Visitors to Taiwan’s Kaohsiung county may be surprised to see the occasional sign pointing out the way to Holy Mt. Zion. Locals are matter-of-fact about the mountain’s residents.

“They keep to themselves mostly,” said Rex Lin, whose family operates a restaurant/souvenir store in nearby JiaShian. “They don’t like people asking too many questions. It seems their ideas are…extreme. But they come down into the town to buy things and they pay their bills. They sell organic products. Tourists drive up especially to see them and the area makes money, so they’re really no problem.”


From a windy mountain road, visitors must first pass under a white gate depicting two angels watching over a mountain range. The main tourist center - Mt. Zion’s web site fully admits it is a tourist attraction and encourages visitors – doubles as a store selling a variety of health products. A huge poster hangs on the wall of the main hall showing an apocalyptic flood washing away a city while the peak of Zion remains untouched, basking in the sunshine. There are loudspeakers, tools, and heavy machinery everywhere, giving the area an unfinished look. There is a small stone arch called “David’s Citadel”, modeled after the original structure in Israel. There are many beautiful log cabins that I would later learn were the homes of residents.

Within seconds of my arrival I met Herman, a twenty-year member of the New Testament Church. Dressed in slacks and a Mt. Zion T-shirt, Herman was a fifty-ish somber looking man. Though he was Asian he was not from Taiwan and declined to say both where he was originally from and what his exact duties were on Zion. He casually mentioned he was involved with translating and that he “sometimes” lived on the mountain. Although I expected an immediate stonewall when I said the word “journalist” Herman was cautiously willing to explain the NTC’s story. “In fact, we are very open.” he said, pulling out a chair for me in the main hall.

In The Beginning

Mt. Zion is the result of a complex tale within the larger saga of the New Testament Church, a fundamentalist religious group with branches in several dozen countries.

The New Testament Church was founded by Hong Kong movie actress Kong Duen-Yee in 1963. Kong’s theology revolved around the central tenet that Christian denominations had become polluted with false teachings and non-Biblical theories. Citing orders from God, she established herself as the head apostle of the church and preached an apocalyptic doctrine. A body of “assistants” was established called the Grace of Jesus Christ Crusade. In turn, members of the Crusade would control and monitor the various activities of NTC churches.

Branches sprung up across Asia including Taiwan. Kong wrote several books outlining her biblical interpretation. These were required reading for all NTC members. They outlined strict participation requirements including baptism and speaking in tongues. One man who read her books was Elijah Hong, a Tainan pharmacy owner and pastor in a separate Christian organization. In the same year that the NTC was founded, Hong left his group and explained to his brethren that God told him to come into the mountains. Hong was to claim a piece of land, farm it, and wait for further divine instructions. He and other Christians began to develop an area around the township of Xiaolin.

In 1965, Kong came to Taipei for a NTC conference. Hong left his farm work and traveled to the capital where he met with Kong. The two debated for some time, eventually resulting in Hong’s acceptance of the church’s doctrine. He was ordained as an elder and returned to his farm. Kong died the following year and her daughter, Ruth Cheong, was chosen to take over her position.

The KMT and Elijah Hong

Hong slowly moved up the ranks of the NTC. His farming community comprised several families. He regularly traveled abroad to preach the gospel at NTC churches. He spent time living in different cities around Taiwan. But while all was going well for Hong in the City of God, he still had to contend with the City of Man.

Hong’s plan, like many Taiwanese of the time, had been to develop his land for five years and then claim legal ownership, as per Taiwanese law. But this law did not apply to “mountainous zones”, only “flat plain zones”. According to the NTC, when Hong applied for legal ownership of the land, the military Kuomintang government rezoned Mt. Zion as “mountainous”. The land could then not be purchased despite Hong’s five years of work. He and his followers remained on the farm regardless.

So began what the NTC refers to as their “persecution”. According to the NTC, police at the request of the government regularly entered the community to question, harass, and beat members. These actions continued for years.

