A.

INTRODUCTION

This book is a gift from God to us in this end times. It will make you realize how unworthy you are in your own
faith with the Lord. No words are good enough for this book and the faith that was shown by Brother
Yun(author of his own story) was beyond comprehension... You just have to read it because if you don't,
you've just missed a gift from God.
The novel is about the life and works of a chinese Christian. Just an ordinary story? I dont think so, as a
Christian I can tell that this book can be a major foundation to build our faith to our lord. You may begin reading
the book The Heavenly Man on your couch, but you will finish it on your knees. This is what happened to me.
Anyone reading these pages will not remain the same. Brother Yun's testimony wakes and shakes us up.

Biographical approach:
This approach begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by actual people and that
understanding an authors life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work. Hence, it often affords
a practical method by which readers can better understand a text.
Based on the novel itself it is about the personal life and works of the author. From the beginning up to the end
of the novel you say that this novel belongs to the biographical approach why? Simply because the novel The
Heavenly man is all about the life and works of author its like a dairy of his entire life where he almost write the
majority of his works through many years of his experience.

MORAL/PHILOSOPHICAL:
here we very often find the generalizing argument that literature and the study of literature are important
because these texts teach us the most fundamental, essential values of the human condition.
As I continue reading it I realize and learn a lot of things, This novel isnt just a simple biography of the author.
It also taught me a lot of things and bring tears to my eyes in several chapters while reading it.
I put it under the moral and intellectual approach simply because this novel is not just about the life and works
of the author but also his belief and faith. He proved that even in hard times we must keep our faith and believe
on what we think is right.

historical approach:
This approach examines literature in the cultural, economic and political context in which it is written or
received, exploring the relationships between the artist and society. Sometimes it examines the artists society
to better understand the authors literary works; other times, it may examine the representation of such societal
elements within the literature itself. Based on the novel brother Yun try to change history to make it better.
Yuns mission isnt that easy specially he lives in a hostile territory.

