Filed under: China | Tags: beijing, China, Christ, christianity, christians, church, communist, God, gospel, government, Jesus, pastors, prison, registered, religion, three self, underground
This is part of ChinaAid’s “expert commentary” section. A very good speech by Yu JianRong at Peking University on December 11, 2008. He performed a year-long study and analysis on China’s house churches.
Yu goes into great detail about what he observed in Chinese house churches throughout many provinces in China. I’d recommend reading it.
To ensure hope for the persecuted church, go to www.alpharelief.org
Filed under: China | Tags: China, christianity, christians, church, communist, God, gospel, human rights, Jesus, police, prison, registered, religion, three self, underground, United States
Check this link out.
In ShanXi Province there is a Christian church which is being persecuted. The authorities are putting people in handcuffs and humiliating them on TV for being Christians.
Filed under: China | Tags: beijing, China, China Aid, christianity, christians, church, communist, Fengtai, freedom, gospel, Hua HuiQi, human rights, Jesus, pastors, police, prayer, prison, registered, religion, Shanxi, Taiyuan, torture, underground, Voice of the Martyrs, VOM
Voice of the Martyrs put out this on their blog a couple of days ago.
This afternoon, we received a report from our partners at Christian Aid Association telling us how Pastor Hua Huiqi had been beaten and detained by Chinese police on June 4. The following is how Pastor Hua described his experience:
My name is Hua Huiqi. Before June 4 of this year, I went to a church outside Beijing and shared the words of God with some brothers and sisters. On the morning of June 5 when I was transferring trains at Taiyuan Railroad Station, I was arrested by the police officers from Shanxi and Fengtai, Beijing who had been laying in ambush there for a long time. I was taken to the hotel where they were staying. A team leader named Dong from Fengtai District Domestic Security Protection Squad of Beijing roughed me up and slapped me in the face over 10 times. My clothes were ripped open and they beat me for nearly half an hour.
In the meantime, they pinched me on the neck and said: “I’m going to strangle you and I’d like to see whether you can still preach the Gospel. If you go outside the town again, I’ll break your legs.” He also threatened me: “I’m beating you because God tells me to do so. I’ll get all the materials ready in three months and arrest both you and your wife for sentencing.”
I asked him: “What law did we break?”
He said: “Just because you believe in Jesus. Our Domestic Security Protection Squad is specially set up here to suppress you Jesus believers. We don’t allow you to stir up troubles and establish contacts everywhere. You must apply at our Domestic Security Protection Squad when you want to go out. We don’t allow you to get out of our sight. Otherwise, whenever you go out, we’ll beat you once and break your legs.”
On that same afternoon, over 10 police officers escorted me back to Beijing from Taiyuan and detained me in a mountain where they kept guard on me day and night. Later, with prayers from brothers and sisters and appeals by ChinaAid, they escorted me back home on the evening of June 7 and I’m still not free at this moment. I hope brothers and sisters the world over can pray for the Chinese police and beg God to show His grace and let them repent and believe in Jesus. I also hope they pray that we may freely preach Gospel and live a free life.
Member in Christ:
Hua Huiqi
Please uphold Pastor Hua in your prayers as he is receiving treatment at home.
Filed under: China | Tags: Acts, beijing, Bible, CHCA, China, Christ, christianity, christians, church, compromise, confusion, creed, faith, God, gospel, heresy, Holy Spirit, house church, humility, Jesus, ministries, ministry, morality, pastors, persecution, registered, religion, revival, smuggle, testimonies, theology, three self, tribulations, underground
Found this today on ChinaAid‘s website:
June 8, 2009
BEIJING – On May 19, the Chinese House Church Alliance, a house church network of more than 250,000 members, issued a call to house churches across China. The public statement, “Chinese House Church Alliance on the Initiatives of Integration of House Churches in Life and Truth,” exposes and acknowledges problems the house churches are facing in the 21st century from within which make them more vulnerable to persecution, difficulties and moral compromise. The Chinese House Church Alliance proposes specific initiatives; calling house church Christians back to loyalty to Jesus, the Bible and to each other.
The following is the full text of the call from the Chinese House Church Alliance to house churches across China:
CHINESE HOUSE CHURCH ALLIANCE
ON THE INIATIVES OF INTEGRATION OF HOUSE CHURCHES IN LIFE AND TRUTH
May 19, 2009
In the past 30 years, God has continuously been opening up the gate of the Gospel in China. The house churches in China quietly emerged and experienced a great revival at the end of the last century, which caught the attention of the church worldwide. However, after they entered the 21st century, many new problems and new directions have emerged as the house church movement continues to develop. They are mainly reflected in the following areas:
1. Leaders of house churches lack humility and a kingdom perspective. Regional separations are a serious issue.
2. Different backgrounds in faith and theological ideas have caused confusion regarding truth and created disputes in doctrine.
