Ju Gi-cheol

Life

Ju was born in 1897 in Ungcheon, South Gyeongsang Province. His original name was Ju Gi-bok. After his baptism he is said to have changed his given name to Gi-cheol to express his resolve to "believe in Christianity thoroughly." He graduated from Osan School in Jeongju and entered Yonhi College but withdrew because of illness. He later chose to enter pastoral ministry after being deeply moved at a revival meeting led by the Rev. Kim Ik-du at Munchang Church in Masan.

He is reported to have graduated from the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pyongyang in 1925. He then served as senior pastor of Choryang Church in Busan (1926–1931) and Munchang Church in Masan (1931–1936). While he was at Munchang Church, his first wife, An Gap-su, died, and he later married O Jeong-mo. In July 1936 he became pastor of Sanjeonghyeon Church in Pyongyang.

Because he refused to participate in Shinto shrine worship, he was arrested and imprisoned four times beginning in February 1938. On December 19, 1939, while he was in custody, the Pyongyang Presbytery deposed him from the ministry, and Sanjeonghyeon Church was closed. His sermon "My Prayer in Five Points," delivered at Sanjeonghyeon Church before his final arrest, is remembered as his last sermon. After long imprisonment and torture, he died in Pyongyang Prison on April 21, 1944.

Ministry and Accomplishments

• At Choryang Church he reorganized the session and the board of officers and founded a kindergarten. During his time at Munchang Church he served as moderator of the Gyeongnam Presbytery.
• He taught the Bible at the Gyeongnam Bible Institute, where the Revs. Son Yang-won and Han Sang-dong studied under him.
• He regarded the Bible as the inerrant Word of God and the source of all preaching. Even after most denominations had accepted shrine worship and the Presbyterian General Assembly itself had resolved to treat it as a civic rite, he did not waver in his refusal. His sermon on ilsa gago (一死覺悟), meaning "resolved to die once," has endured as a phrase that symbolizes his faith.

Influence on the Korean Church

In the Korean church he is regarded as the quintessential martyr. Numerous books and films have been produced about his life. His son, Elder Ju Gwang-jo, traveled throughout the country telling others of his father's faith as a martyr.

After Korea's liberation, efforts arose to redress the church's deposition of him. In 2006 the Pyongyang Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Tonghap) held a service of repentance in which it repented of the resolution approving shrine worship and of his deposition, and it restored his ministerial standing. In the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church in Korea (Hapdong) as well, the Pyongyang Presbytery and related presbyteries declared in 2016 that the 1939 deposition resolution was null and void and proclaimed his reinstatement and re-enrollment. Reinstatement refers to the restoration of a lost status, and re-enrollment refers to the restoration of a name to the presbytery roll.

Assessment

Interpretations differ as to how he should be understood. Some regard him as a nationalist activist, citing the nationalist education he received at Osan School. Others emphasize that his resistance arose not from nationalism but from a faith that rejected idolatry, and that he found the hope of the nation in the gospel.

There are also critical views. Some have pointed out that the Korean church emphasizes only the persecution by imperial Japan while failing to reflect adequately on the fact that the church itself deposed him and drove his family out. His posthumous reinstatement has also drawn objections. Professor Choi Deok-seong argued that, in the Reformed tradition, the dead are not subject to church discipline. He further criticized the reinstatement as possibly a clericalist performance intended to enhance the denomination's prestige.