China
China has been more in the news this year than for many years and not for popular reason. As far as is known this virus probably started in China and certainly many now speak in less than favourable terms about the Chinese regime in consequence.
Apart from this though Christians in China very much needs our prayers. Following penetration of the gospel into China the Cultural Revolution in 1966-76 saw all foreign missionaries expelled and a clampdown on the people of China including all Christians. An estimated 20 million Chinese were killed during that time. By the end, many in the West expected to find that the church had died, but to their delight found instead that it was flourishing in secret house churches across the country. the very network of roads and the education instituted to further the communist dogma had only served to provide a platform for the spread of the gospel.
But the government had (and still has a great fear of Christianity). They see it as a direct threat to their control and authority. In an effort to control the church they instituted registration of churches but many true churches have refused to register both because they see it as the state interfering in God’s work and because of the restrictive rules that the state applies – censorship as to what is taught, a ban on teaching children etc.
So today there are thriving state churches some of which are truly part of the kingdom that seek to operate under the government’s rules, and a far larger unofficial and therefore illegal underground church comprising millions of believers across China who meet to worship God as we do but in secret.
These Christians meet under constant opposition and frequent persecution. The same Barnabas Fund email I quoted yesterday also carried this account “A church member had two ribs broken when 100 police forced their way into an unofficial house church service in Fujian province on Sunday 3 May to shut it down. Dramatic video footage shows police surging through the door of a private flat in Xiamen city and removing by force members of Xingguang Church, despite appeals for calm by Christian leaders. Children can be heard screaming as worshippers are wrestled to the floor by police.
About 20 Christians were at the service and several bravely carried on singing the hymn Amazing Grace as the police began seizing mobile phones. Six Christian men detained by the police were released later that day.
Last month authorities arrested Pastor Zhao Huaiguo of Bethel Church in Hunan province, accusing him of “inciting subversion of state power”. Both Bethel Church and Xingguang Church have been subject to growing pressure and harassment for refusing to register with the state-sanctioned “three-self” association.
The continuing crackdown on the Church by the Chinese authorities has seen hundreds of house churches and official, state-sanctioned “three-self” churches shut down. Increasingly repressive measures have included the arrest and imprisonment of pastors, the installation of surveillance cameras inside churches and the removal of religious symbols and texts from display.”
As we see China becoming an ever more dominant player on the world scene economically and commercially please pray for the Church in China, that God will move the hearts of this regime to give true freedom of worship to all of its people.