Renowned evangelist and founder of the Taiwan-based gospel organization Cosmic Light Holistic Care Organization, Lin Zhiping, passed away on the evening of April 27th at the age of 86.
Lin Zhiping’s children issued an obituary announcement: “Our beloved father, our mother’s virtue, and everyone’s Brother Lin have found peace from the burdens of this world and entered into the heavenly rest. He laid down his ministries, left his colleagues he has always cared about, and began his more glorious and joyful service in Heaven.”
Cosmic Light also issued an obituary announcement late that night to commemorate Lin Zhiping. In an open letter, the current general secretary, Pastor Li Dongliang, reviewed and expressed gratitude for Lin's lifelong journey and contributions. He wrote, “Starting from receiving the vision of the five loaves and two fish, Lin Zhiping accompanied Cosmic Light in its fifty-year journey with the philosophy of gospel preparation and holistic care. He had been particularly committed to the practice of holistic evangelism in various areas such as academia, education, publishing, arts and humanities, counseling, and social welfare.”
Lin Zhiping, born in 1938, graduated from the Department of Politics at Soochow University and obtained a master’s degree in diplomacy from National Chengchi University. He worked as a professor at Chung Yuan Christian University, concurrently serving as the dean of the College of Humanities and Education and the director of the Institute of Religion. Since 1973, he served as the general secretary and executive director of the Christian Cosmic Light Holistic Care Organization and chairman of the Operation Dawn ministry in Taiwan. Since 2003, he served as chairman of the Bethany Children's Home. Over the years, he was committed to promoting the concept of “holistic education and care”, having brought profound influences to educational and social communities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. His marriage to the renowned Chinese writer Zhang Xiaofeng was a beautiful witness for decades.
Cosmic Light: founded out of a calling, never receiving a penny in 45 years
The Cosmic Light Magazine he founded has also become a renowned Christian magazine in the Chinese-speaking world. According to data from Cosmic Light’s 48th anniversary celebration in 2021, it cumulatively distributed about seven million copies. The organization’s published gospel books and pamphlets reached a total circulation of over ten million copies. Additionally, Cosmic Light has radio programs, audio products, concerts with hundred-person choruses, and counseling work. The organization constantly uses media and culture to do gospel preparatory work and sow the seeds of faith deep into people’s hearts. Not only he personally led more churches to engage in various social care works, but his influence also spread to Chinese communities in many regions around the world.
According to an interview with The Christian Tribune, the founding of Cosmic Light Magazine was related to two callings from God. Lin recalled these two callings during the 45th-anniversary celebration of the magazine in 2018 when he handed over the reins to the next general secretary. The first was the often-mentioned “five loaves and two fish” story. When he was 35 years old, he met Mr. Liu Yiling, a 73-year-old gentleman who had traveled a long distance from the United States to establish the magazine in Taiwan. Although Lin Zhiping tried to persuade him to give up the idea because he knew that running a magazine was a thankless task, Mr. Liu believed that founding Cosmic Light was a mission that God had touched him to do. They borrowed a friend’s living room and set up a long table to start the founding work of Cosmic Light. One day, when Lin opened the Bible, the command “You give them to eat” in the story of the five loaves and two fish touched his mind.
The second calling was the parable of sowing seeds. He read Matthew 13:8, “Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” He felt that God was moving him to use the magazine and words to do gospel preparatory work and bring God’s Word to different souls to get ready. He believed that “soil” refers to the world’s culture and social environment. If the “soil of the gospel becomes like a desert," then no matter how much evangelism is carried out, it will be fruitless. Therefore, Cosmic Light is committed to changing the “soil” through historical culture, counseling, social relief, music and art, publishing, audio-visual media, and other forms of expression that have changed the social and cultural landscape, preparing the ground for the gospel. In his view, this was indeed a “foolish cause” that seems to yield no obvious returns. He served as a volunteer for Cosmic Light for 45 years without receiving any payment.
Fool for Life: The Life Story of Lin Zhiping is the last book published by the Cosmic Light organization during Professor Lin's lifetime. The book reviews his lifelong journey. In it, he discusses how his understanding of gospel preparatory work was refreshed and strengthened during the Cosmic Light Magazine’s early days at the World Evangelical Conference held in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974. At that time, the secretary-general of the conference invited him to serve as the editor of the Chinese bulletin for the conference. During the conference, he saw an individual dressed in hippie style, with ragged pants and a typical hippie appearance. Unexpectedly, this person was a speaker, and his topic was “How to Preach the Gospel to Hippies.” He stated, “To preach the gospel to hippies, you must first become a hippie. Then, you must accept their identity, stand in their shoes, and speak Christian words that they can understand.”
He once again thought of the parable of sowing seeds told by Jesus in the Bible: “Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced... a hundred times.” He said, “Previously, when church members mentioned ‘gospel preparatory work’, they referred mainly to the vanguard of the gospel spreading. When facing unbelievers, it was necessary to point out their areas of unbelief and make them accept the faith concept. But I feel that this approach is not quite right. The gospel preparatory work is about studying the essential nature of soil and humanity. Instead of sowing seeds in shallow soil, rocky places, or on the roadside, we should find good soil to cultivate and can achieve a thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times harvest.”
Subsequently, Professor Lin integrated this concept with the evangelical work of Cosmic Light. In a retrospective, he said, “But I want to clarify that we are searching for fertile soil. Once we have identified suitable ground, we carefully sow the seeds and nurture them with the utmost care to ensure a bountiful harvest. This is unlike scattering seeds randomly, which would only lead to their demise. Therefore, in our evangelistic efforts at Cosmic Light, we have always adhered to the principle of planning before proceeding. For instance, our early published testimonials were written from the perspective of non-Christians, in the form of stories or novels, to make them accessible and understandable."
“Fool for life”: a lifelong embodied philosophy
As a full-time academic and educator, Professor Lin’s dedication to volunteering for Cosmic Light spanned decades beyond his professional work. Remarkably, he never received a penny for his efforts and even financed the publication of the Cosmic Light Magazine on his own, earning him the nickname “the fool” among outsiders. This moniker was a defining trait throughout his life. At the 2023 book launch event for Fool for Life, Professor Lin shared the origin of this nickname. On one occasion, a writer and literary critic named Liang Xuan visited his home. Professor Lin presented him with a pen and paper, inviting him to write something. Unexpectedly, Liang Xuan penned the words “Fool for Life.”
During the decades of magazine management, despite being a university professor, his salary was insufficient to cover the expenses of publication. Nevertheless, he persevered with unwavering determination. For over 50 years, every issue of Cosmic Light Magazine was published on schedule, even during times of financial constraint. He expanded the organization’s scope to include music, art, and public welfare campaigns.
Reflecting on his lifelong “foolishness”, Professor Lin stated at the 2023 book launch, “Being a fool for life is also a theological practice”. He believed that in an environment where everyone strives for rights, Christian institutions must revert to natural and pure humanity to truly fulfill the work of care. He hoped that everyone could approach life with such foolishness, maintaining this spirit throughout their entire existence.
- Translated by Charlie Li
