Posted on 04/20/2014 5:29:34 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
Officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.
Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao's death in 1976 signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to become not just the world's number one economy but also its most numerous Christian nation.
"By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon," said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.
"It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change."
China's Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I was quite pleased when my newest neighbor introduced he and his wife as lifelong God fearing Christians and told him so.
He said everything else about them comes after that.
And thank God that Mohammedanism hasn't made significant inroads, yet.
“Onward, Chinese Christian soldiers!”
Cathplic ping!
We can be thankful for it. China is still a generation away from a democratic transition but it will happen - and the explosive growth of Christianity will eventually bring an end to the official persecution of the church. And for reasons of political and social stability, the Chinese government will eventually come to terms with its existence.
Nations that turn to Jesus for salvation grow and prosper. Those that turn their backs...well, you’ve seen what’s become of Sweden and the UK, and what is becoming of the U.S.
I understand that in China, the govt forces abortion against their will, so you could be Christian in that respect
But here in North America, people that call themselves “Christian” demand abortions, with all the trimmings like homosexuality etc
Just pointing out the story could be true, certainly North Americans and the modern Western world are not Christian if they are either having abortions or voting for the parties that celebrate abortion and or gay marriage
Praise God!
While Western Europe becomes Muslim.
That would give “East vs. West” an entirely new twist.
China is sending missionaries to the Muslims...to teach them the truth about Jesus. Soon, they will be, I believe, sending en masse missionaries to the UNITED STATES.
A little over a year ago I read this book--the Holy Spirit is moving mightily in China.
I read a study conducted by China’s head of propaganda. It was made to determine why the west had consistently beaten China for centuries. China had movable type and gunpowder but did nothing much with them. Those inventions remade the west. Everything they looked at had the same result. They concluded that Christianity was the big difference. Unfortunately, their answer was to create a state-sponsored and controlled version of their own brand of Christianity, not the real thing. We’ll see how it works out in the long run.
The future belongs to China I guess.
“its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied. “
Government is nothing more than an attempt to achieve “law and order” and Capitalism is about most productive and efficient use of resources.
You will not find God, you morals or your soul in either.
Certain other religions, or I should perhaps say just one, mouth all the same things that are taken to be the basic tenets of Christianity, including the various manifestations of the divinity of the Christ.
But Christianity is much more than belief in Christ’s divinity. It is a moral code derived over the centuries, and includes some very grounded rules of conduct, spelled out in direct and unequivocal terms in the Decalogue. The faith was rooted in a semi-settled way of pastoral life, based on the herding of animals and the harvest of the fruits from tilling the land. Over time, some misinterpretations and some sophistry has crept into those high commandments, to the point that some may be regarded as meaningless in the “modern” world.
It is to the point that the greatest mischief that can be worked on the minds of the young is to prepare them to “fit into” the modern world. A study of Christianity and its history over the centuries provides a healthy skepticism of all the blandishments and “advantages” of the so-called modern world, which is not so very modern in many ways.
Most of the old ideas of tyranny and suppression get dusted off from time to time, and are re-instituted as a “new” approach, and that “this time, it will work, because we have the right people running things”.
But it never does.
A true, humble practice of the teachings of Christ by the multitudes, each brought to Jesus on an individual basis, is the greatest force ever evolved in mankind’s quest for a better and more just life. Folks have misinterpreted and rephrased these teaching, bending them to personal advantage, but this is not Christianity’s fault, it is the fault of those whose belief is compromised and incomplete.
Though still a relatively small minority in the vast Chinese population, the influence of these shall have a disproportionate effect on the future path of China, and China will have its own Renaissance coupled with resurgence of faith, a force of expansion and growth like none the world has ever seen.
There’s a huge difference between capitalism and free market. In practice, capitalism is fascism to varying degrees. Free market provides efficiency and social mobility while capitalism concentrates wealth and power and increasingly limits personal freedom.
Why does China fear the Church? Because faith motivates, and religions are all about people acting and believing as one. It is important to note that there are frequent riots and protests all over China, particularly in the western half. They are usually small, and quickly snuffed out. The Central Party's greatest fear is that one day, one of these uprisings will get out of hand faster than they can squash it. Their entire military has "only" about 3 million active troops, and about 4 million "paramilitary" troops... to control 1,325 million people. Even utilizing advanced weapons, brutal tactics, and near-total media control, 1325 vs 7 is a really tough fight. If only 6% of Chinese people opposed the military (and the military lost absolutely zero troops supporting the populace), it would still be 80 vs 7... an 11-to-1 ratio is not that easy for every single soldier to handle. Also, the Chinese tend to have this habit of being highly populist. If there's something really popular and has an "everyone is doing it" feel to it, then the vast majority of Chinese will try to join in. Just watch any Chinese city street from 5:55am until 6:05am to get an inkling. If protest and revolt ever seem righteous and popular to the Chinese, the overthrow of the CCP will happen in a matter of days.
I was about to recommend that book. I read it years ago and it changed everything about my spiritual perspective of the latter days.
When God unleashes His Chinese Church, the world will shake. It will be like nothing this world has ever seen.
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