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Church News From China - Vol. 3 No. 2
By Editorial Staff
Published April 21, 2008
- REMARKABLE GROWTH
Despite increased persecution and the fact that more than 2,000 Christians are currently imprisoned for religious reasons, the church in China is growing at a remarkable rate, impacting lives and sharing the hope of Jesus. Although more than 6,000 churches have reopened since 1979, by far the vast majority of Chinese Christians continue to meet in private homes. Many rural groups meet in caves for fear of reprisal from the government. A church opens in China every 36 hours. (WHBL)
- CHRISTIANS ARRESTED
Five church workers from Wenzhou, who were detained in a PSB raid on a house church in Huai’an, Jiangsu Province, have been fined up to 5,000 yuan. Four local Christians detained in the raid were released the following day. During their time in detention, the believers were repeatedly questioned about their activities. Sources say they were often beaten and kicked during interrogations designed to encourage them to confess to having connections with foreign religious organizations. One such interrogation session reportedly lasted 13 hours. (NNI, CNCR)
- MILLIONS TO PRAY FOR CHINA
This October, millions of Christians around the world prayed for 100 strategic cities of the world – including 17 in China. The cities are political and economic centers in their respective countries. Most are either capitals, or cities with large populations. Christians prayed that God would bless each city, and that people residing there will know His love for them. The 17 cities in China are Beijing, Changchun, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hohhot, Jinan, Lanzhou, Lhasa, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Taiyuan, Tianjin, Urumqi, Wuhan, and Xian. (Charisma)
- FOREIGNERS ARRESTED
An Australian missionary and a Hong Kong Chinese church worker were among those arrested and briefly detained in Guangdong earlier this year, following a raid on an unregistered house church. Two Chinese evangelists were also arrested; security agents used steel rods to severely beat one of them, Li Dexian, 43. Li sustained fractures to several ribs and injuries to his back, legs, and neck. (NNI)
- REN BA YUE
This is lunar leap year in China, when an extra month is added to the lunar calendar to make it match the 365-day solar calendar. When the double month falls in August – every 19 years – superstition says that tragedy will follow. Red good-luck banners are in many doorways, and in Jiangxi Province, where floods have hit hard, red umbrellas and clothes are selling out. Many truck drivers have tied red strips of cloth to their side mirrors or radio antennae.
The Chinese government, which has outlawed fortunetellers in its continuing battle against superstition, has tried to stop mounting anxiety. Earlier this year, the People’s Daily published an article entitled, “An Eighth Leap Month Is Not Necessarily Linked to Natural Disasters.” (Los Angeles Times)
- TRYING TO OUTLAW RELIGION
“Under communist cosmology, the party has assumed the mission of shepherding religion to extinction in the name of scientific socialism,” noted an editorial in The Wall Street Journal, a U.S. business newspaper. “And while it has abandoned everything Marx ever wrote about economics, it clings gamely to Lenin’s notion that the party must remain overbearing in spiritual matters and every other part of life. Never mind that nobody can explain anymore why this should be so . . . The party ought to rethink its attitude. It gains nothing from harassing peaceful religious believers or driving them underground; it only makes more enemies. And of course it forces companies throughout the United States and the rest of the free world to close their eyes to the fact that they’re doing business with a government that engages in such persecution.” (Wall Street Journal)
- COMMUNISTS BECOME CHRISTIANS
An official Chinese internal document reveals growing concern of the Communist Party about Party members becoming Christians. Especially in Henan Province, where religious growth topped 50 percent last year, disillusioned communists are turning to Christ. The report, issued earlier this year, said that more than 18 percent of Party members, cadres, and their families have either joined or taken part in religious organizations or activities.
The official response has been a circular to all provinces saying that all Party members found to be part of religious organizations should be expelled from the Party, and that those who take part in “underground illegal organizations” (which in communist terminology includes unregistered house churches) should be both expelled from the Party and dismissed from their posts. (News Brief)
- ANHUI POLICE LAUNCH CRACKDOWN
A house church leader from Anhui had a cross shaved on his head and his hands stabbed with scissors following his arrest earlier this year, according to a letter from Chinese Christians received by Hong Kong sources. During the police interrogation of Hu Zhuan Qi, in his early 30s, officials reportedly asked if it was accurate that Jesus had told his followers that they must be willing to bear the cross. When Hu answered yes, the official reportedly replied, “Then I’m going to give you a cross to bear.”
