64 Sermon Illustrations on China

Two letters written to Christian radio programs, one from China and one from Saudia Arabia. Moslem became a secret believer and converted his family. The Chinese believed the broadcast's claim that God created the world, said so on a test and was ridiculed by teacher. Both ask for help and encouragement.

#133

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Back in the 1960's and 1970's many Westerners assumed the church in China was destroyed. Instead, there was great spiritual strength and courage. In the southern provinces one Christian group alone had 400 house churches.

One of these house churches was led by Rev. Yeong. In 1963 their province had a severe famine. News came to their group that 20 house churches in the next commune were so short of food that starvation was likely. Rev. Yeong told the church and they began scraping together what they could spare.

Finally they got together some eleven bags of dry food, each weighing about 70 pounds. The neighboring churches came to get the food, and before they left, everyone held hands and sang praises to God. Rev. Yeong told them this was New Testament Christianity and everyone was inspired.

When they gathered at their next worship service, communist officials were waiting for them. They accused the Christians of food stealing and sabotaging the system of distributing food. The communists told them that they had shown more concern for the Christians in the neighboring commune than for fellow villagers in the same commune.

As one of those who was punished in the incident later wrote, "It has taught us a deep lesson - that Christians must learn to be open to people. We must learn to love as Jesus loved."

Version in book:

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A small house-church in Maoist communist China was made up of 8 Christian families who lived in 5 adjoining buildings. They used one of the buildings for a church, and were in contact with 400 other house-churches in their area.

In 1963 a severe famine hit the province, and they received word that 20 house-churches in a nearby commune were so low on food they were starving. When the pastor told them the news, they all scraped together what they could spare. They were able to gather over 600 pounds of food and notified the starving Christians to come and pick it up. According to a church member, "Before they left, they held our hands and loudly sang praises to the Lord. Rev. Yeong said this was New Testament Christianity. We were all very moved."

A week later government officials found out about it, and showed up at the church. The officials accused the Christians of unfairly distributing food, and even of stealing some of it. Three Christian leaders ended up pleading guilty for the group and had their rations reduced for 6 months. One of these leaders later wrote:

"In the eyes of the Communists the over-riding fact was that we had shown more concern for the Christians in the other commune than for fellow villagers in our own commune. They of course have a point. But we failed to see it. This experience taught us a deep lesson - that Christians must learn to be open with people. We must learn to love as Jesus loved."

On the face of it, these Chinese believers were outstanding Christians. They were generous with other churches. This is good, but it is not exactly what the gospel says. According to Luke 6:31-36, "Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." Apparently there are times when it takes an atheistic Communist to make this clear to us.

1996 interview with the new premier of Taiwan [Lee Teng-hui?] who surprisingly held free elections.

"People say you are a very religious man. What role has religion played in your life?"

"I studied Zen. But there was too much spiritualism. So I had no belief at all. I gradually came back to spiritualism and Christianity. Buddhism and Christianity are different ways of thinking, but the goals are the same. Christianity has love and Buddhism has humility. At their highest points they are the same. But Christianity is a freer way of thinking. The greatest part of Christianity is that you have faith in something you cannot see."

"Did this philosophy help you in tough times?"

"My life of 74 years has been changing time and again, with so many events and situations. I wanted to see people have democracy and freedom, just like Moses leading the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt."

Lottie Moon (1840-1912), patron saint of Southern Baptist Missions.

"The best man among our missionaries." That's how the Southern Baptist Missions' journal hailed Lottie Moon, 72, when she died on Christmas Eve, 1912, after a lifetime of work in China. Moon had bucked the chauvinist limitations placed on missionary women. She also succeeded in rooting the gospel among the Chinese in ways unprecedented in Baptist missions.

Reared in an aristocratic Virginian family during the Civil War, this highly cultured and educated Southern belle made an unlikely missionary candidate: she viewed Christianity with skepticism during her college years. But her family influenced her even more. She had an uncle, James Barclay, who was the first Christian Church missionary to Jerusalem, a devout mother, who prayed for her salvation, and a younger sister, who preceded Moon to China (by several years) and would eventually invite Moon to join her. Moon experienced a crisis conversion during her graduate studies, then taught school for several years while she prepared to follow her sister to China. She refused a marriage proposal from C. H. Toy, a man with missionary plans of his own and a future Harvard professor: though she loved him, she didn't think his acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution made them a good match.

In China she served as a school teacher but soon felt this traditional woman's role limited her evangelistic gifts. "Can we wonder at the mortal weariness and disgust," she wrote in the Baptist missions periodical, "the sense of wasted powers and the conviction that her life is a failure that comes over a woman when, instead of the ever broadening activities she had planned, she finds herself tied down to the petty work of teaching a few girls. She added, "What women want who come to China is free opportunity to do the largest possible work.... What women have a right to demand is perfect equality."

Differing philosophically with her male field director in China, Moon, now a seasoned missionary and 44 years old, moved to P'ing-tu, where she attempted to begin a church. Initially the work was difficult and discouraging, but soon Moon reported she had found "something I had never seen before in China. Such eagerness to learn! Such spiritual desires!" And, she added, "Surely there can be no deeper joy than that of saving souls."

One such soul was Li Shou Ting, who became pastor of the church and, in the two decades that followed, baptized more than a thousand converts.

This joy, however, turned to despair during a severe famine in Henchow. She spent her last years pleading for funds and food for the starving thousands. With little help forthcoming from the United States, she emptied her own bank account, but still there was so much need. She lapsed into depression and quit eating. Her health declined, and finally she died.

Nonetheless, her legacy lives on. Eighty five years after her death, the Southern Baptists annually raise millions of mission dollars through the "Lottie Moon Christmas Offering."

#4007

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Robert Morrison (1782-1834), "Failed" first Protestant missionary to China.

As he sailed into the port of Canton in 1807, 25-year-old Robert Morrison was filled with a driving passion to see the Chinese people come to know Christ. By the time he died in China 27 years later, however, he had baptized only ten Chinese. But if Morrison died discouraged, his pioneering work, which included a six-volume Chinese dictionary and a translation of the Bible, opened the door for other missionaries and thus for the millions of conversions he had only dreamed of.

Morrison was raised in a stern Scotch-Presbyterian home where reading missionary stories in a church magazine whetted his interest in foreign missions. His mother, however, made him promise not to go abroad while she was alive. Only after his mother died, during Morrison's early twenties, did he take up ministerial training in London. After two years of study, he was accepted into the London Missionary Society. While waiting to find a male colleague to go with him to China, he studied language for one year with a Chinese scholar living in England. When no partner was forthcoming, Morrison left for China alone. He was forced to go via the United States, since the East India Company, which owned most of the English ships going to China, refused him passage.

Morrison's lifelong relationship with the East India Company was one of mutual need and mutual distrust. The company guarded its commercial interests in China by strictly refusing to let Westerners such as Morrison evangelize. They feared missionaries would offend their Chinese trade partners. But after Morrison's arrival in China, company officials learned of his language skills and hired him as a translator. They gave Morrison a salary but also attempted to restrict his missions activities. In 1815, for example, the company threatened to deport him when it learned that Morrison had completed, in secret, a translation of the New Testament.

In 1809 Morrison married Mary Morton. After six years and two children, a seriously ill Mary returned to England with their children. It was six years before they returned to Canton to see their father and husband. When Mary died, Morrison sent the children back to England, and three years later traveled there himself for his first and only furlough. When he returned to Canton, he brought with him the children and a new wife, Elizabeth, with whom he had four more children and a happy marriage.

In 1834, two months after pioneer missionary William Carey's death in India, Morrison died. When as a young man Morrison had first sailed to China, he was asked, "Do you really expect to make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese empire?" In reply, Morrison spoke more prophetically than he knew: "No, sir, but I expect God will."

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Version in sermon 4/23/06:

Robert Morrison was born in 1782 to a stern Presbyterian family. As a young man he read missionary stories in a church magazine and it whetted his interest in foreign missions. But his mother was appalled and said it would be over her dead body. A few years later she died, and in his early twenties Morrison began his training to be a missionary.

Morrison was accepted into the London Missionary Society. While he waited to find a male colleague to go with him to China, he studied the Chinese language for one year. When no partner was forthcoming, Morrison left for China alone. He was forced to go through the United States, since the East India Company wouldn't let him take a British ship to China.

The East India Company didn't like missionaries because they thought Christians would upset the Chinese. Nothing would be allowed to get in the way of profits. But they found that Morrison was so good with the language they hired him as a translator. Even so, they forbid him to do Christian work. For example, in 1815 the company threatened to fire him when it learned that he had secretly translated the New Testament.

