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Revival is breaking out in China over 400 million

Posted by: JG on Sunday, May 23, 2004 - 11:39 AM

Woman praying in Chirstian Church in China

Oh my friends we must pray. Over 400 million people are coming to Jesus in China.Revival is breaking out in China's Christian movement
RELIGIOUS MINORITY GROWING QUICKLY IN MOST POPULOUS NATION
By Richard N. Ostling
Associated Press
China, already the world's most populous country, could someday rival the United States in global economic, military and diplomatic influence as well. But what will the emerging China be like?, ....... There's more

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Much depends on the country's Christian minority, one of the world's biggest and fastest-growing Christian movements, according to ``Jesus in Beijing.'' Published in October, it is now available in paperback.

If present rapid growth continues, Author David Aikman says, 20 percent to 30 percent of Chinese might be Christian within three decades. The country's 2000 population of 1.26 billion could reach 1.6 billion by 2050, experts predict.

That would greatly alter Chinese society because of a vacuum in ideology and moral resources. Simply put, nobody believes in communism anymore.

Christians are turning up in positions of cultural influence, not only as democratic activists but also as intellectuals, artists, businessmen and even military officers and party officials. Moreover

there's wide interest in Christian thought among Chinese who analyze the past progress of Western civilization, Aikman says. Christian-studies institutes operate at many universities, and small religious study groups are proliferating.

Aikman, a lay Episcopalian, was a Hong Kong and State Department correspondent and the Beijing bureau chief for Time magazine. In mainland travels during recent decades, Aikman collected information about churches and he returned for three months in 2002 to gather fresh material.

China had only a few million Christians when the Communists took power in 1949, but officials there privately put today's total at 25 million. The State Department's estimate is 52 million to 115 million. Aikman thinks the total could be 80 million or more, though ``no one knows for sure.'' Protestants well outnumber Catholics, observers agree.

Because of pressure from the atheistic regime, Protestants and Catholics are both split between ``patriotic'' churches that register and accept government control and semi-underground churches that insist on autonomy and -- for Catholics -- loyalty to the pope.

The unregistered Protestant ``house churches,'' the biggest Christian segment, insist on freedom to evangelize Chinese. Some hope to launch missions to Muslim countries.

Key house church leaders managed to stage a precedent-setting secret conference in 1998 and issued a confession of faith. Among other things, it says ``the Bible is the complete truth and without error'' and advocates separation of church and state so believers are left alone.

China's rich Christian history dates from the year 635, a tale Aikman nicely summarizes. The country often shunned foreign influences but ``has never been as intellectually and philosophically open to the outside world as it is today,'' Aikman writes.

Various analysts note that global Christian vitality is shifting southward and eastward away from Western Europe and North America. Aikman thinks China is destined to become a powerful part of that pattern.

Aikman profiles heroic Christians who suffered for their faith. Though matters have improved in recent times, Chinese police continually repress unregistered churches.

Chinese Christianity's internal problems include rivalry between the government-approved and unregistered factions, and the spread of unorthodox beliefs among people who have been denied religious education. The leaders of some of these groups demand absolute obedience.

The most troublesome group, Eastern Lightning, believes Jesus has returned as a mystery woman living in Henan province. This group has been accused of beatings, blackmail, kidnappings and even murder.