The security officer then shaved a cross on Hu’s head and stabbed his hands with the scissors. A photograph showing the marks on Hu’s head and hands was included with the letter. (NNI)
- DECREES 144 AND 145
House church leaders have reported that the government is giving greater attention to implementing Decrees 144 and 145, which were issued in February 1994 to control religious believers. Others have said that Chinese authorities are attempting to infiltrate the leadership of house churches in order to discover their strategies.
Earlier this year, the leader of an overseas Christian organization that works with the official church in China, claimed that the government’s aim in 1995 is to register all the housechurches operating in China. Although the likelihood of achieving this is extremely remote, it shows how seriously the government is taking the perceived threat from Christian believers. (Update)
- CHINESE RESEARCHER INTERVIEWS CHRISTIANS
Wu Ying, a researcher at the Institute of Religious Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, spent two months in Beijing interviewing 50 Christians and scholars. His report was published in the Hong Kong journal, Ming Bao Monthly. Wu talked to the Christians about their conversion, baptism, work, knowledge of faith, and the future of Christianity in China.
Wu found that the main reasons for believing in Jesus were: (1) the witness of other Christians, (2) an instinctive feeling that God exists and that Christianity is best suited to them, (3) personal spiritual experience, (4) personal crises and searching for meaning in life, and (5) being healed by God.
The Christians whom Wu interviewed had a pessimistic view of modern Chinese society. They referred to the rise in crime, worship of money, and the collapse of moral standards. Some saw the need for strengthening the legal system, but most saw this as only an external constraint. They said there is a need for an internal arbiter – a conscience – to prevent crime, and that only the Christian faith could do this.
All the Christians interviewed agreed that Jesus had changed their lives. They no longer lied or hated other people. They now acknowledged their sins and repented of them.
One seminary graduate gave an interesting response to a question concerning original sin and its incompatibility with traditional Chinese views on the innate goodness of human nature. “Originally I thought I was a good person, wanting to help others,” he said. “So how could I be a sinner? Later I came to see that not knowing God was the greatest sin.”
Although all interviewees admitted that the Christian concept of sin clashed with traditional Chinese views on the subject, they all said they had come to a point of confessing their sin and seeing the pitiable state of those living in sin.
Many admitted that coming to faith was a long, painful process. It meant looking with new eyes on Chinese racial traditions dating back thousands of years and abandoning atheism, which had been inculcated for several decades.
Mr. Wu, who is presumably not a believer himself, said that the Christians greatly impressed him with their sincerity and friendliness, which he found in marked contrast with society at large. “When I was with them,” he wrote, “I experienced their inner purity, goodness, faith, and love. They sincerely believe Christianity can save China.”
Wu concluded by saying that Christianity was fulfilling an increasingly useful role in Chinese society, although it is the religion of a minority. “One more Christian, one less criminal,” he said, was a true saying. (China Insight)
» » The Mandate - Volume 3, Number 2
Your comments are welcome!
Go Stand Speak (DVD)
With “preaching to the lost” being such a basic foundation of Christianity, why do many in the church seem to be apathetic on this issue of preaching in highways and byways of towns and cities?
Is it biblical to stand in the public places of the world and proclaim the gospel, regardless if people want to hear it or not?
Does the Bible really call church pastors, leaders and evangelists to proclaim the gospel in the public square as part of obedience to the Great Commission, or is public preaching something that is outdated and not applicable for our day and age?
These any many other questions are answered in this documentary.
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Frank Schaeffer Will You Please Shut Up! (Book)
High Quality Paperback — 200 pages
A Reasonable Response to Christian Postmodernism
Includes a response to the book Christian Jihad by Colonel V. Doner
The title of this book is a misnomer. In reality, I am not trying to get anyone to shut up, but rather to provoke a discussion. This book is a warning about the philosophy of “Christian postmodernism” and the threat that it poses not only to Christian orthodoxy, but to the peace and prosperity our culture as well. The purpose is to equip the reader with some basic principles that can be used to refute their arguments.
