sung Shang Chieh, B.A., M.Sc., Ph.D enrolled at Union Theological Seminary, New York City. It had a newly installed president Dr Henry Sloane Coffin by name. In after years Dr Sung made a humorous word-play of this situation, "I was enrolled in a seminary that taught a 'God-is-dead' theology, under the caretaking of a principal surnamed Coffin. But this seminary became a cemetery to my troubled soul." A hotbed of rankest modernistic and liberal theology it boasted amongst its professors Dr Harry Emerson Fosdick, world-renowned orator and pastor, later on of New York's famed Riverside Church. (Interestingly, the senior pastor of Riverside Church today is William Sloane Coffin the son of Henry Sloane Coffin who receives homosexuals and lesbians into the Church and sanctions their election to high office). The only conservative professor in Union at this time was Dr C S Deming, on sabbatical leave from Union Methodist Theolo­gical Seminary, Seoul, Korea, where he had been Professor of Theology. Sung was naturally drawn to him, while Dr Deming and his wife welcomed him often to their home for dinner.

In this Mecca of liberal theology, the Bible was taken at best to be a partially inspired book, but riddled with human inaccuracies and errors. Every subject for discussion taken from the Bible was put through the sieve of human reason­ing. Science judged the Bible and not the Bible science. The first eleven chapters of Genesis were written off as myth or saga. Miracles could not be accepted. Therefore the virgin birth of Christ, His substitutionary and vicarious death for man lost in sin, His bodily. resurrection, were consigned to the winds. Jesus was merely a man, and a good man at that --- for our example. Heaven meant to be full and hell to be hungry. Prayer was regarded to be some psychological process and auto-suggestion or in Dr Sung's words, "hypnot­ism". Could a more confusing bedlam of theological training be found than this to confound a soul in conflict?

Slowly and steadily Dr Sung's faith in God was whittled away. Coming close to being an atheist, the brilliant scholar in science but befuddled student in theology turned to sages and sutras of the Orient. If Christ be not risen the study of theology was in vain, to be sure! (I Cor 15: 14). If Christ be not risen Christianity was no better than Buddhism or Taoism. Dr Sung in veering away from Christ took to Taoism. Tao, the Way propounded by China's own metaphysical philosopher, taught "chastity and stillness." He attempted a translation of Tao Teh-ching, the writings of Laotse.

From Taoism he branched into Buddhism. He indulged in chanting the Buddhist scriptures hoping that by practicing the self-denial of Buddha he might earn his salvation. But these exertions availed him nothing. He finally searched the Koran, but again to no avail. He concluded neither science nor religion could satisfy the quest of his soul. "My soul at this time," he wrote, "was lost in a desert country. I could not eat or sleep. My faith was like a storm-tossed ship without captain or compass. My heart was filled with misery and sadness. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity ... of making of many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh" (Eccles 1:2; 12:12).

In this hour of darkest night, Dr Sung found solace in the companionship of a lady student. From companionship it grew into sympathy and from sympathy to love. This all the more added to his sorrows, because in the old tradition he had been betrothed to a girl in the same village even before he knew what marriage was. Marriage was arranged be­tween parents, in many cases, before the children were born! With a future wife contracted to him by his parents before he embarked on America, there was no possibility of a closer romance. Frustration of frustrations!

Just then it was advertised that an evangelistic campaign was going to be held before Christmas at Calvary Baptist Church in the heart of New York City. Out of curiosity and no doubt frustration, Sung joined some classmates on the, road to Calvary. The speaker was a fifteen-year-old girl, dressed all in white, with a gold-edged leather Bible in her hand. Her impassioned utterances in prayer and articulate reading of Holy Scripture made an immediate impact on the audience. Sung could sense a power not ordinarily present in Church services, much less at the Seminary's chapel hour.  As she spoke, tears of repentance could be seen falling in the pews, and when the invitation was given one by one went up to the pulpit to get right with God. While the seminarians scoffed out of their learned ignorance and academic blind­ness Sung confessed, "Even I, a proud man, was moved by her. My soul's thirst was somewhat quenched." An irresisti­ble force drove him back to Calvary Baptist Church, night after night. Now he was resolved to find out the source of power that worked through the girl evangelist, being sick with the whole outfit at Union Theological "Cemetery". "As for the girl evangelist," said he to himself, "she alone would qualify to be president or professor of a theological seminary. Our president should humble himself to learn the Truth from her. Without her spirituality in thought and deed, one who might put on an air of dignity as a seminary president is no different from a paper puppet."

Writing to a friend after the evangelistic meetings Sung discussed further the qualification of a minister of the gospel, "A preacher without life is repudiated by his Lord. To pass the test of Christ a preacher must examine if he has the baptism of the Holy Spirit and received the abundant life. During the days of the Apostles, Apollos went forth to preach without being baptized by the Holy Spirit. So the believers under his ministry knew nothing of what it was to be baptized by the Spirit."

But as he wrote those words Sung was pricked deeply in his own heart. He felt regretful that though he had joined a seminary with a view to holy service, yet he had not received the Spirit's baptism. So he stopped short penning the letter at this point. He could bear it no longer. He began to sob.

