Magyar Egyház, 2000 (79. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)

2000 / 1. szám

10. oldal

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

CHINESE CHRISTIANS STILL NEED PRAYER AND BIBLES

For the fifth time in two months, popular evangelical pastor Li Dexian has been arrested, interrogated, and released in Huada, China. Other believers arrested with Li are still in detention. Their crime: holding church services without government permission. The incident is only one of hundreds of similar cases all over China, demonstrating the government’s resolve to limit Christian activity, stop evangelism, and limit access of millions of believers to Bibles. Recently there has been some confusion among North American Christians regarding the need for Bibles in China and the question of whether persecution still happens there. “We want to set the record straight”, says Rev. Dennis Mulder, President of The Bible League. “Some organizations are working through and with the government-supervised church in China. But there are millions of believers in Chinese house-churches who are not comfortable with their government controlling when, where, and how they worship. It is these believers who are vulnerable to persecution and to them that we seek to supply as many Scriptures as possible.

China, in fact, actually exports Bibles. There are independent printing companies within China where Bibles are being produced. However, except for a small number having been sent to Singapore, these Bibles are printed in languages other than Chinese, and they are being shipped to other countries, just as toys or electronics are produced within China yet not intended for use within that county. These Bibles are not allowed to be distributed in China - they are produced for export only.

The Chinese government does allow the printing of Chinese Bibles at one approved location, but there are many restrictions on the quantity and placement of those Bibles. The majority of these Bibles are for use in the government-supervised churches. Only a small percentage of these approved Bibles go to the house-churches that represents 80% of the believers in China. To date it is estimated that there are 40-50 million Chinese Christians who do not have a Bible, with an estimated 5,000 more coming to faith each day. At most, there are only about 30 million Bibles in China. (The Bible League has provided over 8 million since 1979.) China’s population is over 1 billion. A house-church leader in Wenzhou reports, “We saw 5,000 people per week come to know Jesus. This rate kept up for five months.”

“The Lord is working mightily in China,” says Rev. Mulder, “Yet how can these believers grow in their faith without access to the Scriptures?” The Bible League is the largest supplier of Scriptures to Christians in China’s vast network of house-churches.

Since 1979 a system of couriers has transported eight million Scriptures into China, particularly to remote regions where Bibles are most rare. In addition to the Bible, the most requested resource from The Bible League is the Chinese Study Bible, which contains a concordance, maps, crossreferencing, and sermon outlines - this type of resource is largely unavailable to Chinese church leaders through their government.

By all independent accounts, persecution exists in China. There are government-supervised churches available to the Chinese people. Many attend these and avoid persecution, worshipping under the watchful eye of the government. But government-supervised churches limit evangelization; the teaching of certain topics, such as the return of Jesus Christ, is also often limited.

The US House Committee on International Relations released its first-ever “State Report on International Religious Freedom” in the fall. At that point, China was listed as one of three “countries of particular concern.” The report states: “China’s Christians are ‘free’ to worship only if they accept government-imposed registration and limits. For Protestants and Catholics, this means, for example, that they are discouraged from preaching the second coming of Christ, and that their clergy are in part trained and monitored by the government...Those Christians who do not accept such limits - they reportedly number in the tens of millions, and are called ‘underground’ Christians - are at risk of detention and arrest; some have even been physically abused and tortured.” ‘The increase in the number of Christians has resulted in a corresponding increase in the demand for Bibles.”

The Bible League has developed an educational program for North American churches called “Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted.” The program lets local churches help answer the widespread call for Scriptures around the world. The program contains a video, bulletin inserts, and a 21-day devotional. Hundreds of churches ordered these materials for the recent International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. These churches then responded by providing funds for thousands of Scriptures. The program runs year-round and information kits are available through The Bible League. “Persecuted believers in China and other restrictive countries need to know that they are not alone,” says Rev. Mulder. “Praying and providing Bibles are the two more important ways to stand with them.”