China Will Create Own Christian Belief System Amid Tensions With Church (Says Chinese Gov't)

China will construct a "Chinese Christian theology" suitable for the country, state media reported on Thursday, as both the number of believers and tensions with the authorities are on the rise.

China has between 23 million and 40 million Protestants, accounting for 1.7 to 2.9 per cent of the total population, the state-run China Daily said, citing figures given at a seminar in Shanghai.

"Over the past decades, the Protestant churches in China have developed very quickly with the implementation of the country's religious policy," the paper quoted Wang Zuoan, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, as saying.

"The construction of Chinese Christian theology should adapt to China's national condition and integrate with Chinese culture."

China's ruling Communist Party is officially atheistic and keeps a tight grip on religion for fear it could challenge its grip on power. It requires believers to worship in places approved by the state and under government supervision.

Besides officially sanctioned churches, China also has "underground" or "house" churches which seek to exist outside government control and are occasionally raided and shut down.

In April, authorities in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, known as China's Jerusalem, with more than a million Christians, demolished a church following government claims it was an illegal structure.

Though a registered church, state media reported that the building was far larger than originally approved.

"Over the past years, China's Protestantism has become one of the fastest growing universal churches," Gao Feng, president of the China Christian Council, was quoted as saying in the China Daily report.

It did not include a number for Catholics in China, who must also worship only in officially sanctioned churches which reject the Vatican's authority, though an "underground" church loyal to the Holy See also exists.

Experts estimate that there are as many as 12 million Catholics in China, split roughly evenly between the two churches.

As of the end of last year, China had published 65 million copies of the Bible, the report said, including minority-language editions.

When the so called experts say there are 12 million Catholics in China they are first estimating the number for the official state controlled church which is around 6 million. Then they are estimating that the secret, true church is about the same size as the state controlled church. So 6 million in the state controlled church and 6 million in the secret church makes 12 million.

Devout Catholics who lived in China and worshiped in China told me that the secret, true church is much larger than the state controlled church. They also said many true Catholics pretend to be members of the state controlled church for appearance and personal safety but are actually members of the secret true church.

You don’t know Christian doctrine, BUB. It’s about Grace and salvation through Christ, not human created “theology”. The only theology necessary is that which is plainly laid in scripture, and which is used by the Holy Spirit to convict and save people. Any other theology created (like the proposed “Chinese” one) is just dead doctrine which will only lead to a cult like religion, not truly saved Christians.

Blessings,

-JJS!

LOL . . .

So, which "Christian Doctrine"?

Save for Catholicism which includes the Orthodox Churches, there is no Christian Doctrine that's remained unchanged for more than two hundred years at a stre-e-e-e-e-tch and that's being very, very, generous with the the word "unchanged".

You keep spitting in the in the wind, but there's no way US Pop Christianity of the late 20th century bears any resemblance to anything prior to a few small groups that formed early in the 20th century.

All the allusions the current Christian majority make to anything earlier than that are extremely selective, almost always taken out of context, and elaborated to fit the "go along to get along" view of Pop Christianity.

Now, you enjoy fussing and fuming all you like but tell someone else your BS, don't waste any more time telling me about how Christianity is defined. Christianity in the "most Christian nation in history" is defined as the situation requires to get along without being any different than the crowd.

You individually will spit and hiss like a cute little kitten on the Internet but day to day? Come on, if Christians lived like Christians the nation wouldn't be sliding slowly down the throat of the porcelain god along with the social feces it's been gradually embracing as harmless since the 1930s.

Basically, you're saying that someone who doesn't agree with you isn't Christian. I'm telling you that not only Scripture, (the whole Bible, not a subset) as well as two thousand years of people praying about and writing about Christianity contradicts the popular Pop Christianity that preaches anything but taking up your cross and following Christ. If your life doesn't reflect Christ, you're not Christian and no amount of thumping your favoirte out of context verse will change that fact.

So, how do US Christians live? Well, the Holy Spirit convicts them on Sunday and goes with them to the Titty Bar every Friday night thereafter.

You have a nice day now, ya' hear?

I don’t have to follow American pop evangelicalism to have a personal relationship with Him-to be “born again (of the Holy Spirit)” to use Jesus own words.

You really don’t know what you’re talking about, friend. There is a universal doctrine of those who are truly saved (by God) and not just “Christian” because they say so or go to church.

It comes from His Grace..not of me (Eph 2:8-9). If Christianity is true then it is true for ALL, and unchanging just as God is unchanging. If it’s false then you’re correct (the good news is that it isn’t false nor human created, nor human sustained or changed)!~

-JS

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