Robert Morrison worked in China for 27 years. His first wife died. He sent his children to England and saw them once after that. By the time he died, he had baptized 10 Chinese. Only 10.

That's not a lot of fruit. To be honest, many would see him as a total failure. But if Morrison died discouraged, his work of translating the Bible and making dictionaries laid a foundation for others. Christians in China now number in the tens of millions.

When as a young man Morrison had first sailed to China, he was asked, “Do you really expect to make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese empire?” In reply, Morrison spoke more prophetically than he knew: “No, sir, but I expect God will.”

#4010

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Jonathan Goforth (1859-1936), greatest evangelist to China.

Jonathan Goforth lay bleeding after having been hacked in the back, neck, and head with a sword. He thought surely he would be the next of the dozens of China missionaries to be killed during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. But miraculously he survived, and with his wife, Rosalind, fled south to safety - to continue a missionary life that would earn him one historian's accolade as "China's most outstanding evangelist."

His strategy (which Rosalind at first objected to for the sake of their children's health), was to spend one month evangelizing in one region or city, leaving behind a native evangelist to nurture the new believers. Once or twice a year, they returned to these sites to encourage the fledgling congregations.

Jonathan was known for his ceaseless energy. Often he preached eight hours a day, on several occasions to crowds of 25,000 people. The Goforths' itinerant work took them for a time to Manchuria and Korea, but their most lasting impact was in China, where more than 13,000 Chinese became Christians between 1908 and 1913.

In 1918 he led a Pentecostal-type revival attended by a number of Chinese soldiers, including the Christian General Feng Yu-hsiang. After two weeks of preaching, a Communion service was held for nearly 5,000 officers and soldiers.

The Goforths endured their share of controversy and heartache. During the 1920s, when the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy reached a crescendo, Goforth battled younger Presbyterian missionaries whom he said preached a watered-down gospel. They also buried five of their eleven children on Chinese soil.

The Goforths finally retired to Canada in 1934 after 74-year-old Jonathan had already lost his eyesight. Less than two years later, Jonathan died.

Is grace alone enough? Do we need more? An elderly Christian pastor in China in the 1980's (soon after restrictions were lifted) made these observations:

"One of the main problems of the church in China is not enough leaders with adequate knowledge of the Bible to do the job. Take Deacon Yin's grandson. He's a young man, maybe 35, and destined to replace him. You know what he's saying over and over again in his sermons? He says that grace is everything. It is grace that saves and sustains us. And nothing else matters. Faith is totally divorced from conduct.

"Christ on the cross overshadows us and everything we do. Our thoughts and actions don't matter. Man does not exist. God sees only Jesus Christ, not us. And we should rejoice, because human beings are filthy, rotten to the core.

"This is the message. I can understand the experience behind it. But it is neither biblical nor edifying. What effect will this have on a young mind? I tremble when I think of it."

You’ve probably heard about Europeans who rescued Jews from Hitler’s evil plans — people like Corrie ten Boom and Oskar Schindler. But how many of us know the story of Asians who risked their lives to save Jews?

One of these brave souls, Dr. Ho Feng Shan, was posthumously honored just a few weeks ago by the president of Taiwan for saving thousands of Jewish lives. He’s a tremendous example of Christian courage in the face of evil.

Dr. Ho was born in the Hunan province of China in 1901. When Ho’s parents died, Norwegian Lutheran missionaries took him in and gave him an education at their school.

Ho proved a bright and hardworking student. He later attended Yale University’s extension college in China, then traveled to Germany to earn a doctorate in political economy in Munich.

Then came a career in China’s diplomatic corps. He was stationed in Vienna and became a popular speaker on the culture and customs of China among the city’s elites.

By now of course, Hitler was on the rise, and after he annexed Austria in 1938, “all foreign embassies were converted to consulates,” Glenn Sunshine writes. “Ho was appointed Consul General in Vienna, answering to the ambassador in Berlin.”

The Nazis began intense persecution of Austrian Jews, arresting many and sending them to concentration camps. Ho, watching this in horror, became convinced that he had to do something to help the Jews. He later wrote that he “secretly kept in close contact” with American religious groups that were attempting to rescue Jews.

One tool Ho had at his disposal was his ability to issue visas. At that time the Nazis allowed Jews to leave Austria if another country were willing to accept them. But tragically, most countries, fearing the wrath of German leaders, refused to do so. China, however, allowed Ho to issue visas to those wishing to travel to Shanghai. As Glenn Sunshine explains, “the real purpose of these visas was not so much to allow Jews into Shanghai, but to get them out of Austria.”

Word spread through Vienna’s large Jewish community that China’s consulate would give them visas. Ho feverishly issued visa after visa, often for large families.

Doing this life-saving work was not without risk. Once, Ho “faced down an armed Gestapo officer to protect a Jewish family,” Sunshine writes. And he enraged the Chinese ambassador to Berlin — Ho’s boss — when he refused his order to stop issuing visas to Jews. Ho worried that his actions would so irritate the Nazis that, his diplomatic status notwithstanding, they might decide to teach him a deadly lesson.

By the time Ho was recalled to China in May of 1940, he had issued more than 4,000 visas. Many years later, Ho and his family moved to San Francisco, where Ho spent his remaining years working on behalf of his church and community, and writing his memoirs.

Whenever someone risks his life, his career, or his safety for others, it’s natural to ask, “Why? Why did he do it when so many others would not?” Dr. Ho’s answer was, “I thought it only natural to feel compassion and to want to help. From the standpoint of humanity, that is the way it should be.”

Ho’s pastor, the Rev. Charles Kuo, elaborates on this modest answer. Ho “knew he had received many gifts from God. He felt that they were not given to him solely for his own benefit, but to do for others, for his fellow man.”

I am so pleased that Glenn Sunshine is introducing American Christians to lesser-known heroes of the faith, like Dr. Ho. For more on Dr. Ho and other Christians who changed their world, come to ColsonCenter.org.

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Copyright (c) 2015 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

Through the years of traveling throughout the world defending the Gospel of Jesus Christ at times in hostile environments, Ravi Zacharias notes that he has drawn much comfort from an essay written by the English writer F.W. Boreham. The essay is titled “The Candle and the Bird.” In it Boreham explains that God's presence corresponds more with a bird than it does a candle. When a candle is extinguished, the light goes out. But when a bird is driven away, it only leaves to sing its song on another branch. With this metaphor in mind Boreham traces the mighty moving of God throughout history and leaves his readers with the blessed reminder that God is near to those who call on Him.

Today, China is one of the many places where we can hear the stirring song of God at work among a nation crying out to Him. After fifty years of repression and suffering, the Chinese church is thriving. In an interview with Christianity Today, international director of Asia Outreach, David Wang stated, “The church is still exploding. Growing is too tame a word.” When asked what is the greatest challenge for the church in China today, one Chinese pastor replied with a smile beaming across his face, “Too many believers.” [1]

What is it about the rumors of God's glory steadily humming throughout land and time that stirs and comforts the soul? As the name of Christ is vehemently silenced in the name of tolerance, the sounds of God at work remind us that we have a reason to sing even in the darkness. The light is not overcome!

We hear of God's moving among the persecuted church of China, among hearts and nations throughout history; we see his hand in unlikely places and the message being preached to the ends of the earth. We see and hear that God has a plan weaving throughout nations and individuals, history and the present. We hear whispering of a purpose and a hope that embraces not only the possibilities of the present but also the sufferings of the past and the expectations of the future. We see astounding evidence for the Christian hope in the whole story; a story, in the words of the psalmist, reviving the soul, making wise the simple, rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes, and enduring forever (Psalm 19).

In a world where most people live as if they have to achieve the final fulfillment and satisfaction of their human lives before they die, the Christian message sounds as bold today as it did to those who first heard it. Yet all around us is the murmuring that there is something different about this good teacher; He speaks as one with authority. And his influence echoes a promise that has not been forsaken: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

Since the creation of man, the beautiful sounds of God at work can be heard in lives and nations unto the ends of the earth. May it be heard in our lives too. His nearness is our good.

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1. David Neff, “Chinese Puzzle,” Christianity Today (7 March 2003), www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/003/21.9.html.

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Copyright © 2003 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #13139]

A decade ago, just as China was cracking open its doors to the West, a student named Lei Sun set out from Shanghai and arrived, a stranger, in Newark, New Jersey.

While in China, Sun rarely spoke of religion, yet secretly thirsted for a spiritual life. He had paged through the Christian Bible, but considered it merely a historical text to be read for its peculiar plot and characters.

