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Thread: China on course to become 'world's most Christian nation' within 15 years

  1. #1

    China on course to become 'world's most Christian nation' within 15 years

    -It is said to be China's biggest church and on Easter Sunday thousands of worshippers will flock to this Asian mega-temple to pledge their allegiance – not to the Communist Party, but to the Cross.

    The 5,000-capacity Liushi church, which boasts more than twice as many seats as Westminster Abbey and a 206ft crucifix that can be seen for miles around, opened last year with one theologian declaring it a "miracle that such a small town was able to build such a grand church".

    The £8 million building is also one of the most visible symbols of Communist China's breakneck conversion as it evolves into one of the largest Christian congregations on earth.

    "It is a wonderful thing to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It gives us great confidence," beamed Jin Hongxin, a 40-year-old visitor who was admiring the golden cross above Liushi's altar in the lead up to Holy Week.

    "If everyone in China believed in Jesus then we would have no more need for police stations. There would be no more bad people and therefore no more crime," she added.

    Officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.

    Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao's death in 1976 signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution.

    Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to become not just the world's number one economy but also its most numerous Christian nation.

    "By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon," said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.

    "It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change."

    China's Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life.

    Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline...

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-15-years.html

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  3. #2
    Administrator fuego's Avatar
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    Cool.

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    Somewhere on this planet is a little old lady (or perhaps several of them scattered around the planet) who have been interceding for revival in China for years. This is God's answer. Now we just need to get those little old ladies to pray the same for America.

  5. #4
    Revival has been occurring for about 30 years in China.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bookman View Post
    Somewhere on this planet is a little old lady (or perhaps several of them scattered around the planet) who have been interceding for revival in China for years. This is God's answer. Now we just need to get those little old ladies to pray the same for America.

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    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Since 86 ? I thought it started already during the days of Mao and the cultural revolution 20 years before that. That was when China was a really awful place. Worse than North Korea is today, kind of like the Soviet Union in the 30s.

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by CatchyUsername View Post
    Revival has been occurring for about 30 years in China.
    That's why they're little old ladies. They started praying as teenagers.

  8. #7
    There were pockets of Christians back during the revolution, but the underground Church as we know it today, REALLY picked up steam during the 80s to the present. Many Christians were still in labor camps and being tortured in the 50s-70s, though many souls were being won in those places.

    Quote Originally Posted by Colonel View Post
    Since 86 ? I thought it started already during the days of Mao and the cultural revolution 20 years before that. That was when China was a really awful place. Worse than North Korea is today, kind of like the Soviet Union in the 30s.

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    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CatchyUsername View Post
    There were pockets of Christians back during the revolution, but the underground Church as we know it today, REALLY picked up steam during the 80s to the present. Many Christians were still in labor camps and being tortured in the 50s-70s, though many souls were being won in those places.
    I understand, that makes sense in relation to what I have read. Mao's death in 1976 and subsequent reforms made revival more possible I guess.

  10. #9
    Wonderful report!

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