Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Guest (Male): Yesterday, connecting past. Today, with an outer view. Tomorrow, to understand future. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow is the program that covers the current contemporary social issues in the light of our history to understand our yesterday, to live fully today and tomorrow. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow with Inseong Kim.

Inseong J Kim: Hello, this is Inseong Kim from Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Today we are going to a moment of revival history most Americans have never heard of, in the city that became the Jerusalem of the East: Pyongyang, in North Korea. That is an incredible story. We have a special guest, Dr. Rebecca Price Janney, with us. Thank you so much for being with us.

Rebecca Price Janney: It is my pleasure, Inseong. I appreciate being with you.

Inseong J Kim: Dr. Janney is the multi-award-winning author of 28 books. Her newest historical novel, Land of the Morning Calm, is the sequel to her Korean War novel, East of the Sun, and the recipient of three national book awards. I am very thrilled to have some discussion and conversation with you today. Would you share a little bit about yourself and the book?

Rebecca Price Janney: I am actually a historian and I have been a history professor. The last time that I taught was very exciting and unique. I taught at the seminary where I earned my doctorate in the year 2000, and we had many South Koreans coming to study there. I had the privilege of teaching American history to them, and I loved them. They were my favorite students.

It was extra special because I had another Korean connection when I was a student at Princeton Seminary. One of my favorite professors was Dr. Samuel Hugh Moffett. His father, Samuel Austin Moffett, had been one of the first Presbyterian missionaries to Korea, and he had arrived there in 1890. I loved all of those connections, and so much of what I learned went into both of these books.

Inseong J Kim: Was it them who helped draw you to Korea, or was there some other reason that you were fascinated about Korean history and Christian history?

Rebecca Price Janney: I would say Dr. Moffett was the one who first drew me to Korean history, and also because I made many friends at Princeton who were from Korea. They just instilled with me a great love for the country and the people.

Throughout my life, it seems that God has brought about Korean connections. Another example is that when my husband and I bought our first home, it was what we Americans call a twin home, an attached home, and the people on the other side were Korean. We have just had many Koreans in our lives throughout our lives, and it was a natural connection to write these books and to draw upon all of that history that I had.

Inseong J Kim: How does the theological training shape your historical, not just documentary style of writing, but actually fiction? It is very interesting.

Rebecca Price Janney: I do describe myself as a theologically trained historian, which to me means that whenever I look at history and interpret it, it is through the lens of my Christian beliefs and through a biblical worldview.

That is the foundation. Many of my early books were non-fiction. A lot of them were biographical. In several of the books, I trace what I call God's fingerprints throughout American history. Then for the past 10 years, I have turned from the classroom and non-fiction to historical fiction.

At first, it was a bit of a stretch for me, but I love the research and I have always had more of a poetic bent, so I think that it all came together and I just love this. It is like my new classroom.

Inseong J Kim: I think you have a creative part of you and also a very analytical understanding of the history. I just read a little part of it. It was beautifully written. It is very artistic. I say like fiction or writing is kind of painting with a pen. It is a very artistic description that you wrote. Why specifically the 1907 revival in North Korea?

Rebecca Price Janney: I have always been interested in revivals, and I have written pretty extensively about the Asbury College revival of 1970. I have long been a student of revival. After I wrote East of the Sun, I was intrigued to tell the stories of the two main characters' grandfathers who met in Pyongyang in 1906.

I wanted to tell the story of how their lives were impacted by the great revival that broke out in January of the following year. I know that many Americans who are interested in revival know about Azusa Street. Some of them have heard of the Welsh revival, but very few have heard about the Korean revival. It was just such an honor for me to be able to tell that story through the eyes of my two main characters.

Inseong J Kim: People probably heard about the South Korean revival, but I did not even hear about the North Korean 1907 revival. That is really fascinating.

Rebecca Price Janney: I learned that the people at the mission in Pyongyang had been praying that God would visit their campus and the city. They had learned about revival breaking out in Wales, in India, and places in America.

