China (MNN)–Hundreds of Christians have been arrested in recent weeks and many are still in prison as Chinese authorities carry on the crackdown that began two weeks ago.
Voice of the Martyrs’ Todd Nettleton says over the last few days, all across China, they’ve been getting a steady flow of reports of house churches coming under attack. “We saw 60 house churches raided simultaneously in one city. Obviously, the level of coordination, the level of information that that would take shows that somebody, pretty high up in the Chinese government is saying, ‘Let’s do something about these house church Christians.”
Nettleton believes the oppression will continue, as long as the government continues to see believers as unpatriotic. “The government has the idea that these are people who are hiding underground, planning to overthrow the Communist Party.”
But rather than being unpatriotic, Nettleton says, it’s the other way around. “The reality is that these are people who choose to hide, so that they can worship according to the dictates of their conscience. These are people who absolutely love their country; they pray for their government and for their government leaders.”
Because many of the Christians say they’re Christian first, Chinese second, that’s an affront to the government, which is united under Communism.
Continue to pray for the Christians who have been recently arrested, as well as the many others imprisoned for their faith.
Pray that countries around the world will put pressure on China to improve their human rights and allow religious freedom.
