Posted on 04/13/2014 8:12:32 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A communist official in China has condemned the rapid growth of Christianity in the region as "excessive", but has denied allegations of increased persecution.
Officially an atheist state, the right to freedom of religious belief is guaranteed under Article 36 of the Chinese Constitution but protections are limited to those who worship within state-sanctioned bodies.
Chinese Christians often suffer at the hands of government authorities, and the Asian superpower is ranked the 37th worst country in the world for Christian persecution by the Open Doors World Watch List.
Despite this, reports suggest that between 3,000 and 10,000 people are turning to Christianity every single day in China, and while there were just one million believers in total when the Communist party came to power in 1949, there are now thought to be as many as 100 million.
It is perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that the government is said to be stepping up its defenses against those who practice the religion, with 12 churches in Zhejiang province currently facing demolition.
Believers are refusing to back down, however. Thousands of Chinese Christians flocked to a church in Wenzhou last week to protect it from being torn down by city officials.
A 24 hour human shield has been established at Sanjiang church following a demolition notice which states that it has been constructed illegally. Those mounting the protest say they will not leave until they are sure their church is safe.
Li Jingliu, a member of Sanjiang church for 34 years, declared: "I will guard the church until the very end, without fearing hardship or death."
"They said the holy cross was built too high and violated the building code, but why only target churches when many buildings violate height limits?" Timothy Liao, a priest from Wenzhou, asked. "Clearly, this is a pretext to tear down churches."
Though officials have countered claims of an offensive against church buildings, the chairman of Zhejiang's ethnic and religious affair committee is reported to have denounced the growth of Christianity as "too excessive and too haphazard" in a recent speech.
The committee's website notes that Feng Zhili also criticized "deep-rooted" problems in the development of Christianity in the region, and has condemned the way in which it has apparently caused "social friction".
Just yesterday, the UK's Prime Minister David Cameron declared that Christians "are now the most persecuted religion around the world" and called for the international community to "stand up against persecution of Christians and other faith groups wherever and whenever we can".
I often think of secret Christians in China when I see religious items - “Made in China.”
/johnny
For an atheist, one Christian is excessive. Two or more represent a direct chalenge.
The cross has always been an offense.
5.56mm
“...there are now thought to be as many as 100 million.”
out of 1.35 billion people.
“Despite this, reports suggest that between 3,000 and 10,000 people are turning to Christianity every single day in China,...”
At a rate of upwards of 3.65 million per year joining the anti-commie counter culture, their number should reach 140 million in 10 years.
How Many Christians in China
http://www.billionbibles.org/china/how-many-christians-in-china.html
The lack of credible statistics on how many Christians are in China today have led to estimate that vary widely.
At one end, some Bible organizations claim that there are as many as 200 million Christians in China already, not without the hope of encouraging continued flow of support for their many programs for aiding the Christians in China.
At the other end, the Chinese Communist Party most recently reported 18 million as the number of baptized Christians in China’s Three Self churches in 2004.
To conservatively estimate how many Christians are in China today, let’s start with the 18 million figure (the number of baptized Three Self church Christians in 2004).
2013 - 2004 = 9 years. Applying a conservative annual growth rate of 5% over the past 9 years brings the 2004 figure to 28 million baptized Christians in China’s Three Self Churches as of 2013.
This 28 million figure excludes the Christian children of the baptized Three Self church Christians because the Chinese Communist Party forbids baptism until 18 years of age. Using a conservative ratio of 1 Christian child under 18 years of age for every 5 baptized adults takes the current number of Three Self Church Christians to 34 million (28 million + 20%).
Estimates on the ratio of underground house church Christians to Three Self church Christians generally range from 3 to 5. Using the in-between ratio of 4 results in a figure of 136 million (34 million x 4) house church Christians.
136 million (house church) + 34 million (Three Self church) = 170 million. But this figure double counts about a third (approximately 11 million) of the Three Self church Christians who also attend house churches during the week. Subtracting 11 million from the total brings us to approximately 159 million* Christians in China as of 2013.
This figure is corroborated by Xiaowen Ye, head of the Communist Party’s State Administration of Religious Affairs, who reported at a 2006 closed door meeting at Peking University in 2006 that the Protestants in China numbered 110 million.
2013 - 2006 = 7 years. Applying the same conservative annual growth rate of 5% (110 million x 1.05) over those 7 years results in 155 million*, just shy of the 159 million figure above, as the number of Christians in China as of 2013.
155 to 159 million* is both a large and a small number. There are now more Christians in China than in the United States, but this number still represent only about 11% of China’s 1.4 billion people. As large as the Lord’s harvest is in China, it has only just begun.
MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:
BEIJING – Thousands of Chinese Christians have camped themselves in and around a church in the eastern part of China to prevent it from being demolished after several crosses have already been torn down under a provincial campaign to curb the spread of Christianity, local residents and religious leaders said Friday.
Concerned that Christianity was growing too fast and in an “unsustainable” manner, local officials in the province of Zhejiang began a campaign in February to demolish any church buildings that violated local regulations, according to a government Web site.
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST...
Bump for reference.
I’ll just say that it’s not the Christians running rampant stabbing innocent people to death.
To be conservative about it, let’s say 10% of the population is openly or secretly Christian (did your numbers count the Catholics who are also sanctioned, but not part of TSP?).
What will the number look like in 2030?
I haven’t read the whole wiki but this might answer part of that question.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_China
In 2006 it was stated that there were 4 million members of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and an estimated 12 million members of the underground Roman Catholic Church in China as of 2006.[53] Kiven Choy stated, in a Chinese weekly newspaper in Hong Kong, that the correct number of Protestants in China should be at around 20 million[citation needed], while Time Magazine reported 65 million in 2006.[54]
The Chinese and Russian people are turning to Christ, while the US is turning away from Him. Anyone doubt how that will turn out if it continues?
“(I do not want to get into an argument about what one constitutes as a Christian cult,...)”
‘Christian cult’...ROFLMAO! I never thought of it that way.
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