Review of The Gospel Messenger – Experiencing God’s Love for Us Mankind

By Amélie

The word “Fuyin” means good tidings in Chinese; it’s called Gospel or Good news in English. Combined with the word “Messenger,” simply put, it refers to the persons who spread the gospel. When it comes to gospel, we have to talk about God’s work. Since Adam and Eve, ancestors of mankind, were corrupted by Satan, God has begun His work of saving mankind. So, each stage of God’s work is good news for mankind. The movie The Gospel Messenger conveys God’s love and salvation for mankind from different aspects, making us know more about God and understand His work.

The movie opens with a small meeting where the heroine Chen Yixin said: “You knocking on our door so many times to spread the gospel, to read Almighty God’s words is also God knocking on the doors of our hearts.” And Su Jie said: “Luckily you kept knocking on our door and put up with our humiliations and rejections. You still shared the gospel with love and read Almighty God’s words so we finally awoke. Oh! I am so grateful to God! Thanks to God!” Although the movie doesn’t tell us in detail about how they accept the gospel of the kingdom and how the witness spreads the gospel to them, it paves the way for the next and sketches out the development of the plot here. It also makes us feel the painstaking price God pays for them.

Because Chen Yixin and Su Jie have accepted God’s work of the last days, they are condemned and expelled by religious pastors and elders, but they still tell the brothers and sisters about the good news of the Lord’s return, without hesitation nor quitting. However, unfortunately, because the pastors and elders seal off the church and make up rumors, the brothers and sisters refuse to investigate and even curse her and drive her away before she steps into their homes. … The former brothers and sisters turn against her nowadays. This made me think back to the time when the Lord Jesus did His work. The priests, scribes and Pharisees condemned the Lord Jesus because the work of the Lord Jesus didn’t conform with the Old Testament and they also started rumors and slandered the Lord Jesus among Israelites, that many people of Israel also followed them to resist and judge the Lord because of their ignorance and lack of discernment. At last, they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross. This was what a sad thing.

The Lord Jesus said:**“How think you? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains, and seeks that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish”** (Mat 18:12–14). This parable tells us God’s heart’s voice and His sincere feelings toward mankind. When a man distances himself from God, God’s intention in wanting to find him back is the same as a man’s intention in looking for his lost sheep; when he turns back and returns before God again, God feels the joy which is like that of a man finding his lost sheep, tasting the joy of regaining something that has been lost. Here it conveys God’s love and hope for mankind, making us deeply be moved.

When God’s gospel was spread from Israel to China, how many missionaries accepted what God entrusted them with and accomplished the work of the expansion of the gospel. And Chen Yixin and Su Jie also receive such a mission and continue the expansion of the gospel of the kingdom. From the movie we can see that their confidence and willpower are given by God. When they fail in spreading the gospel again and again and feel weak for this, they go through these difficulties relying on praying and reading God’s words. God leads them to go ahead and perfects their confidence. At the same time, it also makes us see that God uses man to knock at the door and look for those lost sheep. On the outside, what we can see is man’s confidence and how much man pays; in fact, there is God’s love and salvation for the whole mankind hiding behind these. This is the meaning of love that the movie The Gospel Messenger tells us—God’s love for mankind is enormous and never changes.

In the movie, the text of God’s words entitled “How Should You Attend to Your Future Mission” penetrates the whole movie and it’s also the soul of the movie. God’s word, **“Are you aware of the burden you shoulder, your commission, and your responsibility? Where is your historic sense of mission? … How do you interpret being used by God to live your extraordinary life? Do you really have the resolution and confidence to live out a meaningful life of a pious, God-serving person?”** inspires countless Christians. And it also makes Chen Yixin continue down the path of spreading gospel with more confidence and willpower.

Because the local pastors call the police to arrest Chen Yixin, she goes from province to province, city to city to spread the gospel, such as Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui, and so on. During this period, because of the pastors and elders’ report, she experiences countless times of persecution and arrest from the CCP police and she even suffers the cruel tortures. It can be said that she has gone through many difficulties on the road of spreading the gospel. The most horrifying scene occurs when they spread gospel in Shandong. The religious pastors make an alliance with the CCP police to arrest them; to protect another two sisters, Chen Yixin is arrested by police. Then the scene switches to another. Chen Yixin, with scratches all over her face, appears in the shot. Obviously, she has stood the witness. Afterward, the more wondrous is that she escapes from the police station under the guidance of God.

After that, Chen Yixin isn’t too busy escaping from the arrest of the CCP police, she worries about the brothers and sisters. They just accept God’s work of the last days and have no foundation and moreover the pastors and elders deceive and disturb them frantically; if not watered timely, they would not stand easily. Maybe you are wondering: She’s experienced the police’s arrest and suffered torture, but why does she not leave quickly? Isn’t she not afraid to be arrested by police again? In fact, this environment full of difficulties can better manifest the tough character of the gospel messenger. She understands in her heart that there is God’s will when she is able to escape under the eyes of the CCP. It’s that God gives her a way out so that she can accomplish the mission of love better. To comfort God’s heart, she thinks that she must use her practical actions to repay God’s love. The more valuable thing is that in so many persecutions and hardships, she has been weak and shed tears, but she has seen God’s great power at the same time. Through these persecutions, God leads her to different places to carry out God’s gospel work bit by bit. Just as the Lord Jesus said: **“But when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another: for truly I say to you, You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come”** (Mat 10:23). These are all God’s wondrous deeds.

Afterword, Chen Yixin becomes the target of the police’s arrest. Hopelessly, she has to escape abroad to seek for asylum. A set of shots at the end of the movie tell us what she does abroad—spreading the gospel.

It is recorded in the Bible that the Lord Jesus said: **“I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.”** And later, the gospel of the Lord Jesus was spread from Israel to China; nowadays, Chinese Christians are first spreading the Lord’s return. Will the gospel be spread back to Israel? It’s really wondrous.

## See Also

Film Review: The Gospel Messenger – God Guides Her to Fulfill the Mission of Love

Christian Family Movie Review – Red Re education at Home – Red Education Coming to Its End

Review of Faith in God: Interpreting the True Meaning of Faith in God

The Long Road of Exile – Who Deprived of His Eighteen Years of Freedom?