Posted on 08/27/2007 7:21:12 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback
Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.
Every week during the fall, approximately 70,000 people attend NFL games in cities like Detroit and Houston. They pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for the privilege, and, if all goes well, they come away with some happy memories.
Every week throughout the year in China, approximately 70,000 people do something very different: they, too, pay a price, but its not measured in money. And what they come away with not only changes their lives but promises to change a nation, a continent, and even the world.
According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, 10,000 Chinese become Christians every day. Thats 70,000 a week!
At the time of the Communist takeover in 1949, there were 4 million Christians in China. Today, there are an estimated 111 million, which makes China the third-largest Christian country in the world, behind the United States and Brazil. By 2050, the Center estimates that the number of Christians will have doubled.
The explosive growth of Christianity in China is only part of a larger story. The ordeal of Korean missionaries at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan reminds us of Christianitys growth in Korea.
A happier story is the one Chuck told BreakPoint readers about the people called the Nagas. Little more than a century ago, these people living in the area where India and Burma meet were headhunters. Today, an estimated 90 percent of the population attends church on Sunday, and Christian leaders there have set the goal of sending 10,000 missionaries to the rest of Asia.
The Asia Times columnist Spengler recently wrote that China may soon occupy the role that the United States has occupied for the past 200 years: the natural ground for mass evangelization. He adds that if this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it.
He foresees Chinese Christians, like their Korean counterparts, [turning] their attention outward. Only, with a Christian population fifteen times the size of Koreas, and a Chinese Diaspora all over the world, the impact will be far greater. Spengler uses the word earthquake to describe it.
According to John Allen of the National Catholic Report, the most audacious Chinese Christians dream of taking the Gospel along the historic Silk Road into Muslim lands. As David Aikman has written, they believe it is their task to complete the mission of preaching the Gospel in every land. To that end, Chinese Christians are already secretly training missionaries for deployment in Muslim countries.
This is what Spengler means by an earthquake. As he puts it, the greatest danger to Islam comes from Chinese Christians looking westward toward Jerusalem.
Whats remarkable is this vision is taking shape even as Chinese Christians undergo persecution. Then again, Christianitys initial explosion took place under even worse conditions. So it probably shouldnt surprise us that there are more Chinese worshiping in house churches than belong to the Communist party.
According to Spengler, the fearless Chinese evangelists may do more to transform their nation and the world than all the armies and diplomats combined. That would be an earthquake worth experiencing.
I suspect there are already more
authentic, servant-hearted, loving, Biblical Christians in China than in the USA.
All the more so, if as some think, the total is closer to 150 million than 115 million.
It only makes sense when you look at recent history. Mao obliterated traditional Chinese confucianism with his cultural revolution. The natural religious impulse in humanity needs more than Deng’s crass materialism. “To be rich is glorious” makes a poor substitute.
I believe there already are. It’s only indirect information but it was estimated that there were 100 million Chinese Christians twelve years ago.
The atheists who rule China should quake with fear. A Force is coming that will blow their kingdom of straw to pieces. No power can stand against the Kingdom of Christ.
...and after China, Arabia!
Europe is often neglected as a place for Christian missionaries to go, especially American missionaries, who consider Europe to already be Christian, and therefore not as much in need of evangelization.
You bring up an interesting point. I don't know if it is so much that they consider Europe Christian, or whether it is because they know Europe has already heard the Word... and they've turned their back on it. In order of priority I'd tend for those places that haven't heard - those that were either trapped behind the iron curtain of satanic marxism; or those that were far removed from any preaching of the Gospel.
That said, we should keep our European breathren in our prayers -- there for the Grace of God go we ... and we often seem in a race to catch up with them to see who falls into the pit first. If we turn our backs on God, HE will turn His back on us turn us over to our idolatry and lusts. We see glimpses of that in Europe (Gaia-worship) and disrespect for marriage, as well as in our own Country. Pray that we repent and return to our Lord, and HE will have mercy on us, and to our God, for HE will abundantly pardon...
Fortunately for the Europeans, African and Korean missionaries recognize there is a need in Europe and are going there, in the case of African nations, sometimes sending missionaries to the same countries who sent the Gospel to them.