Then, one Sunday morning, he settled into a pew in the Chinese Christian Church of New Jersey, and all of that began to change.

"We didn’t have cars, so they drove us," he said. "We didn’t have food, but we were invited to eat. We asked, ‘Why are they doing that? It doesn’t benefit them. And why are they so happy?’

"We listened and we gradually began to believe. That’s how most of us come to the church. The people here are examples of how to give and sacrifice, so we can go and try to do the same."

Sun, 33, is part of this suburban congregation’s fastest-growing segment: immigrants from mainland China, drawn here to escape the remnants of Mao Tse-tung’s failed Cultural Revolution.

For immigrants arriving for the first time, churches have become a guiding hand and support. In a recent survey by Barna Research, a respected Christian polling firm, 27 percent of Asian-Americans described themselves as evangelical Christians, compared with 5 percent in 1991.

Through these newcomers’ faith, older church members say their own is revitalized; witnessing their weary eyes open, they relive their own spiritual birth.

And for the American-born children who may never know communist rule, the new members’ presence is a reminder that prayer can be cause for imprisonment - or worse - in their parents’ homeland.

Just last month, 130 evangelical Christians - including three Americans - were arrested in central China for attending a revival, one day after a government leader said the nation had entered a "golden age" of freer expression.

"God did a wonderful job letting the communists take over China," said T.Y. Lee, chairman of the church’s board of trustees. "Mao wouldn’t allow superstition or prayer, so people had to keep it inside. Now when the mainlanders come here they are so eager to hear the Gospel. Every time we talk about God’s love they cry."

"It’s amazing," said Charles Oo, a Parsippany resident who works at Roche Laboratories in Nutley. "You can really see these people’s commitment."

More than 11 million persons of Asian descent live in the United States, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The agency reported 6,000 Chinese-Americans living in Morris County in 1990, the latest such figures available.

The Chinese Christian Church had its genesis in a prayer group, formed in 1964 by three Taiwanese families in East Orange. It has grown from 150 members in the late 1980s to more than 1,000 today, the mighty leap made possible through the $1.2 million construction of its church on South Beverwyck Road.

Services are offered in four languages: Mandarin, China’s more common tongue; Cantonese, spoken in the nation’s southern end; Taiwanese and English. Each Sunday the church fills with song - modern verses accompanied by acoustic guitar in the youth-centered English service and more solemn hymns during the earlier Mandarin fellowship. Afterward, congregants line up downstairs for white rice and steamed vegetables donated by two local Chinese restaurants.

Daniel Voo was one of the original group, a boy of 9 whose family moved to East Orange from Cincinnati. Until then he had almost no contact with other Chinese immigrants.

Today he encourages his two sons to speak Mandarin at home, in part so they can welcome new members in their church.

"Even though we have many groups we still consider ourselves one church," he said. "We make sure people are communicating across linguistic lines so no one feels isolated."

Sun and his compatriots are part of the most recent immigrant wave from China, a largely educated group of students, engineers and researchers working in fields where a command of English isn’t critical.

"We grew up in the new China," Sun said. "Party leaders said, ‘You have to be useful to society.' But you looked at them and they weren’t doing that. People wanted to believe in something."

Sun went on to earn a doctorate in biology from Rutgers University and now works as a financial consultant with Salomon Smith Barney in Morristown. He and his wife, who joined him shortly after his arrival here, have a 6-year-old son who qualifies as what group elders call ABCs: American-Born Chinese.

But if the younger generation has been quick to adapt to and embrace its new culture and religious life, many elder immigrants are still plagued by the "shadow of Communist rule," as several church leaders put it. For them, freedom is a principle they have yet to fully exploit in practice.

Laura Foo, a native of Taiwan, said her husband often recounts conversations he’s had with fellow Chinese engineers, who even now fear voicing criticism of Chinese policy.

"Sometimes people who come from the same place in China don’t want to talk to one another," she said. "Some keep their distance and don’t discuss things like politics."

Despite such barriers, Foo has witnessed a kinship develop between mainland Chinese and Taiwanese here that would not be possible in China.

"With us, since we don’t have a connection with the Chinese government, they feel they can talk," Foo said, while eating lunch at Noodle Chu in Parsippany one recent Friday. At noon, the restaurant was filled to capacity with Chinese-American patrons.

Beside Foo sat Emily Au, a Parsippany resident whose father attends the church’s Cantonese service.

For Au, evidence of the Chinese community’s growth abounds at the Mountain Lakes YMCA. When she and her family joined in 1992, they met few other Chinese-Americans. Now, of the 30 newest children on the swim team, half have Chinese parents, she said.

What saddens her, however, is how many of those parents insist on maintaining the competitive spirit encouraged in many areas of China, where children with proven talents are often separated from their parents at an early age for training at a national level.

"The parents at the Y are very serious," Au said. "In their notebooks they write down other kids’ times. One new girl, she’s very good. But her mother is very intense. She stares straight ahead and doesn’t talk to anyone."

Yet Chinese natives understand the oppressive past from which such attitudes spring.

Linda Cheng, an usher at the church, traveled to China for the first time in 10 years this summer. She went to speak with old friends and to see her husband and son, who live in Beijing. Her primary goal, though , was to spread the Christian message, despite Chinese laws that prohibit foreign missionary work.

"One day," she said, "I met with my old work crew and some teachers and told them I had been baptized. They were very surprised. One woman was the member of the Communist Party. She was afraid to go to church. She said she dared to speak to God only in her heart."

Pastor Ken Tom, a self-described "catalytic missionary" who promotes English-language congregations in the nation’s Chinese-language churches, described the energizing interaction between old and new members in a recent guest sermon.

"Longtime members can help newcomers assimilate and use their essential ‘newness’ to create new projects and respond to new needs," he said.

Young people, who trustee board chairman Lee said "often can’t appreciate old world life," continually are encouraged to strengthen their bonds through missionary work within that world.

With his knowledge of Mandarin and Taiwanese, John Wu traveled to Taiwan this summer to teach English to middle school students, many of whom lost parents to a major earthquake last September. He hopes to make a trip to mainland China next year.

"I want to go back and follow up," the 16-year-old said. "I feel like we just planted seeds."

Several groups meet for Bible study on Friday nights. Jim Lee, an entrepreneur who speaks excellent English, said he prefers to pray in his native Mandarin.

After his arrival from Beijing in 1986, he landed in upstate New York, where he struggled to understand English church services.

Now he, his wife and two children live in Little Falls, but plan to join other congregants in the Hunting Ridge condominiums near the juncture of Route 46 and Beverwyck Road.

"When I came here I heard people speaking my language," he said, "and right away I felt at home."

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The revival in Shantung, China, in the early 1930's had a great impact on the worship in church. C. L. Culpepper describes it this way:

One result of the revival [Shantung, China, 1932-33] was a continual singing of the people. They put songs and other scriptures to music. Old people who could not read or write memorized the songs and sang with their eyes closed, their bodies swaying to the rhythm of the melody and tears of joy running down their cheeks. God had taken away their sorrow and given them a new song. I saw that many old women who could not carry a tune were filled with the Spirit, singing a melody that seemed to come from an angel of heaven.

One of the greatest personal blessings which I received from the revival was the wonderful spirit in the worship services. Entire congregations bowed in silent meditation for several minutes. The atmosphere became charged with spiritual power. Suddenly someone would begin to pray and praise God. As long as an hour would pass before the speaker would speak. Conviction became so evident that the preacher would simply give an opportunity for anyone who wished to accept Christ to come forward. There was always some response, often in large groups. I knew it was the natural result of a spirit of worship and adoration which followed revival.

Every week during the fall, approximately 70,000 attend NFL games in cities like Detroit and Houston. They pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for the privilege, and, if all goes well, they come away with some happy memories.

Every week throughout the year in China, approximately 70,000 people do something very different: they, too, pay a price, but it’s not measured in money. And what they come away with not only changes their lives but promises to change a nation, a continent, and even the world.

According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, ten thousand Chinese become Christians every day. That’s 70,000 a week!

At the time of the Communist takeover in 1949, there were 4 million Christians in China. Today, there are an estimated 111 million, which makes China the third-largest Christian country in the world, behind the United States and Brazil. By 2050, the Center estimates that the number of Christians will have doubled.

The explosive growth of Christianity in China is only part of a larger story. The ordeal of Korean missionaries at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan reminds us of Christianity’s growth in Korea.

A happier story is the one Chuck told “BreakPoint” readers about the people called the Nagas. Little more than a century ago, these people living in the area where India and Burma meet were headhunters. Today, an estimated 90 percent of the population attends church on Sunday, and Christian leaders there have set the goal of sending 10,000 missionaries to the rest of Asia.

