Salvation Depends on God

By Zhu, Shi-Sheng

 

 

I am a psychiatrist from the mainland. For many years I gave my heart to help the mentally ill. The role I played is much like that of a savior. In spite of the of hard work, I often felt helpless. To heal an illness, a psychiatrist must first find the cause. In most cases the cause has sprung from an inability to coincide with one's own ideals and the requirement of one's own conscience; thus leading to chronic conflicts within one's self. Therefore having identified the cause, I must help the patient to reprogram the old self to restructure a suitable thinking and lifestyle.

In the West, this kind of psychiatry seemed to be quite effective, but when used on my fellow citizens in China, it didn't seem to work. After psychoanalyses, most patients understand what therapy to follow, but lack the will to carry out the new theory. Why? I'd thought about it for many years and still couldn't come up with the answer. . . not until I had come to the U.S. to further my study in psychiatry. The interesting thing was I did not find the answer in my study in Psychiatry but rather in the Christian Church. This breakthrough especially reminded me of the period during the heat of the cultural revolution. In my secret thought - that during the height of communism, people were looking forward to a utopia on earth. Supported by an ideal, people seemed to possess super-will to act what ordinary folks could not. So that during that period, the Chinese might have lacked food and clothing, but never in will power (sometimes overly so) because all those with a fervent faith are like this. Moreover, it is not even necessary that their faith had to be the truth. However, this will-power is something absolutely necessary for the second half of psychiatry for establishing a new life-style.

Thus I understood the reason for the positive result of psychiatry in the West, while it failed in China: because many Christians live a life according to the will of God over that of man. Out of the "fear of God", when darkness is realized, they would be willing to pull themselves up, whereas in China, since Communism is wilting, leaving behind in human hearts emptiness, numbness, darkness and a sense of loss. Surrounded by such an atmosphere, psychiatry/psychotherapy only brought to the surface the weakness/helplessness of mankind. The final analysis is, man is a creature who cannot save himself. Therefore, mankind must look for a Superior Being beyond the limits of time and space, - the Creator, - for his salvation.

Among the Chinese, there are the "mannerisms" of Confucius, the "methods" of Taoism, the "realizations" of Buddhism and the "scientificism" of Communism - all are human efforts in trying to save oneself. The failure of all these systems has proved that there is no right way from self righteousness. What does it mean by the right/true way? In comparing Christianity with Communism, it has revealed to me something important. There are indeed some similarities. The reason came from borrowing some of the western and Biblical treasures when presenting communism to China to boost its moral values. There are many "stolen" ideologies e.g. these is a savior. "He is the big saving star of the people"; love and other virtues "caring and loving each other" "Be a noble person", "serve the people", be humble, be watchful/vigilant, be faithful, obedient, obey Chairman Mao and walk with communism, glorify Chairman Mao because all blessings depend on him etc. Among all these jargon, we find the imprints of Christian biblical influence. At that time, Chinese Communism swept away all traditional Chinese philosophies and substituting them with a most unfamiliar communistic ideologies; almost like playing classical instruments to a cow. But they imported a great quantity of Christian ideologies into communism propaganda. With the infection of the Bible, they sold communism to the people for several decades - but for a few decades - because "a fake is a fake" (a counterfeit is a counterfeit). The vain nature of communism predestined its resulting bankruptcy. It is actually a comic tragedy in the world. On the other hand, it has proven the value and power of the Bible. And because the Bible is the infallible truth, the factual history of Christianity has not diminished over the thousands of years. Christianity forces no one; there is always a stream of believers - because of its inner drawing power eliciting deep thoughts. In my opinion, although mankind has been estranged from God (because of sin), yet deep within there is a power to respond to Him. If only a heart is willing to listen, it will hear the calling of God. It is a pity that at present many of us are still wasting time to wander aimlessly, perhaps because the Chinese people have once been deceived by an imitation Christianity in communism. Moreover, having realized the emptiness of communism, they have thrown it aside most sadly. This period of history has left behind a side effect on an injured soul - so that the entire nation seems to believe that they've seen through all philosophies pertaining to the human soul. As a result, to all those who have felt being tricked by communism, there is a great stumbling block to accepting Christianity which might turn out to be another version of communism. Thus they stubbornly refused Christ. To this special group, we must first help them to see the difference, to identify the stolen ideologies and to point out its own emptiness. We must never throw out the real truth or let the filthy rag wrapping the precious diamond devalue the diamond. We should not transport the fear of communism belief onto Christian belief. After this is first cleared, the Gospel can be heard without bias. Only then can one receive salvation of his soul.

 

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Abridged from page 28, June 1996 issue of Overseas Campus Magazine.

Dr. Zhu came from Hunan, a medical doctor of Psychiatry. He is now a graduate student in Psychology at Dallas, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.


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