Jesus In A Modern Day World

Christianity has always been persecuted throughout the world just as Jesus warned us. He reminded us that we are in the world but not of the world. Many countries now allow the freedom of worship as long as they feel it is not a threat to their government and the power of the those demanding the subjection of the people. That subjection comes in different degrees.

In an atheist country such as China who's government wants the full attention and control of the people they find any religion other than humanism unacceptable and a threat. Vietnam, China, North Korea are still imprisoning those who find the government cannot fill the hearts longing desire to have a personal relationship with their creator through Jesus Christ and the Love he has for each of us.

In this article by Janet Chismar she points out what is happening in modern day China. A country who wants and needs the economic trade of other countries, especially the United States and the demand form those countries to allow its citizens to freely worship. The Book by David Aikman gives us a great insight into the workings of the China government and how Christianity is surviving the pressure of it's leaders in a modern world and the desire to worship God in his fullness.

One important thing Jesus explained when he asked for a penny to answer a question demanded of him. "Whose inscription is on it?" After they told him Caesar's. He firmly stated, "Then Render unto Caesar, the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are God's."


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The Question of Religious Freedom in China
Janet Chismar

When the U.S. State Department issued its annual report on international religious freedom in September, China came under fire for repressing Christians, Tibetan Buddhists and other religious groups. The State Department found that Beijing has reportedly expelled more than 100 foreign missionaries in an effort to "tighten control on Christian house churches prior to the 2008 Olympics."

Time Magazine reported on Oct. 13 that a database set up by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China to monitor political and religious prisoners included 4,060 cases as of September. The past year saw a tightening of the screws on religion, the report said. "Protestant church gatherings that didn't register with the government were shut down, and Catholics blocked from contact with the Vatican. Independent clergy were detained and coerced."

But, a different article in Time, published in September, said that Chinese officials are defending the country's religious freedom record, emphasizing that all Chinese can worship as they choose with no restrictions.

Even some Christian groups report they have been able to work with the Chinese government. East Gates Ministries has been legally distributing Bibles to house churches in China for years, and its president says that Christians have effectively worked with the existing governmental structure.

Which is the accurate report? Does China persecute believers or allow free worship? It depends on whom you ask and how you define religious freedom.

David Aikman, himself a former Time correspondent and author of Jesus in Bejing: How Christianity is Changing the Global Balance of Power, says that when Chinese officials boast of the nation's religious freedom record, they point to a number of "open" churches, temples and mosques. In a recent interview, Aikman explained that what is not mentioned is the rigid control the Communist Party exerts over these churches.

The Catholic Patriotic Association, whose leaders are selected by the Communist Party, decides who is going to be ordained as a priest and who is going to be a bishop, says Aikman. "But, there are Catholic churches that are quite open and can be attended freely in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities. It is possible, if you are a Roman Catholic, to worship with some degree of confidence that you are not going to be arrested."

The Protestant equivalent of the Catholic Patriotic Association is the Three Self Patriotic Association, which was set up by the Communist Party in 1954. Aikman says the Communist Party uses Three Self "to control not only who the Protestant Church personnel are, but what is said in pulpits. It's essentially a scheme to bring all of China's Protestant clergy under government control."



According to Aikman, the number of government controlled Protestant churches in China is large: "At last count, there were approximately 13,000 that are open. You can go in and out on Sunday, and no body's going to arrest you or ask who you are."

The difference between the Three Self Protestant churches and China's network of unofficial house churches is that the Three Self churches do not engage in any evangelism whatsoever. "They are not allowed to evangelize," Aikman explains.

Ironically, a majority of pastors, even in this Communist-controlled organization, are Evangelical Christians. "They preach good Southern Baptist-type sermons, but they cannot proselytize or evangelize," says Aikman. "This is the real big difference between the Three Self church and the house church."

When people ask, "Is there religious freedom in China?" Aikman says it is accurate to answer "yes" -- but within limits. "You can go to church and you can even buy a Bible, but only in the church. You can't buy a Bible in a bookstore. And you can't evangelize. So, the Christians who don't want to live under those restrictions, who are very eager to evangelize about their faith, tend to go to the house churches."

Aikman agrees with reports that China's government has cracked down on unofficial religious activity this year. "Most people think that this is a prelude to the Olympics," he adds. "Whenever China has some big international event, they round up all the usual suspects so that nobody will be squawking in the wrong terms to visiting foreigners."

Between April and July 2007, China expelled 100 foreigners for Christian activities. "These were basically foreigners, mostly Americans, who had secular jobs in China like teaching English or doing business," says Aikman. "But in their spare time, they were sort of secret missionaries." It counts as the biggest expulsion of foreign missionaries since the 1950s.

According to Aikman, "They have also cracked down on Christian human rights organizations in Beijing. They have beaten people up, arrested people and threatened them. They have really cracked down a lot harder this year than really almost any time in the previous 10 years, trying to make sure that they have everything under control before the Olympics."



Growth of Christianity

In spite of this clampdown, Christianity has continued to flourish in China. According to the BBC, obtaining reliable statistics about the number of Christians in China is notoriously difficult. Estimates vary between 40 and 70 million Protestants, only 10 million of whom are registered members of government churches. A figure leaked by a government official this year put the number of Christians in China at 130 million, says Aikman, but the statistic he uses, and people are generally comfortable with, is 70 to 80 million.

Aikman says Christianity is growing at all levels of Chinese society, but particularly at the professional and intellectual levels. A big difference in the three years between the first edition of Jesus in Beijing, published in 2003, and the 2006 edition is that far more intellectuals have become Christians, "including a striking number of dissidents, political oppositionists and others -- many of them in exile."

He says he stands by a projection he made in the book that within 20 to 30 years, about 20 to 30 percent of Chinese will be Christians. "By that measurement, China will, in fact, be Christianized. To be Christianized, a country doesn't have to have a majority of its citizens Christian. It just needs such a large minority that they are holding influential positions in government, education, culture, media, politics and so on."

Aikman attributes the growth, in part, to persecution itself: "Persecution has always nurtured church growth throughout Christian history. The Chinese Church was very brutally persecuted during the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976 -- a time when enormous growth began to take root. "

Then, when the Leftists who ran the Cultural Revolution were arrested in 1976, China had an unprecedented period of religious freedom from 1977-78 to 1982, "when nobody knew what the rules were, because there weren't any rules," Aikman explains. "There was massive evangelism during that time period."

One reason Aikman thinks Chinese are attracted to Christianity is that they have been completely disillusioned with Communism. "They saw Communism in its purest most streamlined form in the Cultural Revolution and they said, 'Thanks, but no thanks. We don't like this.'"

Another factor has been disillusionment with corruption. "The rapid rise in income disparity since China started going down the Capitalist Road," says Aikman, "has thrust people suddenly into a world of multiple choices with no real reliable guidelines and very few role models. Everybody knows someone who is on the take. Corruption in China is almost endemic."

So, Aikman adds, when Christians come along and say, "We don't believe in this. We have a different standard," it is very attractive to people.