Part 1 is a response to some of the recent writings by Frank Schaeffer, the son of the late Francis Schaeffer. This was originally written as a defense against Frank’s attacks on pro-life street activism – a movement that his father helped bring into being through his books, A Christian Manifesto, How Should We Then Live? and Whatever Happened to the Human Race? These works have impacted literally hundreds of thousands of Christian activists.
Part 2 is a response to Colonel Doner and his book, Christian Jihad: Neo-Fundamentalists and the Polarization of America. Doner was one of the key architects of the Christian Right that emerged in the 1980s, who now represents the disillusionment and defection many Christian activists experienced in the 1990s and 2000s. There is still great hope for America to be reformed according to biblical principles. As a new generation is emerging, it is important to recognize the mistakes that Christian activists have made in the past even while holding to a vision for the future.
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The Abortion Matrix: Defeating Child Sacrifice and the Culture of Death (DVD)
Download the free Study Guide!
Is there a connection between pagan religion and the abortion industry?
This powerful presentation traces the biblical roots of child sacrifice and then delves into the social, political and cultural fall-out that this sin against God and crime against humanity has produced in our beleaguered society.
Conceived as a sequel and update to the 1988 classic, The Massacre of Innocence, the new title, The Abortion Matrix, is entirely fitting. It not only references abortion’s specific target – the sacred matrix where human beings are formed in the womb in the very image of God, but it also implies the existence of a conspiracy, a matrix of seemingly disparate forces that are driving this holocaust.
The occult activity surrounding the abortion industry is exposed with numerous examples. But are these just aberrations, bizarre yet anomalous examples of abortionists who just happen to have ties to modern day witchcraft? Or is this representative of something deeper, more sinister and even endemic to the entire abortion movement?
As the allusion to the film of over a decade ago suggests, the viewer may learn that things are not always as they appear to be. The Abortion Matrix reveals the reality of child-killing and strikes the proper moral chord to move hearts to fulfill the biblical responsibility to rescue those unjustly sentenced to death and to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 24:11,12; 31:8,9).
Speakers include: George Grant, Peter Hammond, RC Sproul Jr., Paul Jehle, Lou Engle, Rusty Thomas, Flip Benham, Janet Porter and many more.
Ten parts, over three hours of instruction!
Running Time: 195 minutes
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Abortion Clinic 911 Calls (DVD)
Exposes the Dangers of Abortion to Women!
These shocking eyewitness accounts expose the dangers of abortion not only to unborn children, but to the health and lives women as well. An antidote to the smokescreens of the liberal media, these short clips show what really happens in and around abortion clinics.
Although the content is emotionally gut-wrenching, these videos have been used in church seminars and small groups to educate Christians on the abortion issue and to lead people toward a pro-life position. Contains 2 hours and 40 minutes of materials that can be shown separately.
Watch these pro-life videos on-line.
“These videos helped change my mind from pro-choice to pro-life. Your videos are what did it for me. I will be walking in next year’s March For Life in San Francisco.” — A. Jackson, California
“I was going to have an abortion until I saw your video. Praise Jesus!”
— M. Drew, YouTube Commenter
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The Beast of Revelation: Identified (DVD)
Who is the dreaded beast of Revelation?
Now at last, a plausible candidate for this personification of evil incarnate has been identified (or re-identified). Ken Gentry’s insightful analysis of scripture and history is likely to revolutionize your understanding of the book of Revelation — and even more importantly — amplify and energize your entire Christian worldview!
Historical footage and other graphics are used to illustrate the lecture Dr. Gentry presented at the 1999 Ligonier Conference in Orlando, Florida. It is followed by a one-hour question and answer session addressing the key concerns and objections typically raised in response to his position. This presentation also features an introduction that touches on not only the confusion and controversy surrounding this issue — but just why it may well be one of the most significant issues facing the Church today.
Ideal for group meetings, personal Bible study — for anyone who wants to understand the historical context of John’s famous letter “… to the seven churches which are in Asia.” (Revelation 1:4)
Running Time: 145 minutes
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