The missionaries and the Koreans began to have devoted times of prayer, intense prayer for months on end, seeking God that He would visit them. It finally happened months later in January of 1907. They had been aware of the other revivals and yearned for it for themselves.

Inseong J Kim: I think revival we cannot create, but this yearning that we are having so much desire to meet God and His intervention, I think the miracle happens.

Rebecca Price Janney: I think that is exactly it. I like the word you used, yearning, that there is this place in our spirits that wants more of God. I saw this happen just a few years ago at Asbury University where revival broke out again. They have a history of revival there.

It happened after a very ordinary chapel service when some of the students lingered and began seeking more of God. Within a few days, there were people coming there from all over the country and then internationally, because God was there, because revival had broken out and people were hungry for His presence.

I think that yearning, and also the fact that revival seems to come in very dark times. For example, in Korea in 1905 and 1906, the Japanese took over and created a protectorate over Korea. That created many bitter feelings, and it was a very harsh and difficult time for Koreans. It was against that backdrop that God broke through.

Inseong J Kim: Probably we will never imagine that Pyongyang was the Jerusalem of the East. That is how much fire was in that city. Right now it is North Korea's capital city. You mentioned a little bit about the background of Korean history, that Korean Christians refused to bow down to Shinto shrines, and 3,000 leaders were scheduled for execution on August 15th, 1945. That is a very dark time for Korea.

Rebecca Price Janney: Yes, it was. I love that you brought out about the Jerusalem of the East. I have a hope that somehow the Korean church is not dead in North Korea. There is so much deep history of Christianity there that I cannot help but think there is some of it left and that there will be another spark that we may live to see and rejoice in.

Inseong J Kim: I believe and heard that there is an underground church that still exists in North Korea. I heard that. Then also there are some activities from South Korean missionaries who are sharing the good news everywhere: South Asia, China, and the Middle East. Everywhere, they are very actively sharing the gospel as well.

Rebecca Price Janney: That is wonderful.

Inseong J Kim: I think like we shared, those fires that happened in 1907 are still burning. The Soviet Union actually supported North Korea to push back the Japanese. That is how North Korea became a communist country.

Rebecca Price Janney: Yes, that is true, that Korea was divided at the end of World War II between America's spheres in the south and Soviet in the north. As you say, the communists took hold of the North Korean leadership and began to establish a stronghold there.

Inseong J Kim: Please share a little bit more about that because we grew up hearing about it, but were not specific about how it happened. So there was the revival in 1907 and then there was the Japanese occupation. I heard that two-thirds of the Christians were in North Korea. Please share about how it happened.

Rebecca Price Janney: Christianity spread very rapidly after the revival. Wherever the missionaries and the evangelists went into the interior, the revival spread. It was not just in the city; it was in the villages, in the countryside, and they took it throughout the nation.

I think that revival helps people prepare for hardship. For example, in the United States, in the 13 original colonies, revival came beginning in the 1730s and lasted up until the time of the American Revolution. I believe as a historian that those revivals strengthened the believers to be able to endure the hardships that were to come with war.

I think something similar happened in Korea because there was tremendous hardship under the Japanese occupation. Then with liberation in 1945, you had this Soviet sphere of influence in the north, which exchanged one kind of bondage for another.

People who were very tired of the Japanese and were more politically minded saw the Soviets as their liberators and began to listen to and follow their teachings. That is how the two sides were pretty much stacked up in 1950 at the outbreak of the Korean War.

You had the freedom-loving people of the south and then those coming under the Soviet and communist leadership in the north. In 1950, when the war broke out, many Korean Christians fled to the south. Many of them made it. There is a story in my book East of the Sun about how some of them made it into the south to freedom, but others did not. That is such a sad story of those who were left behind.

Inseong J Kim: That is a fascinating story because I grew up right after the Korean War. It started in 1950 and ended in 1953, but was still going on. It is a sad story because in North Korea, some of the Christians left their families and came south. At the same time, some of the South Koreans who pursued that communist idea went to North Korea. Families were completely divided. I grew up in that era of the grieving of the separation of families.