In a post-mortem of the evangelistic campaign at Calvary Baptist Church some fellows criticized the girl evangelist to be too emotional and superstitious. But Sung soliloquized, "I couldn't care less if she was too emotional or supersti­tious. O that I could preach as lively as she and pray with equal power."

During the winter vacation Sung devoted his time to the study of biographies of great men of Church history. He wished he had a fraction of their abundance of life and power. He would follow their footsteps in search for God. While he was thinking on these things on New Year's Eve suddenly there whispered a voice from within which said, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent" (I Cor 1: 19). What sounded like a still small voice from the recesses of his heart suddenly burst into a thunder clap, "I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE AND BRING TO NO­THING THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRU­DENT!!" Trembling under the impact Sung recalled once again the words of the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit bath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?" (Eccles 1:2,3). Then came an echo, "Scholarship is vanity. Talent is vanity. Life is vanity. Death is vanity. North, south, east, west, everything is vanity. Vanity, vanity, vanity!"

In the seclusion of Room 415 Sung was locked in a prolonged spiritual battle. His continued absence from the lecture theatre was noticed. In "My Testimony" which was published in 1933, he vividly remembered, "The heavy burden of my soul became heavier day by day until on February 10th I got to the point where I no longer had any desire to live." His heart became the battleground between Satan and the Holy Spirit in a life-and-death struggle to the end. "That night," recalled Sung, "I prayed. I prayed earnestly, intensely, in tears of penitence, asking the Lord to cleanse me by His precious Blood. I would live not for self anymore, nor for the glitters of this world, nor for my empty dreams. I bared open my heart asking the Lord to deliver me from the ravages of Satan on my body, soul and spirit."

It was about 10 pm that night of February 10th, 1927. As he prayed he saw all the sins he had committed, not the four Chinese vices of womanizing, gambling, drinking and smok­ing but of pride, hypocrisy, doubt and unbelief spread before his eyes one by one. He felt miserably condemned to Hell. In this predicament he searched for his long neglected, much read and underlined Bible. He found it in his trunk, and as he turned, it fell on Luke 23, the story of Jesus' Trial and Crucifixion. As he read and wept for the misery of his sins on bended knees, he realized it was midnight as the clock struck twelve.

Suddenly the Lord with pierced hands and wearing a crown appeared to him in a vision, standing before him and speaking in a compassionate voice, "My son, your sins are forgiven! Your name is now changed to John." John, no more the old noble and haughty Shang Chieh, said, "Lord Jesus, please don't leave me! I am sorrowing terribly be­cause of Your death for me." As the vision receded John felt a wonderful relief in the sudden rolling away of his sin-­burden. "Yes, that heavy burden that has oppressed me for months is suddenly lifted." Leaping to his feet with a shout of Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, he sang loud praises to God. His songs of praise rang through the corridors rousing some early sleepers in the dorms of the fourth floor.

Recalling Feb 10th, 1927 he said in an interview, "That night of nights, Feb 10th, 1927, was the birth of new life in me after forty days of wilderness struggle. I shall never forget. The same night I received our Lord's commission to go into all the world to be His end-time witness. The Lord changed my name to John that I should be a forerunner to Him in this age, like John the Baptist in His first coming. The Lord is coming very soon. He needs heralds before His return. Our Lord's Second Coming is different from his First Coming. He requires many forerunners, not one, today. We are to preach, "The Lord is at hand. Christ is coming very soon!"

Early next morning an entirely new person of a seminary student greeted everyone with joy shining all over as he began to tell the story of his salvation. The Hallelujahs that rang through the corridors the night previous now followed into the dining hall, the lecture theatre and into the library, wherever John Sung reappeared. At the first opportunity, he asked to be given time to speak at the International Club of which he was a member. O the pent-up joy of knowing Christ and the Way to Heaven that must be released to a world lying in sin! Wherever he went, whoever he met, his talk was Christ and His cleansing Blood. As he pleaded with individuals, tears welled up from within at every encounter.

As if to confirm the Great Commission upon him, a couple of days after that night of nights, Feb 10th, 1927, a man totally unknown to him presented him with a globe of the world. Sensing this, he bowed before the Lord with another prayer of dedication, "Lord, help me to fulfill Your will for my life." As he looked at the globe it seemed to change into a man carrying a cross out of which came forth weird creatures. As Sung looked closer at these creatures they were none other than the pastors, bishops and theolo­gical professors he had hitherto respected. At that the vision vanished.

Now while John Sung was gentle as a lamb to those who heard him gladly, he had the boldness of a lion against every power of darkness. Seeing with Spirit-anointed eyes the professors of the Seminary in their true colors he went straight up to his favorite teacher Dr Fosdick. Without ceremony he ejected, "You are of the devil. You made me lose my faith, and you are causing other young men to lose their faith." To which Fosdick replied, "Now, now, Brother Sung, you have been working too hard. You need a rest, so we will find you a place for you to rest."