3. Some leaders of house churches are morally compromised, which has seriously affected the credibility of house churches.
The emergence of the above problems has dislocated the house churches from their foundation, so much so that they are rendered vulnerable to the impact of the persecution by outside forces, tribulations and temptations. As a result, many ministries that used to have a great vision are now split and have collapsed, and the testimonies, integration and development of house churches are seriously hampered. For these reasons, the Chinese Christian House Church Alliance proposes the following initiatives:
1. House churches should reject the disruption caused by various new schools of theological ideas and should return to the Bible and adhere to the pure faith with Apostles’ Creed as our basic principles.
2. House churches should contact each other in peace and strive to protect the hearts of one another through the fellowship and blessings of the Holy Spirit. We should all be connected to our supreme leader, Christ, establish ourselves in love and be integrated in life and truth.
3. House churches should follow the ways of Christ and regard Christ’s heart as our heart and discard the scepter of possessions and authority, and instead pursue the spiritual scepter. May the kingdom of God descend upon us,as we greet the second coming of Jesus Christ.
4. House churches should make progress hand in hand in this new era and establish spiritual organizations on the solid rock, so that house churches become the ever-burning golden lampstands in the hands of God. “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”
**
Pray for the house churches in China. I have friends involved in house churches in China, both local Chinese people, as well as foreigners. It’s a HUGE church in terms of numbers across the nation. It’s really encouraging to see, but they do face major problems as you can see above, when it comes to things like moral compromise, incorrect teachings, and downright heresy. But if you look in the book of Acts, the Chinese church is facing a lot of the same things the 1st Century churches faced.
Filed under: China, culture | Tags: beijing, blood, Catholic, China, Chinese, Christ, christianity, christians, church, cross, disciple, Dynasty, God, grace, jesuit, Kangxi, Manchuria, missionary, poem, poetry, Qing, roman, whips
During the Manchurian Qing Dynasty there was an emperor named Kangxi. At this time the only Christian missionary activity to China was the “newly established arm of Roman Catholicism, the Society of Jesus.” Otherwise known as the Jesuits. They had extreme favor with the government because of the skill and intellect that the missionaries brought with them. The Jesuits walked in favor, and had missionaries even in the emperor’s court. Kangxi was the head of the Manchurian dynasty at the time, and was continually pushed by missionaries to accept Christ. His refusal appeared to be based on his status and symbolic position as head of the nation. However, here is a poem that Emperor Kangxi wrote, entitled “The Cross”:
The Cross – Kangxi
The blessed door was closed a long time for an ancient people
A mission fulfilled when the blood from the Cross became a stream
And grace a hundred-fold flowed from the West.
His body surrounded by soldiers walking the midnight road,
A disciple turned his back three times before the rooster crowed.
As five thousand whips broke his arm,
Six feet tall, he hung there, together with two thieves.
Tragedy shoot the furthest places and the highest officials.
After seven words it was finished and millions of souls cry out.
The way to Heaven depends on God’s Son.
In Chinese:
功成十架血成溪，百丈恩流分自西。
身列四衙半夜路，徒方三背两番鸣。
五千鞭挞寸肤裂，六尺悬垂二盗齐。
惨动八垓惊九品，七言一毕万灵啼。
After the Jesuits, many missionaries of different denominations and orders, especially of the Catholic Church. It’s really interesting reading this book. All of this information I am getting from “Jesus in Beijing.” It’s a good read. I’d
recommend it.
Filed under: China | Tags: arrested, China, christianity, christians, church, human rights, money, pastors, police, prison, PSB, raid, religion, underground
Via China Aid (website), this morning I heard about 18 Christians who were arrested in the province of Henan, China. Apparently they were having a communion service at a house church, when the PSB (China’s police) conducted a raid of the meeting. The Christians and leaders were taken down to the local police station and fined 1000yuan each. That is only $150. But in China, that is one month’s salary for your average car mechanic or hotel receptionist. It is two months salary for your average baker. (world salaries)
Also, we have to remember. For a lot of underground church pastors, their only job is being a pastor. They make little to no money, because of the demand for pastors. I was in China a few years ago listening to an underground pastor talk about his experience. He said:
“6 days a week we have church in this apartment. sometimes up to 10 or 11 services per day. all different congregations.”
Of course, apartments only hold 10-30 people sometimes, but…doing the math that could be hundreds of people coming through there per day! Whether or not this is representative of China as a whole when it comes to the underground church, I don’t know. But for this pastor…leading his congregation(s!) was more than a full time job. So for a pastor to be fined $150 can be devastating. Hopefully church members and friends come together at that point and help out.
The worst part is that 16 of these Christians and pastors are still imprisoned. With China’s human rights laws, it is impossible to know how they are being treated. Please pray for them and their families.