The ASIA TIMES columnist “Spengler” recently wrote that China may soon occupy the role that the United States has occupied for the past 200 years: “the natural ground for mass evangelization.” He adds that “if this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it.”

He foresees Chinese Christians, like their Korean counterparts, “[turning] their attention outward.” Only, with a Christian population fifteen times the size of Korea’s, and a Chinese Diaspora all over the world, the impact will be far greater. “Spengler” uses the word “earthquake” to describe it.

According to John Allen of the National Catholic Report, the most “audacious” Chinese Christians dream of taking the Gospel along the historic “Silk Road” into Muslim lands. As David Aikman has written, they believe it is their task to complete the mission of preaching the Gospel in every land. To that end, Chinese Christians are already secretly “training missionaries for deployment in Muslim countries.”

This is what “Spengler” means by an “earthquake.” As he puts it, “the greatest danger to Islam” comes from Chinese Christians looking westward towards Jerusalem.

What’s remarkable is this vision is taking shape even as Chinese Christians undergo persecution. Then again, Christianity’s initial explosion took place under even worse conditions. So it probably shouldn’t surprise us that there are more Chinese worshipping in “house churches” than belong to the Communist party.

According to “Spengler,” the “fearless” Chinese evangelists may do more to transform their nation and the world than all the armies and diplomats combined. That would be an earthquake worth experiencing.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5968]

The world sometimes seems very dark to those in dark places. Even spiritual giants.

“I hope no missionary will be as lonely as I have been,” legendary Southern Baptist pioneer Lottie Moon wrote not long before she died on Christmas Eve 1912 -- exhausted and discouraged after 40 tumultuous years in China.

How alone must Bill Wallace have felt on Christmas Eve 39 years later, as he lay in a jail cell in Wuzhou, China? Arrested on false charges of spying by local communists, the great missionary doctor was driven to despair and the edge of insanity by constant interrogations, harassment and torture before dying in his cell less than two months later.

“Go back and take care of the hospital,” he told co-workers when he was still in his right mind. “I am ready to give my life if necessary.”

Did the Christ child come to Wallace in that lonely cell on his last Christmas? The Savior was already there, in the missionary's heart -- which Wallace's tormenters could never touch.

Jesus still comes to lonely places on Christmas.

In Israel, where the Savior was born, Jews who decide to follow Jesus as Messiah often feel they are the “only one.” A 16-year-old came to faith in Jesus through reading the New Testament. He thought he was the only person in Israel who believed in Jesus as the Messiah, until he overheard another young student talking about his faith. Now the 16-year-old is being discipled by his new friend.

Last Christmas morning, “Jill,” a young woman in China, was very much on the minds and hearts of a couple who had shared the Gospel with her a few months earlier. Though she had told them she didn't need God, they wanted to invite her to their Christmas open house. As they prepared to call her, their phone rang. Jill was on the line. She visited later that day and told them that since their last conversation, her husband had left her for another woman. She had returned to live with her parents and admitted she “wanted to die.”

They told her once again about Christ -- and she accepted Him as Lord and Savior. Less than a year later, she has emerged as a leader in her house church, guided many people to Christ and trained them to evangelize others.

On a recent Saturday, missionary Gail Davis and her family drove to a grim, hungry township in South Africa to help give a Christmas party for the children of the area.

“My children had passed by the townships, but had never been in them,” Davis wrote. “They were aghast at the 'houses' that people live in, the roads they walk upon and the fact that they had to share metal sheds for toilets. They saw many people lined up at one water spigot getting water for the day. This was a real eye-opener for them. Yet, amidst all this, my 3-year-old saw potential for this very impoverished place. As we drove down the road, he saw a cemetery and said he would like to go play in that playground. When I explained that is where dead people go, he asked, 'Is that heaven?'

“How many of us can even think about heaven when our senses are so overwhelmed with the negativeness of life and the fear for one's own safety? My question to myself then became: What would it take to reach these people that God so loves so that they could finally reach heaven? What would you do to bring the Gospel of truth, love and hope to these people dying in masses and being buried in anonymity?”

“Esther,” a Christian teacher in China, found herself in front of a college class last year that knew little English. A student asked her to talk about American culture, so Esther described Thanksgiving and Christmas. When she mentioned Christmas songs, another student asked her sing for them.

She thought about her total lack of singing ability, but launched into teaching the students to sing “Joy to the World” using impromptu hand motions to help them remember the words.

Only one of the 30 students had ever heard the name of Jesus.

“I knew most of them didn't understand the words they were singing, much less understand who Jesus was,” Esther said. “But as I listened to them sing about the Savior of the world, I prayed they would soon be able to understand -- and truly sing for joy.”

On the first Christmas, the angel told the fearful shepherds: “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

A great many people in dark and lonely places still haven't heard that wonderful news. But they will -- if we tell them.

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Erich Bridges is a senior writer at the Southern Baptist International Mission Board.

*

"The trouble with you is that you make your decisions on the basis of appearance. You must recognize that we belong to Christ." -- Job 14:5 NLT

Two weeks before Christmas, on December 12, 1840, a baby girl was born into an aristocratic plantation family in Albemarle County, Virginia. Her name was Charlotte Diggs Moon, but everyone called her “Lottie.” She grew to just four feet three inches, yet her intellect and force of personality were enormous. Lottie spoke six languages and earned a master's degree in education in 1861.

Lottie came from a family of dedicated Southern Baptists, but she became a staunch skeptic. Yet, it would be her intellect and skepticism that would bring her to faith one sleepless night in December 1858 as she pondered a message by Dr. John Broadus.

At age thirty-three, Lottie heard a call to missions “as clear as a bell.” In July 1873 the foreign mission board of the Southern Baptist Convention appointed her its first unmarried missionary to China. She tirelessly advocated for the needs of the people of China. In 1888 she persuaded SBC women to take an annual missions offering on Christmas Eve. By 1912, despite such gifts, thousands of people were dying every day in famine-ravaged Shantung Province.

At seventy-two, Lottie Moon was coming home. But that same night, aboard a ship off Japan, she died — of complications from starvation. A few months before she had written, “If I had a thousand lives, I would give them all for the women of China.” The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering continues to this day, and in 2005 aimed to raise $150 million.

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Adapted from The One Year® Book Of Christian History by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten (Tyndale) pp 694-95

*

According to its Academy of Social Sciences, China “suffers from the world’s most severe brain drain.” Approximately two-thirds of the Chinese who have studied abroad in the past two decades did not return home.

The BBC offered many possible explanations for this drain: the lack of opportunities at home; a lack of freedom, especially after Tiananmen Square, and a preference for the Western “lifestyle.”

One factor that was not mentioned but should have been was a concern about spending the rest of your life alone.

According to China’s State Population and Family Planning Commission, “by 2020 some 30 million Chinese men will not be able to find wives.” If these thirty million men were a country, they would be one of the forty most-populous countries in the world.

This inability to find wives, in the commission’s words, “may lead to social instability.” I guess it will. According to Constance Kong, a consultant in Shanghai, “given that understatement is a characteristic of the Chinese Government when it discusses national problems, this means that it is [really] alarmed.”

The government has only itself to blame. The looming imbalance between men and women of marriageable age is the completely foreseeable result of China’s “one-child” policy. Limited to one child in “a country where daughters are unwanted,” many Chinese families, especially in rural areas, made sure — even by infanticide — that the one child born was a boy.

As a result, in parts of China, there are 130 males for every 100 females. Government attempts to end sex selection, such as prohibiting doctors from revealing the sex of unborn children, have failed: Families regularly bribe doctors.

This demographic imbalance has created a new market: kidnapping young girls from other parts Asia, not for the sex trade, but to provide wives.

Given the role that marriage and family plays in socializing males and the trouble that young unmarried men have historically created, it is little wonder that Beijing is alarmed. But that’s not the only problem caused by the “one-child” policy.

It “has also created the world’s fastest aging population.” China’s population is stabilizing, but, thanks to the “one-child” policy, it is replacing working-age adults with those over sixty. The result: a demographic “Titanic gunning for the iceberg,” according to Kong.

This iceberg has raised many concerns among foreign investors. They are no longer putting all their eggs in the Chinese basket. As Kong puts it, it is no longer “China or bust,” but “if only China, bust.” This diversion of funds threatens China’s ability to provide jobs for the tens of millions moving into its cities in search of work.

Given China’s history, its leaders are right to be alarmed about the possible impact its demographics will have on “social stability.”

