Bernt Berntsen | |
|---|---|
 Missionary to China | |
| Born | (1863-01-01)1 January 1863 |
| Died | 16 October 1933(1933-10-16) (aged 70) |
| Spouse | Magna Berntsen |
| Parent | Ole Berntsen |
| Signature | |
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Bernt Berntsen (Chinese:賁德新,[1] January 1, 1863 – October 16, 1933), also known asBrother B. Berntsen,[2] was aNorwegian-American Protestant Christian missionary toChina. In 1904, Berntsen and his wife Magna were able to preach along with several otherindependentNorwegian missionaries in amission station inDamingfu[3] ofZhili Province.[4] Influenced by the 1906Azusa Street Revival, he later founded theApostolic Faith Mission in China (later amalgamated with theAssemblies of God) with a group of American missionaries associated with thePentecostal movement. His evangelism had a profound influence on the early co-workers of theTrue Jesus Church, namelyZhang Lingsheng andPaul Wei,[5] and he is regarded as one of the early missionary progenitors ofPentecostalism in China.[6]
Bernt Berntsen was born inLarvik, inVestfold county,Norway. Married to Magna Berg (1867–1935), he emigrated to theUnited States in 1893 and was employed as a storekeeper in a localgrocery store.[7] He resided in Chicago,Illinois, for seven years and was naturalized as aUnited States citizen at theCircuit Court ofCook County, Illinois, on September 6, 1904.[8] His son, Henry Berntsen, was born at Chicago in August 1900.
In 1904, along with his wife and two young boys, Berntsen sailed for China and joined thenon-denominational South Zhili Mission[9] which had been founded byHorace William Houlding inDamingfu ofZhili Province since 1901.[10]
In December 1906, Berntsen came across an early publication ofThe Apostolic Faith from Los Angeles which detailed the events of theAzusa Street Revival. In 1907, he journeyed to the Centennial Missionary Conference in Shanghai with the hope of finding someone who had experienced the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the people there told him it was the 'work of the devil'. Although he was convinced that there was more to it than what the critics were saying, he nevertheless returned to the place of his ministry.[11] After receiving a letter from a friend in Chicago who wrote that she had received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, Berntsen sailed back to America to see this revival firsthand.
In August 1907, he made a trip toSeattle where he encountered Martin L. Ryan holding group prayer meetings there. Although Berntsen sought for the baptism of the Holy Spirit but did not receive it. He then journeyed toOakland, California, and attended prayer meetings held by William F. Manley, but again he did not receive it.Berntsen ultimately travelled toAzusa Street Mission in Los Angeles where he received theBaptism of the Holy Spirit throughspeaking in tongues on September 15, 1907.[12] After the Mission leaders heard his testimony, they agreed to give some financial support to his missionary work in China.
Upon his trip back to Seattle, Berntsen and a group of eleven adult Pentecostal missionaries gathered together to form a non-denominationalApostolic Faith Mission.[13]
They sailed toChina in 1908 to form theZhengding Mission inHebei Province.[14] Due to the lack of fluency in the language, four of the missionaries later left for Shanghai to learn theChinese language whilst Berntsen and his wife along with several others began spreading the Pentecostal message to the local populace. Berntsen encountered considerable resistance from some established missionary groups, nevertheless he always hoped to convince other Western missionaries. He wrote:
The missionaries here are not in favour of us, so many bad reports are circulated all over this country, so the poor people do not know what to believe of us.[15]
He rented a store building where he held meetings during the morning and evening, drawing good-sized crowds especially from among the poor. In January 1910, Berntsen had led a number of the poorest people in the region to the Lord and described his work as a "rescue mission". By March that same year, he was caring for thirty orphaned children and a number of people who were disabled, blind, mute, and other outcasts.
Between April and November 1910, Berntsen visited Norway, Sweden and Denmark before returning to China directly from Northern Europe.[16] Berntsen also maintained contacts with the emergingPentecostal movement in Norway, led byThomas Ball Barratt andErik Andersen Nordquelle.[17] His daughter Ruth (1910–1947) was born inZhengding orGuangxi[18] in August 1910.
In 1912, they printed a Chinese-language publication namedPopular Gospel Truths[19] which emphasized on the importance of receiving thebaptism of the Holy Spirit. They remained at the Zhengding Mission until 1916. Among those baptised wereZhang Lingsheng (in 1910) andPaul Wei (in 1916).
Starting from 1914 onwards, Berntsen and many of the Apostolic Faith Mission missionaries in China became affiliated with the Assemblies of God.[20]
During 1916, Berntsen was approached by Zhang Lingsheng, who after having read tracts published by theSeventh-day Adventists, advised Berntsen that he also keep theSeventh-day worship.[21] He agreed to do so and on September 1, 1916, Berntsen announced on the thirteenth edition of thePopular Gospel Truth publication that they would be holding Seventh-day worship from now on.
In 1917, Berntsen published a tract titled "The Viewpoint on Seventh-day Sabbath worship in China",[22] which mentioned that worshipping on the Western Sabbath day is equivalent to worshipping on Sunday in China. He reasons:
...because Sunday in China is the Sabbath day, and this is due to the fact that when people in the Western Hemisphere are sailing towards China by ship, they need to lose one day [ie. put the time forward by one day] when they are still halfway at sea. In this way, Sunday in China is the same as Saturday in the Western Hemisphere. Currently, in regions such as the United States and Britain, Saturday is the Seventh-day Sabbath, hence according to such projections, in order to keep the Holy Sabbath in the region of China [at the same time as in the West], it ought to be kept on a Sunday.[23]
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HoweverPaul Wei was opposed to keeping the Sabbath on a Sunday and dismissed the tract's viewpoints of the Sabbath as "erroneous". Zhang Lingsheng travelled to Beijing to peacefully persuade Paul to change his stance, but after several discussions together, Zhang himself understood and gradually accepted Paul's viewpoint. Hence in the spring of 1918, Zhang and Paul cooperated as co-workers, announced at theTianjin chapel that they were to be keeping the Sabbath worship on a Saturday and thus formed their independentPentecostal-SabbatarianTrue Jesus Church.[24]
During the middle of 1919, Berntsen clarified his viewpoint regarding the Sabbath on thePopular Gospel Truth publication,
...Recently some of our brethren have argued that China and theland of the Judea belong to the same continent of Asia; however if there are anyJews who travel by land to China, then they would not need to deduct one day whilst they are travelling halfway through their journey. Hence if our brethren in China can keep the Sabbath worship on Sundays, then we and our Christian brothers living everywhere in the world can keep the seventh-day Sabbath at the same time period. Therefore the Western Sabbath is approximately the same as worshipping on a Sunday in China.[25]
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By 1919, Berntsen had become affiliated with thePentecostal Assemblies of the World, Church of God.[16]
Berntsen died at the German Hospital atBeiping, China, on October 16, 1933, due toheart failure.[26]
