Thursday, May 28, 2015

Christianity Thrives in China Despite Persecution

This is a quote from a magazine called The Economist. The date of the article is November 1, 2014…

“Yang Fenggang of Purdue University, in Indiana, says the Christian church in China has grown by an average of 10% a year since 1980. He reckons that on current trends there will be 250m Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. Mr. Yang says this speed of growth is similar to that seen in fourth-century Rome just before the conversion of Constantine, which paved the way for Christianity to become the religion of his empire.”

So, in the world’s largest country (by population)—which is also the world’s largest Communist (atheist) country—Christianity is surging to the point that China is likely to become the largest Christian nation in the world. That is amazing, to me.

This is a country in which (according to the same Economist article) “perhaps as many as half a million Christians were harried to death, and tens of thousands more were sent to labour camps…” under the rule of Mao Zedong. In other words, Christianity not only continues but, in fact, thrives despite significant difficulty and persecution.

“…I will put my hope in God!” Psalm 42:5


No comments: