Could this be us in the near future?

Not since the brutal reign of Mao Zedong has the Chinese government cracked down on Christianity. President Xi Jinping will not tolerate Christianity in China and is on a rampage to crush believers in his country.

A Powerful Sermon from a Bible believing Pastor

The English caption is there, but I will type his words under this amazing sermon for the reader:

Sermon by Pastor Wang Yi in China – What a courageous brother!

Pastor Wang’s sermon      (see the text of his sermon directly below this)

Words of Pastor Wang Yi’s sermon

“All of the weaknesses we experience in Christian life, why are you still caught up in lies?  Why are you still lingering in all of that sordid malice?  It is because you are afraid of persecution.  It is because you do not believe that persecution is a blessing from God. For God says it is the one who takes up his cross and follows me, who renounces all he has in this life, will also gain what in this life?  He shall receive a hundred fold in this age to come – Eternal life!  A hundred fold of what in this life?

One of the important things that the Lord Jesus meant in this life is persecution. In that list of blessings is the persecution of the world against us. So let me put it this way:   When truth and justice prevail in our nation, we must speak honestly.  We must live upright lives – we must speak edifying words. And when truth and justice wane, we still must speak honestly.

We must act and speak with the same courage as we did before.  When we are not being persecuted, we spread the Gospel.  When we are not being persecuted, we go street preaching.  And when persecution comes, we continue street preaching. Amen!

When we are talking about a President, we declare that he is a sinner. We believe we have the responsibility to tell Xi Jinping that he is a sinner. This government that he is leading has sinned greatly against God. And if he does not repent, he will perish. We declare that there is still a way of escape for an evil man like him.

But there is only one way out, and that is the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We say this because we truly believe that this is for his good, and for every government worker. We do not want to see them go to hell. We do not want to see them and their descendants cursed by God. Amen!

If we do not experience persecution, how are we to give them the Grace of the Gospel?   What are the means of giving them this Gospel of Grace? He did it through Gethsemane. He did it through the Cross of Golgotha. What means does the Chinese church today use to give the Grace of the Gospel who resists and persecutes the church of our God?”

From foxnews.com

The Chinese government is destroying cross, burning bibles, closing churches and forcing Christian believers to sign papers renouncing their faith as the crackdown on religious congregations in Beijing and several provinces intensifies.

“The international community should be alarmed and outraged for this blatant violation of freedom of religion and belief,” Bob Fu of China Aid, said.

Trump is only President to offer sanctuary to the Chinese persecuted Christians:

The suppression of religious freedoms comes as an official government campaign to “Sinicize” religion by demanding loyalty to the atheist Communist party and removing any potential challenge to the party’s power in the country.

“The situation for Chinese #Christians becomes more dire by the day. We are working tirelessly to put maximum pressure on China stop the persecution,” Jay Sekulow, President Trump attorney and Chief Counsel at the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), wrote in a tweet.

The persecution of Christians in China is nothing new. A report by the watchdog group Freedom House found that Christians and other religious groups in China have been persecuted since 2012, Fox News reported.

A third of all religious believers in China who belong to a faith group were also found to face “high” to “very high” levels of persecution, which ranges from bureaucratic harassment and economic exploitation to harsh prison terms and even violence, the report said.

But experts and activists say the Chinese government is now waging the most severe suppression of Christianity in the country since religious freedoms were granted by the Chinese constitution in 1982.

The escalating anti-Christian campaign coincides with President Xi Jinping recent consolidation of power that made him the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, the notorious communist leader responsible for millions of deaths.

Activists reportedly filmed footage of what appeared to be piles of burning bibles and forms declaring that the signatories had rejected their faith. The authorities allegedly forced the believers to sign the forms or risk being expelled from school or loosing welfare benefits.

A Christian Pastor in the Henan city of Nanyang, whose name was identified out of fear of retaliation by the authorities, reportedly confirmed that crosses, bibles and furniture were burned during a raid on his church on Sept. 5.

He added that local authorities were in discussions with the church about reforming it, but no agreement had been reached.

According to Chinese laws, religious believers are allowed to worship only in government-sanctioned congregations. But many millions of Christians belong to underground or house churches that ignore government regulations.

Officials reportedly disputed the allegations raised by Christians, saying authorities respect religious freedom.

The anti-religion campaign affected not only Christian denominations. Around 1 million Uighurs and other members of Muslim minority groups in the country’s northwest have been detained in indoctrination camps where they are forced to denounce Islam and profess loyalty to the Communist Party.

The Chinese government denied setting up the camps for indoctrination, but stressed the importance to tackle extremism.

China has an around 38 million Protestants, and some have predicted that the country will have the world’s largest Christian population in a few decades. – source