Back in Hong Kong, the NTC’s leadership was crumbling. Aside from mismanaging finances and plunging the church into debt, Ruth had been pressured by her husband to prepare a new church doctrine. The new theology would accept all denominations into the church: a complete reversal of her mother’s ideas and the destruction of the NTC’s foundation.

Hong caught word of this and let Ruth know he would not be part of her new ideology. When he returned from Malaysia in 1976 to see to his ailing mother, Ruth invited him to a conference in Hong Kong. The KMT, having caught word of the conference and increasingly stepping up pressure on the church, barred all NTC members from leaving the island to attend. Ironically, this action would end up giving Hong total control of the NTC.

On February 9th, 1976, Hong and the NTC held a conference in Taipei. It was evident that there was a growing rift in the church due to Ruth’s new ideas. Members reportedly pleaded for Hong to take over. For unexplained reasons, he chose to step aside and wait out the problems, perhaps to give NTC members more time to chose their sides. Several months later Ruth sent a letter to Taiwan; she renounced her position and Hong was appointed as leader of the NTC.

Hong returned to his farming community, occasionally traveling abroad, teaching his gospel, recruiting more members, and establishing more churches. In 1979 he swore he had a vision. God had come to him one night on the mountain. He told Hong to rename the area Mt. Zion, as “Jerusalem in the Middle East had been forsaken.” Hong was told that when Jesus Christ returned to the earth, the new Mt. Zion would be the only place saved.

Mt. Zion in Taiwan was now the spiritual center of the New Testament Church.

The Wandering

In 1980 the KMT had had enough. Through a combination of tactics, mostly non-violent, they succeeded in removing the residents of Mt. Zion. The roads were barricaded to insure nobody could return, and all property was destroyed or confiscated. For the next two years church members lived in temporary dwellings they constructed along the XiaoLin riverbed. The NTC refers to this time as “The Wandering”. Mt. Zion’s history museum has reconstructed the event with a diorama that depicts dozens of people living in thatched houses alongside the river.

In 1982 the KMT evicted the riverbed dwellers. Several were jailed, but most fled to the safety of NTC churches. The NTC claims that though they won a court battle to reclaim their land, local policemen refused to let them return.

Oddly, Hong’s whereabouts at this time are unknown. Herman admits that while he would assist people living on the riverbed, he did not actually live there himself. He did however continue to travel around Taiwan and abroad with the help of the church.

The NTC was finally permitted to return to Mt. Zion in 1986. Herman and the NTC believe that this was God’s will and that the KMT were powerless to do otherwise. However it is more likely that gradual easing of social restrictions, as part of the lifting of martial law, played a large part in the KMT’s decision. Other previously illegal religions such as the Daoist “Yi Kuan Tao”, were also given permission to be freely practiced.

NTC members returned to the mountain and began to farm anew. As many members came from a wide variety of backgrounds, Mt. Zion was able to use their technical knowledge to begin manufacturing and selling a wide variety of organic products. In accordance with the church’s naturalistic view of life, no pesticides or chemical fertilizers were used. Today, a wide variety of balms, oils, juices and foods are sold.

Curiously, cultured (unnatural) pearls are also sold along side the health products in the tourist center. One of Mt. Zion’s properties is a small island in Tahiti. A gorgeous picture of the island, named Eden, adorns the wall behind the pearls’ display case. The attendant proudly explained to me that the NTC owns and operates a successful pearl farm on the island. I was shown a string of pearls retailing for NT$80,000 and informed a more beautiful set was available for five times that price. Though Mt. Zion requests visitors remove any idols from their person before coming to the mountain, there was little worry in accepting massive sums of money for unnaturally produced jewelry.

Mt. Zion is just one location where the NTC produces and sells organic goods. Several of the products available at Mt. Zion are actually produced from their affiliate company in Australia. Along with companies in the United States, the NTC owns over 80 acres of land in South Africa where soy and wheat are grown. Various biblical names adorn the product lines.

