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Christian Persecution in China
Information gathered by the American Policy
Roundtable
Christians in China Statistics (Estimates)
Totals for the number of Christians in
China leaked from two Chinese government bodies reveal far larger estimates of
the number of Protestants than official church leaders have previously admitted.
At a January Religious Affairs Bureau
(RAB, the government body responsible for oversight of religions) conference,
delegates were told the number of Protestants in China was 25 million. A leaked
report from China's security organization -- the Public Security Bureau (PSB) --
put the total at 35 million.
Official spokesmen, such as China
Christian Council Chairman Dr. Han Wenzao, have long denied the possibility that
there are more than 15 million Christians in China. Three Self Patriotic
Movement (TSPM) statistics claim there are only 13.3 million Protestants. The
TSPM is the official Protestant church organization in China.
"These leaks clearly show the Three
Self leaders have been deliberately deceiving their Western audiences by
pretending the total of Christians is far lower than their own government
supervisory estimates, which they must have had access to," said a Hong
Kong-based China watcher.
Many Western missions maintain the true
number of Christians in China is likely to be 60 million and up. (More, from Worthy News)
World Serve
Source:
Worldserve.org
WorldServe Ministries is a 30-year-old international ministry
focused on church planting in areas that are either closed or have
restricted-access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are uniquely positioned on
the vanguard of the greatest turning to God in the history of the
church.
Our core philosophy is to come
alongside the chosen servants of God in these difficult countries and lose our
identity as we "serve" them and provide resources they desperately need - or as
we like to call it, Following God and Fueling the Fires.
As we have continually sought
God's direction, He has focused WorldServe's heart on one particular aspect of
our work - indigenous church planting movements. God's chosen vehicle is the
local church. When it is strong, maturing, and mobilizing its members, the
foundation is laid for dynamic growth.
The fruit of those efforts is
supernatural - Tens of thousands of new churches are being planted and millions
of new believers choosing to follow Christ and mature with a local body of
believers.
In 2005 alone, WorldServe
Ministries documented the incredible work of His Spirit, His people, and the
resources entrusted to us.
• 13,684 new churches planted
• 1,072,567
individual decisions for Christ
• 13,388 pastors and workers trained
•
2,944 Church planters and workers trained
• 365,000 Bibles and Bible
Scripture portions provided
• 5,703,000 Evangelistic booklets
distributed
• 2,050,000 tracts distributed
Read more about World Serve.
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Listen Now
Listen
to: Wayne's Trip To China
Listen
to: Direct Report on the Church in
China
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Related
Books
Wise as Serpents, Harmless as Doves, by Jonathan
Chao
China's Christian Millions, Tony Lambert
Related
Articles
Underground Churches in China Find
Faith, CBS News
Up From the Underground, Washington Post
Christian Home Churches Gaining in
China, News
America Media
China arrests followers of banned church, BBC
News
China Defies Vatican Over Bishop, BBC
News
China Detains Americans and House Church
Leaders After Worship Service, BosNewsLife
A New Religion, CBS
News
Quotes
All these people died still believing what God had
promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from
a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads
here on earth. – Hebrews 11:13, New Living Translation
The communist party here does not want to see
anybody more organized then they are. -Wayne Shepard in China
I asked, in
the particular area of China,…how many Christians are there. We get many various
reports in the states. They said that in that province, of about 9 million,
about 5 million were members of the underground church. - Wayne Shepard in
China
[These people are] putting there personal freedom, if you will, on
the line, just coming to worship the Savior that we have the ability to go
worship everyday – freely. – Rob Walgate, Vice President, American Policy
Roundtable
The burden is for urban church planting….The number one need
that has come up…is that we need to equip these urban churches planters, we need
to get them educated, get them trained, get them placed in the city. - Wayne
Shepard in China
Bibles [in China] are so necessary right now. - Wayne
Shepard in China
Prayers are important, promise have to be kept. – David
Zanotti, President, American Policy Roundtable
The answer is not to
collect Bibles and ship the over here, of course. The answer is to give them the
resources to print them here. There are, both in Vietnam and in China, there are
ways to get the Bibles printed legally. - Wayne Shepard in China
Public
pressure, here, means a lot. - Wayne Shepard in China
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