Reader-response:
Reader-response criticism attempts to describe what happens in the readers mind while interpreting a text.
The easiest way to explain reader-response criticism is to relate it to the common experience of rereading a
favorite book after many years. Rereading a novel as an adult, for example, that changed your life as an
adolescent, is often a shocking experience. The book may seem substantially different. The character you
remembered liking most now seems less admirable, and another character you disliked now seems more
sympathetic. After reading it as a Christian I boost up my faith in god, I can tell that this novel can be used as
major foundation of Christianity I mean next to the holy bible.
 B. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
THE AUTHOR
the village concluded and Brother Yun got ready to leave, the villagers refused to let him go. So
Brother Yun was born in February 1958 in the province of Henan. His original name was Liu Zhenying (
). Brother Yun became a believer at the age of 16. Soon after he became a Christian, God called him to be His
witness in the west and south. As he was obedient to the calling, he eventually became a witness of Christ not
just in the western and southern parts of China, but throughout China and in the nations beyond China as well.
Brother Yun was born into a poor family. His familys financial situation took a turn for the worst when his father
became ill with an asthmatic condition that led to lung cancer eventually. His life got worse when he became a
Christian as he suffered severe trials and persecutions. In the midst of suffering for the Lord, however, he
experienced miracle after miracle, which helped to strengthen his faith.
HOW BROTHER YUN BECAME A BELIEVER
In 1974, Brother Yuns father became ill with lung cancer. His mother, who had been a Christian for many
years but had become spiritually cold after the expulsion of Western missionaries during the Cultural
Revolution, felt a deep sense of desperation because if her husband had died then, it would leave the family in
dire straits. She thought of committing suicide. One evening, as she was lying in bed, she heard a voice saying
to her that Jesus loved her. In tears and in repentance, she rededicated her life to God and gathered her family
to pray for her husband. The next morning, her husband got better and as a result, everyone in the family,
including Brother Yun, put their faith in God.
HIS HUNGER FOR THE WORD OF GOD
Brother Yun was 16 when he became a Christian. Soon after, he started hungering for the Word of God.
However, his family did not have a Bible. He began asking his mother who Jesus was. In response, his mother
would tell him that Jesus was the Son of God and that He had recorded all His teachings in the Bible. Brother
Yun wanted a Bible and his mother recalled that there was a man in another village who had one. So she
brought him to see the man. The man was too afraid to show Brother Yun his Bible. So he suggested to the
latter that he could pray and ask God for one. Brother Yun decided to fast and pray for a Bible. For the next
100 days, he ate only one bowl of steamed rice everyday. One day at 4am, after fasting for 100 days, he saw a
vision. In the vision, he was walking up a steep hill and trying to push a heavy cart at the same time. He was
heading towards a village where he intended to beg for food for his family. He struggled greatly as he
continued his climb uphill. The cart was about to roll back and fall on him when he saw three men walking
down the hill in the opposite direction. One of them was a kind old man and he was pulling a large cart of fresh
bread. When the old man saw Brother Yun, he asked him if he was hungry. He said yes and started crying.
The old man then took a red bag of bread from his cart and asked his two servants to give it to Brother Yun. As
he put the bread into his mouth, it immediately turned into a Bible. Upon waking up, Brother Yun began to
search for the Bible. His search, however, was in vain. All of a sudden, he heard a faint knock on the door and
someone was calling out his name. Immediately, he recognized the voice it was the same voice he had
heard in the vision. He quickly opened the door and standing before him were the two servants he had seen in
the vision. One of them held a red bag in his hand. In this red bag was a Bible. Brother Yun Preaching Brother
Yun Preaching It was later that Brother Yun found out the names of the two men. One was Brother Wang while
the other was Brother Sung. They were sent by an evangelist to give Brother Yun the Bible. The evangelist,
who had suffered terribly during the Cultural Revolution and had nearly died while being tortured, had received
a vision from God. In the vision, God showed him Brother Yuns house and the location of his village. He was
asked to give his Bible to Brother Yun. However, he did not obey God until three months later. Brother Yun
began to devour the Word of God. Even though he could hardly read, this did not deter him at all. When he had
finished reading the entire Bible, he started to memorize one chapter per day. In 28 days, he had memorized
the Gospel of Matthew. Then he went on to memorize the Book of Acts and so forth.
OBEDIENT TO THE CALL OF GOD
One morning at 4am, Brother Yun had a dream. In the dream, God asked him to be His witness in the west
and south. In the same dream, he saw a young man from the south coming to his house. And so at daybreak,
he told his mother to expect the young mans visit and to ask him to wait for him. Then he sat off to a village he
had never heard of in the west. The people in this village had been praying for him to visit as they had heard
about how he had prayed for a Bible and got it. When the meeting at the village concluded and Brother Yun got
ready to leave, the villagers refused to let him go. so he stayed on and recited to them the first twelve chapters
from the Book of Acts. After that, the villagers finally let him go. From the village to his house, it could take up
to 2 hours to walk. Because he did not want to make the young man from the south wait too long, he decided
to run home. All of a sudden, he found himself entering his village without any apparent time lapse. What
should have taken him a few hours took him just a few moments. It was as if God had supernaturally
transported him back to his village.
PERSECUTIONS AND MIRACLES IN HIS LIFE
Brother Yun was arrested by security police numerous times and was thrown into prison three times for
sharing the gospel in communist China. When Brother Yun was arrested the first time, he was only 17 years
old. At that time, he was ministering at a meeting far away from home. After he was caught, he was thrown into
a freezing cold prison cell. There was no heat in the cell and his winter coat had been thrown into the snow by
the security police who had caught him. He began to sing Psalm 150 aloud. The more he sang, the more he
was filled with joy. Gradually, his frozen hands and feet regained feeling and he no longer felt cold. During his
first imprisonment in Nanyang, Brother Yun felt that God wanted him to fast without food and water until he
could see his family again. This fast lasted 74 days, which was humanly impossible but yet was made possible
because he chose to obey God. During those times when Brother Yun was in the hands of government
officials, he was repeatedly beaten and tortured with electric batons. He was also kicked and trampled upon.
Furthermore, he had needles being jabbed underneath his fingernails. Once, Brother Yun was paraded
through the streets with a red cross tied behind him for half a day. When night fell, he was locked and left alone
inside a large interrogation room. The wooden cross was taken off his back but his hands were still tied up. All
of a sudden, the rope that was used to tie his hands snapped by itself. He immediately walked out of the
interrogation room and walked through the courtyard in the midst of onlookers. Nobody stopped him or said
anything to him. It was as if God had blinded their eyes and they did not even recognise who he was. Because
the front gate was locked, the only way Brother Yun could get out was to climb over an eight-foot high cement
wall. He climbed up as much as he could manage. Then he looked over the wall and saw that there was a ten-
foot wide open tank directly below. Suddenly, he felt as if someone had lifted him up and thrown him over. He
was thrown so far that he did not land in the tank. Brother Yuns 3rd imprisonment was a very dark period in his
life as the prison guards in the maximum security prison were determined to prevent his escape. So they beat
his legs to cripple him permanently. They had him beaten up everyday, even in his crippled state. One day,
God instructed him to escape from the prison. This was confirmed by a brother-in-Christ. Thus, on May 5,
1997, he miraculously walked past dozens of prison guards and out of the maximum security prison. It was as
if he had become invisible to the guards. He did not realize that his legs had been miraculously healed until
later. Throughout all the horrendous and painful experiences that Brother Yun went through, the word of the
Lord kept coming to him, encouraging him and strengthening his faith. BROTHER YUNS MINISTRY Brother
Yun eventually escaped China and sought asylum in Germany in 2001. Since then, he has been continuing his
ministry from there and has spoken to congregations internationally. He has founded Back to Jerusalem
Movement and has been sending missionaries out from China to share the gospel in the least-reached nations.
Brother Yuns life and ministry have impacted many lives. Thousands of people have become Christians
through his ministry. It is thus inevitable that fellow Christians have allowed themselves to be used as
instruments of wickedness to attack his reputation. The co-author of The Heavenly Man, Paul Hattaway has
aptly put it this way, Many of the great Christian leaders throughout history have been the subject of brutal
attacks from other Christians. AFTERTHOUGHT Brother Yuns childlike faith and his prompt obedience to
Gods call are exemplary. It is incredible that he has remained faithful to God despite the tremendous suffering
and persecutions he has gone through.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
www.asiaharvest.org/pages/news050705OpenLetterBrotherYun.html
www.songsofscripture.com/Brother_Yun.html
 SUMMARY

