I don't know if this is the most appropriate place to post this. So help me out, Greg. :)

There are reportedly 70 million Christians in China, many of whom had suffered great persecutions. The China Soul for Christ foundation had released a documentary (DVD with both Chinese and English), "The Cross - Jesus in China," which is probably the first indepth documentary on the testimonies and witnesses of these Christians.

Check out this site:
[url=http://www.chinasoul.com/e/cs-e.htm]
http://www.chinasoul.com/e/cs-e.htm [/url]

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Sam

Have had a interest in this for quite awhile.
This looks like an outstanding resource.
It is just incredible what the Lord is doing there despite the attempts to stop it.
The power of the Gospel!
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, this could be used in so many ways...
I am ordering it.

By the way, have you seen it yet?

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Mike Balog

I have seen two out of four parts. The first one talks about how Christianity had transformed the lives of Chinese Christians, both schooled and unschooled, rural and urban.

The other one I saw was the fourth part. It talks about how a teenaged sister in the countryside, who did not even graduate from juniour high, received no musical training, came to be filled with the Spirit to compose 900+ original hymns. Many of these hymns are sung by the underground church. The lyrics often described a yearning to have intimacy with God and a willingness to be persecuted. Great lyrics!

Great work God is doing there -- purportedly 70 million Christians!

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Sam

Have heard some of this as well.
Maybe someone one out there could inform us better as to what extent. Has this infiltrarted the underground church? Are they recoginized by the TSPM (Three Self Patriotic Movement)?

Agent001, are you farmiliar with any of this?

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Mike Balog

The wheats and tares always grow together. Because of the phenomenal spiritual hunger in China, many Christian or non-Christian cults are also thriving at the same time. One of the bigger ones is known as the "Eastern Lightning" where a woman claimed to be Christ's third coming. They are very secretive, and have always sought to infiltrate home churches of pure faith.

Many of the cults are considered very serious threats by the government, however, they still managed to survive because they run pretty much the same way as the home churches.

Sometimes, it's not as much as cultic teachings, but merely because of a lack of proper bible teaching, different people or groups came up with rather peculiar teachings or practices. There are squabbles over the practices of the Lord's Table, baptism, etc. A group came up with this idea that one needs to be repentant to a point one cries for three days by the moving of the Holy Spirit as a mark of salvation. Anyhow, I think they are genuine Christians with aberrational teachings. The greatest need today is not missionaries, but proper leadership and biblical training.

Finally, there are groups that were mistaken (purposedly or by misunderstanding) as cults and the government exerts a lot of effort to crack them down. The groups associated with Witness Lee's Local Church Movement are known in China as "Shouters," and they are quite badly persecuted. The Shouters may be a little extreme in some of their practices and doctrines, nevertheless, I believe they are genuine Christians and do not deserve the kind of cruel persecutions they face.

Crosschk:

I think cults and heresies more often than not operate in the home churches than the so-called "Three-Self" (official) churches.

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Sam

Thanks Agent001,

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Mike Balog

For any Christian leader in the West to make an official visit to China, definitely approval from Chinese government is required. The churches visited will most likely be the official churches; but I am sure some secret visits with the house churches can be arranged.

By the way, Billy Graham did great good to the house churches in China during his two visits to China. He openly visited two house churches, one in Guangzhou, another in Beijing (there could be more).

Because of his visit, those two churches were thus placed in the international stage and were therefore sheltered from severe persecutions because of the attention they received.

These two churches actually openly meet as unregistered churches with thousands of members in their worship. Quite an anomaly in an otherwise quite repressive regime!

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Sam

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Mike Balog

Nevertheless, by God's sovereign hand, the pastors were spared from further arrests (not that they didn't get other trouble).

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Sam