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

Biography

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

Lamb was imprisoned for more than 20 years (1955—1957, 1958—1978) for his faith in Christ, but this imprisonment did not hinder his faith. In spite of "honey-bucket" duty at labor farms or backbreaking work in coal mines at labor camps, Lamb continued to teach.

1978, Lamb was released from prison. 1979, he restart the church in 35 Da Ma Zhan, Guangzhou. As the attendance grows fast, he then move to 15 Rong Gui Li, De Zheng Bei Road. Now the house church holds 4 main services a week, with estimate attendance 4,000-5,000.

Since 1979, he publish a series booklet call <Voice of the Spirit>, until now there are more than 200 of it.

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 be conform with the teaching in the Bible (e.g. Acts of the Apostles chapter 5).

References

Anderson, Ken. Bold as a Lamb: Pastor Samuel Lamb and the underground Church of China. Zondervan Publishing House, 1991.

See also

• Protestant missions in China 1807-1953