I
Peter 4:12-16
There are places in the world where
the persecution of Christians because they are Christians is either a fresh
memory or a present reality. What goes
on in many of those places is beyond our current knowledge simply because the
dangers require Christians to be secretive about their faith, which is nevertheless
shared from person to person in quiet, direct witness. Each time that happens it is an act of
courage of a sort that the New Testament seems to expect.
There it is, in I Peter:
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery
ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange
were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings,
so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled
for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the
Spirit of God, is resting on you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a
criminal, or even as a mischief-maker. Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it
a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name.” [I Peter 4:12-16]
It is inevitable that Christian faith and the
claims of false gods will collide. We
already have to fight against our own internal impulses to sin – which is why
there are warnings not to give in to the impulses that can make someone “a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a
mischief-maker” – so it is
no great stretch to see how external conflicts would arise with entire systems
of life based on the principle that “might makes right”. Those are a given. What is variable with time and place is how threatened
the powers that be find themselves, what means they use to combat the
subversive teachings of Christ, and how his followers respond or hold up.
Some
regimes consider any sort of religion a threat.
When I was a kid, you would still hear people occasionally refer to “godless
Communism”. I would suggest that it wasn’t
“godless”, but that its gods were false.
They had replaced the kingdom of God with the state and pictured Lenin
or Mao or Kim Il Sung or Fidel Castro as the savior. The Chinese government has been going after
Tibetan Buddhism for five decades or so now, and has recently built “re-education
centers” to try to wring Islam out of the Uighurs in their western provinces. And they have continued over that whole time,
too, to try to control Christianity in places where they have discovered that
they cannot eliminate it.
Let
me quote here from a recent article published by the Council on Foreign
Relations:
“Article
36 of the Chinese constitution protects freedom of religion. Yet that
protection is limited to so-called ‘normal religious activities,’ explicitly
stating that ‘no one may make use of religion to engage in activities that
disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the
education system of the state.’ These provisions provide authorities with
flexibility when determining which religious practices are consistent with
party policy and which fall outside the party-state’s guidelines. The
constitutional provision goes on to specify that religious bodies cannot be
subject to foreign control.
[Translation: ‘Hey, Vatican! Stay
out of this!’]
Underground house churches exist
parallel to state-sanctioned Christian churches. These congregations operate
outside the guidelines of the government, and their regulation by party
authorities is largely determined by local leaders. Much like official
Christian organizations, their membership is also growing across regions and
demographics, according to surveys by independent polling groups. Fenggang
Yang, of Purdue University’s Center on Religion and Chinese Society, estimates
that there are between 93 million and 115 million Protestants in
China, with fewer than 30 million attending officially registered churches.
Other Christian organizations estimate a higher number still.”[1]
As a result of the growth, the government has
recently been pushing back.
“For
example, party officials in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang’s city of
Wenzhou, known for its large Christian population, have ordered the removal of
hundreds of crosses and demolition of dozens of churches that allegedly
violated construction regulations, though several had received prior approval
from local officials. … In central Henan Province, local government and police
officials have taken similar actions, carrying out raids on some
churches without warrants and razing others. Other provinces with large Christian
populations, including Anhui and Jiangsu, have also undergone crackdowns.”
Hear
again the words of I Peter and ask how Christians in China would hear them.
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery
ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange
were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings,
so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled
for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the
Spirit of God, is latent on you.”
That the Spirit of God rests on them is clear
in the way that this suffering part of the church is nevertheless the lifeline
for believers in North Korea, who undergo far worse trials even than they
do. An article from the Associated Press
claims that
“Most remaining Christians in North Korea likely learned about the
religion when they went to China after a devastating famine killed hundreds of
thousands in the mid-1990s. Converts
were later captured in China and jailed once they were sent back to the North.”[2]
What happens there in those jails? We can only imagine, and most of it is not
good at all. But we also get glimpses of
what kind of sacrifice and courage the Christians of China are teaching the
Christians of North Korea. In the middle
of this famine,
“Another, who was jailed after being repatriated from China, described
praying silently in his cell after a hungry fellow prisoner shared some
precious kernels of corn.”
Surely, this deed fulfills the directions of I
Peter [4:19]:
“Therefore, let those who are suffering in
accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while
continuing to do good.”
It also puts some of the times I
find myself complaining or groaning into an entirely different perspective.
[1]
Eleanor Albert, “Backgrounder: Christianity in China” (Council on Foreign
Relations: October 11, 2018), found at https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/christianity-china
[2] Hyun-Jin
Kim, “North Korean Christians Keep Faith Underground amid Crackdowns”
(Associated Press: February 1, 2019), found at https://www.apnews.com/a7079dea595349928d26c687fa42a19c
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