I Do Not Mean The Least Bit Of Disrespect But...

Highland Watchman,

Thank you for your lovely testimony to salvation through Christ. You wrote:

And how is it in China, when all of the missionaries were forced to leave and all churches were forced to shut down at the risk of imprisonment or death, that the church shot from barely 10,000 including missionaries to over 100,000 native Chinese Christians in maybe 50 years? There is definitely something going on here that we may not be as familiar with in our spiritually-sanitized Western consciousness (at least not in our own day - history indicates otherwise...)

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The Christian statistics for China are much higher now.

In this report, “Sons of Heaven,” it states:

ZHAO XIAO, a former Communist Party official and convert to Christianity, smiles over a cup of tea and says he thinks there are up to 130m Christians in China. This is far larger than previous estimates. The government says there are 21m (16m Protestants, 5m Catholics). Unofficial figures, such as one given by the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity in Massachusetts, put the number at about 70m. But Mr Zhao is not alone in his reckoning. A study of China by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, an American think-tank, says indirect survey evidence suggests many unaffiliated Christians are not in the official figures. And according to China Aid Association (CAA), a Texas-based lobby group, the director of the government body which supervises all religions in China said privately that the figure was indeed as much as 130m in early 2008.


If so, it would mean China contains more Christians than Communists (party membership is 74m) and there may be more active Christians in China than in any other country. In 1949, when the Communists took power, less than 1% of the population had been baptised, most of them Catholics. Now the largest, fastest-growing number of Christians belong to Protestant “house churches”.

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Imagine that! There are more Christians in China than its 74 million Communist members. God is gracious in causing such an explosion of Christian witness, especially through the house churches.
However, where there is such growth, there also are reports of an increase in false teaching in these churches. See HERE.

Well i think your on the right track, that your asking questions about GOD and aren't so caught up in this world.... but keep on searching and you will find. I was in your same position not too long ago and I cried out to God and God answered me...He will honor your first step..

OzSpen said:

Highland Watchman,

Thank you for your lovely testimony to salvation through Christ. You wrote:

The Christian statistics for China are much higher now.

In this report, “Sons of Heaven,” it states:

Imagine that! There are more Christians in China than its 74 million Communist members. God is gracious in causing such an explosion of Christian witness, especially through the house churches.
However, where there is such growth, there also are reports of an increase in false teaching in these churches. See HERE.

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Cool! Praise God. I figured it was much higher... And yes, the false teaching may be rampant there (as well as other places)... so all the more need for us to pray for God to send those who can equip and train them so that they could come against such false teaching.

QuestionMark? said:

Before Reading this post you must know that I mean NO DISRESPECT. I really don't care what you believe in and I'm tolerant of all faiths as long as they don't intend to harm anyone. I just have questions...
First of all, let me start off by telling you that I'm agnostic. I come from a Christian family and in this past year I've done some questioning and when I ask people for answers they tell me to read the bible and it just leads to more questions. The biggest question that I have is how can I be absolutely sure that there is a god? If you tell me "It says it in the bible" Then I ask you, How can I be sure that the bible is true? What gives the bible any more veracity than any other religious ancient scriptures. Then there's the statement "Well we all got here some how." Ya but how do we know it was this god that you speak of? I'm really sorry if I offended anyone and I don't mean to "stir things up." I'm just really in need of answers.

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I don't really know how to answer that except to say that you have to have faith. It's something you feel deep inside of you...almost like it's in your bones. I had a hard time believing it when I went to church and I had all these people telling me that God existed, etc. I wanted to see Him to believe that He was there. I hate things that I can't see because it just makes them hard for me to understand. If all else fails brother..it can't hurt to believe right? If we're wrong...well...we were better for it I guess. I know that's a hard pill to swallow so to speak because I can't prove to you that my God exists but like I said...it can't ever be a bad thing. I think that God had proven Himself to me because even though some pretty terrible things have happened to me...I have always somehow managed to come out of it and no one can tell me that I am the one who made the good things happen. & If there wasn't a God...man I would have never lived through some of my suicide attempts without any kind of human help. I once had an experience where I could swear God put His hand on me and it was when I had attempted suicide and I was laying in my bed waiting to die. I didn't hear anything or see anyone because I had my eyes closed but I felt something very powerful. I'm not crazy. It is what it is. Faith in God is a very personal experience. It can't be taught or learned and I don't think anyone can prove His existance. Bro just look inside your heart man... what does it tell you? There's not some small part of you that tells you He's there? I'm sorry I can't help you more...but I tried. Just wanted to offfer some thoughts..