Sunday, April 10, 2011, Beijing, China. 8:00 a. m. — 200 police arrive. 8:30 a. m. — 169 Christians arrested.
People all over the world now claim persecution in China is a thing of the past. But nothing could be further from the truth. In recent years, the government resistance to Christianity become worse. Any Christians how refuse to join the official state-run church, called the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, simply do not have the religious freedom that China would like us to think they have. Often leaders of these “illegal” house churches are under threat, with possible imprisonment and large fines. The arrest this April was part of a large crackdown on house church Christians, and is one of the worse waves of persecution China has experienced since 2003.
One example is the story of a Pastor “Wong.” Several years ago, Wong counted the cost and started a ministry to university students and was soon able to shepherd a growing, unregistered church. Authorities began to take notice when the church grew to over a thousand members. In May of 2010, Pastor Wong was told by the Public Security Bureau (PSB) that they were watching him; they warned him that “Next year we may not be so polite.” That year he was arrested five times, and many of his students were held by the police. In April of this year, Wong was arrested with four other church leaders. He was held for over a month and then released, though he is likely still being monitored by the PSB.
Two days after he was arrested, the PSB surrounded the public walkway where an outdoor service was to be held, after the Christians were told they could not rent the needed building for their congregation. That morning the police had sent officers to the homes of church leaders and would not allow them to leave. Other members were threatened by phone.
That morning, April 10, 2011, 169 believers were detained. As the believers arrived, they were held by the PSB and forced onto buses. They were then taken to a temporary detention center. Amazingly, the police even arrested an eighty-year-old woman and two-year-old child. The church leaders have been placed under twenty-four hour house arrest. Other church members have lost their jobs, or been forced out of their apartments.
And yet the Christians still meet, despite the difficulties involved. On June 12, the church leaders wrote to their congregation: “This [past] Sunday was the tenth Sunday of Shouwang Church’s [the name of the congregation] outdoor worship. Even though we’ve been through two months of battles and are feeling tired in body and soul, our desire to worship God is unchanged. Even though we get tired, our God is a God who ‘neither sleeps nor slumbers, and gives ‘strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.’ In this race, may we not look at our weakness and fatigue but rather keep our eyes always on the Lord Jesus Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith, believing that whatever perfect work he has begun will, at his appointed time, surely bear fruit.”*
As we see our dear brothers and sisters suffer for Christ, we must come along beside them. Please lift the Chinese church in prayer as they go through one of the worse waves of persecution in eight years. Remember those who have been arrested for their beliefs and put yourself in their position. Following Christ comes with a price; the Chinese church is willing to pay it. Are you?
-Reagan Schrock, GOA blog manager
*Quotation taken from The Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, Sept. 2011, page 6; www.persecution.com.
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