China is not the only place where demographic trends are frightening: 3,500 miles away in Tehran, demographics have officials worried, and because they are worried, we need to be worried, as well. I will tell you more about this tomorrow.

China, having chosen “lifestyle” over life itself, is going to find out how costly that preference really was — and provide an object lesson to those of us in the West who are facing birthrate declines of our own.

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Part one in a three-part series.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

In late June 2008 an angry crowd, estimated at 10,000 people, set fire to a government building and police cars in southwestern China. More than 150 people were injured, and it took 1,500 paramilitary and riot police to restore a semblance of order.

The crowd was protesting the “alleged cover-up of a teenage girl’s rape and murder” by three young men, including the “son of a local politician.”

While news agencies cited the incident as an example of unrest over corruption and injustices, there is another Chinese problem highlighted in this story: “China’s testosterone problem.”

That’s the term the New Republic used to characterize the social problems caused by the male-female imbalance in China. As writer Mara Hvistendahl tells us, China “has the largest gender imbalance in the world . . .” There are 37 million more men than women in China; and “almost 20 percent more newborn boys than girls nationwide.” In some parts of China, there are 60 percent more male children than female!

The imbalance is the product of China’s infamous “one-child policy,” in which the government told villagers, and I quote, “YOU CAN BEAT IT OUT! YOU CAN MAKE IT FALL OUT! YOU CAN ABORT IT! BUT YOU CANNOT GIVE BIRTH TO IT!”

Many villagers complied, but with a twist: They made sure that the “one child” would be a boy, who could earn more than girls could. As a result, a researcher at the Chinese Institute for Social Sciences estimates that 10 percent of Chinese men will be unable to find wives.

Of course, frustrated men will make their presence felt, as Beijing is learning. After the first generation of “one child” boys hit adolescence, China’s juvenile crime rate more than doubled. Chinese officials complained about young men committing crimes “without specific motives, often without forethought.”

Sound familiar? History teaches us that unattached, unmarriageable males are “disproportionately responsible for drug abuse, looting, vandalism, and violent crime.” This was true of “frontier towns,” “immigrant ghettos,” and our own inner-cities. There is no reason to think that China will be any different.

And the worst is yet to come as the imbalance grows larger. Government officials worry about the “hidden threat to social stability” posed by a cohort of “hopeless, volatile men.” Wars have often started, historically, when men tried to find wives elsewhere.

But the best the government can come up with are slogans like, “Boys and Girls are both treasures.” Meanwhile young Chinese men gather in bars where they pay $15 a minute to assault the waiters. Yes, you heard me correctly. Even more ominously, if the customer prefers, the waiter will dress in women’s clothing. No wonder ordinary Chinese are worried for the safety of their daughters!

It is hard to find a better example of the consequences that arise from defying the moral order that God has written into His creation. China thought it could create a harmonious society where every child was wanted; now unwanted men threaten its very stability.

China fears its own sons and worries about its daughters all because it followed a false worldview, ignoring God’s design.

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Copyright (c) 2008 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

Thomas* is struggling with his future.

He teaches English to businessmen in a northern provincial capital in China. He followed his parents’ dream that he get an education and move to a place with opportunities for a good life.

But that was before he became a Christian.

“When we attend college and get the certificate, we can get a good job and make money,” Thomas said. “We seldom think of going back [home]. In big cities we can have many opportunities. We can live well. We can enjoy life much better than in small cities.

“The people in [small cities] go to [provincial capitals]. The people in [provincial capitals] go to Beijing. The people in Beijing go abroad. That’s the progression.”

When Thomas was growing up, his father worked in a government print shop and his mother was a farmer. After Thomas’ father retired, his mother developed asthma and could not walk. Now the family lends their land to others free of charge.

“A woman came to our house and shared Jesus with [my mother], but she didn’t believe,” Thomas said. Eighteen months -- and much prayer -- passed before she believed in Jesus. But when she did, she found she could walk again. Now “she can cook and can go to church by bicycle.”

Thomas admits he was curious about the miracles he witnessed, but he did not share his mother’s belief in Christ. There is little Christian influence in his hometown.

“I did not have any spiritual life,” he said. “I just believed in myself -- like any unbeliever.”

When Thomas was 25, his mother introduced him to a church that changed his life.

“I saw so many miracles. In my house church, many believers were healed of illnesses, including cancer. The most important thing is I was touched by Jesus’ love. When we get together and my pastor prays, Jesus is with us, we can feel the love. Only God can change us, so that is what happened with me. God changed me. I’m going to go where He leads me. That’s my future.”

But Thomas is not sure where God is leading him, and he struggles with his parents’ expectations for his life. Should he continue work as an English teacher in the city or should he work in ministry at his house church? He is praying for God’s guidance.

“Before I knew Jesus, I didn’t care what I would do,” Thomas said. “I worked for myself, for only what concerned me. I am changed, so now I’m waiting to see what God wants me to do. In my future, my prayer is what about others, not about me.”

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*Name changed.

Somewhere in East Asia, a man steps onto a crowded bus after a busy day at work. As usual, there is nowhere to sit and his wearied legs find no rest on the long commute home.

People in East Asia have more freedom, more income and more material possessions than past generations. But this abundance does not always lead to a higher quality of life. Long commutes, high costs of living, endless hours at work, overcrowded cities, and polluted environments have left many people like the man on the bus -- without peace, hope or fulfillment.

This particular man’s day began at 5 a.m. when he stood at a bus stop for nearly an hour waiting to board a bus for his two-hour ride to work. After 10 grueling hours of working at a job where he was harassed much and paid little, he stands on a cramped bus and endures the journey home.

To protect his lungs from air pollution, he wears a mask over his mouth and nose, yet the foul air still makes his eyes water and sting. This exhausting day is his normal routine, leaving him little time for family. So, wiping the pollution-induced tears from his eyes and grabbing a handle on the bus, his mind returns to the question that has plagued his thoughts the past few weeks: “What purpose is there in all of this?”

When considering the East Asian worldview, many outsiders might only notice the materialistic, atheistic dynamic of hard-working people whose lives are defined by long hours at the office. In reality though, underneath these external characteristics is a complex mixture of Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist and animistic beliefs. The resulting belief system focuses on certain rituals through which a person gains merit for self and for deceased ancestors.

Knowing where to begin explaining the Gospel to people so influenced by varied secular and religious ideas can be puzzling. Here are several principles one can adopt for sharing the Good News effectively with East Asians:

1. Start with your own story

Many East Asians are struggling to understand their purpose in life, and telling them how you’ve found purpose, peace and joy in Christ is a good place to start. Establishing a good relationship first is critical. In this context, it’s only in a relationship that someone will give credence to your testimony. Although your testimony is not the Gospel, telling your story can pique a person’s interest and open an opportunity to share God plan of salvation.

2. Explain the Creator’s existence

Since most East Asians have no belief in a personal Creator God, it is best to start by explaining the existence of God, as Paul did in Acts 14:14-17 and 17:22–31. Typically, East Asians will have many questions about God the Creator. Training in apologetics can be helpful in answering some of their questions, but East Asians often need time to process these new concepts.

3. Clearly articulate sin

Since Buddhism teaches that all people are basically good, most East Asians understand sin as something that only a criminal does. Always take the time to explain that what the Bible defines as sin is more than just murder and robbery. Sin has to do with the fact that people are created by God and ought to praise Him instead of worshiping created things. Thus all humanity is in rebellion against God and denies Him the adoration He deserves, whether by actively resisting Him or by simply being indifferent.

4. Explore Biblical themes from a non-Western perspective

Given their cultural lens, East Asians often resonate with biblical themes that Westerners tend to overlook. For example, since they typically have a family-centered worldview, the biblical teaching on God as heavenly Father, whom we have rebelled against and rejected, is powerful. Similarly, their honor/shame perspective means they can easily relate to the teaching that we, in our sin, have not given God the honor or glory He deserves. In a positive sense, the scriptural teaching that “none who wait for You shall be put to shame” (Psalm 25:2) is a culturally appropriate call to trust Christ.

5. Focus on the need for atonement

Since traditional East Asian religions place so much emphasis on gaining merit with the gods through participation in rituals, it is absolutely critical that Gospel presentations point to Jesus as the only true and acceptable sacrifice. East Asians need to hear that we are made righteous by faith alone, through grace alone in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9, Galatians 2:16, Titus 3:4-7).

6. Address animistic tendencies

Animism is a belief that spirits govern and/or oversee parts of the world and can harm or bless humans. East Asians can be highly animistic in their belief that ancestors and other gods need to be worshiped. Otherwise, those gods will negatively affect one’s overall well-being. Our Gospel conversations cannot leave these unbiblical beliefs untouched. Like Paul, we must convey that Christ is “before all things and, in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17).

