太平天国运动是中国近代史上一次伟大的农民起义,建立了与清王朝对峙的政权———太平天国,它尊崇“拜上帝教”。此教与基督教颇为相似,而且传教士艾约瑟与太平天国领导人洪仁?交往甚深,故而,艾约瑟坚信,太平天国会转信基督教,基督教最终会征服整个中国。拜上帝教是为太平天国能够正常存在而服务的,与艾约瑟所宣扬的基督教信仰存在着本质差别。 The Taiping Campaign is a great peasant uprising in modern history of China. It established the Taiping Rebellion, the regime that stood in confrontation with the Qing Dynasty, and respected the “worship of God”. This teaching is quite similar to that of Christianity, and the missionary Joseph Ephraim interacted closely with the leader of the Taiping Heavenly King, Renren, who believed that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would relay to Christianity and eventually Christianity would conquer the entire Chinese nation. The worship of God is serving the normal existence of the Taiping Heaven, and there is an essential difference with the Christian faith proclaimed by Joseph.