Rebecca Price Janney: Did you also have family in the north?

Inseong J Kim: I did not know for a long time. Finally, a few years ago, my father shared that part of his family, one person, went to North Korea. My husband's family as well. I watched my in-law, my husband's parents, especially his father, grieving his whole life about this separation of their families.

Rebecca Price Janney: That is very hard.

Inseong J Kim: It is very hard. It affects the whole rest of his life. The Korean War and the separation of the siblings. Also, my grandfather was captured by the Japanese. The story is that he went to the Soviet Union to a mine. Hearing all those stories growing up, it is so sad. I am also sensitive about stories, so I was fascinated about hearing about your novel.

Rebecca Price Janney: Please share a little bit more in-depth about the snapshot of your book so our listeners can look for your book.

Rebecca Price Janney: Land of the Morning Calm is a story of two seminarians, one who has just graduated from Princeton and came under the influence of modernist teachers. He went to seminary wanting to become a pastor with very strong faith. Then when he was there, he was exposed to some professors who created doubt in his mind about his faith and about the truth of the Scriptures.

"Did God really say?" was sort of their motto, even though they didn't say that. That is how I see it. Did God really say that the Word of God is true, that it's all true, you can count on it? For example, are the miracles true? Was Jesus really God?

When he graduates, he doesn't know what to do with himself, and a sympathetic professor encourages him to become a translator in Korea because he has a facility for languages. When he goes there, he is just amazed at the country. He never imagined being in such a place before. He learns to love the people and the customs as he's trying to figure out his faith.

His roommate, Soon-hee, is a very strong Christian, but he's challenged with some family dynamics with the Japanese occupation, and he's struggling with that and ill health. The two of them are seeking together to go deeper with God and to find out His purpose for their lives. When the revival breaks out, their lives are very strongly impacted by it. I would say there's a happy ending. I like happy endings.

Inseong J Kim: What is the happy ending?

Rebecca Price Janney: I don't want to give it all away. I will say that they each find what they're looking for. Let's put it that way.

Inseong J Kim: That is a fascinating story. Is this part of a series?

Rebecca Price Janney: It is a prequel in a way. I wrote the Korean War book first, East of the Sun. That came out last year, so that is 1950 to 1953. Then I ended up going back in time by 50 years to tell the story of the grandfathers. Now I'm planning a third book, which will go back to the 1950s and pull it all together. I go back and forth a little bit.

Inseong J Kim: Our program is Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, and I love history. I did not like history when I was in college, but now it helps me connect the dots.

Rebecca Price Janney: I'm glad. I have had many students who told me they disliked history too. When they told me why, it was usually because it was taught to them in a very dry way, mostly about dates and places, and there was no sense of what was behind it all. I think that history is stories and it's about people. It's how they impact history and history impacts them, and mostly how God is at work in history. That makes it very exciting.

Inseong J Kim: And a very unique story, too. We never heard about Pyongyang as the Jerusalem of the East. To find out that there was that much fire in Pyongyang and then to see the darkness that took over.

Rebecca Price Janney: As the Scripture tells us, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Inseong J Kim: Absolutely. God did not finish it yet and His history in North Korea. Share with us where people can find the book.

Rebecca Price Janney: These books and all of them are available on Amazon. People can also go to my website, rebeccapricejanney.com. They can find a list of all of my books there and some insight information about both of these stories.

Inseong J Kim: Thank you so much for being with us. We are going to have a second program next week and we are going to continue to share about the in-depth history of North Korea and South Korea, and this 1907 revival. Thank you for being with us today.

Rebecca Price Janney: My pleasure.

Inseong J Kim: Thank you so much for listening to Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. We will be back with Dr. Janney next week. Thank you.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow with Inseong Kim. You can also find more from Inseong Kim at inseongkim.org. That's I-N-S-E-O-N-G-K-I-M dot O-R-G. Thank you for listening to the show.

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