Recommended book: Back to Jerusalem
[ Bible Probe ]Posted by Bible Probe on October 12, 2006 at 17:22:48:
Three Chinese House Church Leaders Share Their Vision to Complete the Great Commission
by Brother Yun, Peter Xu Yongze, and Enoch Wang; told in English by Paul Hattaway
God's fire has been kindled in China. It is now beginning to blaze up there. Soon, Christianity will be taken by Chinese Christian missionaries to the nearby strongholds of paganism, to confront the Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim nations with the Gospel of Jesus. Chinese Christian leaders have long believed that God saved China for now, to begin His "end run" spread of the Gospel of Jesus, from China - all the way back to Jerusalem, where it all began. When the Chinese say "Back to Jerusalem," they're talking first of all about a geographical advance of the gospel throughout history. Some estimate that as many as 30,000 Chinese a day are becoming members of the Kingdom of God through the Gospel of Jesus. Some estimate that as many as 80 million Chinese have already become Christians, within this Communist nation. It hasn't been easy along the way. But strangely enough, the Chinese Christians who have come through the "fire" of Communism, are like the earliest Christians - baptized by persecution, with a spirit that will never be extinguished.
In many ways, these Chinese Christians are like undiscovered pearls and other precious gems, living inside an atheist system. These "pearls" are setting the stage to transform China into a godly country. But the Chinese government, in its sublime ignorance, and the rest of the world, cannot see these precious gems just yet.
There is an interesting story in an ancient Chinese book entitled "Han Feizi", about a man named Bian He who lived some five hundred years before Christ:
Bian He found a large stone which was actually an unpolished piece of jade. He presented it to the emperor. The emperor saw nothing but a large stone, thought he was being tricked, and ordered Bian He's left foot to be chopped off. Bian He later sent the same present to the next emperor, who also saw only a stone and ordered his right foot to be chopped off. When a third emperor came to the throne, Bian He held his jade in his arms outside the emperor's palace and wept three days and three nights. The emperor sent someone to investigate, then ordered the stone to be polished. Only then did they discover a beautiful jade inside.
One day China (and many other nations) will discover that the Christians they torture, whom they suppose to be ignorant lumps of worthless stone, are actually the polished jewels sent by God to bring the blessing of Christ's salvation.
The growth of the church in China is spectacular and unparalleled in Christian history... There were only about 700,000 Protestants and 3-4 million Catholics in China at the time the Communists took power in 1949... David Adeney was one former missionary astounded by what he found when China's iron doors... opened again in the late 1970's, after 3 decades of silence.... Reports began filtering out that a great miracle had taken place! ...Amazing testimonies were received of how pastors were released after 20 years or more of imprisonment, and went home wondering whether they could find anyone who remembered their name. When they reached home, they found that not only had people been praying for them all those years, but their church fellowships had grown 3, 5, or 10 times as large as before their imprisonment!
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