Ministry of RTF Australia

RTF Australia is one part of an international fellowship which seeks to promote the Christian gospel through the distribution of reformed theological literature in the Chinese languages.

The aim of Reformation Translation Fellowship Australia is to promote the advance of God’s kingdom amongst Chinese people by making available reformed literature in the Chinese language. Specifically our aim is to provide aid for those who translate and publish Reformation Translation Fellowship literature; and to distribute such literature for use both in China and within the Chinese community in Australia. (This was taken from the constitution)

The work of translation and publication is conducted by the Reformation Translation Fellowship Publishing Company in Taiwan. We have close links with the Reformation Translation Fellowship of the United States of America. There are also RTF support networks in Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

History of RTF Australia

Reformation Translation Fellowship was established in South China by Reformed Presbyterian missionaries and pastors just before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. The two men instrumental in this development were Samuel Boyle (an American missionary who had been ministering in Canton) and Charles Chao (who had assisted Johannes G. Vos in theological education in Manchuria). As a former journalist and an observer of current events, Dr. Boyle saw the lack of theological foundations in the Chinese church and the ongoing threat of Protestant liberalism, which had swept most theological schools and denominations in China since the early 1920s. It was at this time that he began to translate Graham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism into Chinese. Eventually it was published in 1951 and a reprint has been published in 2002.

Later Dr. Boyle and Charles Chao started to publish a Reformed periodical entitled Faith and Life. This aimed to feed the needs of Chinese pastors throughout the China. During the past 58 years Reformation Translation Fellowship has sought to translate the great works of Protestant and Reformed theological literature into Chinese. Some theological works originally written in Chinese have also been published. The aim has been to provide the resources needed to strengthen the doctrinal foundation of the Christian Church in China. To date over 60 titles have been published and these are being distributed widely in China.

Currently the translation work is directed from the RTF headquarters in Taiwan. Support organizations exist in the USA, UK and Australia.