Kim Ik-du

Life

Kim was born in Anak County, Hwanghae Province. As a young man he reportedly led such a dissolute life that he made trouble in the local marketplace. In 1900 he heard a sermon by W. L. Swallen, a missionary of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (Northern Presbyterian), and began attending church; the following year he received baptism from Swallen. In 1901, at Swallen's urging, he became an evangelist at Jaeryeong Church, and he was later sent to Sinchon, where he planted a church. After graduating from the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pyongyang, he became pastor of Sinchon Church; sources differ on the year of his graduation, giving either 1910 or 1911.

After Korea's liberation in 1945, he remained in the North and continued his pastoral ministry in Sinchon. On October 14, 1950, as word spread that South Korean forces were approaching, he was shot by retreating soldiers of the Korean People's Army after a dawn prayer meeting at Sinchon West Church. Several church members who were with him are reported to have been killed on the spot as well.

Ministry and Accomplishments

Beginning around 1919, reports spread that the sick had been healed at his Bible conferences (sagyeonghoe, gatherings for intensive Bible study) and revival meetings, and large crowds seeking healing flocked to his meetings. When criticism arose both inside and outside the church over his revival movement's emphasis on divine healing, Rev. Im Taek-kwon of Jaeryeong and others organized a "Committee for the Verification of Miracles" to investigate reported miracles. The committee's findings were published in 1921 as Verified Miracles of the Korean Church of Jesus (Joseon Yesugyohoe Ijeok Myeongjeung).

He is reported to have traveled not only throughout Korea but also to Manchuria and Siberia, leading 776 revival meetings, founding some 150 churches, and preaching more than 28,000 sermons. He was also active in denominational leadership, serving as moderator of the Ninth General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Joseon Yesugyo Jangnohoe).

Influence on the Korean Church

Church historians commonly regard him as the leading figure of the Korean church's revival movement in the 1920s, succeeding the revival movement of Kil Sun-joo. Ju Gi-cheol is said to have entered Pyongyang Theological Seminary after attending one of Kim's revival meetings in Ungcheon, South Gyeongsang Province, in 1921. Later revivalists such as Lee Seong-bong are also considered to have been influenced by him. His style of meeting, which gave prominence to healing and miracles, became one strand of the Korean church's revival tradition.

Assessment

Assessments of Kim vary widely depending on the period and perspective.

• Controversy over miracles: Socialists who were then waging anti-Christian campaigns denounced him and other revivalists as "high-class shamans." Today, questions about how to view miracles and divine healing are tied to the cessationism and continuationism debate.
• Conduct under Japanese rule: Some claim that he took part in Shinto shrine worship. Other records, however, state that he was arrested by the police and suffered for refusing shrine worship, so the accounts conflict.
• Chairmanship of the Korean Christian Federation: The Korean Christian Federation, founded in North Korea in 1946, was a Christian organization that collaborated with the regime. Around 1949 the federation named him its chairman. For this reason, some in the South Korean church long regarded him as a communist sympathizer. The church historian Rev. Lee Chan-young and others argue that his name was merely exploited and that he was never formally elected or installed. Critics, on the other hand, point out that pastors and church members who refused to join the federation suffered during the period when he held the chairmanship.
• Recognition as a martyr: North Korea recorded him as a "hired spy of the American imperialists." The Hwanghae Presbytery, to which he had belonged, commissioned church historians to study his case, held a seminar, and requested a reassessment. In response, the Martyrs Memorial Project Department of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Korea (HapDong) resolved in 2012 to register him as a martyr.