Samuel Lamb

Samuel Lamb
Born	(1924-10-04)October 4, 1924 Guangzhou, China
Died	Guangzhou, China
Occupation	Chinese house church leader

Samuel Lamb or Lin Xiangao (simplified Chinese: 林献羔; traditional Chinese: 林獻羔; pinyin: Lín Xiàn-gāo; Wade–Giles: Lin2 Hsian4-Kao1; October 4, 1924 – August 3, 2013) was a Christian pastor in Guangzhou, China. He was a leader in the Chinese house church movement, and known for his resistance against participation in the churches of the state-controlled "Three-Self Patriotic Movement".

Biography

Lamb was born in a mountainous area overlooking Macau. His father, Paul Lamb, was the pastor of a small Baptist congregation.

Lamb was imprisoned for more than 20 years (1955–57, 1958–78) for his faith in Christ. In spite of "honey-bucket" duty at labor farms or backbreaking work in coal mines at labor camps, Lamb continued to teach.

In 1978, Lamb was released from prison and, in 1979, he restarted the church in 35 Da Ma Zhan, Guangzhou. Because the attendance grew quickly, he then moved the meetings to 15 Rong Gui Li, De Zheng Bei Road. Now, the house church holds four main services each week, with an estimated attendance of four to five thousand.

Since 1979, he has been publishing a series of booklets called "Voice of the Spirit"; now there are more than 200 booklets.

He died in Guangzhou in 2013, aged 88.For reasons of security and site elements, the date of the farewell ceremony has been changed, the farewell ceremony for Samuel Lamb (elder Lin Xiangao) will be held at half past two(pm) on August 16, 2013, in Baiyun Hall, Yinhe park, Yinhe cemetery,Guangzhou.(The original date is on August 17, 2013).

Theology

Over the course of Lamb's life, he was imprisoned a few times because he did not follow Chinese government rules concerning religion. Lamb, along with Wang Ming-Dao, refused to submit to the state-run church, known as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). Like other house church leaders, Lamb refused to join the TSPM because of the limitations placed by government on the member congregations. The restrictions include: no preaching from the Book of Revelation, discouragement from preaching on the Second Coming of Christ, and a prohibition on evangelizing to minors (children's Sunday School). In all these cases, Lamb believed that obedience to God supersedes the command in Romans 13 which requires Christians to obey their governments, and his belief is thought to conform with the teaching in the Bible (e.g. Acts of the Apostles 5).

See also

• Protestant missions in China 1807–1953

References

• .