7. Don’t use high-pressure tactics

Confucian ideals emphasize peace and harmony. As a result, most East Asians are not confrontational. Often they will verbally agree with statements they don’t actually agree with, just to maintain harmony in the relationship. They would never want a friend to lose face over a religious dispute. Therefore while we must call for a response, we should not pressure people to make a decision; or they might go along just to please us. We must share the Gospel clearly and then encourage them to respond. We entrust them to a faithful God and allow them time to process His truth.

Let me warn you, if you pick up Bob Fu’s amazing story of his defiance of the Chinese government and his escape from China, you won’t be putting it down.

Every day, millions of Chinese Christians are willing to face poverty, prison, separation from loved ones, even death for the sake of Jesus.

One of those Christians is a man named Bob Fu, who now lives in the United States. His new book, “God’s Double Agent,” tells the inspiring story of how he stood up to Chinese Communist leaders, was thrown into prison, and escaped to America.

Bob grew up desperately poor during Mao’s so-called “Great Leap Forward.” His teachers recognized his intelligence and leadership skills — skills that led to trouble when Bob began criticizing the widespread corruption in the Chinese government.

In college, Bob led fellow students to the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989. He escaped the June 4 massacre unharmed only because his fiancé had become so sick that he left the square to take her to a hospital.

Knowing Bob’s leadership role in the demonstrations, the government forced him to write so-called “confessions.”

Former friends were afraid to associate with him — even worse, some denounced him. At a low point, as Bob considered suicide, a classmate slipped him a little book — a biography of a Chinese intellectual who had embraced Christianity through the influence of British missionaries.

Bob writes that the story seemed to be “whispering deep truths to me with each new page.” He joyfully accepted Christ and promptly began evangelizing others. After college he went to work teaching English. But as God’s double agent, he opened a secret school to train up ministers of the gospel.

Bob himself was about to receive the education of a lifetime. Christian dissident Alan Yuan had once told him, “If you want to be a faithful minister and follower of Jesus Christ, you should learn prison theology.” Prison, he explained, was where “you find out more about God and his faithfulness than anywhere else.” My friend Chuck Colson would certainly have agreed with that.

And when government officials discovered the illegal seminary, they threw Bob and his wife into prison. Despite harsh conditions, Bob witnessed to his fellow inmates, leading many to Christ.

After their release two months later, the unrepentant Fus added to their so-called “crimes” by purposely conceiving a child without government permission. But now they had to make a fearful choice: Stay in China where they would be forced to undergo an abortion, or attempt to escape the country. If they were caught, they faced long prison terms.

With the help of the underground church, the two fled to Hong Kong. But their troubles were not over. Britain was preparing to hand over control of Hong Kong to the Chinese. And that’s when the Fus found out that the U.S. Consulate did not recognize religious refugees — only political ones.

Thanks to constant prayer, a miracle or two, and some determined American religious and political leaders, the Fus escaped on the last working day before the Chinese takeover. Talk about cutting it close!

Llet me ask you a question: Are you also willing to be faithful to Christ no matter what it costs — your job, your savings, your freedom?

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Copyright (c) 2013 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

Although it is not very well known, for the first thousand years of church history there were probably more Christians outside of the old boundaries of the Roman Empire than within them. Christianity in India may date back as far as the Apostle Thomas; the first kingdom to convert to Christianity was Armenia; Christianity spread in Ethiopia in the fourth century; and there were large numbers of Christians in the Persian Empire who spread their faith into Central Asia and beyond via well-established trade routes to China.

The Christians in Persia and Asia formed what is today known as the Church of the East. They were Nestorians, that is, they believed that Jesus was fully God and fully human but disagreed with the specific formulation adopted by the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451). This made them heretical in the eyes of orthodox Christians in the Roman Empire. However, this meant little as there was little cooperation between the churches.

Nonetheless, Christianity spread along the trade routes into China, and across Central Asia a network of Nestorian monasteries, schools, and churches were established. The route to China was blocked, however, by the people of Turkmenistan. In the year 630, twelve years after the founding of the T’ang dynasty in China, Chinese forces overwhelmed the Western Turks, reopening trade across the Silk Road.

Just five years later, in 635, a group of Nestorian missionaries led by Alopen (possibly an attempted transliteration of Abraham) arrived at Chang-an, the capital of China.

By this time, Nestorian Christians from Central Asia or in the Persian merchant community were probably already living in Chang-an, given that the city appears to have been well-prepared for Alopen’s arrival. Emperor Taizong, a promoter of religious tolerance, sent a delegation to the western suburbs to escort the Nestorian missionaries into the city.

One reason for the welcome may have been the fact that Taizong was a scholar. He had built a library next to the palace of 200,000 books, making it as large as any library in the world at the time, including the fabled Library of Alexandria. When he found out that Christianity was a religion of the book, he immediately brought Alopen to his library and set him to the task of translating Christian books into Chinese.

The first book Alopen selected to translate is known as the Sutra of Jesus the Messiah, the first Christian book in the Chinese language. The original was probably written in Persian or the Central Asian Sogdian language, given the way he transliterated some of the names. It is a free translation, with the surviving text containing 206 verses intended to explain Christianity and to demonstrate that it was compatible with traditional Chinese values. He may have translated other books as well, either at this time or later.

The Sutra of Jesus the Messiah begins with an invocation of the invisible God, and then describes the condition of humanity, focusing on the problem of sin and mortality. The problem of death was particularly pertinent, as religious versions of Daoism had long been trying to develop the Elixir of Life which would grant immortality to the Emperor. The Sutra then tells the story of Jesus’ life from the Virgin Birth at least until his Passion — the surviving copies of the manuscript stop abruptly in mid-verse during the description of Jesus’ death, but we can presume it continued at least to the Resurrection and Ascension.

The Emperor received the text and after studying it, pronounced it acceptable and ordered that it be disseminated around China. In 638, he issued a decree granting toleration of all religions in China and official protection to the Nestorian Church. That same year, he also built the first Christian church and monastery in China in the capital city of Chang-an. The monastery housed 21 monks, probably all Persian.

When Taizong died in 649, he was succeeded by his son, Gaozong (649-693). Gaozong continued his father’s religious policies. During his reign, churches spread elsewhere in the Empire, though the exact number is unknown. He named Alopen “Great Patron and Spiritual Lord of the Empire,” which suggests he had become the metropolitan bishop overseeing all the churches in China, though whether his spiritual superiors in Persia had granted him this title is also unknown.

Unfortunately, Gaozong began to lean toward Buddhism during his reign due largely to pressures from his family and especially from his consort Wu Hou. Wu had been Taizong’s concubine, and when he died she had been sent to a Buddhist monastery. She wanted to be back in the seat of power, however, so she somehow maneuvered her way into becoming Gaozong’s concubine as well, in violation of the principles of Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Wu gave Gaozong two sons and then a daughter; when the daughter died, apparently by strangulation and possibly by Wu herself, she then accused the Empress of the murder. The Empress had no alibi, so she was removed from her place and the ardent Buddhist Wu became the new Imperial Consort.

From this position, Wu began accumulating more and more power, eliminating rivals, poisoning the crown prince, exiling Gaozong’s sons by different concubines and even some of her own sons. Gaozong’s health deteriorated, and Wu became regent of China. When Gaozong died, Wu deposed her two sons in rapid succession, and in AD 690 named herself Empress, the only woman to rule China in her own name in its 4,000 year history.

Although Empress Wu flouted Buddhist ethics — for example, she took a Buddhist monk as a lover — she promoted Buddhism as the state religion in China. She tacitly encouraged attacks on Christian churches far from the capital and eventually allowed the churches in the capital itself to be sacked by rampaging mobs of Buddhists. Her attitude toward the Nestorians changed, however, due to the work of a Nestorian Persian nobleman named Abraham.

Abraham, who must have been well acquainted with Alopen, had such a good reputation for his achievements that Gaozong had summoned him to court and appointed him on an embassy to the territory east of Persia. According to his tombstone, he brought Christianity to the barbarian tribes there, who ever since lived in peace and harmony.

When Empress Wu took the throne, her half-brother ordered the construction of a 105 foot tall column in her honor outside the Tuan Gate at Chang-an. The column was to be built by an Indian sculptor, and Abraham was to raise the money for it. They were so effective at their respective tasks that the column was finished in just eight months. Empress Wu was so impressed at Abraham’s loyalty and diplomatic and financial abilities that she backed off the persecution of the Nestorians, deciding that she could trust their loyalty.