THE HEAVENLY MAN

Brother Yun was named Liu Zhenying at his birth in 1958 in the farming village Liu Lao Zhuang, which is
located in the China province called the Henan Province. At sixteen, Yun's life is forever changed when his
mother urges her family to accept Jesus as their saviors and to commit their lives to following God's way. Yun
does so and their first prayer - the restored health of his father - is granted within days. Yun's thirst for
knowledge drives him to ask questions of his mother, but she had accepted Jesus as a young woman and now
doesn't remember much. Unsatisfied and longing for information, Yun goes in search of a Bible. In China in
these days, Bibles are illegal and the one man who probably has a Bible refuses to allow Yun to even look at it.
Yun is told that if he wants a Bible he must pray for it. When that doesn't produce results, Yun prays and fasts.
It takes weeks but one day Yun has a vision of two men giving him a Bible. The two men show up and Yun
much later learns that the owner of the Bible had had a vision of his own that he was to give the Bible to Yun,
but he hadn't acted sooner out of fear.
Yun immediately begins to study diligently until the day he hears God command that he must now spread the
gospel as he has learned it. Yun begins to answer requests to preach and teach, though the responsibility
carries incredible danger. In fact, Yun is arrested on the day he goes with his future wife, Deling, to buy a
marriage license. He is accused of causing social unrest and of disturbing the peace with his preaching. Yun
manages to evade the law for some time except for some minor brushes but is eventually arrested. He is in jail
while Deling gives birth to their son, Isaac. Yun is released but both he and Deling know that his light for Jesus
is so bright that it will attract people hungry for the word. This proves to be true, and Yun is arrested when their
second child, Yilin, is just seven months old.
Yun is tortured, held in solitary confinement and threatened, but each time he meets pain with courage and
continues to share the gospel with anyone he encounters, including prison guards and convicted prisoners.
When he finally escapes China, he begins a tour in North America, talking of his experiences in China. When
someone calls him a liar, Yun is hurt but soon comes to realize that he is not free of persecution even in a
country where freedom of worship is a protected right.

