Food For Thought

Food For Thought 
by George Davis 

In 1949 the communist revolution marked the end of all missionary efforts in 
China. All foreign missionaries were expelled. After the communist takeover 
the Chinese government bitterly attacked the Church in China, driving  it 
underground. 

For 25 years China was closed to any outside "Christian" influences. Little 
information filtered through the tight-knit bamboo curtain. All remaining 
Christian leaders were rounded up wholesale and were either imprisoned or 
killed outright. Everything that was considered "Christian" was destroyed, 
church building, bibles, hymnals, everything. For 25 years a holocaust far 
exceeding that, inflicted on the Jews by Nazi Germany, ensued. It is 
estimated that about 27 million died during this purging. 

In 1978 Deng Xiaoping came into power and China opened her borders once 
again. The western world stood in breathless anticipation. What would they 
find in the aftermath of such a horrible slaughter? Missionaries from around 
the world stood ready, poised in anxious intrepidity. Would there even be 
one surviving believer? Nothing could have possibly prepared them for what 
they were about to see! 

After 25 years of horrendous persecution the missionaries returned to find 
that the church in China had not been obliterated, as many had feared, but 
that they had grown in number from the estimated one million believers 
before the 1949 revolution, to about 30 million. The contrast was amazing! 
What had caused such unprecedented growth? How could this be? Not only  had
they grown numerically but they had grown spiritually. The tales of their 
devotion to Christ are nothing short of inspirational. Most bewildering is 
the fact that this unparalleled growth occurred without the aid of any of 
those things that are thought to be essential in denominational  churches 
today. Without the aid of professional pastors/priests, church buildings, 
bibles, Sunday-school materials, homilies, hymnals and mass gatherings,  the
Church in China has grown numerically and spiritually to be the most 
victorious expression of Christ's Church on the earth today. By all 
accounts, nothing like it has existed since the early Church. The very gates 
of hell could not prevail against her! 

Makes you think doesn't it? 

-Source-

awildernessvoice.com/