Empress Wu died in 705; Abraham outlived her by 5 years, dying in 710 at the age of 95. With the Empress’s death the threat to the church receded. The T’ang Dynasty was quickly reestablished, and the church recovered. Alopen’s work thus weathered its most severe threat and would continue on until the fall of the T’ang Dynasty in AD 907. While Christianity never emerged as a major religion in China during this period, it continued to enjoy the protection and favor of the court, and Christian leaders continued to play an important role in the development of Chinese culture.

A decade ago, just as China was cracking open its doors to the West, a student named Lei Sun set out from Shanghai and arrived, a stranger, in Newark, New Jersey.

While in China, Sun rarely spoke of religion, yet secretly thirsted for a spiritual life. He had paged through the Christian Bible, but considered it merely a historical text to be read for its peculiar plot and characters.

Then, one Sunday morning, he settled into a pew in the Chinese Christian Church of New Jersey, and all of that began to change.

"We didn’t have cars, so they drove us," he said. "We didn’t have food, but we were invited to eat. We asked, ‘Why are they doing that? It doesn’t benefit them. And why are they so happy?’

"We listened and we gradually began to believe. That’s how most of us come to the church. The people here are examples of how to give and sacrifice, so we can go and try to do the same."

Sun, 33, is part of this suburban congregation’s fastest-growing segment: immigrants from mainland China, drawn here to escape the remnants of Mao Tse-tung’s failed Cultural Revolution.

For immigrants arriving for the first time, churches have become a guiding hand and support. In a recent survey by Barna Research, a respected Christian polling firm, 27 percent of Asian-Americans described themselves as evangelical Christians, compared with 5 percent in 1991.

Through these newcomers’ faith, older church members say their own is revitalized; witnessing their weary eyes open, they relive their own spiritual birth.

And for the American-born children who may never know communist rule, the new members’ presence is a reminder that prayer can be cause for imprisonment - or worse - in their parents’ homeland.

Just last month, 130 evangelical Christians - including three Americans - were arrested in central China for attending a revival, one day after a government leader said the nation had entered a "golden age" of freer expression.

"God did a wonderful job letting the communists take over China," said T.Y. Lee, chairman of the church’s board of trustees. "Mao wouldn’t allow superstition or prayer, so people had to keep it inside. Now when the mainlanders come here they are so eager to hear the Gospel. Every time we talk about God’s love they cry."

"It’s amazing," said Charles Oo, a Parsippany resident who works at Roche Laboratories in Nutley. "You can really see these people’s commitment."

More than 11 million persons of Asian descent live in the United States, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The agency reported 6,000 Chinese-Americans living in Morris County in 1990, the latest such figures available.

The Chinese Christian Church had its genesis in a prayer group, formed in 1964 by three Taiwanese families in East Orange. It has grown from 150 members in the late 1980s to more than 1,000 today, the mighty leap made possible through the $1.2 million construction of its church on South Beverwyck Road.

Services are offered in four languages: Mandarin, China’s more common tongue; Cantonese, spoken in the nation’s southern end; Taiwanese and English. Each Sunday the church fills with song - modern verses accompanied by acoustic guitar in the youth-centered English service and more solemn hymns during the earlier Mandarin fellowship. Afterward, congregants line up downstairs for white rice and steamed vegetables donated by two local Chinese restaurants.

Daniel Voo was one of the original group, a boy of 9 whose family moved to East Orange from Cincinnati. Until then he had almost no contact with other Chinese immigrants.

Today he encourages his two sons to speak Mandarin at home, in part so they can welcome new members in their church.

"Even though we have many groups we still consider ourselves one church," he said. "We make sure people are communicating across linguistic lines so no one feels isolated."

Sun and his compatriots are part of the most recent immigrant wave from China, a largely educated group of students, engineers and researchers working in fields where a command of English isn’t critical.

"We grew up in the new China," Sun said. "Party leaders said, ‘You have to be useful to society.' But you looked at them and they weren’t doing that. People wanted to believe in something."

Sun went on to earn a doctorate in biology from Rutgers University and now works as a financial consultant with Salomon Smith Barney in Morristown. He and his wife, who joined him shortly after his arrival here, have a 6-year-old son who qualifies as what group elders call ABCs: American-Born Chinese.

But if the younger generation has been quick to adapt to and embrace its new culture and religious life, many elder immigrants are still plagued by the "shadow of Communist rule," as several church leaders put it. For them, freedom is a principle they have yet to fully exploit in practice.

Laura Foo, a native of Taiwan, said her husband often recounts conversations he’s had with fellow Chinese engineers, who even now fear voicing criticism of Chinese policy.

"Sometimes people who come from the same place in China don’t want to talk to one another," she said. "Some keep their distance and don’t discuss things like politics."

Despite such barriers, Foo has witnessed a kinship develop between mainland Chinese and Taiwanese here that would not be possible in China.

"With us, since we don’t have a connection with the Chinese government, they feel they can talk," Foo said, while eating lunch at Noodle Chu in Parsippany one recent Friday. At noon, the restaurant was filled to capacity with Chinese-American patrons.

Beside Foo sat Emily Au, a Parsippany resident whose father attends the church’s Cantonese service.

For Au, evidence of the Chinese community’s growth abounds at the Mountain Lakes YMCA. When she and her family joined in 1992, they met few other Chinese-Americans. Now, of the 30 newest children on the swim team, half have Chinese parents, she said.

What saddens her, however, is how many of those parents insist on maintaining the competitive spirit encouraged in many areas of China, where children with proven talents are often separated from their parents at an early age for training at a national level.

"The parents at the Y are very serious," Au said. "In their notebooks they write down other kids’ times. One new girl, she’s very good. But her mother is very intense. She stares straight ahead and doesn’t talk to anyone."

Yet Chinese natives understand the oppressive past from which such attitudes spring.

Linda Cheng, an usher at the church, traveled to China for the first time in 10 years this summer. She went to speak with old friends and to see her husband and son, who live in Beijing. Her primary goal, though , was to spread the Christian message, despite Chinese laws that prohibit foreign missionary work.

"One day," she said, "I met with my old work crew and some teachers and told them I had been baptized. They were very surprised. One woman was the member of the Communist Party. She was afraid to go to church. She said she dared to speak to God only in her heart."

Pastor Ken Tom, a self-described "catalytic missionary" who promotes English-language congregations in the nation’s Chinese-language churches, described the energizing interaction between old and new members in a recent guest sermon.

"Longtime members can help newcomers assimilate and use their essential ‘newness’ to create new projects and respond to new needs," he said.

Young people, who trustee board chairman Lee said "often can’t appreciate old world life," continually are encouraged to strengthen their bonds through missionary work within that world.

With his knowledge of Mandarin and Taiwanese, John Wu traveled to Taiwan this summer to teach English to middle school students, many of whom lost parents to a major earthquake last September. He hopes to make a trip to mainland China next year.

"I want to go back and follow up," the 16-year-old said. "I feel like we just planted seeds."

Several groups meet for Bible study on Friday nights. Jim Lee, an entrepreneur who speaks excellent English, said he prefers to pray in his native Mandarin.

After his arrival from Beijing in 1986, he landed in upstate New York, where he struggled to understand English church services.

Now he, his wife and two children live in Little Falls, but plan to join other congregants in the Hunting Ridge condominiums near the juncture of Route 46 and Beverwyck Road.

"When I came here I heard people speaking my language," he said, "and right away I felt at home."

*

Let me warn you, if you pick up Bob Fu’s amazing story of his defiance of the Chinese government and his escape from China, you won’t be putting it down.

Every day, millions of Chinese Christians are willing to face poverty, prison, separation from loved ones, even death for the sake of Jesus.

One of those Christians is a man named Bob Fu, who now lives in the United States. His new book, “God’s Double Agent,” tells the inspiring story of how he stood up to Chinese Communist leaders, was thrown into prison, and escaped to America.

Bob grew up desperately poor during Mao’s so-called “Great Leap Forward.” His teachers recognized his intelligence and leadership skills — skills that led to trouble when Bob began criticizing the widespread corruption in the Chinese government.

In college, Bob led fellow students to the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989. He escaped the June 4 massacre unharmed only because his fiancé had become so sick that he left the square to take her to a hospital.

Knowing Bob’s leadership role in the demonstrations, the government forced him to write so-called “confessions.”

Former friends were afraid to associate with him — even worse, some denounced him. At a low point, as Bob considered suicide, a classmate slipped him a little book — a biography of a Chinese intellectual who had embraced Christianity through the influence of British missionaries.