God Bless the African and Korean missionaries, that they are not as cynical as I. I pray they reap a wonderful harvest in Europe, and the Holy Spirit rains down on their dry and thirsty land, and brings repentance and revival...
I think you make some good points. I believe this concern with numbers or percentages is all wrong. Paul never mentions these things for the church at Ephesus, or Corinth, or anywhere else for that matter. Show me a church that brags about its number of “members” and I’ll show you a church that has its priorities out of whack. Sure you have to have numbers but quality is far more important. But even that is not up to us, all we can do is plant and water and God gives the increase. And even that is up to Him.
Talking numbers or percentages is bragging rights which is arrogance.
Jesus is alive and well in the People’s Republic of China.
Thanks for sharing, Mr. Silverback :o)
Ping for your interest. This is a great time to see God at work!
I agree with the post that says we should not focus on numbers and percentages, that would of course be silly. Our focus should be on praying for Christians and non-Christians who we know and who God has placed on our hearts.
That said, this article blesses us precisely because there are some amazing numbers reported which inspire us. I have heard other reports that there are ~28,000 people being saved each day in China. That sounds ludicrous, but do the math - assume there are 1 billion people in China. At 28,000/day that means there would be a little over 10 million Chinese getting saved each year. That’s only 1% of their total population! If it is 10,000/day as this research group reports then that is less than half of 1% of their population getting saved each year. Totally believable.
In the “our God is too small department”, this means that since there are about 86,000 seconds in each day our Lord is redeeming souls back to Him once every 2 - 6 seconds! Wow.
Blessings, Ted
Any discussion of worldwide Christianity should have a link to this:Global Schism: Is the Anglican Communion RiftIt's long but very interesting.
the First Stage in a Wider Christian Split?
Wow, what a coincidence that I just happened to read the Spengler column about this yesterday!
Here’s a link to it.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IH07Ad03.html
Somewhere north of 75% of Americans are Christians, so we’re well north of 100 million. Sure, many of them are nominal, but the thing is, we can only count nominal people because only God knows if someone’s heart is really true to Jesus.
This is such a hopeful post and we all need to keep praying for our Chinese brothers and sisters in Christ.
Our friends adopted a little girl from China 2 years ago, and they met some Christians there. The stories they told us were so humbling - the Chinese Christians are so on fire for their faith, so dynamic and you can see the sparkle in their eyes too.
Before they adopted their daughter, the husband of this couple had gone to China to bring Bibles. It was a little scary because he could’ve gotten into trouble but after he went, he just got a burden for the Chinese.
You are absolutely correct at how dead Europe has become - it is very secular - even Italy! But don’t think they are being ignored. We have friends that finally returned to the U.S. after spending about 18 years in Europe planting churches.
If you are interested in evangelization in Europe or donating to a very good missionary organization, it is called Christian Associates, International. I’m sure they’d appreciate the help. All of their missionaries must raise their own support and it is not easy since it is expensive to live in Europe.
That's why abortion is still illegal, homosexual marriage/unions aren't even a matter of discussion, pornography is almost non-existent, and drug abuse is a minor problem. (/sarcasm)
Jimmy Swaggart. Yeah, he calls himself a Christian. I think I'll give him a bunch of my money to do good works with.
I'm sure glad there's something in the Bible that says that only God knows the ultimately truth so that I can misconstrue it to mean that I can have absolutely no idea whether or not a specific person is likely or unlikely to be a hypocrite.
That will save me a lot of agonizing.
Kind of funny that Americans attend church at a higher rate than any country in the world, but you seem determined to portray this nation as the whore of Babylon. We definitely need a revival if we're going to get anywhere near our former glory, but if we're not a Christian nation, there aren't any Christian nations.
The problem is not that you're saying that you can tell some people aren't real Christians (BTW, how much do you know about Swaggart's activities since his scandals?) it's that you're assuming that the vast majority of Americans who say they're Christians are liars, and I don't see how you have the knowledge to make that judgement.
Saying Bill Clinton's not a real Christian is easy stuff. Saying about 200 million people you know little about aren't Christians is a bit arrogant. I would expect a person with some humility who was serious about the Gospel would busy himself helping those people become more devoted to Christ instead of condemning them without knowledge.
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