Editing Holy Ecclesia of Jesus (section)

==History==
Ōtsuki was born in [[Ayabe City]] in 1906, and as a young man converted to Christianity while a student at [[Doshisha|Dōshisha]] [[Middle school]], a private [[mission school]] in [[Kyoto]]. Ōtsuki was attracted to the faith through the evangelistic preaching of [[Kanamori Michinori]] during the daily chapel program and went on to receive [[baptism]]. Dissatisfied with Dōshisha's "[[Liberalism|liberal]] and [[socialistic]]" form of Christianity, Ōtsuki found his way into the [[Japan Holiness Church|Holiness Church]] in 1930.
Ōtsuki completed his theological training at the Holiness Bible Seminary in [[Tokyo]] and engaged in evangelistic work in several locations around [[Japan]] before accepting appointment as a missionary to [[Manchuria]] in 1936.

In 1938, while he was serving as a Holiness missionary in Mukden, Manchuria,<ref>Drawn from an interview with Father Yamanaka Akinori of Sei Iesu Kai in Tokyo.</ref> Ōtsuki had a "direct encounter with the living Christ," which was a life-transforming experience that was to become the foundation of his independent ministry.<ref>The following account was drawn on several interviews with Father Ōtsuki, selections from his Gensenshū (言泉集, A seventeen-volume collection of his writings, sermons, and lectures) and various church publications.</ref>
Ōtsuki also recorded specific revelations regarding the salvation of Israel and his future role in the fulfillment of the [[Bible]]'s apocalyptic vision.

A charismatic leader, Father Ōtsuki is also said to have performed fantastical miracles while he served in Manchuria. According to Reverend Yamanaka, "When Father Ōtsuki prayed, the twisted spine of a hunchback was straightened. That was the beginning of the miracles. After that, people who couldn't speak, people who couldn't stand up on their own legs—many people were cured." When asked about the supposed miracles, Father Ōtsuki Takeji's son, Ōtsuki Masaru, said that he saw them with his own eyes: "There was never any doubt."<ref>Accounts drawn and translated from direct interviews with Fathers Yamanaka Akinori and Ōtsuki Masaru.</ref>

After returning to [[Japan]] in 1942, Ōtsuki Takeji engaged in evangelistic work and led revival meetings in various locations around Japan. In 1946 he received another revelation from the Lord in which he was instructed to establish an independent church to be named the Holy Ecclesia of Jesus. The mission of the church was to recover and spread the Apostolic faith in place of the Westernized version of Christianity that missionaries had planted in Japan. The motto of the church today emphasizes this concern to recover the apostolic faith:

::{{Lang|ja|キリスト者はキリストのごとく,　教会は使徒行伝のごとく}}
::Christians are called to be like Christ,
::and the church to be like the Acts of the Apostles.

Obedient to these divine instructions, Ōtsuki left the Holiness Church with a small group of disciples and organized the Holy Ecclesia of Jesus. After a brief period based in [[Fukuyama City]], [[Hiroshima Prefecture]], Ōtsuki moved the headquarters of the movement to [[Kyoto]] in 1949. This has been the organizational center for a nationwide evangelistic ministry, which has grown to include over hundred churches scattered across the country from Okinawa in the south to [[Hokkaidō]] in the north.