C. REALATED LITERATURE
From a literary point of view, it is absolutely astonishing that despite having been written by so many different
authors from so many different backgrounds over a period of 15 centuries, the Bible does not contradict itself
and does not contain any errors as it was originally written. It contains remarkable unity. The King James
version of The Holy Bible is a critical addition to the American Literature Library. The Holy Bible is primary to
the culture of Western civilization and that primacy runs through its literature. Milton, Shakespeare, Herman
Melville; just a few of the thousands of authors whose work contains important biblical imagery and references.
Even Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address was laden with biblical imagery and delivered with a biblical
cadence that was well known to his audience. Oddly, while working knowledge of The Bible aids the study of
literature, it is increasingly expunged from modern curricula - often a casualty of the 'politically correct'
movement and a tendency by modern day cultural elites to denigrate religion. In light of that development, I
am particularly pleased to make the text of the King James Version of The Holy Bible part of the American
Literature Library.
 ADDITIONAL RELATED LITERATURE
When it comes to faith knowledge passion and love to God another literate we can connect here is MARTIN
LUTHER the also known as the German Monk who wrote the 95 theses. But who is Martin Luther anyway?
Martin Luther was born 10 November 1483, in Eisleben, Saxony (modern day Germany). His father was
relatively wealthy and paid for his son to gain an education in Magdeburg and Eisenach.In 1501, Martin Luther
became a student at the University of Erfurt. At the request of his father he took law, but he soon abandoned
law, preferring to study Aristotle and the subjects of philosophy and theology. Despite admiring aspects of
Aristotle and the classics, he was unsatisfied with just reason and intellectual studies and decided to become a
monk so he could devote his life to God.His time as a monk was challenging. Luther engaged in severe
austerities fasting, long hours of prayer and frequent confession, but he felt an inner spiritual dryness. He
became very critical of his own failings and felt his sinful nature becoming magnified rather than transformed.
Sharing his difficulties, his spiritual director gave him more work so he wouldnt become so introspected.As
well as being aware of his own failing, he became increasingly concerned about malpractice within the church,
which he felt was not in keeping with Biblical scripture. In 1510, he visited Rome on behalf of Augustinian
monasteries and was shocked at the level of corruption he found.In 1517, Martin Luther first protested to the
Catholic church about the sale of indulgences. (Buying an indulgence gave the person full or partial remission
of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven). Martin Luther argued that is was faith
alone that could provide the remission of sin and not monetary payments to the church.

D. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

As a researcher who read the novel The Heavenly Man I was a little bit sad knowing that despite of having
such a book like this. Many people chose to read fictional stories, I mean whats the sense of reading those
books? Going back to my analysis I was thinking How? Did brother Yun endured that kind of Pain. If I were him
should I do the same or could I do the same?

Questions:
(Moral/Philosophical Approach)
1. Did Brother Yun works inspire you?
2. What moral/ethical teaching is the author presenting in the text/or through character,plot or theme?
3. Does the story seek to corrupt or negatively influence the reader? How and why?

(Biographical approach)
1. What are the significant things the author has experienced?
2. Are the characters,settings,ideas or storyline in the authors writing similar to his experiences?
3. Was there an obstacle the author overcame or struggled with?

(Historical Approach)
1. Can this piece of literature be related to other historical works?
2. Is this novel alluding to another type of culture or literature?
3. How is this novel describing the time period it is in?
4. Is the novel a reliable source for historical references?

(Reader response Criticism)

1. What particular aspects of my life may help me understand and appreciate the work?
2. What does this work mean to me, in my present intellectual and moral makeup?
3. How can the work improve my understanding and widen my insights?

E. SIGNIFICANCE

This research allows might help us to strengthens our Christian faith. and can be as medium to inspire more

not just Christians but also those who loss in path,