Today

Life on Zion is regimented. Everyone except the very young rises at half past four in the morning for the 5am service. After the service there are reports from members of the NTC and their affiliates around the world. Current events of relevance to the church are also often discussed. “We don’t exist in a vacuum,” said Herman. Members then go to their respective “work assignments” which could be anything from farming to accounting. For entertainment there are often dances and singalongs. While television is “discouraged”, movies are occasionally shown in the community’s main hall if they are relevant to Zion’s life. (Herman mentioned that even Hollywood blockbusters like The Day After Tomorrow could be shown to help remind NTC members of God’s will). Zion residents eat all meals together in a large cafeteria. Some festivals, such as Passover are celebrated. Those that cannot be found in the Bible, such as Christmas, are ignored. Sunday mass is held every week and Holy Communion is given.

All children on Zion live in segregated dormitories away from their parents and are home schooled. The curriculum stresses a “God-based education (that) filters out unnecessary learning”. It was unclear exactly what is or isn’t taught though considerably more attention is placed on applicable science (math, botany) then on social subjects such as history. Children regularly participate in sports and music. Those who have grown up on Mt. Zion and who wish to go university may do so, though Herman admits that this is rare. Zion male residents who are of age must also complete Taiwan’s mandatory military service.

While Mt. Zion has a small clinic and several nurses, there is no doctor. Therefore when residents require medical service they must go to a local hospital, where they will present their Taiwanese Health Card. A fellow member who possesses a Taiwanese driver’s license will probably drive them. Despite these two links to Taiwanese society, Herman was adamant that Mt. Zion residents wanted minimal interaction with “gentiles”. While he would not say how Zion members pay taxes (or if they do at all), it was clear that Mt. Zion residents strive for insulation from the outside world, international importing and exporting notwithstanding.

Although Herman says Zion residents do not vote, their feelings for the KMT are explosive. Throughout our conversation, Herman peppered his comments about the KMT with words such as “tyrant” and “evil”. He repeated several times that “the KMT dares not control” Mt. Zion. Massive placards are hung around the tourist area reminding the visitors of Zion’s previous destruction and the KMT’s “treachery”. The NTC insists that no compensation has ever been given for their forced removal in 1980.

Unfortunately, despite several attempts at communication with the KMT head office in Taipei, all questions relating to this article were unanswered. International Center representative Hu Chuen Wei, regretted that as “so much time had passed” since the KMT’s involvement with the NTC, he would be unable to supply accurate answers.

Many questions remain unanswered about the New Testament Church and Elijah Hong, who goes by the moniker of “Prophet of all Nations”. “He’s the one who finalizes everything.” Herman explained. He paused, “Of course it very much depends on the moving of the Holy Spirit,” he added. NTC literature is filled with dubious links between the Biblical Elijah and Hong (whose real name is Hong San-Chi). Pictures and videos of Hong are readily available, usually showing him leading prayer sessions in rapture. The NTC purports to have a video of Hong’s head emanating holy fire while giving a sermon; it was unavailable during my visit.

Elijah Hong continues to preach at Mt. Zion and travel to New Testament Churches around the world.

***

“Do you know Fung Shui?” Herman asked, referring to the Chinese art of geomancy. He went on to claim that when former KMT President Chiang Ching Kuo saw Mt. Zion, the perfection of the mountain prompted him to claim it as his personal burial ground. As such, Herman expounded, Chiang believed his interment in such an auspicious place would insure the continued success of his dynasty. This was Herman’s only explanation for the KMT’s aggression.

I listened to Herman but said nothing. Only a month previously the papers had been filled with the story that the Chiang family had requested the late president’s body be interred in northern Taiwan. It had been common knowledge that both Chiang and his father, Chiang Kai-Shek, had aspired to have their bodies eventually returned to their birthplaces in China. Herman’s idea that Chiang, for the sake of a burial ground, had used years of intimidation and violence to remove Zion’s residents seemed difficult to believe. If Herman had simply made a reference to Christian suffering under a military government, I wouldn’t have thought twice.

“Good bye. God bless you.” Herman said as I got on my motorcycle. He smiled and shrugged.

“It’s what we always say.”


David Bolster
Tainan, Taiwan
August 24, 2004