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China
There is no doubt that God is at work in China. China has experienced the fastest growing church movement in history. Approximately 20,000 people become Christians in China every day.
But the persecution is not over. Christians are still regularly arrested and sent to prisons and labor camps.
All churches are required to register with the government, and those that refuse are considered subversive. Yet those who register are forced to comply with government-approved pastors and doctrine, which many times contradict correct biblical teaching.
Christian Aid supports the explosive growth of Christianity in China. As of 2007, Christian Aid has helped to establish 140 Bible institutes in China—the first of which was founded in 1990.
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Thousands of Chinese workers are being trained to evangelize the unreached. A mighty movement of God is surging through China, bringing historically unprecedented growth in Christianity. When the Communists took over in 1949, there were fewer than one million Protestants in China. Today the number is estimated to be 200 million.
Five years ago, Freddie and Dorothy Sun (Area Directors for Christian Aid) visited an orphanage started by their coworkers on the Tibetan Plateau in the western Province of Sichuan. What they found touched their hearts.
In 1948 the Communists began to take over in China, and soon all 6000 foreign missionaries who were there had to leave. Many thought the one million Christians of China would dwindle away to nothing. Many suffered excruciating tortures and humiliating forced labor. But out of sight true believers were winning their neighbors to Christ and God raised up apostles from their midst.
Christian Aid first began helping Bible schools in China in 1990. Today over 140 Chinese Bible schools have received help from Christian Aid. This story tells how it all began.
In 1949 the People’s Republic of China came into power and sent the church underground, when it evicted over 5,000 Western missionaries. It is estimated there were fewer than 1,000,000 Christians at the time of this upheaval. Despite the persecution in the decades to follow, ironically this plan to eradicate religion in the People's Republic of China may have contributed to the greatest explosion in Christianity ever....
Through Christian Aid supporters many Bible institutes have been launched throughout China. In 1992 two indigenous Bible schools received support and today, steady contributions from Christian Aid supporters have resulted in 132 active training schools, at least one in every province!....
During the Cultural Revolution, Chinese Christians were fired from their jobs, expelled from schools and imprisoned. Their homes were plundered, and they were publicly humiliated. They faced torture and inhumane conditions in hard labor camps. Their countrymen rejected them, and they were falsely accused as American spies, counterrevolutionaries and criminals....
In the first century AD until about 500 AD the spread of Christianity traveled from the Middle East to most areas throughout the Roman Empire. By the time Islam was established in Mecca (sometime after Muhammad’s death in 632 AD), Christianity had already reached the western and northern territories of Europe. During the Middle Ages (approximately 500 AD until about the 15th century), Europe became the center for Christianity....
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