Skip to main content

Pastors in China ready to lose their lives for the sake of the Gospel

In the face of an ongoing Communist crackdown, pastors in China have vowed to continue preaching the Gospel, even if it costs them their lives.

Aaron Ma, a representative of Open Doors' Ministry in China, told The Christian Post in an email on Thursday that the watchdog group has so far heard of one case of Bible burning in the country.


"In this case, the authority confiscated belongings of the churches (including Bibles) and burnt them all," Ma said.

The incident, where Communist Party officials burned Bibles and crosses in Henan, was captured on video and shared online earlier this month by activists, including ChinaAid President Bob Fu, whose group monitors the persecution of believers in China.

Concern has also risen over instances where state officials have been forcing some Christians to sign papers rejecting their faith.

Ma relayed information from local Chinese pastors who revealed that the people pressured to sign such papers are secondary school students.

"They are tempted [and] threatened not to admit their Christian faith in order to avoid trouble. Their Christian faith is being challenged and tested," the Open Doors representative explained.

As for how much weight such renunciation papers carry, and whether the believers who sign them are indeed considered to have left Christianity, he said:

"Whether they would leave the Christian faith would depend on how their pastors, and brothers and sisters in churches guide and encourage them to re-build their faith."

Ma noted that the circumstances leading to the increasing crackdown on churches in recent years has been building for decades. 

While the country has had different religious regulations to manage religious activities, since the Open Policy on economic development in the 1980s, enforcement of such regulation had been loosened.



Ma said the regulations have led to more cases of shutting down churches, confiscation of church property, and the growing threat of landlords refusing to lease premises for church meetings.

Ma said that Chinese Christians have "different kinds of fear."

"For example, pastors may fear their believers may not be able to stand strong under this wave of persecution," he continued.

"Youth Christians and their parents under the threat of being tempted to renounce faith on paper probably fear about their future (before this wave of persecution, youth Christians face a lot of struggles under this materialistic society)."

He suggested that churches can keep a low profile and avoid involving foreign parties in a significant way in their ministries in order to escape attracting the attention of authorities.

The Declaration for the Sake of the Christian Faith, as the letter is called, condemned China's persecution of believers, and insisted that Christians will continue teaching the Bible regardless of what they face.

"We declare that in matters of external conduct, churches are willing to accept lawful oversight by civil administration or other government departments as other social organizations do," the declaration stated.

"But under no circumstances will we lead our churches to join a religious organization controlled by the government, to register with the religious administration department, or to accept any kind of affiliation," it continued.

"We also will not accept any 'ban' or 'fine' imposed on our churches due to our faith. For the sake of the Gospel, we are prepared to bear all losses — even the loss of our freedom and our lives."
CP

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Celebrities sell their souls to the devil for fame and fortune

It is said that most Hollywood celebrities, to get to where they are today, made a deal with the devil...they sold their souls for fame and fortune. By selling their souls they submit to Satan so that he totally uses, enslaves and possesses their life, body, mind, will and soul. Satan's goal and agenda becomes theirs. Their life is no more their own. So let it not surprise you when their songs or movies serve Satan's purpose of driving men into deeper darkness. These celebrities are idolized and literally worshiped but clearly they serve Satan and channel demonic spirits through their music and movies. From the likes of Madonna,Jay Z, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Nicky Minaj ,Eminem, Bob Dylan and so so many others, these are known to be demon possessed having sold their souls to the devil. Melyssa Ford, a Canadian hip hop model and actress ,said in an interview, "If your ultimate goal is to be famous, you have to do a lot to get there like sign your name in blood i...

Late Hollywood actress, Marilyn Monroe, told Billy Graham, "I don't need your Jesus."

She had the perfect life anyone could dream of; remarkable wealth and great fame. Despite all that, Marilyn kept all of her sufferings to herself. One day during filming, a preacher named Billy Graham visited her. He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said: "I don't need your Jesus". During that time, Monroe who was allegedly having a romantic affair with the President of the United States, John F Kennedy. A week later, she was found dead in her bedroom. Theories of her death started to spread. Some say she was assassinated because of political conspiracies and in the end, the most accepted theory up to this day is she committed suicide. It shows that she was suffering from a severe depression. In fact it is actually the right time for her to seek God, asking for help, not to take the easy way out by taking her own life. *Hmmm... One day soon I will write on Marily...

See how music is used to cast spells...(A must read)

We love music, but do you know there could be more to music than we bargained for? The devil is desperate and we should not be ignorant of his devices and this is one of them. One weapon that he always uses is subtlety . Here's what I pulled from a Wiccan website concerning Magickal music or let me say how they cast spells in music: "A magick spell is the integration of an intent with a physical representation of that intent.  "For instance, when you make a Witch’s spell pouch, out of a cloth and some herbs and oils and objects, each of those items represents a part of your intent. And in the magick, you are binding those two things: your intention and the physical world. "This brings your intention into form in the physical world. That's how magick spells work. In magickal music, the intention is wrapped up into a song, and bound into it. "When I create magickal songs, I do it with the guidance of the Divine. In a meditative state...