Key points in this article:

• China tightens oppression on Christianity through demolishing churches and forbidding Christmas
• Christians in China still hold fast to their faith
• China may have more Christians than the U.S. some day

 
A building bearing the symbol of a cross crashes to the ground amongst a cloud of dust.

On the 9th of January, the local government at Shanxi, China, dynamited the Golden Lampstand Evangelical Church to the ground. The footage has been uploaded on media websites, and is now going viral.

Reports state that armed police suddenly appeared and destroyed the mega-church on grounds that it was built illegally. The church had been under government surveillance for a time, and a minister was once imprisoned on the same charge.

“Christmas Is Opium” Say Chinese Authorities

The government is thus tightening its oppression of Christians.

In December 2017, authorities strengthened regulations over Christmas. After the 19th National Congress held in October, the central government ordered regional governments to “protect” the people from Western influences such as Christianity.

Upon receiving this command, the Communist committee at Hengyang ordered officials to prohibit people from taking part in Christmas related Masses and parties.

Below is an excerpt from this order:

“Party officials must be strict in protecting the Communist faith, and hereby prohibit the taking part in any religious activity, such as Christmas Eve and Christmas. We prohibit blind obedience to Western superstitions and spiritual opium of this sort.”

The shocking part is how they liken Christmas to opium, but the other thing to note is that the Beijing government thinks of Communism as a ‘faith’.

Sunday School Prohibition and Resisting Christians

Newsweek Magazine published an article on the 3rd about the battle between authorities and Christians in Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province over religious education.

Wenzhou is known as the Jerusalem of China for its large Christian population. The children were recently prohibited from attending Sunday school, a place where they study church doctrine.

Believers, however, have continued providing religious education under the disguise of daycare centers or changing the day to ‘Saturday school’. Parents go to such lengths because there is appalling lack of moral education in the state curriculum.

China faces problems amongst the youth including drugs, pornography, gambling and violence. The Christians in China are trying to protect religious education as their last option in giving their children a moral education.

More Christians in China Than the U.S.

In fact, the Christian population is rapidly increasing in the atheist state of China. It is estimated that by 2030 there will be 247 million Christians in China, overtaking the U.S. to become the country with the largest Christian population.

Beijing authorities are afraid that this will jeopardize their dominance in China.

The Liberty Web has been maintaining that religion is the key to democratizing China. With its vast population, Christianity may assume a central position in that turn-of-events.

Faith at the Center of Revolution

In December 2017, Master Ryuho Okawa, founder and CEO of Happy Science, conducted a spiritual interview of Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Rebellion and revolutionary from the 1800s. The spirit of Hong Xiuquan stated that the Taiping Rebellion was based on the Christian faith and that he spiritually guided the revolution of Sun Yat-sen from Heaven.

“Sun Tat-sen tried to create the Tridemism democracy in the Xinhai
Revolution, but its success required something like a Christian faith to back it up. It seems that our defeat [at the Taiping Revolution] somewhat weakened the ground.”

In July of last year, Master Okawa summoned the spirit of the Chinese democracy activist Liu Xiaobo, who had just died, to record a spiritual interview. The spirit of Liu Xiaobo spoke thus:

“The current [Chinese] government’s greatest enemy is religion . . . There needs to be a power that is based overseas but has a global reach. The most powerful one now is the underground Christian church. There are said to be over 100 million, so there is a great possibility that we will see a Christian revolution in China.”

Who will emerge victorious: those passionate believers seeking freedom, or the government authorities and their oppression?

We must brace ourselves for the coming impact.