Bob writes that the story seemed to be “whispering deep truths to me with each new page.” He joyfully accepted Christ and promptly began evangelizing others. After college he went to work teaching English. But as God’s double agent, he opened a secret school to train up ministers of the gospel.

Bob himself was about to receive the education of a lifetime. Christian dissident Alan Yuan had once told him, “If you want to be a faithful minister and follower of Jesus Christ, you should learn prison theology.” Prison, he explained, was where “you find out more about God and his faithfulness than anywhere else.” My friend Chuck Colson would certainly have agreed with that.

And when government officials discovered the illegal seminary, they threw Bob and his wife into prison. Despite harsh conditions, Bob witnessed to his fellow inmates, leading many to Christ.

After their release two months later, the unrepentant Fus added to their so-called “crimes” by purposely conceiving a child without government permission. But now they had to make a fearful choice: Stay in China where they would be forced to undergo an abortion, or attempt to escape the country. If they were caught, they faced long prison terms.

With the help of the underground church, the two fled to Hong Kong. But their troubles were not over. Britain was preparing to hand over control of Hong Kong to the Chinese. And that’s when the Fus found out that the U.S. Consulate did not recognize religious refugees — only political ones.

Thanks to constant prayer, a miracle or two, and some determined American religious and political leaders, the Fus escaped on the last working day before the Chinese takeover. Talk about cutting it close!

Llet me ask you a question: Are you also willing to be faithful to Christ no matter what it costs — your job, your savings, your freedom?

________

Copyright (c) 2013 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

A few weeks ago there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about how the government is trying to stop Su Xueling from telling others about Christ.

Ms. Su was the daughter of a communist, and knew nothing of Christ until she was in her 30s. When her husband was dying of cancer fifteen years ago, a nurse suggested that she might find solace in Christianity. Struggling with grief and debt — trying to make a living selling noodles door to door — Ms. Su visited a church. One thing led to another, and Ms. Su became a Christian.

Through friends, she began to raise money for a noodle factory. When she opened it, she named her business Gospel Foodstuffs, Ltd., and printed “Gospel Noodles” boldly on the packages. Her business prospered, and a friend challenged her to donate money to start a seminary. The seminary prospered and grew until it was serving 200 students. Refusing to bend to a law forbidding evangelizing, the seminary even taught Arabic in the hope of sending missionaries to the Middle East.

But then the government shut down the school and Ms. Su’s noodle business. Later, they backed down, in part because Ms. Su was popular — they couldn’t afford to treat her roughly. Ms. Su doesn’t plan to restart her noodle business, but she does plan to start a private school, and is raising money for that purpose.

Jesus says, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”

This is a call to be brave disciples – brave servants – brave witnesses for Christ.

The world sometimes seems very dark to those in dark places. Even spiritual giants.

“I hope no missionary will be as lonely as I have been,” legendary Southern Baptist pioneer Lottie Moon wrote not long before she died on Christmas Eve 1912 -- exhausted and discouraged after 40 tumultuous years in China.

How alone must Bill Wallace have felt on Christmas Eve 39 years later, as he lay in a jail cell in Wuzhou, China? Arrested on false charges of spying by local communists, the great missionary doctor was driven to despair and the edge of insanity by constant interrogations, harassment and torture before dying in his cell less than two months later.

“Go back and take care of the hospital,” he told co-workers when he was still in his right mind. “I am ready to give my life if necessary.”

Did the Christ child come to Wallace in that lonely cell on his last Christmas? The Savior was already there, in the missionary's heart -- which Wallace's tormenters could never touch.

Jesus still comes to lonely places on Christmas.

In Israel, where the Savior was born, Jews who decide to follow Jesus as Messiah often feel they are the “only one.” A 16-year-old came to faith in Jesus through reading the New Testament. He thought he was the only person in Israel who believed in Jesus as the Messiah, until he overheard another young student talking about his faith. Now the 16-year-old is being discipled by his new friend.

Last Christmas morning, “Jill,” a young woman in China, was very much on the minds and hearts of a couple who had shared the Gospel with her a few months earlier. Though she had told them she didn't need God, they wanted to invite her to their Christmas open house. As they prepared to call her, their phone rang. Jill was on the line. She visited later that day and told them that since their last conversation, her husband had left her for another woman. She had returned to live with her parents and admitted she “wanted to die.”

They told her once again about Christ -- and she accepted Him as Lord and Savior. Less than a year later, she has emerged as a leader in her house church, guided many people to Christ and trained them to evangelize others.

On a recent Saturday, missionary Gail Davis and her family drove to a grim, hungry township in South Africa to help give a Christmas party for the children of the area.

“My children had passed by the townships, but had never been in them,” Davis wrote. “They were aghast at the 'houses' that people live in, the roads they walk upon and the fact that they had to share metal sheds for toilets. They saw many people lined up at one water spigot getting water for the day. This was a real eye-opener for them. Yet, amidst all this, my 3-year-old saw potential for this very impoverished place. As we drove down the road, he saw a cemetery and said he would like to go play in that playground. When I explained that is where dead people go, he asked, 'Is that heaven?'

“How many of us can even think about heaven when our senses are so overwhelmed with the negativeness of life and the fear for one's own safety? My question to myself then became: What would it take to reach these people that God so loves so that they could finally reach heaven? What would you do to bring the Gospel of truth, love and hope to these people dying in masses and being buried in anonymity?”

“Esther,” a Christian teacher in China, found herself in front of a college class last year that knew little English. A student asked her to talk about American culture, so Esther described Thanksgiving and Christmas. When she mentioned Christmas songs, another student asked her sing for them.

She thought about her total lack of singing ability, but launched into teaching the students to sing “Joy to the World” using impromptu hand motions to help them remember the words.

Only one of the 30 students had ever heard the name of Jesus.

“I knew most of them didn't understand the words they were singing, much less understand who Jesus was,” Esther said. “But as I listened to them sing about the Savior of the world, I prayed they would soon be able to understand -- and truly sing for joy.”

On the first Christmas, the angel told the fearful shepherds: “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

A great many people in dark and lonely places still haven't heard that wonderful news. But they will -- if we tell them.

________

Erich Bridges is a senior writer at the Southern Baptist International Mission Board.

*

Two Christians have been killed in the Chinese government's crackdown on pastor Gong Shengliang and his South China Church in central Hubei Province, according to a letter from members of the underground church revealing graphic details and new information about the persecution.

Gong was sentenced to death Dec. 5 on charges of operating an "evil cult" and on the seemingly trumped-up charges of rape and assault. The month-long period for deciding his appeal was extended Jan. 5 by a Hubei court following sharp international protest.

The letter, written by two underground Christian women, Li Ailian and Wang Yue, reports that in efforts to find and apprehend Gong and suppress the South China Church, police arrested and severely beat at least 25 Christians, killing two of them, while torturing others with electric prods.

The letter was dated Dec. 31 and smuggled to the New York-based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China. It was released Jan. 11 by Freedom House in Washington.

The two victims who reportedly died were:

-- Yu Zhongju, a young mother from Zhongxiang who was arrested May 27 in a private house connected with Gong's congregation. She died in police custody in late July, allegedly as a result of torture. According to her family, police informed them of Yu's death July 20, after her body had begun to decompose. The police paid the family, warning them not to raise the matter further. There has been no official investigation of the case.

-- Gu Xuegui, a Christian man also connected with Gong's church, who disappeared while in police custody, probably sometime in October. A congregant from Puyang City in Henan Province last saw Gu in a prison vehicle with his face showing signs of beatings. His family later received information that he had died under severe torture.

The letter also provides details about two women, Li Tongjin and Chi Tongyuan, from Shayang, who were arrested and tortured by police with electric prods, resulting in blisters and burns all over their bodies. The torture was reported to have been used to force them to testify that they had sexual relations with Gong. One woman was later able to telephone her brother and report her situation, saying, "... be ready to come to pick up my body. I might either be beaten to death or sentenced to death."

The letter reports numerous other cases from May through December of brutal police beatings of the congregants. It states that Gong himself was apprehended by police on Aug. 8 and was kicked and beaten by government security forces.

In a separate communication from the South China Church, Freedom House obtained the names of 63 men and women of the church who were arrested between May and December in Hubei, Henan, Hebei and Sichuan provinces.

The South China Church is known within the Chinese underground Christian community and to churches in the United States. Li Guangqiang, a Hong Kong resident, was also recently issued an "evil cult" indictment, possibly carrying the death penalty, by a Fujian court, for smuggling 33,000 bibles into China.

The names of the detainees from the South China Church congregation and the Dec. 31 letter are available on the Center for Religious Freedom website at: www.freedomhouse.org.

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